FIBA World Cup 2023 : GERMANY are the new World Champions! (takes on the world and beats it for once...)

[Blame Rasho]

The poll proves how much we know about basketball

Yeah, I voted USA. And I'm German.

They played a great game, shot extremely well, they are undefeated. All the praise should go to them. It is a reflection on how big Dirk’s impact has been since I know for years he was a one man show.

[KillMonger]

Not diminishing what Germany has done whatsoever, they won this game....i just wonder if the result would be different if the head coach was spoelstra NOT Kerr....

[evilution]

Fake allstars?

Was anyone on the roster out there on the allstar team this year?

Maybe Brunson got in via fan voting not sure. Don't recall, not worth googling but that would be the only one.

JJJ, Hali and Ant were all allstars this season

USA will probably always have a continuity problem. They can alleviate that with a talent gap many times. These players aren't bad at all. If they had more experience playing together where everyone knows and is secure in their roles and they have chemistry, they would be better.

Problem is that due to lack of experience together and experience in international basketball, USA will many times not be any better than the sum of their parts, sometimes not even as good as it, especially for single elimination where you don't get to recalculate and fix things, while the other teams will be better than just the names.

That's just the reality, and no one is likely willing to try to change that since the NBA is still their priority.

USA could find a continuity solution - just pick a mostly-american NBA team, substitute the non-americans on it with some better players, and go for it. Just gotta find a team that doesn't have a foreigner it doesn't function without (like Nuggets).

[durden_tyler]

Olympics organizers must be so happy. Even half-injured superstars and aging ones will want that redemption gig aggressively.

Knowing the US will send their A team, Serbia, France, Canada (among others) will be motivates to include the Jokics, Wemby and Murrays too!

A great day for basketball

[Nuntius]

Did Aleksa Avramovic really lock down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?

Who is that guy?

Plays for Partizan Belgrade, the biggest Serbian team known in the NBA as Serbian Boston Celtics.

Isn't Red Star generally the more successful team, especially in the last decade?

[durden_tyler]

Not diminishing what Germany has done whatsoever, they won this game....i just wonder if the result would be different if the head coach was spoelstra NOT Kerr....

He does the switch everything defensive scheme too. Same result.

[Popovich]

The rest of the world is too good to just try beat by talent alone. Canada and US is very similar in that they look like a team put together just a week ago. They play like it's the Summer League game.

Because of a new and busy schedule and globalization of basketball , European teams also do not have much more time to prepare as well. Actually Canada's team was by far the team who played with same players the longest period.

[durden_tyler]

You feel for Lithuania too, maybe they should have tanked somewhere and try to draw with the Americans in the Quarters/KO game LOL

[bisme37]

Wow congrats Germany and Serbia!!

Instead of U-S-A! I'm chanting MY-GUY-THEIS!

[HuuHaa]

How many of you guys enjoy more about this type of basketball vs. NBA basketball which highlights individual talent compared to team talent. Basketball still is a team game and that is what we witnessed today. And also in the tournament.

[sikma42]

Team might have been better with 40 year old Dwight Howard. At least he would rebound and Kerr wouldn’t try that silly switching bs


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[Michael Jordan]

Somewhere this dude is saying I told you so

[HotRocks34]

Might be unpopular, but both games that I saw USA lose, it seems that Reaves was always being hunted. LIT punished him downlow and GER put a combo on him on skates and downlow..

The primary reason the USA lost the game was because of Brunson.

Brunson had a team-worst +/- of -19, whereas Reaves was +4. The next closest negative +/- to Brunson was Bridges with -8.

Haliburton, who should have started over Brunson, was +14.

If Haliburton starts the game and Brunson's minutes are limited, Team USA wins.

Brunson played iso ball and was hunted on defense. He just couldn't hang out there, and it cost the USA a shot at the gold.

Brunson was benched down the stretch of the game, but it was already too late.


GAME STATS (including plus/minus):
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/0809/USA-Germany#tab=boxscore

Read on Twitter

[G R E Y]

NBA coaches are not allowed to coach these primadonas hard. They are like 3 puppets on the bench. Players hold more power in the nba then coaches, and this is why inferior teams talent-wise like Germany and Lithuania can beat them.

If Jackson Jr is NBA defensive player of the year, that tells you everything you need to know about regular season basketball.

Depends on the coach and relationships and players.

Kerr is a player's coach and is in a system where he's been with his star trio all along. He's never had to change systems to maximize strengths of another star.

Pop has, Spo has as well. Both also get into players for crap play.

It's early days with Kerr but this was a stubborn display of doubling down on what he knows best, small ball, while not really maximizing strengths of the team.

Players have to accept different roles in a short time on the national team and to that end guys who can accept that have to be chosen. It's not always about best players but about getting them to buy in. It's why Trae wasn't chosen for national team. It's why Dame accepted being subbed out for key D situations.

Ant was the main guy I guess but he didn't get others involved as well as Hali for instance. Ant led the team in PPG but for a guy who had the ball in his hands so much and as the O initiator he only averaged 2.7 assists per game. Maybe that maximized his game but not that of the team on the whole.

Lots has been said as well about the D and O boards so brass will have address it.

Just surprised (maybe not with Kerr) that Ant was given such a long leash and more team ball wasn't favoured. And more D. But again it's early days with new brass for USA. Not a lot of time to implement a system and integrate everyone. I do think Spo maybe would have tried some other player combinations and adjustments and kept players on a tighter leash but there's a balance to be struck with guys who commit to playing overseas in the off-season, too. Now there's lots of time for adjustments.

[Popovich]

Did Aleksa Avramovic really lock down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?

Who is that guy?

Plays for Partizan Belgrade, the biggest Serbian team known in the NBA as Serbian Boston Celtics.

Isn't Red Star generally the more successful team, especially in the last decade?

Generally yes. However Partisan invested more money last year and it payed off for them. Aleksa was among the just few Serbian players in that team while Zvezda who also has majority international roster keeps more traditional approach.

[RSP83]

The rest of the world is too good to just try beat by talent alone. Canada and US is very similar in that they look like a team put together just a week ago. They play like it's the Summer League game.

Because of a new and busy schedule and globalization of basketball , European teams also do not have much more time to prepare as well. Actually Canada's team was by far the team who played with same players the longest period.

You're probably right. Maybe US and Canada has "too much NBA" in them and that doesn't always translate to International games. At the same time in a one and done format, anybody can win. Same cannot be said in a 7 game series.

[G R E Y]

Congratulations to Germany. Incredible, consistent level of team play.

Final will be epic.

[Rastas]

Whoa...USA might need the whole A team to win Paris next year. I'm talking LeBron/KD/Curry/AD/Dame type of starting lineup.

Maybe geriatric club can still do it

Definitely need to add some youth to that. I think if you add Booker, Tatum, Brown, Edwards, Haliburton to that core, they should be fine. Would essentially be
Dame/Haliburton
Steph/Booker/Brown
Tatum/Edwards/Brown (brown would be getting minutes at sg and sf)
LBJ/KD
AD

And again not enough size or defense , way too many players wanting the ball - you need a better balance than just a bunch of offensive stars.

[HuuHaa]

Also one thing that really stood out was the lack of ball movement in USA offence. Also in defence USA didn't really know how to defend against great ball movement. They got lost in the rotations too easily.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Did Aleksa Avramovic really lock down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?

Who is that guy?

I think this narrative is becoming a bit overblown on this board, maybe because of that great steal at the beginning of the fourth. He played great, tough defence, and made life difficult for SGA, but he didn't "lock him down".

More than anything, Serbia played excellent team defence on SGA, trying to keep the ball out of his hands, and doubling him frequently when he started his drives towards the paint. They forced him to give it up more often than he has in previous games (which is a big reason why he had 9 assists).