By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos Athens coach Ergin Ataman discussed whether the club will sign a new player in light of big man Kostas Antetokounmpo’s departure that leaves the team with only Wenyen Gabriel at the ‘5’ position.
“We are checking Omer Yurtseven’s situation with the doctors every day,” Ataman said after the EuroLeague win of Panathinaikos over his former team Anadolu Efes at home. “When he’ll join the team. He can join the team at the end of this month, I think. Now we’ll have a three-week break in the Euroleague. We’ll see. I’m not sure if we will add one more player or not because we’ll have many players when Yurtseven comes back.”
Panathinaikos had considered acquiring Zaragoza center Jilson Bango who moved to Fenerbahce Beko earlier in February. The Greens were already without injured Mathias Lessort and Omer Yurtseven so Ataman had to use lineups with power forward Dinos Mitoglou playing the role of the center.
The EuroLeague will resume on February 28 for Panathinaikos with an away game at ASVEL Villeurbanne and Yurtseven could be given the green light to play by then if his recovery progresses well. This is why Ataman will prefer to bide his time unless a seriously noteworthy case of a player becomes available.
“It depends on the market,” Ataman added. “If the market shows us a really good-good player who gives us more than what we have, we can sign them. But it’s not realistic to take another player who’s on the same level like the players we already have. Because we have many players. We’ll think and we’ll see, especially regarding the Yurtseven’s situation.”
Panathinaikos defeated Efes behind 36 points by Kendrick Nunn. The American guard was particularly outstanding in the second half when he poured 30 of his points.
“He didn’t find his rhythm early but he’s an amazing scorer and player,” Ataman said on Nunn. “When he started to score he got his confidence.”