{"id":291509,"date":"2022-08-29T19:43:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T17:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=291509"},"modified":"2022-08-29T19:43:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T17:43:28","slug":"coach-messina-we-are-deeper-and-more-athletic-but-this-euroleague-season-will-be-so-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/coach-messina-we-are-deeper-and-more-athletic-but-this-euroleague-season-will-be-so-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Messina: We are deeper and more athletic, but this EuroLeague season will be so hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coach Ettore Messina met the media in his traditional early season session. Here are his main statements.<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE GOALS<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s not me, I\u2019m not picking the goals, when you coach in Milan<\/a> you also know what you are striving for. We want to win the Italian league championship, get the third star, we would like to return to the Final Four, but we also know that to get there you must first qualify for the playoffs and it\u2019s not easy, because out of 18 teams, only eight qualify. In the NBA, for example, there are 30 teams and 16 playoff spots plus two teams involved through the play-in. It is very difficult here.\u201d<\/p>\n

SIX INTERNATIONALS WITHIN THE ITALIAN TEAM<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s a satisfaction, it\u2019s rewarding for all of us, not just for the guys who have been called up. One of the reasons for which we won the championship is that our Italian group of players has produced both in the playoffs and in the regular season and this year it is an even better group of players because of Stefano Tonut. Obviously, at the same time, this is a world in which everyone pays attention to the wear and tear of the players and every day someone seems to get injured, so we are a little worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCHEDULING PROBLEMS<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cI spoke a year and a half ago. If the top managers do not sit around a table putting aside the strong personalities involved, looking at the common goal rather than personal wins, we will continue with a schedule that is so problematic. The problem of players getting injured is becoming ridiculous, it is no longer a coincidence. Today all the players always compete when they are tired. They are tired by definition. Perhaps only when they go to the national team for the first time, they are a little less tired because they come from a rest period. Then you get the national team, windows, EuroLeague etc. they are always tired, and it is obvious that then someone breaks. They are always overloaded, always pushed at the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE TEAM<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cWe have added some depth. When you have to manage injuries, the available players play, and the others also know they can recover calmly and when they return, they will find the team in a good position. When everyone is fine, someone will not play, and you must have the honesty to explain it to them, trying to clarify. Not everyone is happy if everyone gets a few minutes or when they are told to play today but not tomorrow. This is a sport in which everyone needs consistency, rhythm. We were lucky because last year, during the playoffs, there were people who didn\u2019t play, but accepted their roles and helped with class. If we have this self-discipline, we will overcome the difficulties and maybe get to the finish line in good shape. We are also a bit more athletic than in the past, with Mitrou-Long, Davies and Thomas<\/a>, and we are a bit better at scoring. Mitrou-Long can give us a lot and Davies is a center who can score easily. Yes, it could be the best team we have built in these four seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

BALDASSO<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cHe had an opportunity thanks to the rules that make it mandatory to have six Italians then he was good at taking advantage of it. I can only speak highly of Baldasso. In this case the rule has had its value. I don\u2019t know if they are all like him. Here I can afford to take a Baldasso to see if he can do it here, as I hope Davide Alviti will be able to do. Maybe in other clubs you need to get players to help you right away and doesn\u2019t like to take a risk. Then the rule led to an increase in costs: if there was a free market, salaries would be different. It is an open debate, then I understand that the Players\u2019 Union wants more and more Italians on the court and has nothing to say about the increase in wages resulting from this rule. It depends by the cases. The case of Baldasso is the case of a guy who hit a wall, because he struggled during the first few days here, and was able to seize the opportunity to the point that he is now in the national team, I would say deservedly because when he played, he did it well. But are they all like him?\u201d<\/p>\n

MITROU-LONG<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cHa has the potential. He has athleticism, shooting, has great desire, you can see it how hard he practices. I hope he will take a similar path to that of Shavon and Devon. The two of them came to play for two good teams, but he could join an even better one. On the one hand this means greater competition within the roster, on the other it is a situation that gives him more safety. It will depend on how the team evolves.\u201d<\/p>\n

POETA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cHe is a person who has the competence coming from a great career, a positive attitude that he shares with the coach who preceded him here, Gianmarco Pozzecco, and an ability to have good relationships with former teammates, colleagues and people off the court. I hope he can stay here a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE CONSIDERATION IN EUROPE<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cWe have obtained an important general respect which helps us because many top players are pleased to play with us. It is not important that they talk about us as one of the great teams because at the end of the day what is really important is to play the games well.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE ITALIAN LEAGUE<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cIt is becoming a more physical league. When I came back in 2019, it was a small-ball league, the guards played at the wing, the wings played at the power forward spot, power forwards acted as centers. Today there has been a physical adjustment, going on for a couple of years, which helps not only us but those who are playing the international competitions. The trend is to no longer be undersized compared to our European rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE RELATIONSHIP WITH VIRTUS<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cThere is no bitterness, it is a concept that I do not share. There was certainly a great rivalry, but I challenge anyone to find one statement coming from our side, our behavior that could go in that direction. Starting since before the championship started and up to what was said and done during the series, the comments were always coming from the same side. The fact that when you play you can say everything and then shake hands, I don\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

KEVIN PANGOS<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cBeing a leader is what he did with Zalgiris and Zenit. Chacho is someone who has always shared joy, who gave us the feeling of being able to be in a position to win every game. Rodriguez always played on the edge of risk. I hope Kevin can establish the same feeling with the crowd, but I realize that it won\u2019t be easy because he will have big shoes to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE STYLE OF PLAY<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cWe will try to run a little bit like we did during the playoffs, we are more athletic, we would like to keep our defensive levels where they were and control the rebounds. Then we should be able to run a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE NEW EUROLEAGUE<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s again a very high-level competition, I don\u2019t even have a personal ranking. I don\u2019t see who can stay out of the playoffs. I talked about it with my assistants and none of us had the same idea. I think of Panathinaikos, which has strengthened a lot, I think of the Red Star and the many players they added, I think of Partizan with Obradovic and players like Punter, Avramovic, LeDay, as well as twenty thousand fans. And if you look at the last few seasons, the teams that overturned the home court in the playoffs were very few. This puts you in a situation where if you really want to make the playoffs you have to finish in the top four, not eight. Perhaps, the wins necessary to make the playoffs will be a lower number, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

OBRADOVIC\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 \u201cHe has won more than anyone else in the EuroLeague, we all consider him the best coach and certainly his comeback is a positive thing for the whole European competition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Messina: \u201cWe will try to run a little bit like we did during the playoffs, we are more athletic, we would like to keep our defensive levels where they were and control the rebounds. Then we should be able to run a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":291510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[199,259],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[15727],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-291509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-euroleague","category-serie-a","typology-press-release-en"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/08\/FbWGr3zXkAEsYQc.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291509"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=291509"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=291509"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=291509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}