For the second consecutive year, Olimpia closes its preseason at the Crete tournament, facing two EuroLeague teams before defending the Super Cup it won last season during the next weekend. The team left for Greece on Wednesday, where it completed two practice sessions on the island. On Friday evening at 8:30 p.m., Olimpia will play in the second semifinal game against Olympiacos Piraeus, the home team essentially. The other semifinal will feature the European defending champion of Fenerbahçe Istanbul against Red Star Belgrade, a team fortified by a massive transfer campaign. This is the most difficult matchup available at this stage of the season in Europe.
OLIMPIA – Olimpia has won its four games so far, against Tortona and Brescia, and in the Cagliari tournament against Gran Canaria and Bayern Munich, the only EuroLeague team it has faced so far. Overall, Olimpia has consistently scored around 90 points and shown excellent versatility in alternating between different type of line-ups, featuring sometimes two point guards or three ball handlers, or maybe a twin-center configuration In Crete, further adjustments will be needed because Shavon Shields has been left behind in Milan to attend the birth of his first daughter. Therefore, small lineups and the ones with Pippo Ricci at the 3, as in the past, will be tested full-time.
Olimpia lately recovered both Pippo Ricci and Marko Guduric, who returned from the European Championships. The Serbian guard is with the group in Crete but will not play against Olympiacos: the individual work is part of the recovery plan after his commitments with the Serbian national team. Ricci instead will be immediately available. Vlatko Cancar also stayed in Milan for a matter of loading management. Stefano Tonut, who missed the European championships because of an injury, will be able to make his season debut.
Compared to the last game played in Brescia, Lorenzo Brown will return to the lineup. He has scored 34 points and dished out 17 assists in his previous three games. Josh Nebo, another player considerable “new” (he made only four EuroLeague appearances last year), has scored 38 points and grabbed 24 rebounds in his three games played so far. For him, Crete represents another opportunity to get closer to peak condition.
| Date | Game | ||
| 6 Sep | Olimpia Milano-Gran Canaria 91-64 | ||
| 7 Sep | Olimpia Milano-Bayern Munich 89-75 | ||
| 10 Sep | Olimpia Milano-Derthona Basket 81-70 | ||
| 13 Sep | Germani Brescia-Olimpia Milano 85-90 |
OLYMPIACOS – Fresh from winning the Greek title, but defeated by Monaco in the semifinals at the Final Four in Abu Dhabi (they had finished first in the regular season), Olympiacos has made a couple of new additions: small forward Tyson Ward, who made his EuroLeague debut last year with Paris Basketball, and center Donta Hall, now a veteran of the competition having already played for Monaco and Baskonia. Hall’s addition also serves to compensate for the injury-related absence of Moustapha Fall. Another new face, so to speak, is point-guard Keenan Evans, who totally missed the last season due to an injury but will still be unavailable in Crete. Coach Bartzokas is counting on four players from the Greek national team that won bronze at the European Championships (shooter Tyler Dorsey, the highly experienced Kostas Papanikolau, the fighter Giannoulis Larentzakis, and Kostas Antetokounmpo). But the core of the group still consists of Thomas Walkup, Evan Fournier, Sasha Vezenkov, Nikola Milutinov, and Alec Peters. This is a team still aiming to reclaim the European title they’ve won three times.
FENERBAHCE – After winning the EuroLeague, Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team lost two key players: Final Four MVP Nigel Hayes-Davis, who signed with the Phoenix Suns in the NBA, and Marko Guduric, who moved to Milan. However, they have recovered Scottie Wilbekin, another player considered as a new signing, given the injury that sidelined him at the start of last season. The team, which also won the Turkish title, still counts on last season’s core players: Wade Baldwin, Devon Hall, and Tarik Biberovic among the perimeter guys; Bonzi Colson, Nik Melli, and Khem Birch among the big men. New arrivals from the U.S. include guard Brandon Boston (147 NBA appearances, from New Orleans) and center Armando Bacot, a former star at the University of North Carolina, who played in the G-League last year. Along with them, Finnish player Mikael Jantunen, from Paris Basketball, will be a crucial presence at the power forward spot.
RED STAR – This summer, Red Star was once again one of the most active teams on the transfer market, signing nine new players and letting go several former core players, including Branko Lazic, Nemanja Nedovic, and Luka Mitrovic. Four players were acquired from other EuroLeague teams: forwards Jordan Nwora (Efes), Semi Ojeleye (Valencia), and Chima Moneke (Baskonia), and center Jasiel Rivero (Maccabi). Red Star also brought in guard Tyson Carter from Malaga and another NBA combo-guard, Devonte Graham, who made 336 career appearances, including productive seasons in Charlotte while his last stint was in San Antonio during the 2023/24 season. Key players from last year’s team remain, including Codi Miller-McIntyre, center Joel Bolomboy, shooter Isaiah Canaan, and Nikola Kalinic, as well as Serbian international Ognjen Dobric.
