Ataman on Nan: “Even if you get Curry or LeBron it’s not easy for them to adjust in one week”

On Wednesday night (15/11, 21:15), o Panathinaikos welcomes to OAKA the Zalgiris Kaunas for the 8th matchday of the Euroleague, with the “greens” wanting to continue their good performances and victories, then the big double in Berlin against Alba.

The coach of the “greens”, Ergin Atamanspoke about the difficulties of tomorrow’s match, while also referring to the team’s new transfer acquisition, the Kendrick Nunn and in the time it takes to adapt and acclimatize to the whole “clover”.

Ergin Ataman’s statements in detail:



For Zalgiris’ “wants” after their negative streak and the match with the “clover”: “Everyone in the Euroleague, all the teams, want to win. It doesn’t matter if you’re coming off a three-game losing streak or two consecutive wins. It will be a tough game. Zalgiris is a good and experienced team. Evans is their main scorer, but Dimsa can also score, as can Schmich. Also, Ulanovas is always a dangerous player. They play for two years with almost the same roster. They know how to play together. Previous results don’t matter. They come from defeats, but for example they lost at home to Efes in overtime. It will be a very difficult match.”

On what he holds after the victory over Alba Berlin: “The positive thing about the game against Alba is that we played very well offensively. We circulated the ball, found good shots. We distributed the ball very well. Defensively, the match against Alba showed us that we need to improve. But we showed great character in the game against Aris defensively. Now we have two home games, we have to be aggressive and tough. Of course, defense is always the “key”. You can’t always score 99 points, like we did in Berlin, the key will be defense.”

For Kendrick Nunn’s adaptation: “Even if you get Steph Curry or LeBron James on the team, it’s not easy to adjust in one week or ten days. It is not easy for either the player or the team to put him in the system. Nan is a player with great quality, but he needs time to get into the team, to understand what is needed. Then it will help us a lot.”