By Kostas Giataganas/ info@eurohoops.net
The Greek coach who led CSKA Moscow to the EuroLeague championship of 2016 and his squad are locked and loaded for one more great season. Despite missing Milos Teodosic, the return of Sergio Rodriguez to Europe for the “Army Team” kept the Russian powerhouse among the main favorites to win the title.
And Itoudis, after proving himself two years ago at the highest European level, wants to return to the throne, even if this means once again taking it away from his friend and mentor Zeljko Obradovic.
And while coaches are measured by results, there’s also beauty in the process and that’s what coach Itoudis is analyzing in this first part of the interview.
We’re still in pre-season. How do you deem the team’s progress and its level of readiness?
“Obviously, we can’t say that we are… CSKA yet, because we were missing some players that just joined us. Leo (Westermann) joined us shortly before them, and he had a minor injury against Panathinaikos.
Without Nando (De Colo), Sergio (Rogriguez), and Leo for the greatest part of the preparation period, and without the Russian players, which means Vorontsevich, Antonov, Fridzon, Kurbanov and Kulagin, more than half the team was missing. So, the contribution and the effort on the part of the teenagers of the B team is very special. Like Katsivelis, whom we signed for a month so that he can help us prepare – he’s doing very well and we’d like to thank him publicly – but at this point, we can’t say we are the team we have to be.
Let’s look at the team in its entirety after the tournament in Zadar. So, in the Gomelsky Cup, after only one training session, we will play as CSKA with a full roster. Of course, we won’t have the full team then either because we will be missing cohesiveness and chemistry. Perhaps Sergio will not know exactly what and who is on the team. So, then, the extent to which I’m satisfied with all this in mind and with half of the team missing, I’m rather satisfied with the running that we’re doing and our fitness and the way we are evolving as a team both in defense and in the offense.
Every day for us is a plus and for the young athletes we have on board as well, teenagers who will make up CSKA’s Β team that will start to play in the men’s league this season, and I’m rather satisfied.”
Westermann, though, despite being new to the team – he actually joined very recently – didn’t seem to have any problems adjusting…
“Yes, the truth is that I’ve told him this. Because we always keep in touch with the international players and Andreas (Pistiolis) sent them a video of the plays, in pdf but also in a recorded version, as soon as he came Leo had two training sessions and knew the systems, which means that he had done his homework. This is why he seemed to be more familiar with the team from the beginning (in the friendly game against Panathinaikos). On the other hand, this was his first game, and we coaches say that the player is fresher and gives 100%. We want to look at duration because the EuroBasket is still very fresh in everyone’s memory, but that is a short tournament. When we are talking about the EuroLeague or a team that we have for ten months, ten months and 50 days are very different. So, the situation is different.”
The big change with Milos-Rodriguez
In the summer, CSKA had a very important change and this was in the crucial position of the starting point guard, with Milos Teodosic departing and Sergio Rodriguez arriving. How do you assess this change, at least on paper since Rodriguez still hasn’t stepped on the court with his new team?
“You have to include Westermann in this. Leo is an important change as well. Because these two players are like Jackson and Teodosic, who were the two point guards out of the four creators that we had along the perimeter, who represent my philosophy on the court, my direct collaborators on the court. This is why I say that we are going to need a lot of time to create chemistry and play as a team. In the Gomelsky Cup where we can appear as a whole, provided we don’t have an injury, as individual units we will all be together, but as a team, we will only have had one training session together.
It would be different if it was Jackson and Teodosic and we had a training session that we knew well, since we’ve been together three years and we can understand each other just by looking the other in the eyes, but it’s different to have Sergio adapt in the new set of demands, for him to see how Nando moves and for me to create a good duo, to see whether we can create a trio of Leo and our taller guards, come up with different line-ups… This will take time and through official games, we will see how we can create the best possible chemistry. I hope this will not cost us in terms of results because results count everywhere, but at the same time, we have to create the chemistry.
So, to answer your question, Sergio is a very good player, we all know who he is, he’s very settled as an athlete and when I spoke with him he showed me that he’s settled in regards to the offer we had made him. He was clear that he wanted to play for CSKA and for me. He’s an athlete who knew the NBA very well, but who chose CSKA because he wanted to win titles. All of these things are good. It’s the theory, it’s the words, and now what remains is to get the chemistry, to become players who can contribute.
I will try to help him as quickly as possible. He’s a very intelligent player, very creative, he will have to get in harmony with the other players. They will also help him absorb our way of playing as quickly as possible. The good thing is that he knows Nando personally and they already have a relationship, so I hope his transition happens very fast.”
Can we compare Teodosic and Rodriguez?
“They are two different players. Obviously, they might play in the same position, have the ability to score, be very good passers, read the game well, run very well, push the team forward, have common strengths and weaknesses, but they are different. This is something we have to look at and experience. Because, when you’re scouting or playing against a player – and I’ve played against Sergio many times – it’s different when you have him as a player, to talk with him and collaborate with him, and tell him ‘this is what we want, this is what we believe in, this is the way we function as a team.’ For him, the demands, the way we train, the way he will adjust, are definitely going to be new things and he will have to go through a process. But because he has the ability, he’s an experienced athlete at a very high level, I believe this adjustment will happen very fast. Now, it’s not necessary to go into detail and say ‘he shoots from the left, he shoots from the right’ or ‘he’s a better defender or passer than the other.’ That’s something we don’t have to analyze in depth. There are differences, they are different players, but they both have the ability to read the game and we need players like that, players who can be creative but also execute.”
Do you agree with the view that Sergio was the best possible choice on the market?
“This is another matter that we can discuss, about what the EuroLeague market has on offer, right after the domestic leagues or the end of the EuroLeague. There are three ways you can choose athletes. The first is according to what market has on offer and to get athletes of known value who have played in the EuroLeague with other teams. But, that is a very small pot and those athletes are either under contract or want to wait to go to the NBA. So, then you might not have immediate results.
The second way is to say ‘I’ll wait, take a risk, to see who’s cut from the NBA and can’t get a contract there, and I’ll get someone when…’ This entails a great risk.
The third way, which is not the most appropriate, is to make some offers during the season, something I don’t agree with, and see whether this can happen. This is unfortunate, and I say this because here things are not clear like they are in the NBA, where you cannot approach an athlete, you know this well. In Europe it’s different and perhaps there is some kind of illegitimacy in this, I don’t know how else to characterize whether or not you approach an athlete. We don’t do things like that, not me personally, nor CSKA.
But these are the two appropriate ways: either you get someone immediately or you take a risk and wait. Sergio was a situation that we had discussed with other athletes as well. I don’t have to mention names. Many of them signed with various other teams. But Sergio was determined and at that particular time, he was also available, while he’s also a skillful player. He is the right solution. I believe that Sergio, both as a character and as an athlete, is settled and I wish that he’s healthy and that he celebrates a lot of titles with CSKA.”
In regards to Teodosic, when did you know that he’d be departing for the NBA?
“With Milos, we had several discussions concerning the renewal of his contract and what he was going to do, almost since a birthday party for Vitaly Fridzon (14/10). So, that’s long before he left, in 2016, and it was our first discussion to see what was going on.
The team has as its established principle not to negotiate something during the season, but there were special circumstances with Milos, who had been on the team for many years. I had already worked with him for three years and I’m not going to hide from you that we went to eat together, I took him out to dinner, in order to see what his thoughts were. That’s where he confided in me that he’d like to see what was going on in the NBA, which is understandable.
From our side, we told him that we’d put forward an offer that is going to be very good and, in fact, a three-year deal. His decision to go was difficult, but I understand him fully and I told him that, on my part, he has my full support to try and make his dream come true. We even discussed at his wedding, where he still hadn’t decided and our offer was still open. That’s where he told me that he had two offers, from the Bulls and the Clippers, and that he’ll inform me, which is what happened.
We had a very good collaboration with Milos, good-natured and one between men, I’d say. He informed me when he was on his honeymoon with his wife, in Mexico, I think. He called me and said that the Clippers had made him this offer and he was going to go there. He told me that he wanted me to hear it from him, not from the press or anyone else. Of course, we gave him our blessing and wished him Godspeed. I believe he’s going to succeed there and I really wish that he does. He’s aware of the fact that we wanted him, we made a very good offer to make him stay.”