Alec Peters talks stellar second season in Piraeus, addresses Olympiacos' issues / News - Basketnews.com

Alec Peters weighs in on Olympiacos' low-scoring games this season and his career-best campaign in the EuroLeague. The American forward also named the reasons he stays optimistic about the Reds' future.

Credit: Panagiotis Moschandreou via Getty Images Credit Panagiotis Moschandreou via Getty Images

Following what could be described as a quiet first season with Olympiacos Piraeus, Alec Peters has geared up for good in the 2023-24 campaign with the Reds.

Player of the Game EFF 21 Thomas Walkup Points 14 Accuracy 4-8 Rebounds 3 Assists 7

Last year, the 28-year-old forward averaged 13.3 minutes, where he produced 4.6 points per EuroLeague contest. The arrival of Luke Sikma didn't limit his playing time. On the contrary, Peters saw extended minutes on the court, also because the former ALBA Berlin player was dealing with injury problems.

Before the current season tipped off, coach Giorgos Bartzokas was confident that he would be able to get the best out of his starting power forward. Carrying the reputation of a typical stretch '4', Peters has been able to demonstrate that there's far more to him than they eye could meet.

After his short stints with CSKA Moscow and Anadolu Efes, Peters made a big splash with Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, proving that he's one of the best shooters in Europe. In the 2020-21 season, he averaged 11.5 points on 44.7% 3-point shooting (63/141) and 23.2 minutes. He also collected 3.9 rebounds and dished out 1.6 assists per game.

Sasha Vezenkov's departure has allowed him to unleash his full potential and showcase a wider range of his skill set. Peters is clearly a different player than the one we saw last year -- a guy ready to steal the show with his killer instinct.

Peters is averaging 15.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists over his first 13 EuroLeague outings with Olympiacos. His stat line is eye-popping, as he goes 56.8% from the field, 54.5% from 3-point range and 93.3% from the charity stripe. All those numbers constitute new career-highs.

In Olympiacos' 77-69 win over FC Bayern Munich for Round 13, he put up 14 points, seven rebounds, two steals and two three-pointers. Moreover, he came back to his routine of scoring in double digits after snapping his eight-game streak in the home game vs. Real Madrid.

Alec Peters

Team:Olympiacos PiraeusPosition:PFAge:28Height:206 cmWeight:107 kgBirth place:Illinois, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

Credit Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

"I've always been comfortable," he told BasketNews last Friday night.

Peters maintains that he didn't have to change a thing in his routine or habits to get back on the scoring track and become the best version of himself.

"They really can say what they will about the production," he said.

"I'm not paying attention to that. I've always been confident in my abilities and I'm still doing the same things I've always been doing. So, people can continue to talk about it as much as they want."

And if many were taken aback by Peters' impressive season, the same goes for those who expected Olympiacos to showcase the kind of offensive production that made them the most fun-to-watch team in Europe last year. Alas, Giorgos Bartzokas' squad has surpassed the 80-point mark on only four of its 13 contests. In two of those games (against Panathinaikos and Partizan) an extra five minutes was required.

Peters doesn't think the Reds are struggling on the front end of the court.

"I don't want to overreact," he said.

"A lot of people want to talk about us having lower-scoring games than in the past and not getting over 80 points. But it's going to come. I've been a believer and everyone on the team is a big believer that it's going to click at some point.

We're going to have those games, where we hang our hat on our defense and we need to hold the other team under 70 points. For the most part, our defensive effort has been great. But offensively, we just have to keep trusting each other and the system.

We're going to figure it out. I don't have any doubt about that."

Even in games like the one against Bayern, where Olympiacos went off to a great start scoring 24 points in the first quarter, the Reds seemed to run out of steam at several moments in the second part. The Bavarian side made it a two-possession game at crunch time, capitalizing on the hosts' mistakes and misses.

"The last three quarters were very different," Peters concurred.

"I don't think we could have asked for a better first quarter. Mostly offesively, we were looking great and maybe that's why the rest of the game didn't go so well for us," he admitted.

"Bayern Munich made things very tough for us after the first quarter. They started making their runs and made it difficult for us to play defense. They were all over the glass and got extra possessions. The final score was less than 10 points for a reason; just because they have that kind of quality."

Peters has no doubt that the way Olympiacos finished the game was far from ideal. However, he went as far as to put himself in the mix when referring to the reasons Bayern managed to trim down the deficit.

"The finishing wasn't great. I, for example, kept missing layups," he said.

"It's not characteristic of who I want to be. The team missed some free throws and didn't execute well despite having open looks. Defensively, we also have to be better and a lot more sharp even though they scored 69 points. We walk away from that game with a lot to learn."

The 2019 EuroLeague champ can't attribute those symptoms to a specific reason. At the end of the day or night, winning is all it takes for a team to feel that the job has been done.

"It gets super complicated with basketball," Peters has found out.

"It's never easy to win in the EuroLeague, especially at home and facing teams you feel have to beat. We were 6-6 coming into this game and everyone felt like we needed to get some momentum going. So, I'll take the win. We just have to keep having great days."

The American forward thinks it's essential that the effort be there, day in and day out, especially from himself.

"You can't take a day off because no one's relaxing. You got to show up the next day like yesterday never happened," he pointed out.

On the other hand, Bartzokas and Olympiacos need to incorporate two new members in Filip Petrusev and Naz Mitrou-Long, in addition to having two important players like Shaquielle McKissic and Luke Sikma still trying to figure out how they can fit in after staying out for several weeks.

Peters holds that practice makes perfect. In this vein, Olympiacos will only suit up in two official games until the next EuroLeague double week. The Reds play a Greek league game in Karditsa next Monday and host Valencia Basket Friday, before the Greek All-Star Game break on December 16 and 17.

"Practice has to be great," Peters stressed.

"We have a good opportunity after this game to get a few days of practice in order for some guys to get up to speed. When you have a deep team like this, practice is really good.

To get guys going and in shape to play the next game is important.We have a great roster top to bottom. I'm very excited about the future of this team."

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