Kokoskov: “I take the responsibility, I am to blame for the defensive function – Papagianni’s situation does not look good”

After the defeat of Anadolu Efes by Panathinaikos AKTOR, o Igor Kokoskov he spoke about the serious problems faced by his team, mainly due to injuries, and emphasized that his situation George Papagiannis after his injury she doesn’t look good at all.

Their coach Turks he recognized the superiority of the “greens”, he fully assumed it responsibility about his team’s defensive function and spoke openly about the need immediate adjustment in view of the difficult continuation.

What he said in detail:

“Unfortunate night for Ephesus. Right from the start, in the first two minutes, we lost our most consistent player this year, Osmani, and our starting five. Change the match. The coaches say you have to play the way you train and we don’t train like that. We had to find rotation, short line-up. I am not discounting the appearance of Panathinaikos. Osman had an incredible match, he played with confidence. Slukas influenced the match, he had 12 assists. I’m to blame for the defensive mode. I always take responsibility. Especially on nights like tonight I take responsibility for the preparation. We never gave up, we fought. Everyone on the floor fought. We played with character but we don’t train like that, we don’t play like that. We had to find a solution which was not easy. Congratulations to Panathinaikos for the victory, to coach Ataman who coached very well. Very experienced coach. Use the whole roster, react. Let’s go to the next match. We will see what happens, the medical staff will inform us about the injured. We are concentrating on the next match.”

For 4 and 5 guard formations: “We have to understand that Osmani plays 30 minutes, he is the most consistent player. We played small ball with Olympiakos, Dozier tagged Vezenkov. He was injured earlier. It was a chess match, Ataman played small. I couldn’t leave Jones out, I had to put Dozier at the “5”. As a coach you have changes, a plan. But you have to react to the match. They countered our tall formation in the first half and we had no choice after losing two tall ones. We can play like that but we didn’t build the team for that. Osmani is the face of the team. We will try to learn to play better like this and use it more.”

For injuries: “They should take other chances. We have Jones. Poirier was one of the most dominant centers, we lost him, Papagianni’s situation does not look good. Let’s regroup, maybe play with 1 high. Schmitz now has to play at “5”. We have to adapt. We have high expectations and my job is to find the solution.”

In case of transfer: “It’s too early for that. The match ended an hour ago. We have high expectations. We have players we like and they have to give their best to win. We are not a team that develops talents, we are Efes. We want wins, nothing else. We will study all options. We will keep our options open.”

For NBA Europe: “After a match like that I don’t think about that. Basketball will change. The focus of basketball is the NBA. They control the market, they will explore opportunities to enter the European market. As a group, Efes is considering the options. We are happy where we are, but we will see what the future brings. Efes deserves to be in the top league. We are in the second top league in the world and we are happy.”