European Competitions 2023/24 - Signings & Rumours

[tonia]

tonia: Pitino was terrible imo. He is undoubtedly a successful NCAA coach but came to Europe with zero plan and incredible arrogance.;

In his first year (12/2018 - 06/2019), he lead Panathinaikos from 12th to 6th place in Euroleague and the quarter-finals. Not a bad accomplishment at all..

[paspalj]

In his first year (12/2018 - 06/2019), he lead Panathinaikos from 12th to 6th place in Euroleague and the quarter-finals. Not a bad accomplishment at all..

It's not that his results weren't good. It's that he didn't offer anything other than "let's go gettem boys". Whenever he found a decent coach against him got out-coached 100%.

[saras]

The idiot greek fans dislike pitino because he let the players freedom and performed a less system oriented basketball. The idiots greeks prefer this awful so called greek school basketball. The awful basketball of less possesions,of defence, of pedoulakis-priftis,sfairopoulos etc. The so called "Losing basketball". Its the reason greece provides 0 talents now because the coaches prefer to teach young players 100 systems and nobody teaches them how to dribble or shoot, cause they prefer a win over player improvement. Thats why we willbe forever spain's or serbia's bitch when it comes to NT.


For sure there will be people that will say ataman is a bad choice. Its the same idiots that are fans of pedoulakis and the 61-60 scores with endless defence. Thank god giannakopoulos found out that defensive wrestling basketball style is dead and after clowns pedoulakis,priftis,radonjic he finally brought an offensive coach

[tonia]

It's not that his results weren't good. It's that he didn't offer anything other than "let's go gettem boys". Whenever he found a decent coach against him got out-coached 100%.

It's all about the results!

For sure there will be people that will say ataman is a bad choice. Its the same idiots that are fans of pedoulakis and the 61-60 scores with endless defence. Thank god giannakopoulos found out that defensive wrestling basketball style is dead and after clowns pedoulakis,priftis,radonjic he finally brought an offensive coach

I guess all of PAO fans are happy about our 1st european championship. I don't think we regret having had Maljkovic as a coach despite the team's overly defensive style.

All I'm saying is that we need to be competitive and start winning games. The best scenario is for the team to accomplish that by playing spectacular basketbal. If not, just winning would be enough for me.

[paspalj]

It's all about the results!

I respectfully disagree. Results can be circumstantial. Having a serious, healthy organization that plays good, solid basketball is the foundation you need and results will eventually come.

Saras you might believe that Pitino was some maestro but I urge you to tell me one thing that he did. In Greece we had no serious competition and in Euroleague we lost an easy 3-0 to a better team/coach. Next year we were sitting at a cool 6th place. Obviously better than now but nothing to be amazed about.

[tonia]

I respectfully disagree. Results can be circumstantial. Having a serious, healthy organization that plays good, solid basketball is the foundation you need and results will eventually come.

Saras you might believe that Pitino was some maestro but I urge you to tell me one thing that he did. In Greece we had no serious competition and in Euroleague we lost an easy 3-0 to a better team/coach. Next year we were sitting at a cool 6th place. Obviously better than now but nothing to be amazed about.

You are right that the goal is to have a team that plays good basketball and that eventually the results will come. However, we have been trying unsuccessfully to build such a team for so many years.
We haven't reached F4 since 2012 and from 2013 to 2019 we had been just reaching play-offs where we were less and less competitive. In 2019 we did lose 3-0 by Real in quarter-finals and at that time it didn't look like a successful season since reaching play offs was taken for granted.
After the team finished almost last in EL 3 years in a row, I think back to those years with nostalgia. We have been giving time credit to the team that has been constantly being built from scratch, for a long time now. I really think it is time we saw some results.

[saras]

Misko Raznatovic gave an interview at a greek site. Not much we dont know was mentioned. But i think there was something mentioned that is interesting and its about marko simonovic probably coming back to europe and i think we will make a move for him. With papagiannis and a good athletic center with good defence,they would make a good frontline + mantzoukas + agravanis and probably + papapetrou for some minutes at small ball lineups.

The other players from this agent we might end up with is papapetrou and mitrou long (rumours about agreement with both already).

[MikeMaccabiFan]

tonia: Pitino was terrible imo. He is undoubtedly a successful NCAA coach but came to Europe with zero plan and incredible arrogance.
MikeMaccabiFan: It might be that Kattash will become a great coach but unfortunately Pao can't be a "teaching" organization. We're not there yet.

It is all theoretical anyway. Kattash is in Maccabi and even very bad end of the season will probably not prevent his contract extension. I hope for strong finish, Poythress is back (probably at about 70% of capacity right now), hopefully Colson and Brown will return from minor injuries, we will see.

[MikeMaccabiFan]

Well, all defence isn't always good, Rudy D'Amico in 1980s got a Cup, but got fired because of boring basketball Maccabi played. On the other hand, in 2012 Maccabi had Pargo/Perkins duo which killed opponents in defence, but Maccabi played exciting basketball. Only Perkins injury probably prevented Maccabi from going all the way back then...

[Toruko]

Ataman agreed with PAO it seems. It will either end in a catastrophe or it will work great. I really dont know

But I cant really imagine him accepting to play with Kalaitzakis bros or Mantzoukas however Greeks always insist on playing with Greeks although they dont have the talent except Maybe Rogkavopoulos. Lets see...

[EverGreen]

Welcome coach! Very please about this signing. 3 Finals in 5 years is most impressive. He failed this year but everyone fails every once in a while. Even Zoc.

Rumours have it that Vildoza and Mitrou- Long are also signed.

Toruko. Mantzoukas is a very good shooter but still raw. It's only his 1st season. He's only 20. The Kalaitzakis bros re 24 and useless. Embarrassingly useless.

[saras]

Ataman agreed for 2 years. Willbe announced once he ends his games with efes.

Vildoza has also agreed for 3 years. Moraitis as 3rd pg and kostas antetokunbo (hopefully as 3rd center cause he is not skilled for anything above that) have also agreed. Mitrou long will sign as well,if he gets his greek passport.

Apart from that the main target for the backcourt is campazzo. The offer to him is 2.2m/year. If not,hopefully thompson will be still available before he signs with armani and we might make an offer for him. Then we have 3 forwards with team option to keep (bacon,thomas,ponitka) and grigonis with contract. I would keep thomas and bacon and would try to get rid of grigonis and sign rogkavopoulos as well. Lee is also on team option. My lineup for backcourt would be something like this

Campazzo,lee,moraitis
Vildoza,thomas,mitrou long
Bacon,rogkavopoulos and one of the kalaitzakis bros.

For frontcourt things are more complicated cause we need to see what happens with papagiannis. There are rumours about leday and lessort but, i think rumours about guards right now come from more reliable sources. Papapetrou will probably be a target as well, cause we need greeks for greek league. Or we can give bacon or someone else a greek passport just like the others did with walkup.

Whats sure is that the budget will be much higher than previous seasons,one of the reasons being thr fact that OAKA will be team's property for the next 50 years and that way we can use it as we wish, even the days without matches. Certainly budget wont be at 2010 levels, but we can probably offer contracts more than 1m/year to all the foreigners, while now the most expensive players are grigonis,bacon,papagiannis, all being at 900k/year

[MikeMaccabiFan]

It is official now - Wade Baldwin will stay yellow/blue for two more years until 24/25!!!

[Toruko]

Ataman agreed for 2 years. Willbe announced once he ends his games with efes.

Vildoza has also agreed for 3 years. Moraitis as 3rd pg and kostas antetokunbo (hopefully as 3rd center cause he is not skilled for anything above that) have also agreed. Mitrou long will sign as well,if he gets his greek passport.

Apart from that the main target for the backcourt is campazzo. The offer to him is 2.2m/year. If not,hopefully thompson will be still available before he signs with armani and we might make an offer for him. Then we have 3 forwards with team option to keep (bacon,thomas,ponitka) and grigonis with contract. I would keep thomas and bacon and would try to get rid of grigonis and sign rogkavopoulos as well. Lee is also on team option. My lineup for backcourt would be something like this

Campazzo,lee,moraitis
Vildoza,thomas,mitrou long
Bacon,rogkavopoulos and one of the kalaitzakis bros.

For frontcourt things are more complicated cause we need to see what happens with papagiannis. There are rumours about leday and lessort but, i think rumours about guards right now come from more reliable sources. Papapetrou will probably be a target as well, cause we need greeks for greek league. Or we can give bacon or someone else a greek passport just like the others did with walkup.

Whats sure is that the budget will be much higher than previous seasons,one of the reasons being thr fact that OAKA will be team's property for the next 50 years and that way we can use it as we wish, even the days without matches. Certainly budget wont be at 2010 levels, but we can probably offer contracts more than 1m/year to all the foreigners, while now the most expensive players are grigonis,bacon,papagiannis, all being at 900k/year

Forget Campazzo. He will return to Real Madrid.

[tonia]

Ataman agreed for 2 years. Willbe announced once he ends his games with efes.

Vildoza has also agreed for 3 years. Moraitis as 3rd pg and kostas antetokunbo (hopefully as 3rd center cause he is not skilled for anything above that) have also agreed. Mitrou long will sign as well,if he gets his greek passport.

Apart from that the main target for the backcourt is campazzo. The offer to him is 2.2m/year. If not,hopefully thompson will be still available before he signs with armani and we might make an offer for him. Then we have 3 forwards with team option to keep (bacon,thomas,ponitka) and grigonis with contract. I would keep thomas and bacon and would try to get rid of grigonis and sign rogkavopoulos as well. Lee is also on team option. My lineup for backcourt would be something like this

Campazzo,lee,moraitis
Vildoza,thomas,mitrou long
Bacon,rogkavopoulos and one of the kalaitzakis bros.

For frontcourt things are more complicated cause we need to see what happens with papagiannis. There are rumours about leday and lessort but, i think rumours about guards right now come from more reliable sources. Papapetrou will probably be a target as well, cause we need greeks for greek league. Or we can give bacon or someone else a greek passport just like the others did with walkup.

Whats sure is that the budget will be much higher than previous seasons,one of the reasons being thr fact that OAKA will be team's property for the next 50 years and that way we can use it as we wish, even the days without matches. Certainly budget wont be at 2010 levels, but we can probably offer contracts more than 1m/year to all the foreigners, while now the most expensive players are grigonis,bacon,papagiannis, all being at 900k/year

I can't see how come there are rumours about Lessort coming to Panathinaikos. He has a great season with Partizan, so the most possible scenario is for him to extend his contract.
Would you really want to get rid of Grigonis?? I believe that he is a great player and we should keep him. I fear that we will lose Papagiannis and that we will sign K.Antentokoumpo as our main center..