Argyris Pedoulakis spoke today at the pre-game Press Conference about the encounter versus Union Olimpija, Mike Bramos and Marcus Banks but also about was is missing from Panathinaikos in order for it to be able to achieve stability in its performance.
“We have an important game ahead of us. It is important for two reasons. Primarily because Olimpija is a well molded team, it aims to win every game it plays and secondarily because with this win we will be achieving our first goal, qualification to the next Euroleague phase. We are highly motivated and we must remain focused in order to solve the issues we are facing, especially in the big men department due to many of our guys being sidelined. We must remain particularly focused in this area. We know that one of the main aspects of Olimpija’s game is Baynes, who can pose as a threat to us and we must be ever prepared to deal with him. On the other hand we do have certain advantages. We must detain our backcourt performance which has kept us standing even in moments when we were ineffective in offense. And we must cut back on our turnovers”.
When posed a question about if he believes that what the team is lacking is stability in its performance, the Panathinaikos coach, stated: “We are a new team and only a few of the guys have Euroleague level experience. If you lose control for 3-4 minutes or your concentration, you’re done. We have seen in so much in our games, like when facing Fenerbahce/Ulker, but also in other team’s games. And we must reduce the mistakes. In the game versus Cantu we got help from our guards, because we had many absences in the big men department and thanks to our perimeter players we kept our pace and got to good plays. What we need is experience. Without Schortsanitis and Skordils we had rotation issues, we lost depth and solutions. These 3-4 minutes you might get off a single player are very important when you are dealing with facts at such a level. We want a greater rotation; help from all our players and to commit fewer turnovers. It is our Achilles heel up to now. Even in the game versus Cantu where we aced our defensive game, our pace, our rebounds, we almost lost to this very element. We perform unpressured turnovers and we must reduce them”.
Pedoulakis was questioned about Mike Bramos and if he is in a position to undertake further and greater responsibilities: “I believe that he is on the right path. He has been playing in Europe already for three years now but at such a high level he is performing for the very first time. He is a guy who started out from defense; he has proven his trust to the team and aspires to learn. He is… a sponge; whatever he experiences he takes in. And because he wishes to improve his athletic career and his life, he puts in a huge effort. Heis starting to develop an offensive self confidence. He always helped out in backcourt but now he is attempting to input an effort in other departments also. He changed his shooting technique and now he must work on his posting game in order to be able to pose to his opponents as a threat in that area too, as must he improve his technique with the ball to the ground in order to be able to play as a pure shooting guard. In order to get into higher gear he must improve certain aspects of his game. He is a hard working guy with a positive nature and the second characteristic is mighty important”.
About if Schortsanitis and Skordilis will be competing or if Armstrong will be on the Panathinaikos roster for yet another occasion, Pedoulakis answered: “Sofoklis will be certainly sidelined. His absence is very important because the 15-20 minutes game time he offers are all quality minutes; he is important for the team’s creations and is quite an issue for the opponent’s defense. We are waiting for him to recover from his injury. As far as Skordilis is concerned, we will see if he will be able to play. He missed the last few practices and we must estimate the condition he will be in. It will be assistance if he could provide us with even up to 3-4 minutes”.
Marcus Banks was also a question objective posed to Argyris Pedoulakis: “Players who have not competed essentially since April-May naturally need physical conditioning. Even in the first half of the game though he took attempts with personality through game plays. The issue for him is time. He is unable to play intensively for a long period of time. He will steal in some areas, but he helps out. He is a player who can put great pressure on the ball. But this is something he is not yet prepared to do. We believe that in a month-a month and a half he will be in the appropriate shape he can and must. We have been preparing two months in order for the team to establish its physical condition. At the moment the thing is to get some good minutes off him during the game and gradually these minutes will escalate. He will play; we will guard him until he is able to establish the competitive pace needed in order for him to help the way he can. He is experienced, knows little of European basketball but has been a player for years and has a personality”.
