Peppe Poeta responds to President Dell’Orco: “The EuroLeague? He’s a dreamer.”
Peppe Poeta is enjoying Olimpia Milano’s winning league debut: “It was a bit of a mixed bag of a game. Kudos to Trieste; we played poorly in the first two quarters, and we need to step up our intensity. In the second half, we had the right attitude. We know that playing less than 48 hours after a battle against Belgrade is never easy—we’ve experienced it firsthand. We’ll take the win and look ahead to our development process, which requires games, practices, and getting to know each other better. There’s room for improvement in many areas.”
The coach then focused on the impact of the back-to-back games and the challenges faced by the newcomers, who are expected to keep up with a particularly fast pace: “Playing at this pace is already difficult for everyone; for those who haven’t done it before, it’s even harder. The Italian league is very tough; nobody gives you anything for free. You have to be fully prepared for every game—today we were only there in spurts. We need to have a different impact on the game.”
One area to work on is defense, which at times appeared too passive and was marked by numerous substitutions. Poeta explained the decision: “Substitutions helped us a lot last year, winning the league title and the Italian Cup. Today it was the only thing we could do, with Candussi playing center and shooting three-pointers. It’s hard not to make those substitutions when there are five shooters on the opposing team’s court. It was the only option. And it has to become one of our weapons, since we have great players among our perimeter players and very mobile big men. We don’t have players like Tavares… Then we need to be more prepared and better at directing our perimeter players where we want them to go. Substitutions will account for 30% of defensive plays across Europe.”
Among the positive notes is certainly Burnell’s performance, which impressed Poeta: “I’m very happy. He’s a fantastic guy; he’s already won over the hearts of all his teammates. I’m glad he had such a productive game. It’s not a given when you raise your level of play and have new teammates. He’ll definitely need to bring this energy to the court consistently in Italy, and I’m convinced he’ll give us a hand in the EuroLeague as well.”
Finally, a comment on the remarks by President Dell’Orco, who identified the team as a potential contender among the top four in the EuroLeague: “He’s the president, the number one guy. We all love him; he’s a great dreamer, and that’s wonderful. Dreaming is the best thing in the world.”
