By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos searches for a big guy and Unicaja for a player who can play both forward positions. So, having in mind… NBA’s rules, they decided to make a… unique – for European basketball – trade.
Unicaja’s coach Jasmin Repesa is disappointed by James Gist. He can’t shoot well outside and the other “bigs” of the team are producing much better on the court. Also, Panathinaikos’ coach Argyris Pedoulakis had bigger expectations by Andy Panko whose performance seems poor in comparison to what he achieved last season as the MVP of Liga Endesa.
The hidden… secret is that Panko was high in Repesa’s list during the summer and also Gist in Pedoulakis’ list. Also, both of them have similar salary. So, it seems that Unicaja and Panathinaikos are ready to trade their players. It’s a win-win situation for both of them, because they would get to rid of an underachiever, updrage their roster and the move will cost almost nothing to everyone involved (teams and players).
The deadline for transfers in Euroleague ends before the start of the Top16, so they already have their fingers in the trigger.