When Panathinaikos missed the EuroLeague Final Four and dropped the domestic crown, everyone knew the roster lacked something fundamental. On Tuesday, club president Dimitris Giannakopoulos gave the green light to a reinforcement drop – led by Isaac Bonga and Brancou Badio – built not to make the ‘Greens’ flashier, but to finally give Zeljko Obradovic the teeth his predecessor desperately lacked.
Although the official announcement is still pending, it has long been known that these two players have been on Panathinaikos‘ radar, and that Zeljko Obradovic, who recently returned to the club, would highly look forward to having them in his roster.
As a result, Isaac Bonga paid a buyout of 700,000 euros to exit his contract with Partizan. Rumor has it that he will receive a staggering 6.5 million euros for three years in Athens, and the money he used to pay the buyout clause will be reimbursed by the Greens after signing. Meanwhile, the Greek club will have to pay 1.5 million euros to buy out Brancou Badio’s contract from Valencia.
| Player | Team (2025–26) | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isaac Bonga | Partizan | 10.0 | 5.6 | 1.5 | 0.9 |
| Brancou Badio | Valencia | 11.2 | 2.6 | 2.2 | 0.6 |
Dimitris Giannakopoulos announces “bang and boom” Tuesday 💣
— Basketball Sphere (@BSphere_) July 7, 2026
Four signings nearing Panathinaikos 👀 #paobc pic.twitter.com/Xtk4xS13P2
Why Ataman’s deficit is Obradovic’s priority
Both players are known as all-arounders who can contribute to many segments of the game, but their most important primary qualities will be top-tier defense and the defensive intensity they bring to teams. Last season, under the leadership of Ergin Ataman, Panathinaikos struggled heavily with precisely that factor, which ultimately cost them.
Jerian Grant, Nigel Hayes-Davis (who only joined in the second part of the season), and Mathias Lessort (who was sidelined by injury for a year) were the players who logged significant minutes and contributed to the defense. The others, more or less, did not. It wasn’t that they didn’t try, but rather that they weren’t effective, making their efforts in vain.
Almost all of their important victories came in games where they managed to keep their rivals below their scoring average by playing solid defense. The problem was their lack of consistency.
For instance, apart from the second game of the playoffs against Valencia and the fourth game of the Greek Basket League finals against Olympiacos, all other high-scoring games in the EuroLeague quarterfinal series and the domestic championship final series ended in favor of their rivals.
This is simply no longer viable and clearly does not yield results, as they missed out on the EuroLeague Final Four and the domestic championship title, which ultimately led to Ataman’s dismissal and Obradovic taking his place.
Panathinaikos’ missing links
Bonga and Badio will raise the defensive level to the highest possible standard very quickly, especially since the German national team player is already familiar with the legendary Serbian coach’s system from their time spent together at Partizan. The two of them, along with the aforementioned players and potential future signings, will quickly propel Panathinaikos to the very top of European basketball when it comes to defense.
At the same time, both are more than capable of contributing on offense, though that has repeatedly proven not to be an issue for the “Greens” over the past years.
