Bartzokas: “Off to new success”
Giorgos Bartzokas spoke about the new season and the goals of Olympiacos.
The European Champions’ coach originally said that “it’s a great challenge to be in charge of such an important team. Being a member of Olympiacos means having a tough season ahead with a lot of demands and a lot of commitments. I wish that we all remain healthy and that new challenges as well as more success are in for us”.
In regard to this season’s roster, the Greek coach pointed out that “everyone saw last year that there is wear with so many games played. We discussed about this with the administration and I feel that this year we have a deeper roster, at least with three talented players for each position. The season ended for us last year without our two basic point guards, Mantzaris and Law. So, in order not to go through the same again, we tried to expand our roster”.
As for the changes in the Piraeus team front line, the 48 year old coach said that “last season’s players, given the circumstances, that after Dorsey actually separated himself from the team, helped us. We made a change we hadn’t wanted to make and there weren’t many options. So, in order to avoid a similar situation we did something in advance. We have players for all the positions, I believe we have a full roster and now we have to make the chemistry work and built a good atmosphere”.
Questioned about the motive of his players, the ‘reds’ coach said that “I don’t need to give them motivation. The players that are here have both personal and team incentives. They are motivated themselves. And the young players have also huge motivation, they are happy to have joined this club”.
As for the management such a long season is going to need following a Eurobasket season, the coach of the European Champions was very clear in his response: “Almost all teams have a problem. We don’t have one player to much the physical level of another. Eurobasket has affected us directly or not. Lodjeski came here injured; Spanoulis the same, one or two of our players came back with psychology problems… At this moment there is an inhomogeneous roster that has to be molded into a team. Titles are judged at the end of the season, however, we are optimistic to reach a high level soon enough”.
Giorgos Bartzokas also spoke about the fact that Olympiacos has once again invested in young players: “we made an introduction, we are talking about Papapetrou, Agravanis and Christodoulou, the administration materialized the plan, they signed multi-year contracts and we believe they are going to be international in the following years. Incorporation to such a high level totally depends on them. We are here to help them”.