By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Kostas Sloukas and his future is one of the key questions for the Euroleague finalist Olympiacos and at this point nothing can be taken for granted in his case as the Reds, Fenerbahce/ Ulker and CSKA Moscow are interested on him.
Sloukas said many times after the end of the Greek league finals that he would like to stay in Olympiacos and also that his decision will not be based only on the proposed salary, but also on the role he will have on the team and his minutes of the floor. The Reds are expected to make him an official offer soon with a 30% raise on his annual salary – from 450.00 euros to 600.000 euros – for a three year deal until the summer of 2018. That means that Olympiacos is ready to spend a sum around 1,8 million euros for him.
Sloukas at this point doesn’t have any other official offer on his hands, because he decided to not enter this process before meeting with Olympiacos first. Only Panathinaikos made him already a 1,6 m. euros offer for the next two seasons. It’s a great offer, but our belief is that Sloukas, a low key person, will not leave Olympiacos for Panathinaikos. He would prefer to move abroad for obvious reasons, if the offer of his current team doesn’t satisfy him.
Two non Greek teams have already reached his side. Those are Fenerbahce/ Ulker and CSKA Moscow. No official offers have been made yet as Sloukas asked, but according to sources Fenerbahce can offer him almost 2 million euros for the next two seasons. CSKA can outbide the Turks, the Russians usually offer three year deals, but in their case there’s an other problem. The team already has Teodosic, De Colo and Aaron Jackson is the next announcement in line. Sloukas can’t have a major role in this roster.
The negotiations with Olympiacos are expected to finish soon one way or an other and if there’s no deal, then Sloukas will examine also other options. The next two weeks will be crucial and probably no more time will be needed for him to decide…