Ataman: “We are looking at 3-4 players, among them Gabriel – We hope that tomorrow we will have an answer from a candidate”

Panathinaikos’ interest in Wenien Gabriel of Maccabi was confirmed by Ergin Ataman.

In the press conference after the victory over Aris, the Turkish coach emphasized that the South Sudanese center is one of the 3-4 candidates being considered by the team for his replacement Matias Lessor after his injury.

At the same time, he pointed out that the “clover” does not yet know whether it will leave the Maccabi Gabriel to leave, while he mentioned that he hopes for an answer from one of the candidate players by Monday (23/12).

His statements in detail:

“In the second quarter we started to play aggressive defense and then we showed on the pitch that there is a big difference between the two teams. Which makes sense. We took the match seriously. We used a lot of the youngsters and the bench players, who helped a lot today. That’s why I didn’t start the starters in the second half and we got a good win, which gave us a rest for the starters to be ready for Friday’s Euroleague match.”

On Grigonis’ situation: “I honestly don’t know. It’s been two weeks since the surgery. He still needs 2-3 weeks to do individual training so we can see his situation.”

For Lesor’s replacement and Gabriel: “We have 3-4 candidates. Yes Gabriel is one of them. He is a Maccabi player, but we don’t know if Maccabi will let him go. The General Manager is working on the cases and we hope to hear from one of the candidates tomorrow. At the moment we want a player quickly and for the bench of course. Yurtseven will take more responsibility for sure. I don’t have a name yet. We are talking to 3-4 players.”