Olympiacos: The creation that already works to perfection and the shockingly low number in rebounds

Olympiacos ended the first “devil’s week” of the season with a “bittersweet taste”, after showing a clearly improved competitive face, but did not manage to achieve the 2X2 even though it showed very capable of it in the first 35 minutes of the match with Anatolou Efes.

What is certain is that the whole of it Giorgos Bartzokas has already made “leaps” of progress in some areas of the game, perhaps faster than expected. With so many new faces on the roster that even changed them balances in the rotation, it seemed very likely that the automations would be slow to come, however, from very early on, the Piraeus are playing the basketball that coach them almost to perfection.

For the record, let’s look at some numbers from her first four games Euroleague. Olympiacos is third in assists on average (19.8 per game), but this number tells half the truth, as it is affected by the overall offensive harvest of the team.

The striking statistic is that the 73.8% shooting from the field of “red and white” comes from final pass. Of course, this performance is by far the best in the event! And in fact, Olympiacos does this by being the 7th best team in the percentage of errors per possession (16.4%) and h 6th in the ratio of assists/errors (1.7).

As auspicious are the numbers in creation, they are even more problematic in rebounding, which is currently the “Achilles heel” for the Piraeus team, and the main reason for the two defeats it has suffered in the City since Fener and Ephesus. Olympiacos is simultaneously the worst team in offensive and defensive reboundswhich certainly has to do with the absence of two key players in the first matches, but it seemed that his presence was not enough Mustafa Fal to be corrected.

For the sake of truth, the “red and white” get 59.7% of them of defensive rebounds available (worst performance in the league) and at the same time they only shoot 23% of them of offensive rebounds available. Overall, in other words, Olympiacos makes possession their own only in 43% of cases which claims “rubbish” in defense and attack.

At the same time, however, it is worth taking a look at the… upside down side, i.e. the statistics of Olympiakos’ opponents. If we gathered the performances of Fenerbahce, Zalgiris, Armani Milano and Anadolu Efes against Piraeus in one team, this would be by far the top rebounding team in the entire Euroleague. The opponents of the Greek Cup Winners gather 15 Aggressive “Trash” on average, renewing possession after 40% shooting which they perform. Which is a real shame, since o Olympic so far he forces his opponents to quite low percentages, but he himself pulls the “stool” from under his feet…

The positive thing for the Piraeus team is that the problem in rebounds is to a large extent solvable. The reason is that the bodies needed are on the roster, while in a very short time one more will be added to them, that of Nikola Milutinov. Olympiacos is a “tall” team with a lot of size in their equipment, so the issue they face is more of a willingness to “dog” their players for possession. When this starts to happen, the “red and whites” will raise their level enormously, since offensively they are already on an excellent path. THE George Bartzokas he has shown many times his ability to “ignite” the combativeness of his players, so that is what he will need to do now.