By Panos Katsiroubas/ info@eurohoops.net
For a long time Olympiacos had been looking for the player who would be able to ideally fill out and complement their backcourt. After a thorough search they settled on the 26-year-old American, Erick Green, who has played in Europe and the NBA. I had the fortune of watching several of his games with Siena in the 2013-2014 season and Green was one of the players who had piqued my interest.
An interest that was sparked by the incredible ease with which he could create plays in isolation game, but also the ease with which he could execute, without wasting time or thinking about the shot. A player with an innate sense of scoring, who can add to the threat of the red-and-whites’ backcourt, but also relieve Spanoulis, especially when they’re both on the court, something that might happen since Green can occasionally play in the 1 position as well. But let’s see in more detail who the new Olympiacos player is.
Biography
Green played college basketball with the Hokies of Virginia Tech, a university that’s not one of the top, but which has a pretty good program with a relatively good tradition. Essentially he made the big bang in the third and fourth seasons when his offensive talent started to show. In his last year he was for a long time the top scorer in the NCAA, and even though his team weren’t doing so well, he was named ACC the Player of the Year by the ACC’s media selectors. In the 2013 draft he was selected by the Jazz, who did not include him on the active roster, so he decided to leave for Europe and Siena, a team that was in a transitional period that year.
That season he played alongside Daniel Hackett in the Tuscan team, a player he will meet again in Olympiacos, while he had his best Euroleague game in the Peace and Friendship Stadium against the Piraeus team, scoring 28 points. Like anyone who plays professional basketball for the first time after college, he had his ups and downs, but one thing was striking. And that was his ability to put the ball in the basket. After Siena, he tried to return to the NBA, something that he managed to do with Denver, but with very little playing time and a minor role in the team. He spent last season in the NBDL, having several excellent offensive nights. In Olympiacos he’s essentially making his second European passage two years after Siena.
What he can offer
If we had to describe Green’s profile in two words, those would be “talented scorer.” Olympiacos were looking for a backcourt player who’d be able to create a threat, shoot with good percentages and have the ability to execute. At the same time they wanted a player who’d be able to change the rhythm of a game.
Green can score in every way since he’s a gifted scorer. He’s a great spot shooter, he can receive the ball from the circulation but also from the weak side and score. He moves quickly from behind the screens and he can execute pretty quickly. Last season Olympiacos didn’t have a player who was able to move behind the screens, especially along the sides, outside of Lojeski. The American guard can provide solutions in this part.
But what he can provide at a high frequency, something that was largely missing from Olympiacos, is personal initiative and execution in isolation situations. Green loves this kind of game. He’s a very good ball handler, he can go pass his opponent from both sides while at the same time he has very good finishes from mid- and long-range as well as his penetrations when he gets deep inside the key. He has good balance in the air and he can finish plays with both hands in his drives, something that makes it more difficult for defenses trying to intercept him.
What he might have to work on is the part of creation and perception, because Olympiacos is a high-level team that always tries to find the best possible conditions in which to create and execute. He’ll definitely have players beside him who will be able to help him out in reading the game. He can play in both guard positions, but he’s clearly better and more efficient as a shooting guard.
In defense he’s not what we’d call a defensive annihilator but in no case is he bad either. If he demonstrates the attitude that coach Sfairopoulos demands in this area he can produce energy and do rather well in the basic defensive aspects, even though the defenses that Olympiacos tries require constant concentration and good positioning. He can read plays and even though he doesn’t press hard on the ball, he steals the ball often thanks to his perception but also the good sense of space that he has.
What is certainly interesting is how the initiatives in offense are going to be distributed in Olympiacos, since Green is clearly a rhythm player and the more balls he gets the more rhythm he finds. In any case, with him on the roster the red-and-whites can introduce new elements to their offense and disconnect themselves from the slightly monotonous central pick-and-roll that they played over and over again last season. Overall, Green can contribute and become a very important piece of the puzzle called ‘Olympiacos 2016-2017’, as long as the team shows confidence in him and works on aspects that will allow the player to have a very active role.