By Stavros Barbarousis/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos coach Argiris Pedoulakis was the man who had the hard task to be the next coach in Panathinaikos after Zeljko Obradovic. This season he will be also the first to coach the team in the post Diamantidis era.
And as he explained to Eurohoops, he is ready for the challenge: “Our first concern is to become a team, because there’s a new situation which does not include Dimitris Diamantidis. We have to leave with it and go on. He left his mark, he was our breakwater”.
With basketball changing and athletic abilities being the key, Pedoulakis has a clear idea for things to come in the Euroleague: “My philosophy has not changed for 30 years. Panathinaikos won two doubles with smaller budgets. You have to be smart enough to see what you should do and adapt. We no longer have Diamantidis. In my mind the ideal would be to make again a version of the 2012-13 team, a team that won the Greek league and the Greek cup, while entering the Euroleague playoffs. We want a team that will honor the tradition, principles and values of Panathinaikos. We must have solid foundations. We must have a strong hull. It was serious and painstaking effort made during the summer in order to add good team members”.