Olympiacos are back in the Euroleague Final Four for the fourth straight season and seek to finally end the wait. The trophy remains elusive but can Georgios Bartzokas and the Reds finally get over the line in Abu Dhabi?
The frustration is real. Reaching the Euroleague Final Four in 2022 was nice. The final defeat to Real Madrid in 2023 was gutting. Last year’s loss to Los Blancos? That forced a big move by Olympiacos. The Reds arrive in Abu Dhabi with the plan to leave no doubt.,
Always Close, Never Enough
Keeping Anadolu Efes, which screamed of team of destiny, within a possession was hardly a failure in 2022. The Reds had been through an odd phase, including their exile from the Greek League. Bouncing back like this and reaching the Euroleague Final Four was a great foundation.
What came the following year is what truly stung. In Kaunas, Olympiacos entered as undoubted favourites. They had been the best team in Europe per the eyeball test all season. They dispatched AS Monaco impressively and looked like they had the better of Real Madrid. Then Sergio Llull happened.
The oddity however was last season. With Sasha Vezenkov in the NBA, Olympiacos found a way back to the Final Four. In such circumstances, that felt like it could be enough for Georgios Bartzokas to celebrate. A limp effort against Los Blancos however led to some big decisions. The Reds were sick of painful memories. The purse strings opened and they built a ludicrously deep side. The result was the top overall seed and, once more, the tag of favourites.
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More depth, less dependence
Sasha Vezenkov’s absence oddly helped with the reshaping of the roster. Getting used to not having a player that can do a lot with a comparatively low usage rate wasn’t going to be easy. The Reds found a way and then, of course, they got him back.
The switch wasn’t perfect. The Moneyball approach to replacing lost production didn’t really work but the other key pieces grew in their roles. The Reds that Vezenkov left were better than the one he departed.
Georgios Bartzokas also managed to reshape veteran leaders on the Olympiacos roster. Kostas Papanikolaou, Shaq McKissic, and Moustapha Fall have all adjusted their styles to varying degrees to manage the shift.
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Quiet consistency but loud expectations
Georgios Bartzokas has a tremendously impressive resume. This is now his fourth straight Euroleague Final Four with Olympiacos, the most consecutive trips of any coach in the club’s history. He personally has six such trips on his CV now. Yet Bartzokas still only has one Euroleague title to his name.
For all of his remarkable consistency, he hasn’t been able to follow up on that 2013 triumph. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the run he put together with Lokomotiv Kuban for their trip to the last weekend of the season but I digress.
This is the most complete roster the legendary coach has at his disposal since that 2013 triumph. It’s also the most Bartzokas-style roster he’s had since that Kuban one. Combine the two and it’s a potent force. It is one however that has fans in Piraeus screaming for a title to finally come their way.
Built Differently but Built Better
As Aris Barkas of Eurohoops put it in this podcast, Olympiacos decided last season that they were going to win Euroleague. Evan Fournier just had to say he’d like to go there and the money to sign him appeared. There’s the big anniversary this year and everything else but, come on, this is about now not history.
Panathinaikos can outdo them for out and out star power. Fenerbahce seem the most immune to a star having an off night. Where the Reds triumph is finding a balance between the two.
It’s a familiar foe in AS Monaco this time. The surge to victory in 2023 may well be needed again in Abu Dhabi. This is no ordinary foe. It’s the best side Monaco can claim since entering Euroleague and they’ve got Vassilis Spanoulis seeking to impress at his first Final Four as a head coach. That makes for quite the challenge. Olympiacos must prove that they are not only up to it but built for the fight that is to follow.
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