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I expect to watch Spain-Croatia in the finals, but Russia is a tough match up for Bender's team.

A lot of interesting games in the next few days... this will help to make the wait until the season more bearable.

I think we can beat Italy (with Markkanen playing so well), but Serbia would murder us in the next round.
Got to see Finland beating France live in the first round, was such a fun game and went to overtime.
Spain and Slovenia are the teams to beat imo.

Foliohattu wrote:I think we can beat Italy (with Markkanen playing so well), but Serbia would murder us in the next round.
Got to see Finland beating France live in the first round, was such a fun game and went to overtime.
Spain and Slovenia are the teams to beat imo.

Bulls fans, for the most part, seem really excited about Markkanen. I see on the General Board thread the Finland/Italy game is the one most people think is a toss up.

Do players like Dragic get extra break from training camp or would he go straight in?

Go Poland!

Oh, wait...

Mulhollanddrive wrote:Do players like Dragic get extra break from training camp or would he go straight in?

It' usually pretty much up to the player, if he is Dragic caliber. Ofcourse there are negotiations with the NBA team as well, but usually it's not problematic. If he played, played well (did not get injured), then he is in good shape, a veteran, coaches/players are mostly the same as last year in Miami, so he could miss a week or so of trainingcamp without missing a beat.

Italy played stifling defence against Finland and we couldn't get anything going. Belinelli was also doing his best Steph impersonation. Looking how great Italy played, I remembered those Messina rumors when the Suns were looking for a new coach after Horny, he would've been such a great choise.

I'll be watching Hungary against the Serbs. I don't think we have much of a chance, but it will be intresting to see Bogdan match up against Hanga. Hanga is a very good defender, and he got voted "best defender" in euroleague last year, by all euroleague coaches - question is if our coach will have Hanga chase Bogdan around, or he will assign someone else, and save Hanga's power to orchestrating our offense.

Bogyo wrote:I'll be watching Hungary against the Serbs. I don't think we have much of a chance, but it will be intresting to see Bogdan match up against Hanga. Hanga is a very good defender, and he got voted "best defender" in euroleague last year, by all euroleague coaches - question is if our coach will have Hanga chase Bogdan around, or he will assign someone else, and save Hanga's power to orchestrating our offense.

Extremely valiant effort against Serbia.

Foliohattu wrote:

Bogyo wrote:I'll be watching Hungary against the Serbs. I don't think we have much of a chance, but it will be intresting to see Bogdan match up against Hanga. Hanga is a very good defender, and he got voted "best defender" in euroleague last year, by all euroleague coaches - question is if our coach will have Hanga chase Bogdan around, or he will assign someone else, and save Hanga's power to orchestrating our offense.

Extremely valiant effort against Serbia.

Yes, they did their best. It was enough for a 10 point beating, no shame in it. Serbia had a real solid game plan, executed well - they took Hanga and Vojvoda off the court, switched agressively, and pounded the inside as we have no real center(s). Keller is a PF and not very huge, we got eaten alive by Kuzmic and Marjanovic, while Bogdan and Lucic did their thing on the wings. Bogdan should become a good player in this league, I believe he will get the necessary minutes on that young squad in the first 1-2 years (with Vlad backing him from the GM seat).

On our squad Perl was a joy to watch, kid is only 22, he could have a bright future ahead of him in Europe.

Happy for Slovenia. I'm always waiting for some team to beat Spain. Luka is so good for his age.

Damkac wrote:Happy for Slovenia. I'm always waiting for some team to beat Spain. Luka is so good for his age.

Doncic has played a terrific game. The kid is gonna be special.

Yeah, it was a great game, but I don't think that Slovenia can shoot like this one more time. Once in a lifetime thing, but it was very good to watch! Luka gonna be special, but if he can do anything to get a bit quicker he should do it.

Saberestar wrote:

Damkac wrote:Happy for Slovenia. I'm always waiting for some team to beat Spain. Luka is so good for his age.

Doncic has played a terrific game. The kid is gonna be special.

It is unheard of for a kid to produce on that level, so consistently, at that age, in Euro basketball.

Bogyo wrote:Yeah, it was a great game, but I don't think that Slovenia can shoot like this one more time. Once in a lifetime thing, but it was very good to watch! Luka gonna be special, but if he can do anything to get a bit quicker he should do it.

A player can be great offensively in the NBA without being overly quick. He just needs to know how to be patient, use angles and his opponents momentum against him. Where quickness really matters is defense.

jcsunsfan wrote:

Saberestar wrote:

Damkac wrote:Happy for Slovenia. I'm always waiting for some team to beat Spain. Luka is so good for his age.

Doncic has played a terrific game. The kid is gonna be special.

It is unheard of for a kid to produce on that level, so consistently, at that age, in Euro basketball.

I'm surprised he doesn't get more talk of the #1 pick in rankings or among forums. It seems like most places have Porter with maybe some with Bagley. These guys haven't even played in a college ball game yet, and Doncic is dominating against professionals.

jcsunsfan wrote:

Bogyo wrote:Yeah, it was a great game, but I don't think that Slovenia can shoot like this one more time. Once in a lifetime thing, but it was very good to watch! Luka gonna be special, but if he can do anything to get a bit quicker he should do it.

A player can be great offensively in the NBA without being overly quick. He just needs to know how to be patient, use angles and his opponents momentum against him. Where quickness really matters is defense.

Yeah, offense will be no problem for this guy. He is drawing fouls like CP3 and old Kobe. At the ripe age of 18 years. Ridicoulus . His court vision is also extraordinary. Shooting OK, and will get better.

On defense he will have to be hidden on the worst peremiter player (from pg to sf), becouse I think he couldn't really stay in front of me, and I'm 37, and after an ACL. He will manage to get something done on that side of the ball as well (a la Nash), becouse he is so smart, positioned well at all times, and uses his body 110% (8.3 rebounds per game in the tourney from a 6'7 sg/sf who is not too strong or a good leaper?!?!? ricidoulus), but it will not be pretty for sure.

I'll make sure that I watch him a couple times next year, so I could scout a bit more for you guys as well, in case we pick top5.

Bogdan vs Goran in the final. Both playing PG for their teams and averaging ~20 ppg.

I'll be watching for sure - can't hurt to see little Luka as well one more time.

(sidenote: his mom is a true milf)