By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Sometimes the solution to a problem is right before your eyes. You just have to see it. That’s not exactly the case with Alec Peters and Olympiacos Piraeus. Still, if you look at the numbers, the change is impressive.
After the Reds lost Sasha Vezenkov in the summer, there was a lot of speculation about who could replace him and whether anyone was capable of producing anything close to Vezenkov’s MVP season. Of course, Peters was the other shooting big man on the team’s roster already, and everyone expected him to be better this season. With Vezenkov on board last season, Peters had a limited role, but that was bound to change.
Nonetheless, what is happening this season has surpassed the expectations of even the most optimistic Olympiacos fan.
Peters is not Vezenkov, but you can argue that he is the closest thing in the EuroLeague to his former teammate. He is certainly leaving his own mark in Piraeus.
From Top 170 to Top 10
Vezenkov finished last year as the EuroLeague’s top scorer averaging 17.6 points and 21.5 PIR while making 79 three-pointers on 209 attempts. Peters was scorer number 168 in the EuroLeague rankings, averaging 4.6 points and making a total of 30 threes and just 27 two-pointers.
That was last season.
After 19 rounds in this one, Peters is averaging 15.4 points and ranks eighth among all EuroLeague scorers, having already made 40 threes and 61 two-pointers. His jump of 160 spots on the scoring charts is mindboggling, and with his role for Olympiacos solidified, things can get only better for him as the season progresses.
“Last year, we had the EuroLeague MVP and it was hard for Peters to demonstrate his talent,” head coach Giorgos Bartzokas said after Olympiacos beat ALBA in Berlin to finish 2023. But that only makes Peters’ rise more impressive.
Even more accurate in three-point shooting
What Coach Bartzokas said is true. Last season, Peters played 13:13 minutes per game, and this year he’s up to 28:25. Last spring’s Final Four was even more peculiar for him. Peters played less than 5 minutes and did not score in the Reds’ semifinal win against Monaco. Then, he did not play at all in the last-gasp loss to Real Madrid in the championship game. In contrast, when he won the title with CSKA Moscow as a EuroLeague rookie in 2019, Peters played in both Final Four games and averaged 10:22 in them.
The explanation for his virtual absence from Olympiacos last season was the dominant presence of Vezenkov. While Peters’ numbers now are very impressive, you can argue that he doesn’t move without the ball like last season’s MVP did, which was by far Vezenkov’s biggest strength.
On the other hand, however, Peters might be an even better shooter. So far, he is shooting 61.0% on two-pointers, 54.8% on threes, and 85.4% on free throws despite taking a high volume of shots. The final numbers for Vezenkov last year were 65.5% on two-pointers, 37.5% on threes, and 87.9% at the foul line. While Vezenkov’s numbers are marginally better in two-pointers and free throws, Peters is much more accurate shooting threes so far and he might end the season with more long-range shots made than Vezenkov last season.
So why Peters is not mentioned yet in the MVP race? First and foremost, by raw numbers, there are other candidates ahead of him. But it’s also true that last season, Olympiacos set the tone early and stayed among the top teams until the end, helping Vezenkov’s bid for the award.
Now, however, with the Reds just getting back near the top four in the standings after having started the season with ups and downs and key injuries, Alec Peters and his team may just be starting to heat up.