The head coach of “Prometey” Ronen Ginzburg, in an interview for the club press-service, informed about transformations made in summer, spoke about club’s newbies, shared impressions of the EuroCup format changes and also addressed the fans of the “Titans”.

- Coach, "Prometey" has five new legionnaires this season (Davon Reed, Arnoldas Kulboka, Marcus Keen, Ronald March, Tai Odiase). Why were exactly these players chosen?

- If we could keep more legionnaires from the last year's roster, I would do that with a great pleasure. But unfortunately, after you had a great season the attention of other clubs was drawn to your players. We could not keep some in our roster because of his injury, I mean D.J. Kennedy. But we managed to extend the cooperation with Balvin and Agada - two good players we know pretty well. 

We have been working really hard on building a new squad all through the offseason - all my assistants and our new athletic director. We have looked through a lot of players. Some of them, who we would like to see in “Prometey”, we could not sign because we could not afford them financially, some of our candidates chose a Euroleague team. 

Five new legionnaires is a lot, that means significant and radical changes for the team, we have to be patient, because the process of creating a one-piece team mechanism from them will take quite a long time. But I love the process. Each of our rookies is a good player, but we have to integrate them in the right way into our system to be successful. I am sure we can handle it.

- What can you say on the fact that Reed has no experience in Europe? Is that not a risk?

- Every player who comes to Europe for the first time, even if he had a successful career in the USA, is kind of a risk. As for Reed, we considered everything very carefully and not only from a basketball prospective. Certainly, we were also interested in his personal qualities. We have searched how to adjust him to our basketball. There is no secret, that there are a lot of basketball players, who were fantastic in America but were not able to play in Europe; but at the same time, there are Americans who became excellent players on our continent. We do not expect him to be a star or score 25 points every game, but he is a serious player who makes other basketball players of his team better, he is good on defence. I have no worries about Davon did not play in Europe.

- In your opinion, how much the fact that “Prometey” is a Ukrainian team that cannot play at home due to the war, complicate the process of team formation? Does it have an impact on the negotiations with legionaries?

- This was a problem last year. Now everyone knows that we are one of the EuroCup top teams. So, it is not a problem.

- This offseason, we signed only one new Ukrainian basketball player - Andrii Voinalovych. Why did you choose exactly him?

- Andrii is a good young promising basketball player. I saw how much he is progressing. In 2-3 years, he might become a superb player. We signed him not only for this season, but for a longer period. Because he is one of the youngest Ukrainian talents, it is important for us to have great Ukrainian players in our team.

- What could you say about the new sports director Bronislaw Wawrzynchuk? Why have you decided to cooperate with him?
    
- Bronislaw one of the most talented scouts and sports directors in Europe. One of those who built “Ulm”; within the last 4-5 years, he brought many promising young players to “Ulm” and built a system. He helped “Ulm” discover and select players not only in Europe but also on the other continents, for example, in Brazil. I believe that every serious club should have a strong sports director with connections to agents. This summer, we were on the phone with Bronslaw 15-20 times a day, including at night, because he was in contact with agents, including in the USA.

However, the sports director works not only in summer but all along the season, he has to be ready to replace a player or just find another new one. He also must scan the market throughout the year, make notes on future hypothetical players for the club, follow them during the season; in addition, he has some other duties. I am very happy to have Bronislaw with us. He will help me, help the club to prove the status as one of the leading clubs of the continent.

- Also, a new coach Raimonds Feldmanis joined the team. Why was this specialist invited?

- We have been searching for another coach for our staff since the last season as our coaches had a lot of duties and we needed one more person who will help us, first of all, develop our basketball players’ playing skills. All clubs of our level have 4-6 head coach assistants. We do not have that many. As I always say, a small army is sometimes better than a big army is. We can see this now, with the example of Ukrainian army, we can say the same about Israeli army in the past. I believe in my staff and I think it is great that we boosted it.

- New EuroCup format. Managers have added a play-in, but the semi-finals and the final, which were played in one-game format last year, will now transform into series of three matches. What do you think about these changes?

- From now on, every game of the regular season will be even more important, since only six teams go directly to the playoffs. This will make the regular season more thrilling from the first round to the last one. Regarding the semi-finals and the final, I think the three-game scheme is better for the stronger teams, because it eliminates the effect of a surprise result when the weaker team played one super game and advanced. However, first of all, we have to enter the top 6.

- What are the team’s goals for the season?

- Undoubtedly, we strive to do everything we can, to make any effort to reach maximum results. Of course, we aim to play in the Latvian-Estonian league final as well as to make it to the EuroCup final. Many EuroCup teams aspire for the same. However, I belive in us, I believe in our club, in our players. We are capable of reaching this goal. This is a new season, a new team and new ambitions. Great ambitions. The most important thing is to be 100% sure at the end of the season that we did everything we could.

- Last season, closer to the playoffs, more and more fans started coming to stands of Arena Riga. How important is their support for you?

- This is very important for us, because their support provides us with a home court advantage, as we say, because the players feel absolutely different when they feel the support of the stands, it's a wonderful feeling. I believe that our matches will be visited by many people, because we are one of the best EuroCup teams.

- And finally, some wishes from you to our readers and “Prometey” fans.

- I am very happy to remain “Prometey” coach. We have left three wonderful years behind. And we will continue bringing joy of victory to our fans, give our 100% on the court. "Prometey" is really a wonderful club, with a great management, an unbelievable founder. I am sure, the players also really appreciate everything the management does for us, just as they appreciate the support of our fans. Glory to Ukraine!