Currently in his second spell as AS Monaco head coach, Sasa Obradovic has taken the French team to unprecedented heights in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. Monaco played its debut season in the competition in 2021-22, and Coach Obradovic was key in guiding the club to the playoffs, where it lost in a five-game series to Olympiacos Piraeus.
This year, 2022-23, Monaco is firmly in the playoff picture, sitting fifth in the standings with a record of 15-10 from its first 25 games. For Coach Obradovic, he recognizes that Monaco's project is continuing to evolve while also paying tribute to the work done to get the team to this point.
"We play great basketball and, more importantly, we won games, which took us in the situation where we've been. We should set high goals, the highest possible," says Coach Obradovic during the latest episode of 'Focus On'.
"But, we should work [towards that] on a daily basis. This minimum has to be also the satisfaction point. Before I came, in order to satisfy everybody, it was not easy. What I did actually, I reduced the rotation a little bit; I put the focus on the guys who should make the difference in the future. We, as a young team, need consistency. Nothing happens overnight."
Coaching a team with lofty ambitions like Monaco is not an easy task, but the Serbian tactician believes that it is important to be malleable in order to get the best out of his players.
"The rule is that there is no rule," explains Coach Obradovic. "No matter what you are dealing with, you have to adjust: what kind of personalities, what kind of people are around, what kind of combination of players you have. The quality of any coach is just to recognize the strengths and weaknesses, and try to hide them if it's a weakness or to exploit the strengths at the maximum level."
During this episode, Coach Obradovic also discusses Monaco reaching last year's playoffs and the reasons behind its playoff defeat to Olympiacos, while forward John Brown, who joined Roca Team in the 2022 offseason, paid tribute to his coach's achievements in the 2021-22 season.