Thomas Walkup names biggest Olympiacos' change from last season / News - Basketnews.com

Thomas Walkup appeared reassuring after Olympiacos' home loss to Valencia. The American-born guard doesn't think his team's offensive woes are a permanent issue and attributes the low productivity to several players being out of game rhythm.

Credit: Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

If a casual EuroLeague fan watched any given Olympiacos Piraeus game this season, it wouldn't take them too long to understand that the Greek powerhouse is struggling on the front end of the court.

Player of the Game EFF 16 Stefan Jovic Points 12 Accuracy 5-7 Rebounds 4 Assists 2

The Reds' recent 56-63 loss to Valencia Basket at the Peace and Friendship Stadium only served as a telling example of the team's offensive woes.

Olympiacos currently rank 16th among all EuroLeague offenses with just 76.4 points per game and 13th in points per 100 possessions with 113.4. Last year, they came in 7th with 82.8 and 2nd with 119.2 respectively.

Their 2-point shooting percentage has plummeted from 60.1% (1st) to 52.5% (12th), while the team's overall offensive pace has slowed down. In contrast to last season, where the Reds ranked 12th in possessions per contest (69.4), this year they're by far the squad with the lowest number in that department (66.2).

What's more, Olympiacos produce more than two-thirds (69.7%) of their baskets off assists, which speaks well of the level of team chemistry to a certain extent, but is also an indication of their lackluster isolation game and the inability to benefit from such plays.

Another alarming piece of evidence is the ongoing dependence on Isaiah Canaan and Alec Peters to make 3-point shots. Apart from being the team's most reliable and consistent shot-makers, the two of them have banked in 69 of their 132 attempts (52.2%), as opposed to their teammates' combined 70/250 (28%).

In the game against Valencia, Peters was absent because of the birth of his first child, while Canaan was completely shut down by the Spanish defense (8 points on 2/6 3-point shooting and 4 turnovers). Without many good shooters on the floor, Olympiacos' spacing became problematic, and Valencia were able to allow shots from selected players, fill the paint with bodies, and cut Moustapha Fall and Nikola Milutinov off with the use of double-teams.

Thomas Walkup

MIN:30.14PTS:10.71 (44.03%)REB:3.5As:4.5ST:1.14BL:0.07TO:2.07GM:14ProfileEuroLeague2023/2024

By comparison, Thomas Walkup has emerged as one of Olympiacos' most efficient players, producing 13 points on 5/9 from the field, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals. The naturalized point guard has averaged 14.8 points over Olympiacos' last five games. Still, his team has only won two of those outings.

Olympiacos currently stand at 7-7, but the four home losses have compromised their playoff/Play-in chances.

"So, what's the issue?", BasketNews asked Thomas Walkup.

"There is no issue," the 30-year-old point guard responded.

"The ball didn't go in. Nothing more and nothing less than that. It's a single-game issue. We shot poorly and then the pressure builds and we're not playing with rhythm. That's basketball.

Sometimes, in hoops, it's not enough to give 100%. You have to give more to break these bad nights. I don't think that we played poorly. We just didn't take the extra step that was needed to break our bad rhythm."

Walkup would have liked Olympiacos to showcase a little bit of extra physicality on defense and play with more speed.

"As a basketball player, you have to feel that competitor killer edge that we were maybe lacking tonight," he argued.

The Greek international player clarified that there's "nothing" that Olympiacos are missing or lacking this season, even though the numbers tell a different story.

"I love the team that coach Bartzokas and the front office built," he declared.

"They did a great job. It's there for us. We're right in the mix of things. It's not like we're sitting at the bottom of the standings."

Olympiacos had a 9-5 balance last year after the first 14 Rounds. Their basic trait was the fast movement on and off the ball, despite the lapses that allowed their opponents to come back on several occasions. Spanish teams in particular had a hard time going up against the Reds, who won all of their four games in the Iberic peninsula, and seven out of eight contests overall.

However, this season, Spanish clubs flipped the script, winning all four games against the Reds.

"Sure," Walkup conceded.

"But it's not only against Spanish teams. Last year, you can look where we were at in the first month of the season. We had all returners, the best player in the league in Sasha [Vezenkov], and guys who had been here for 3-4 years.

We were in rhythm and healthy. That's not the case this year. We're a little out of rhythm and many guys are coming back from injuries. That's the only difference as far as where you're at as a full roster."

Nigel Williams-Goss had to miss a month of action with a hamstring injury; Luke Sikma had been out for another month due to a problem in his Achilles tendon; Kostas Papanikolaou had to be helped off the court during the game against Bayern on December 8; Shaquielle McKissic, who had been facing issues with his knee and quadriceps, missed the entire pre-season and only returned to practice three weeks ago; Filip Petrusev made his Olympiacos debut vs. Valencia after participating in four practice sessions; Naz Mitrou-Long is still to suit up for the Reds and will be available at the beginning of the second round.

Players who seem to be out of shape, out of sync and off-tune. Players who look exhausted, or are still trying to figure out their role on the team and adjust to a different system than the one they had been used to. The list of uncertainties keeps getting longer and longer.

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Walkup, someone who's been playing games non-stop for almost 15 straight months, is aware of the complications and admits that several of his teammates are lagging for various reasons.

"For Nigel, it's difficult to be thrown into a EuroLeague game after not playing for a month. You can't expect him to be great. That's not how it works," he commented.

"I wouldn't say we need a restart, but it's a step-by-step process. It's not going to be like we're playing great in one game, and then we have it. It's about finding individual rhythm, which leads to finding rhythm as a team.

My support is behind this team and coaching staff. We just have to keep getting better," Walkup confidently pointed out.

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