Olympiacos made the EuroLeague Final-Four under Giorgos Bartzokas in three consecutive seasons. The Olympiacos leader in the bench is a coaching powerhouse in Europe, but most importantly, he has full control over an organization that has found success during the last three years under his guidance.
The Greek giants did it differently every time they made it. They were the grittiest team in the league this season charting the best defense in the EuroLeague, reverting their style from an unstoppable offensive machine last season led by EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov and superstar guard Kostas Sloukas.
Olympiacos lost the two most important parts of its offense last summer, as Vezenkov made the jump to the NBA, while Kostas Sloukas elected to sign with Panathinaikos. Bartzokas build his team’s offense around those two last season, a pick&roll maestro in Sloukas and an offensive juggernaut like Vezenkov in the wing.
Whatever, Olympiacos achieved these three years can be attributed to what Bartzokas believe for his team. No player is irreplaceable and every time someone is missing or leaving the team is the “next man up”. This mentality led Olympiacos to another Final-Four, another chance to win the trophy that the club lost due to a last-minute collapse last season.
It was painful for the Reds to pick up their pieces after a devastating EuroLeague Final, in which Olympiacos was the better team for almost the whole game before losing due to Sergio Rodriguez and Sergio Llull big-time plays.
Bartzokas continued to believe in his team, he did not demand from the front office to bring two superstar players to replace Sloukas and Vezenkov. He bet on his guys, and his group came up big in the playoff series vs. FC Barcelona and during the regular season.
“In general it’s an ethos in my life, it’s not about basketball,” Giorgos Bartzokas said on TV while wearing a red-and-white scarf in Tuesday’s UEFA Conference League semi-final, where Olympiacos’ football team secure a spot in the first European Competition Final of its history.
“With the people who have helped you, you should never be ungrateful. Not with me personally but with our team. And Shaquille (McKissic) and all the players on the team have given a lot. I don’t support them because I’m a good person but because they deserve it.”
The Greek head coach was referring to McKissic, who started the season injured and remained out for the first two months. The American guard had a massive contribution in Games 4 and 5. Bartzokas was making reference to a question he was asked when the team was struggling with injuries during November.
He was then reasserting his faith in the current players that were on the team dismissing any potential addition in Olympiacos guard rotation. The Reds were forced to pick up players in the following months as Bartzokas had issue to put up a full-time active squad for about 3–4 months.
The Reds played with their roster at almost 100 percent health during the last weeks of the season. Moustapha Fall missed time, Nikola Milutinov was out for the last two months of the regular season and also missed time during the first months of the season. In the perimeter, Nigel Williams-Goss was in and out, Shaquille McKissic was dealing with injury and recovered fully around January, to mention some.
Even during the EuroLeague playoffs, captain Kostas Papanikolaou was only able to play in the final two games of the series. Olympiacos prevailed through adversity, and Bartzokas saw his team getting gritty victories during the season, playing through pain to reach its goal.
Bartzokas putting faith in Olympiacos system and its players
After the end of the 2022/23 campaign, Olympiacos had to answer questions around his roster. The Reds were missing the star power after Vezenkov and Sloukas left, but believed in Bartzokas’ vision. Alec Peters had a minimal role during the last campaign, but he was the starting forward the Greek coach selected to replace the EuroLeague MVP.
A tough ask if you consider that Peters was a role player during his career. The American repaid his coach faith with a career-year that brought him a new deal that will keep in Piraeus for the next two seasons. Peters was by far the best shooting wing in the league and there is no question that he is expected to be seen in a different light after this season.
“We are all trusting the system,” Peters told in an interview with Eurohoops before the start of the 2023/24 campaign. That system gave the chance to Peters who averaged 12.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists through 38 appearances.
The opponents were preparing their plan for Peters putting bodies on the shooting wing to keep him away from the three-point line.
Olympiacos size makes the difference in defense
Olympiacos built a roster based on the size inside the paint leaving behind its swift ball movement and quick-decision basketball of the past season. Giorgos Bartzokas based his plan on the personnel he had at his hands. A handful of handoff plays remained the standard, the cutting inside the basket was there but Olympiacos was playing in a much slower pace.
Defensively, the team was sturdy as ever, putting big bodies inside to cover the ground and put their opponents in a struggle. A team had to bleed in order to put up points against Olympiacos defense as the Reds were keeping EuroLeague offensive juggernauts under their control.
In the perimeter, Thomas Walkup and Shaquille McKissic long arms will put pressure on the ball and make tough for the opponent to set its offense. Walkup is the face of Olympiacos philosophy under Giorgos Bartzokas.
“This is because of coach Bartzokas and his system, we pride ourselves to not depending on one player, we’re very balanced, not just in our roster, but in our playstyle. We’re not just giving the ball to somebody and expected him to do something,” the American guard said in an interview with Eurodevotion last season.
“A shout-out to coach Bartzokas, the staff and how they coach it and they teach it, because every coach in the world wants to play with the ball that’s moving one side to an other, but I think they’ve done the proper way teaching that. It’s chemistry, but it’s their job too, not just by luck. It’s the system and the philosophy.”
Olympiacos will put the “system” in test against the most dominant team we have seen in the EuroLeague during the last few years. Real Madrid has the depth and the talent to win it all, but the same could have been said for FC Barcelona, especially in a best-of-five series. The only thing that the Greeks can do is to continue to trust the system.
