By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Before a friendly game between Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet and Olympiacos in the Peace and Friendship Stadium, SEF, on Tuesday, Vassilis Geragotellis, the leading assistant of Giannis Sfairopoulos at Zvezda, talked about Filip Petrusev linked to the Serbian outfit during the offseason.
With Nikola Milutinov projected to join Moustapha Fall on the injury list, limiting options inside the paint for head coach Giorgos Bartzokas, the Greek club intends to retain 24-year-old Petrusev, at least for the start of the 2024-25 season, instead of loaning him to his former team.
“We considered him during the summer, building the new roster. Since we did not get the player, either on loan or on transfer, we did not further concern ourselves. We thought he could be an additional option for us. At the moment, he is not part of our plan. We are trying to prepare the team without thinking about Petrusev,” said Geragotellis in an interview on the radio channel of the Hellenic Basketball Federation.
In the 2022-23 season, Petrusev helped Zvezda top the AdmiralBet Basketball League of Serbia and the Radivoj Korac Cup, before switching from the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague to the NBA. After three games played between the Sacramento Kings and the Philadelphia 76ers, he returned to Europe to join Olympiacos, early in the 2023-24 campaign.
Joel Bolomboy, Isaiah Canaan, Mike Daum, Dejan Davidovac, Ognjen Dobric, Yago Dos Santos, Rokas Giedraitis, Dailibor Ilic, Nikola Kalinic, Andrej Kostic, Stefan Lazarevic, Branko Lazic, Codi Miller-McIntyre, Luka Mitrovic, Nemanja Nedovic, Uros Plavsic, and Milos Teodosic are on the current roster for the team coached by Sfairopoulos.