Zalgiris
Zalgiris Kaunas will start this season with a completely changed roster. Šaras, known as the team's talisman of success, left the team to join Barcelona, and was replaced by Martin Schiller, an Austrian who has not yet trained in Europe. Edgaras Ulanovas (Fenerbahce Ulker), Zach LeDay (Emporio Armani), Jock Landale and K.C. Rivers (St. Petersburg Zenit) also left the team. While many basketball experts around the world have speculated how the COVID pandemic will change the basketball market, how clubs' budgets will change, and a myriad of other issues, Zalgiris' off-season work is actually looking good. The team kept Thomas Walkup, Nigel Hayes, Marius Grigonis, Arturas Milaknis and other rotation players, who are in their third season with the team, and brought in high-level players who are well known in Europe, such as Patricio Garin, Joffrey Lauvergne and Augustine Rubit. For the full squad, please see here.
It would be hard to predict how the team will look in the first Euroleague games, but from what we have seen in the friendlies and in the Lithuanian Basketball League, it is clear that we will have to put in a lot of work in order to achieve at least similar results compared to the previous year. The team's offense, which looked good at the beginning of the season, looked toothless in the last LKL game against Lietkabelis, where Zalgiris sensationally lost to Panevėžys by double-digits, even though the game was played on home court.
Martin Schiller has a completely different playing philosophy compared to Char, so it's natural that both old and new players have not yet fully adapted to his game. The most worrying issue is the poor and uncoordinated defence of the team. After the game, coaches of more than one Zalgiris team stressed that Zalgiris' defence is the team's weakest point, and Schiller himself admits that it is the area he has to work on the most.
Olympiacos
Olympiacos Piraeus, similarly to Zalgiris Kaunas, had some changes in their line-up in the off-season. Nikola Milutinov (CSKA), Dwight Buycks, Wade Baldwin IV, Taylor Rochestie, Brandon Paul left the team. Last season was a disappointment for Olympiacos, as the results were far from the competitive and hard-fought Piraeus team that we are used to seeing. Probably the most important change in the squad compared to last season is the addition of Kostas Sloukas to the team. The defender, who left Fenerbahce Ulker, will try to put Olympiacos back on the winning track together with the other players who have joined Olympiacos: Aaron Harrison, Hassan Martin, Charles Jenkins, Livio Jean-Charles. Georgios Printezis, Vassilis Spanoulis and Kostas Papanikolaou also remain in the team. The full team line-up can be found in here.
Olympiacos lost 69-75 to Alba Berlin, 57-74 to Villeurbanne-Asvel of Lyon and 82-68 to Bayern Munich in the friendly series. Since the team was not fully strengthened in the friendlies and is playing with a second line-up in the Greek league, it is hard to say how the team will look in its first serious game. The team has a lot of potential, but it would be hard to expect the team to start showing good results early on.
Forecast
Both Zalgiris and Olympiacos have replaced several important players in the off-season, so it would be naive to expect high quality basketball from these teams in their first Euroleague game. In general, Olympiacos has not played any official game yet, so this will be the first Euroleague game. Meanwhile, Zalgiris has had a lot more practice playing LKL games, and the cold shower after the defeat against Lietkabelis is probably more of a plus than a minus here. Of course, Olympiacos are considered favourites at home, but Zalgiris seems to be written off too much under the circumstances, and the game itself should be even.
Zalgiris +7,5, 1,9 kof. betsafe
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