Andrei Vatutin, PBC CSKA President:
During the Board meeting it took a long time for us to carefully discuss all the pluses and minuses of signing the new coach now, with three and a half months until the end of the season. Finally we concluded that certainty on a head coaching position will allow us to solve two tasks – to improve team’s game this season and to start creating the new team for the next season. Taking over in CSKA now will give Kazlauskas enough time to get know the players abilities from inside the process. We are very serious about club’s future so we were very cautious and careful in choosing the coach, we analyzed the market of all the coaches who are available now and who will be available in the summer. Jonas is an experienced and motivated coach who is known for his abilities to build balanced game and who knows how to work with the young players. It is important that he took part in development projects – his work in Chinese National Team can be considered as the one. His knowledge in English and Russian languages is also a big factor. We liked his big desire to work in CSKA. We are grateful to Dmitry Shakulin for his readiness and enthusiasm to work during tough transition times and for several big wins in PBL and VTB League. I am sure that Dmitry got invaluable head coaching experience. As for the coaching staff, it will be confirmed soon.
