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Image: BNS, Imago Images – Illustration by Scanpix / BasketNews.lt
Photo BNS, Imago Images – Illustration by Scanpix / BasketNews.lt
Kaunas “Žalgiris” will start the 2020-2021 Euroleague season on Thursday, and their first competitor is the Piraeus Olympiakos club, which has changed radically during the off-season.
The Greek club, which has seen a frequent change of players and coaches in recent seasons, seems ready to translate a new card and entrust another project to Georgios Bartzok in Piraeus.
Oly’s faces for the last decade, Vassilis Spanoulis and Georgios Printezis, can no longer be the leaders of the Euroleague winning club, so Bartzok, who signed a contract with the Greek team until the summer of 2022, fundamentally changed the Piraeus team’s established style of play.
The BasketNews.lt website reviews Olympiacos’ off-season work, a new leader and accents for Žalgiris to clinch the first win in this year’s Euroleague.
A changed face
BNS photo
This season in the Euroleague we will see a completely different team than last year. It was supplemented by 6 newcomers in the offseason, and by adding just Octavius Ellis and Schaquielle McKissic, who came to the club before the pandemic, we get two-thirds of the modified lineup.
In addition to the two listed basketball players, who joined the club at the end of last season, Costa Slouk, Aaron Harrison, Hassan Martin, Charles Jenkins, Giannoul Larentzak and Livio Jean-Charles came to Piraeus in the summer.
Without a doubt, the most prominent star of Olympiacos will be Slouk, who in recent years has become a symbol of victories at Fenerbahche in Istanbul, and will now take over as leader in the hands of Spanoul, who has been with him for several years.
In addition to the 30-year-old Slouk, who reached the peak of his career, the Greek club will also be full of interesting legionnaires, one of whom is Harrison from Galatasaray in Istanbul, who registered an average of 15.7 points in the European Cup. , and CSKA Moscow in the preseason.
It will also be interesting to keep watching McKissic, who at the end of last season made an impressive foray into the Euroleague, where he stood out among other players on the league’s perimeter with his physical data.
On the front row, Olympiacos lost Nikola Milutinov in the summer and, of course, it is practically impossible to change a midfielder of this level, but the tandem of physically strong centers Ellis and Martin does not look bad.
As for the team’s seniors, if Bartzok continues to see Costa Papanikolaou and Princez in the starting five, Spanoulis will be more of a player this year, giving the club’s new magicians a break. Also worth mentioning is Alexander Vezenkov, who looked solid during the preparation phase and can eventually become a great bastion from the bench.
Summing up the lineup, we can safely say that this season has been much smarter and stronger compared to last year. While the reorganization process will take time, the team with Slouk must definitely qualify for the Euroleague playoffs.
The process to take place and the Slough star
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Olympiakos will continue to compete only in the Euroleague, and although Bartzok said it would be a nightmare to prepare for the local championships, the words seem strange.
A Greek specialist with 8 newcomers to join the squad is fundamentally changing the philosophy of the game, and the process is not easy, so testing only in Euroleague matches can be expensive, especially at the start of the season.
The fact that Oly will definitely have problems at the beginning of the season is also indicated by a friendly match: if against the much weaker Thessaloniki “Iraklis” he won easily (88:75 and 80:50), the next Euroleague tournament in Valencia he was landed by ASVEL (57:74) and only Bayern Munich broke in the second half of the match: 82:68.
Before starting in the Euroleague, Bartzok’s students managed to play twice against ALBA Berlin, with whom they shared the victory – 78:71 and 69:75.
The friendly tests revealed the character of the Olympiacos game, which is based on the attack PikenrolaisIn defense, Bartzoko’s students often try to hold on to their opponents in exchange for defending them.
The absolute dispatcher of the team in the attack is Sloukas, from which Oly’s attack begins and usually ends.
An attack by a Greek club usually starts with the player starting high picenrole, and then the attack spins several more times in a two-on-two game, where Ellis and Martin, who can spin quickly under the basket, are very good at fulfilling Slouk’s ideas.
Elemental figures also show what the star Sloukas will be like in the ranks of Oly in the coming season: in one game with Bayern, the 30-year-old had 13 assists, and in the second game with ALBA – 11.
Summary of “Žalgiris” to win in Piraeus
BNS photo
Žalgiris, playing in the empty stands of “Peace and Friendship”, will first have to deal with rivals Pikenrolais, where they will be developed by one of the best specialists in this field of Euroleague Sloukas.
“Žalgiris” in the duels that have taken place so far Pikenrolo Oly rarely traded defenders on defense, and it was before this defense that the most difficult seemed to be Oly: Sloukas is not such a good 1v1 player to easily beat a tall man with good legs, and Martin and Ellis are not good. basketball players playing towards the basket.
Olympiakos bombed other defense systems in friendly matches quite simply, before get out Sloukas found teammates free in the corner and dug freely in the middle of the field, where he attacked the basket himself or found his teammates invading the penalty area.
However, the big question is whether this composition of “Žalgiris” with many traditional tall people is capable of exchanging defenses at a high level. Pikenrolo And Thursday night should turn out to be quite a challenge.
Martin Schiller students also often apply side defense when the defender is not allowed to enter the barrier, but this is resolved either by the individual ability of the player, or Pikenpopais, which can be performed on the Piraeus team by both Printezis and Vezenkov.
In addition, Schiller with the entire coaching staff will have to solve the puzzle of how to beat the opponent’s defense on his own. Pikenrolais – Bartzok frequently changes defense systems during matches, and complementary centers are suitable for this.
In the friendly duel “Oly” with Ellis in the nearby square picenrole often played defending, or get outAnd when Martin stepped on the floor, he did not hesitate to change, and it was against this defense system that we saw the problems that the Žalgiris people had in the match with Milan AX Armani Exchange.
Admittedly, while the Olympiacos have certainly put together a mobile lineup that stands out for its size, they may face a three-point shortage on the perimeter, as the team has the only pronounced pitcher, Harrison, whom Bartzok often relies on. and plays, which automatically neutralizes his danger at the three-point line.
Yes, Papanikolaou and Vezenkov certainly can’t go free on the perimeter, but neither McKissic, nor Princez, nor Jean-Charles, Jenkins, nor Spanoul himself are stable pitchers and their teams are not shy about taking risks.
This Olympiacos foul was clearly seen in the match with ASVEL, when the rivals concentrated their defense in the penalty area, with the Greeks scoring just 1 of three points out of 14 and scoring just 57 points.
On Thursday, the biggest intrigue will be how the Lithuanian champions will triumph in both defense and attack. Pikenrolo Situations, and with a good implementation and enduring the physicality of the opponents, the first victory in the Euroleague does not seem unattainable, especially since the opponent is just beginning the renewal process.
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