Tokyo Olympic Basketball Tournament Discussion

[Mamba Mentality]

Shame that Slovenia wasn't able to take care of business, I was really hoping to watch Luka take team USA to the woodshed.

[Mirotic12]

Umm have you seen the talent difference?

I have what Luka is doing right now as way harder then Durant.

If the US don’t get the gold comfortably it’s a massive choke job.

Without Durant, the talent difference is far far smaller.

Are you implying that USA minus Durant isn't that much a more talented team than Slovenia? If you are.........

Slovenia's second best player (Tobey) plays in the EuroCup (2nd tier European league), and he was an average player in EuroLeague.

Slovenia's third best player (Cancar) is a bench scrub in the NBA, and never did jack squat in Europe at any level.

Their 4th best player (Dragic) was never more than an average EuroLeague player at his peak, and currently, he's barely even at the level of secondary European leagues.

After that Slovenia's next best players are guys like Blazic, Prepelic......they are EuroCup level players. As in the level below the EuroLeague. They have played in EuroLeague before, and they sucked.

Basically, Slovenia's best players after Doncic..........not one of them is even at the level of being an above average EuroLeague player. Slovenia has very little talent, almost nothing at all other than Doncic. That's why they have to naturalize players, because their talent level is very poor and their depth is very limited.

Don't be fooled by them winning EuroBasket in 2017. They played at home, got help from the refs, and Dragic got on the hottest streak of his life. He never played even 1/4 that good at any other time with the NT or in Europe. That tournament was not indicative of their talent level, even with Dragic.

I mean honestly, I think back to Slovenian teams of mid to late 2000s and they had way more talent then than they do now. Like not even close.

[dygaction]

Umm have you seen the talent difference?

I have what Luka is doing right now as way harder then Durant.

If the US don’t get the gold comfortably it’s a massive choke job.

Without Durant, the talent difference is far far smaller.

You mean giving Luka the supporting cast of Team USA and let Durant run Team Slovenia?

[Mirotic12]

Country of 2M people being 2 points away from gold medal game is a failure?

Still had 16/10/18 game, that's insane for FIBA game. We simply missed too many FT's as a team. And France did a good job with their defense.

The country of 2 million people thing is kind of a moot point, when their second best player is American.

Pretty sure Cancar is from Slovenia.

Which means their second best player is American.

[batigol18]

Umm have you seen the talent difference?


Don't be fooled by them winning EuroBasket in 2017. They played at home, got help from the refs, and Dragic got on the hottest streak of his life. He never played even 1/4 that good at any other time with the NT or in Europe. That tournament was not indicative of their talent level, even with Dragic.

I mean honestly, I think back to Slovenian teams of mid to late 2000s and they had way more talent then than they do now. Like not even close.

Slovenia played at home at Euro 2017? Check again…

And I would like to know, what kind of help did we get then from refs?

[Archx]

There will be plenty of americans available

No, there will be not, because only one can play…

They can always talk to Nigeria's federation and learn how they get around FIBA's rules, to have 10-12 Americans on all of their rosters. And then they could have Luka and 11 Americans.

You're literally crying about a guy with 9/5 averages in Euroleague on 35% career 3pt shooting. Every country in any sports are using this rule of having naturalized players on their teams. I mean if you're so butthurt go complain to FIBA and UEFA etc...

Maybe it just so happens that he looked way better playing with Luka than he usually does but yeah he was very helpful, so what? I'm sorry that we don't have 50M basketball players to chose from in our own country. If Vidmar wasn't injured we would have beaten France today, i'm 100% sure of that.

[Mirotic12]

Umm have you seen the talent difference?


Don't be fooled by them winning EuroBasket in 2017. They played like at home, got help from the refs, and Dragic got on the hottest streak of his life. He never played even 1/4 that good at any other time with the NT or in Europe. That tournament was not indicative of their talent level, even with Dragic.

I mean honestly, I think back to Slovenian teams of mid to late 2000s and they had way more talent then than they do now. Like not even close.

Slovenia played at home at Euro 2017? Check again…

And I would like to know, what kind of help did we get then from refs?

I meant to say they played like at home, because they got some help from the refs. We see it, Spain gets help from the refs in every game except against the USA. USA gets help from the refs in every single game. Even in a blowout win against Australia, the refs felt the need to help them.

In recent years, Slovenia always seemed to have some ref help, for whatever reason. Especially in 2013.

[Mavrelous]

If I'm Fournier, I'm buying Batum a Ferrari (he got paid 80 mil now), had Prepelic dribbled once more and used the rim for protection, every one would be talking about turning it over with his offensive foul.

[Mirotic12]

You're literally crying about a guy with 9/5 averages in Euroleague on 35% career 3pt shooting. Every country in any sports are using this rule of having naturalized players on their teams. I mean if you're so butthurt go complain to FIBA and UEFA etc...

Maybe it just so happens that he looked way better playing with Luka than he usually does but yeah he was very helpful, so what? I'm sorry that we don't have 50M basketball players to chose from in our own country. If Vidmar wasn't injured we would have beaten France today, i'm 100% sure of that.

The kind of naturalization as Tobey is against sports merit. It's something that should never be allowed. He's telling the press he doesn't even know where Slovenia is..........it's not the naturalization, it's the type of naturalization. It's an attack on sportive spirit and meritocracy.

I don't see how anyone can reasonably think that kind of naturalization should be allowed for any team.

[DroseReturnChi]

Shame that Slovenia wasn't able to take care of business, I was really hoping to watch Luka take team USA to the woodshed.

this is why slovenia had to lose to spain. man all i wanted is doncic vs team usa and nothing goes my way.

[Pumpkin17]

Well, sad for Slovenia but it was a great game, props to France.

I guess the winner here Will be the NBA considering USA and France rosters.

[TimRobbins]

Umm have you seen the talent difference?

I have what Luka is doing right now as way harder then Durant.

If the US don’t get the gold comfortably it’s a massive choke job.

Without Durant, the talent difference is far far smaller.

Are you **** serious?
Only Dame and Booker are far better players than anyone not named Doncic in those Olympics.

Have you seen the games? Dame and Booker showed no consistent superiority in this tournament.

[Capn'O]

Tales of the United States' demise were greatly exaggerated.

[TheRealKaboom]

There's always next time, Slovakia.

[Domenico]

He failed in NBA playoffs, his fails work like a clock there. And with the way Cuban runs his team it will keep on.

Country of 2M people being 2 points away from gold medal game is a failure?

Still had 16/10/18 game, that's insane for FIBA game. We simply missed too many FT's as a team. And France did a good job with their defense.

The country of 2 million people thing is kind of a moot point, when their second best player is American.

To be fair, their second best player didn´t play.
Anyway, given how small their country is, they have like most former Yugoslav countries an immense amount of talent.

[a-French-Fan]

Umm have you seen the talent difference?

I have what Luka is doing right now as way harder then Durant.

If the US don’t get the gold comfortably it’s a massive choke job.

Without Durant, the talent difference is far far smaller.

Are you implying that USA minus Durant isn't that much a more talented team than Slovenia? If you are.........

Slovenia's second best player (Tobey) plays in the EuroCup (2nd tier European league), and he was an average player in EuroLeague.

Slovenia's third best player (Cancar) is a bench scrub in the NBA, and never did jack squat in Europe at any level.

Their 4th best player (Dragic) was never more than an average EuroLeague player at his peak, and currently, he's barely even at the level of secondary European leagues.

After that Slovenia's next best players are guys like Blazic, Prepelic......they are EuroCup level players. As in the level below the EuroLeague. They have played in EuroLeague before, and they sucked.

Basically, Slovenia's best players after Doncic..........not one of them is even at the level of being an above average EuroLeague player. Slovenia has very little talent, almost nothing at all other than Doncic. That's why they have to naturalize players, because their talent level is very poor and their depth is very limited.

Don't be fooled by them winning EuroBasket in 2017. They played at home, got help from the refs, and Dragic got on the hottest streak of his life. He never played even 1/4 that good at any other time with the NT or in Europe. That tournament was not indicative of their talent level, even with Dragic.

I mean honestly, I think back to Slovenian teams of mid to late 2000s and they had way more talent then than they do now. Like not even close.

2017 euro was in Slovenia?
So, who did I see in Helsinki in september 2017?

[bb22]

Not a chance France beats the US 3 times in a row. Should still be a good game, though.

[GeorgeSears]

Every time Luka gets tired he starts jacking up 3s. He took too many and missed often. I suppose it was important for him to have Slovenia medal, but he really needed to work on his conditioning this offseason and his FT shooting. Now it looks like he'll enter the season the same way he was last season, which is still a great player but a flawed one at that. Jokic decided to sit out for Serbia and has been working out all offseason and looks great. His priorities are in the right place, Luka's priorities are not.

[a-French-Fan]

About naturalizations: the rule is only one by team, whatever the player got the nationality.

The question should be:
Could this people be naturalized without national team? Anser would be "no" for Tobey, but also fo Ibaka who spent only 3 years in Spain.
But it doesn't work like this. The rule is "one" and is not considered as naturalized if it happens before 16 (case of TP9 in France, who actually grew up o in France).
For women, in France, answer is yes for Bria Hartley and Gaby Williams. They could apply to french nationality without basketball, and France could'nt refuse them because of "blood law". But the rule is the rule, and only Gaby Williams plays in olympics. And honestly, Gaby do has her accent, but her french is perfect. For Bria, situation is different, because she did not speak french before she became french.

And because of this FIBA naturalization rule... Joakim Noah was a naturalized player for France! Guys, you can't imagine who is his father for french public... He is a true legend here in France, and Joakim with several years in France as a child, with a father who is a french superstar... Was not considered as a "true french" because passport matters ...

As a conclusion, naturalizations rules are not the same throught the World, so the Fiba rule is not the best one, but the "less worse".

[jinxed]

I missed most of the game. Luke hurt his wrist? How bad? Enough to hinder him for Bronze game?