Starting point
Olympiacos BC enter the 2026/27 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season with a significantly reshaped roster. The Piraeus club keep the competitive core that has carried them in recent years — with Sasha Vezenkov and Tyler Dorsey as offensive pillars — but the summer has redrawn the locker room: notable departures at point guard and in the frontcourt, and arrivals aimed at boosting creation, rebounding and defensive versatility.
Competition begins on 24 September, and the early schedule places the team in a demanding run, mostly on the road. With no consolidated standings data from last season in this brief, the analysis relies on confirmed market movement and documented individual production from key players.
Roster changes
It has been a busy summer. Thomas Walkup completed his move to Dubai Basketball, while Saben Lee joined Zalgiris Kaunas, Moustapha Fall transferred to Panathinaikos BC and Alec Peters signed with EA7 Emporio Armani Milan. Contracts also ended for Keenan Evans, Kostas Antetokounmpo, Shaquielle Mckissic and Monte Morris.
On the incoming side, Olympiacos added Jean Montero from Valencia Basket, Codi Miller-McIntyre from Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, Tyrique Jones from Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade and Mbaye Ndiaye from LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. Homegrown guard Nikolaos Plotas has been integrated into the first-team structure.
The current roster blends EuroLeague experience — Vezenkov, Dorsey, Nikola Milutinov, Kostas Papanikolaou, Evan Fournier, Donta Hall — with younger profiles or players new to the club. Point-guard minutes are shared by Cory Joseph, Miller-McIntyre and Montero; the perimeter features Dorsey, Fournier, Larentzakis, Tyson Ward and Omiros Netzipoglou; the paint belongs to Milutinov, Hall, Jones and Ndiaye.
Olympiacos BC head into the season with one of the most reshaped rosters in the EuroLeague. The Piraeus side have moved pieces at every position, yet retain the Vezenkov-Dorsey offensive tandem and add young talent at point guard and in the frontcourt.
The immediate question is whether the new framework can deliver the continuity this project demands in a competition where margin for error is tiny from round one.
Identity and strengths
The team's DNA still rests on physical basketball, intensity on the glass and the ability to punish from the perimeter when spacing is right. Vezenkov embodies that blend: in the 2025-26 EuroLeague he averaged 19.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists across 39 games, confirming his status as a league reference.
Dorsey contributed 15.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 43 outings in the same competition. His continuity at the club — with contract talks still unresolved according to reports — keeps one of the roster's most reliable outside threats in place.
Montero's arrival adds a point guard with recent EuroLeague experience: 14.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 38 games with Valencia last season. His court vision and penetration can ease the playmaking burden on Joseph and Miller-McIntyre.
Up front, Jones arrives from Partizan and Ndiaye brings mobility and rebounding after ASVEL. Donta Hall adds rim presence, while Milutinov remains the trusted big in long rotations.
The Greek core — Papanikolaou, Larentzakis and Netzipoglou — preserves local identity, always a factor in the atmosphere at Peace and Friendship Stadium.
Risks
The main unknown is stability at point guard. Walkup's departure leaves a leadership and experience gap that is not filled by a single name, but by a combination of Joseph, Miller-McIntyre and Montero that still has to prove its chemistry in official games.
The frontcourt rotation is deep but heterogeneous: Hall, Jones, Ndiaye and Milutinov offer different profiles, and the coaching staff must find coherent defensive pairings against teams with length. Losing Fall and Peters reduces continuity in a position where positional rebounding was decisive in key stretches of previous seasons.
The early calendar, with six of the first eight games on the road, punishes any slow start. Dorsey's contract situation also adds a variable beyond pure performance: a key player whose long-term stay is not yet settled.
Expectations and reasonable forecast
Editorial analysis: Olympiacos start with ambitions of finishing in the upper half of the regular-season table, but the scale of turnover calls for caution in the short term. If Vezenkov maintains his level and the backcourt finds rhythm before October, the project's ceiling remains ambitious: fighting for top positions and entering the playoffs with home-court advantage.
Editorial analysis: A more conservative scenario would place the team in the upper mid-table, assuming integration of new signings and redistribution of minutes will take several rounds. In that frame, defensive consistency and rebounding will be the most reliable gauges of whether the rebuild is ahead of or behind schedule.
Editorial analysis: A Final Four should not be set as a minimum expectation in September, but neither should it be treated as an unreachable ceiling if the interior group and point-guard play respond. Olympiacos have enough talent to aim higher; on paper, they lack the continuity that only results can confirm.
Opening fixtures
The 2026/27 EuroLeague opens for Olympiacos on 24 September at Buesa Arena against Kosner Baskonia. Four days later they visit Zalgiris Kaunas (29 September) and on 1 October face Virtus Bologna at Unipol Arena.
The first home game arrives on 9 October against Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Before mid-October, the schedule includes trips to Valencia Basket (13 October), Barça (16 October), Besiktas Istanbul (28 October) and home dates against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (23 October).
The opening stretch will be a real maturity test for a roster that must start building collective identity from the opening tip.
