AEK Athens is getting better
AEK Athens is getting better
During the last weeks, the Greek club has made a couple of transfers and now they are looking again like a powerful squad. The most important move was to bring in local players to replace the departure of Dusan Sakota, Vassilis Kavvadas and Vassilis Xanthopoulos. The new Greek signings for AEK Athens are Nikos Gkikas, the returned veteran Dimitris Mavroedis and the young talent Linos Chrysikopoulos.
From the last year’s roster, AEK kept only Jonas Maciulis and Howard Sant-Roos. The additions of the summer are big names like former Euroleague scorer Keith Langford, Euroleague champion Marcus Slaughter, ex-Maccabi Tel Aviv Kendrick Ray and the Canadian big man Stefan Jankovic. Now the roster is looking good and Aek will delight again the crowds of the fans in Athens. The only problem that I see is the age of some players like Maciulis (34), Langford (35), Slaughter (34) and Mavroeidis (34) who can bring in experience, but in the same time, they can be easily affected by injuries and the lack of speed in defense and ofense.
With the rising of other Greek teams like Promitheas and Peristeri, this season will be tough for AEK Athens in their domestic league. As well in the Basketball Champions League, there will be many strong clubs who announce themselves as true title contenders: Strasbourg, Hapoel Jerusalem, Tencyconta Zaragoza, Baxi Manresa, Besiktas Istanbul, Turk Telekom, Dinamo Sassari and so on.
Even with this improved formula, it will be hard enough for AEK Athens to reach the BasketballCL Final 4 this season. Their group B in the continental competition is one of the toughest, including Anwil, Banvit, Pau-Lacq-Orthez, Hapoel Jerusalem and the newcomers from Germany, Vechta. And let’s see who will come from the qualifiers for the last 2 spots of the regular season. If coach Ilias Papatheodorou will succeed to build chemistry, things could go in the right way for the Greek powerhouse.
Photo credit: championsleague.basketball
Gratian Cormos
