Euroleague: Panathinaikos Athens, Greece

October 16, 2008

Drazen93 and scire10 first sound like some PlayStation3 nick name, but over the years we found out that basketball people in Greece give themselves nick names. I maybe should ask one day what the reason for this is.
Drazen and Scire have provided us with a great preview last season and do it again this year. We are glad to have the two guys, who run DoubleTeam.gr, with us again and give us their insight about the holy Panathinaikos.

Overall Record Prediction : 8-2

Last year offered Panathinaikos another title in the Greek League (the tenth in the last eleven years and the sixth in the row..) and another Greek Cup (the fourh in the row..), both of them versus the rival “enemies” of Olympiacos.. But the Euroleague experience (and the effort to make the “repeat”) turner into a nighmare at top16..This year the “greens” return with angry moods.. The aim is the same as every year.. To win the Greek League, the Greek Cup, to qualify to the final four (at least) and to win the Euroleague title (which would be the fifth during the last 13 years..)
So, this summer coach Obradovic (who renewed his contract for two more years) made some changes to the roster, always with the financial support of Pavlos and Thanasis Giannakopoulos (the club’s owners). Panathinaikos signed Nikola Pekovic (maybe the most promising center in Europe), Drew Nicholas (a “serial-killer” in the court and Euroleague’s first scorer in season ’05-’06), Dusan Kecman (a remarkable defender and rebounder) and Dimitris Verginis (a very promising Greek guard). Forward Dusan Sakota returned to the team, after helping Panionios to qualify to Euroleague. Last but not least, Antonis Fotsis returned (for the third time) to the team that established him as one of the best European forwards..

Beyond them, there are: the four-time Euroleague Defensive Player of The Year (Dimitris Diamantidis), the guard with the highest IQ in Europe (Sarunas Jasikevicius), the very effective Vassilis Spanoulis, the precious Kostas Tsartsaris, the “multitool” Nikos Chatzivrettas, the very promising Stratos Perperoglou and of course the “nuclear weapon” Mike Batiste. Special mention has to be made to the captain Fragiskos Alvertis at his 19th continuous year at the club..

P.S. Don’t be suprised if Panathinaikos suddenly adds one more player to the roster..

Final 4 Predictions : Panathinaikos, CSKA Moscow, FC Barcelona, TAU Ceramica

Winner: Panathinaikos

written by Drazen93

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This post was published on October 16, 2008
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Comments: 2
  1. GhostDog
    14 years ago

    I’m sorry, but that’s not a preview… or an analysis of the roster and it’s possibilities, it’s just a list of the players the Greens have in their roster with some clichés about them…

    I’m just saying that because a lot of the other analysis of the euroleague teams were just great…

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  2. Teo
    14 years ago

    From watching greek league games thus far (only 2) PAO seems to be doing fantastic. The team works great defensively and for the first time in a year or so the offense seems to be ticking like clockwork. Fotsis and Drew Nicholas look as if they had been playing with the team for years (which one of them actually has), and especially D. Nicholas looks very comfortable in Obradovic’s system and performs great. Ball movement is there, the spacing looks great and they don’t rush shots. The biggest surprise thus far for me has been Perperoglou who simply has been stellar in these 2 first league games (and in exhibition games) and really grew as a player. Don’t understand why he wasn’t on the national team. He looks far more experienced in his defensive actions and his offensive production is , for such a balanced team, simply outstanding. Pao does not need another big name star at the 3 if he continues playing like that in the eruoleague. Now, I realize these have been fairly easy games against vastly inferior opponents, but with a guy like Pekovic patrolling the boards and generally intimidating anyone who comes near him I just don’t see any apparent weakness in this team anymore. Tsartsaris looks really comfortable not having to carry the whole front line on his back at times and plays his usual varied game and even the -at least last season- mildly underwhelming Sarunas has had two good and very energized games. I hope they continue down that road and find their chemistry because watching those games has been great fun and that blind lightning fast passing game along 5-7 stations looks very attractive thus far. I’ll just say that I won’t bet against them this year, because even though Olympiacos seems to have added more firepower, PAO seems to be way ahead in terms of working the new players into a system and already looks like an absolute force.
    This could be a much better year for them, I can’t remember them looking better in the last years that early in the season.

    Remember this comment should Perperoglou turn out to be worth double as much towards the end of the season in fantasy, I lay my hopes for the best investment in him.

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