EuroLeague assist leader Codi Miller-McIntyre is set to begin a new chapter with reigning European champion Olympiacos. So, what exactly are the Reds from Piraeus getting?
With just over two minutes remaining and Crvena zvezda’s win over Paris on April 7 already all but secured, Codi Miller-McIntyre exhaled after making a pass. Tired and satisfied at the same time.
With 42 seconds left, coach Obradović took Miller-McIntyre out of the game for the first time in the second half.
“Codi, Codi,” came the chant from the stands, and the American point guard responded with applause.
“It was nice, I definitely appreciate it, it means a lot to me. It’s always a good feeling, but the most important thing is that we won,” Miller-McIntyre said later in the hallway of Belgrade Arena.
A rare Euroleague gem
The answer came after a three-second pause and one “hmmm.” Perhaps that pause reflected Cody’s awareness that public opinion in Serbia can change quickly. Public opinion works much the same way in the place where Miller-McIntyre is almost certain to continue his career.
“Just keep writing,” Miller-McIntyre said on that occasion, and it was not the first time this season that he had made such a remark. There was no bitterness in his words, and the fact that he spoke to reporters in a more relaxed and open manner was another indication that he felt comfortable in Belgrade. He understood all the good and bad sides of playing for Crvena zvezda and mastered them to the point where they no longer affected what he brought to the court.
And over the course of the season now behind us, even his biggest critics had to admit that he delivered a lot. You will rarely find a EuroLeague player who plays with the same high intensity on both ends of the floor while carrying such a heavy workload – nearly 31 minutes per game on average: 12.6 points (52.2 percent on two-pointers, 33 percent from three), 4.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, one steal and 2.8 turnovers per game.
Yes, Miller-McIntyre is not primarily a creator. He is not the type to produce flashy solutions, but he sees the first read extremely well and is incomparably more competent and useful in half-court offense than he was during the 2024-25 season. Yes, he still over-dribbles at times, but less frequently.
In fact, in a “what if” scenario, one could argue that Zvezda would have made the playoffs in the 2024-25 season had Codi played the way he did this season. His resurgence actually began late in the previous campaign, before he got injured, and during the summer leading into this season he spent a month working intensely on his game before training camp even started. It paid off.
Belgrade is the best possible preparation for Piraeus
He is at his best in the open court, and when his team defends well as a unit, Miller-McIntyre gets both himself and his teammates going. That has never been in doubt. Now, in half-court offense – especially in crunch-time one-on-one situations – the ball is less often in his hands, and that is perfectly fine.There are players who are better equipped to create shots out of nothing and who are more reliable shooters, although Miller-McIntyre knocked down a fair number of big shots this season as well. Olympiacos has had and will continue to have players of that kind, but the team-oriented style of basketball should fit Codi’s profile well.
Yes, one of his bigger shortcomings is that he is not always effective without the ball and that he does not do much for a team’s spacing, even though he has improved his three-point shot. Still, hasn’t a player with a very similar profile, such as Thomas Walkup, thrived at Olympiacos for years?
“To the fans: thank you. Through every high and low, we never fully turned our backs on each other. Love isn’t meant to be perfect – it is meant to be fought for,” Miller-McIntyre wrote, among other things, in his farewell message to Crvena zvezda.
A similar battle awaits him at Olympiacos, but everything he went through in Belgrade may prove to be the best possible preparation for Piraeus.
