FIBA WORLD CUP 2019 | SPAIN are new WORLD CHAMPIONS

[Nuntius]

Turkey losing to the Czech Republic doesn't come as an immense shock. As I mentioned the other day, they are a bit of a feast or famine team. They can definitely get up to play against the best teams in the world but when it comes to facing down more middle of the pack teams they tend to play down to competition. Ilyasova, specifically, seemed to play awful today while he had an amazing game against the US.

A pretty bad way to get disqualified, obviously, but these things do happen in tournaments like this one.

That USA loss hurt them for this game. When you choke that badly and miss that kind of opportunity, it's hard to recover

Yeah, that's true. Losing like that definitely takes a toll on you.

[DWadeno3]

honestly, with the emergence of jokic and serbia having a full roster i dont think there has been a better team to chellenge team US

about mega stars you mentioned. you may be right. but everything is hypothetical until it happens.

Spain in '08 and '12 were much better than this current Serbian team. As was Argentina in '04, Yugoslavia in '02. Could make an argument for Lithuania too. Serbia looks like the best team in this tournament, Jokic is great, but I think they are not the most talented team and their performance thus far is a little overrated. Will see how things go when the competition intensifies.

as much as i love manu and a lot of those other teams i dont think they are better. i see something special in this team. time will tell.

The 2008 and 2012 Spain teams were absolutely better than the current Serbia, both in depth but also top level talent. On top of that, they played so well together.

[gh123]

I think France can beat Serbia. Rudy Gobert is one of the most effective defenders on Jokic, and France can match size and talent with DeColo, Ntilikina, Fournier, Batum and Lessort, imo. France is more athletic at several positions, but especially in the frontcourt.

I think they're being a bit underrated at this stage.

Not really, sure the size is there, but talent isn't. Batum has been washed for a while, Ntilikina is flat out bad and De Colo has fallen off a cliff. Serbia pretty clearly has more talent and they can get scorching from 3 so Gobert is not much of an issue.

I'm not sold on Serbia, based on what little I've seen. They're not great athletes and they look slow defensively. They played two of the weakest teams in the tournament in Philippines and Angola in their group, and then they were tied with Italy in the 3rd quarter of their other match (before that became a free-throw fest). I think teams can run on them. They can shoot and they can rebound, but I'd like to see how they do against a more athletic and defensive-minded team, before I'd call them the favorites.

If Serbia meets up with USA, USA will be more talented at 4 of 5 starting positions.

4 or 5? So Myles Turner in your eyes = Jokic? I also easily take Bogdan over Tatum or Barnes, 0 question.

[Simmons25]

I don’t think most Australians fans in here care tbh.

Along with Canada, Australia easily has the best number of U25 prospects in the world other than the USA. McDowell-White is another that just signed with Houston last night. As stated earlier Josh Green is a top 10 pick in 2020 as well to add to it.

The proof will be in the pudding as they say at the Olympics...


It’s very likely Australia hits the Olympics with an entire roster of NBA listed players.

Simmons, Ingles, Mills, Bolden, Exum, Delly, Maker, Baynes, Broekhoff, Green, White, Humphries, Adel, Bogut.

Goulding or Landale might be the only non NBA player to make the roster.


Australia’s historical strength is pretty irrelevant as this is currently the strongest Australian side of all time when all playing.

Can you imagine if Kyrie wasn’t as good as early into his NBA career as he was? he was very close to taking up Aus’ offer at the last Olympics as it was.

Do you actually think players at that level would even make a EuroLeague roster? You can't seriously be counting players of that level as prospects / talents? Because no such players would be considered that anywhere in Europe.

Wut?


NBA > Euroleague.

Plenty Australians have played euro league over the years.

Landale who I mentioned there at the back end of that list is with Zalgiris this year in the Euroleague.

If anything, the big improver is actually the Australian domestic league, the NBL is catching up very quickly to the European domestic leagues with their partnership with the NBA and strength of the Australian young players.

LOL this Mirotic12 dude is on another planet. That entire list have played in the NBA at some point or are still in the NBA now and have more NBA rings than just about every player in the Euroleague combined.

Not to mention there are another 17 Australians playing in Europe that didn't even get a look in... in camp.

[DWadeno3]

Not really, sure the size is there, but talent isn't. Batum has been washed for a while, Ntilikina is flat out bad and De Colo has fallen off a cliff. Serbia pretty clearly has more talent and they can get scorching from 3 so Gobert is not much of an issue.

I'm not sold on Serbia, based on what little I've seen. They're not great athletes and they look slow defensively. They played two of the weakest teams in the tournament in Philippines and Angola in their group, and then they were tied with Italy in the 3rd quarter of their other match (before that became a free-throw fest). I think teams can run on them. They can shoot and they can rebound, but I'd like to see how they do against a more athletic and defensive-minded team, before I'd call them the favorites.

If Serbia meets up with USA, USA will be more talented at 4 of 5 starting positions.

4 or 5? So Myles Turner in your eyes = Jokic? I also easily take Bogdan over Tatum or Barnes, 0 question.

Yeah, even as an American I think Catchall is quite exaggerating the talent of our squad. We're not that good this year and so far, Serbia has been the best team in the tournament. I think this Serbia team could be quite the challenge for us even if we had sent out a better team, although not the degree of the Spanish sides in 2008 or 2012.

With us having such a massive amount of players sit out and thus not being the clear cut favorite, the field is a lot more open. I think matchups matter more than ever and while I love dominating and winning gold medals, it's also interesting to see this. So many teams are able to beat each other. Serbia can be beaten by multiple teams, as can we. I'm curious to see how this tournament evolves going forward.

[stoo]

As European, I think Australia is good. With internatiolisation of basketball and big market like aus and can, I believe that they will be force to recon together with usa in the near future

[TheNG]

I think France can beat Serbia. Rudy Gobert is one of the most effective defenders on Jokic, and France can match size and talent with DeColo, Ntilikina, Fournier, Batum and Lessort, imo. France is more athletic at several positions, but especially in the frontcourt.

I think they're being a bit underrated at this stage.

Not really, sure the size is there, but talent isn't. Batum has been washed for a while, Ntilikina is flat out bad and De Colo has fallen off a cliff. Serbia pretty clearly has more talent and they can get scorching from 3 so Gobert is not much of an issue.

Why do you say De Colo has fallen off a cliff?

[Bob8]

I think France can beat Serbia. Rudy Gobert is one of the most effective defenders on Jokic, and France can match size and talent with DeColo, Ntilikina, Fournier, Batum and Lessort, imo. France is more athletic at several positions, but especially in the frontcourt.

I think they're being a bit underrated at this stage.

Not really, sure the size is there, but talent isn't. Batum has been washed for a while, Ntilikina is flat out bad and De Colo has fallen off a cliff. Serbia pretty clearly has more talent and they can get scorching from 3 so Gobert is not much of an issue.

Why do you say De Colo has fallen off a cliff?

Because he kinda is. Stats don’t show it entirely, but if you looks at individual games, you can see that he has many where he’s total none factor. What wasn’t the case few seasons ago. He’s still capable of great games, but consistency is becoming a problem.

https://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=002100&seasoncode=e2018#!careerstats

[TheNG]

Not really, sure the size is there, but talent isn't. Batum has been washed for a while, Ntilikina is flat out bad and De Colo has fallen off a cliff. Serbia pretty clearly has more talent and they can get scorching from 3 so Gobert is not much of an issue.

Why do you say De Colo has fallen off a cliff?

Because he kinda is. Stats don’t show it entirely, but if you looks at individual games, you can see that he has many where he’s total none factor. What wasn’t the case few seasons ago. He’s still capable of great games, but consistency is becoming a problem.

https://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=002100&seasoncode=e2018#!careerstats

When money was on the table, in the final four, he did what needed, allowing CSKA to win:
https://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=002100&seasoncode=E2018

As a EuroLeague Fantasy player for many years, if there's one guy I don't like betting against - it's De Colo. He's generally more consistent than anyone. I guess what you talked about is one of the reasons he chose to leave CSKA for Fener.

[Bob8]

Why do you say De Colo has fallen off a cliff?

Because he kinda is. Stats don’t show it entirely, but if you looks at individual games, you can see that he has many where he’s total none factor. What wasn’t the case few seasons ago. He’s still capable of great games, but consistency is becoming a problem.

https://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=002100&seasoncode=e2018#!careerstats

When money was on the table, in the final four, he did what needed, allowing CSKA to win:
https://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=002100&seasoncode=E2018

As a EuroLeague Fantasy player for many years, if there's one guy I don't like betting against - it's De Colo. He's generally more consistent than anyone. I guess what you talked about is one of the reasons he chose to leave CSKA for Fener.

I have won EuroLeague fantasy twice, so you should believe me how good/consistent EuroLeague players are. Nando is slowly but surely falling from the cliff.

[Porz]

Maui wovie, this was intense, like both are playing for Bronze or smt. I guess they wanted to avoid USA down the road.

Serbia is the team to avoid. I put the US on the same tier as France and Aus with Serbia as clear favourites.

mmm..quite interesting take. I had US and Serbia above everybody, now that Datum is gone i dunno but other good teams are still in my second tier. Nobody proved to me that they are head and shoulders better.

[TheNG]

Because he kinda is. Stats don’t show it entirely, but if you looks at individual games, you can see that he has many where he’s total none factor. What wasn’t the case few seasons ago. He’s still capable of great games, but consistency is becoming a problem.

https://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=002100&seasoncode=e2018#!careerstats

When money was on the table, in the final four, he did what needed, allowing CSKA to win:
https://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=002100&seasoncode=E2018

As a EuroLeague Fantasy player for many years, if there's one guy I don't like betting against - it's De Colo. He's generally more consistent than anyone. I guess what you talked about is one of the reasons he chose to leave CSKA for Fener.

I have won EuroLeague fantasy twice, so you should believe me about how good/consistent EuroLeague players are.

Nice! Did you win the main competition?

[Bob8]

When money was on the table, in the final four, he did what needed, allowing CSKA to win:
https://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=002100&seasoncode=E2018

As a EuroLeague Fantasy player for many years, if there's one guy I don't like betting against - it's De Colo. He's generally more consistent than anyone. I guess what you talked about is one of the reasons he chose to leave CSKA for Fener.

I have won EuroLeague fantasy twice, so you should believe me about how good/consistent EuroLeague players are.

Nice! Did you win the main competition?

Yes. Back2back. I was with players in Berlin and Istanbul.

[TheNG]

I have won EuroLeague fantasy twice, so you should believe me about how good/consistent EuroLeague players are.

Nice! Did you win the main competition?

Yes. Back2back. I was with players in Berlin and Istanbul.

I won the "points" competition one year... I just received an official basketball, a watch and a shirt
Can you promise you are never going to take De Colo in your Fanatsy teams from now on?

[Bob8]

Nice! Did you win the main competition?

Yes. Back2back. I was with players in Berlin and Istanbul.

I won the "points" competition one year... I just received an official basketball, a watch and a shirt
Can you promise you are never going to take De Colo in your Fanatsy teams from now on?

New format of a game is just a joke. Everyone can have best players from day 1. In old one you had to start with mediocre team, meaning you really have to know all players and teams. Now you just take the best and it’s more or less about luck afterwards. They have changed the format after mine back2back win.

Nando is still good option, mainly because his great % of FT.

[TheNG]

Yes. Back2back. I was with players in Berlin and Istanbul.

I won the "points" competition one year... I just received an official basketball, a watch and a shirt
Can you promise you are never going to take De Colo in your Fanatsy teams from now on?

New format of a game is just a joke. Everyone can have best players from day 1. In old one you had to start with mediocre team, meaning you really have to know all players and teams. Now you just take the best and it’s more or less about luck afterwards. They have changed the format after mine back2back win.

Nando is still good option, mainly because his great % of FT.

Yep. It's probably why I'm not going to participate anymore...

[mcmurphy]

Serbia up +32 against Portorico after Q3, with only 16min of Bogdanovic.

[m1chal]

Poland beat Russia 79-74. Now that's a surprise. We are in the quarters

[stoo]

oh well... Serbia beat Puerto Rico 90-47 But that is because Puerto Rico, Angola and Philipines are 3 worst teams in this cup

[rale93lfc]

+43 against Puerto Rico with every player playing under 20min (only Lucic 22). Bogdan 20min, Bjelica 18min, Jokic 17min. Not bad, not bad.

oh well... Serbia beat Puerto Rico 90-47 But that is because Puerto Rico, Angola and Philipines are 3 worst teams in this cup

Spain beat them only +10. Puerto Rico beat Tunisia and Iran. So actually Puerto Rico is better than: Ivory Coast, South Korea, Tunisia, Iran, Angola, Philippines, Japan, Jordan, Senegal in this world cup for sure and maybe some other teams too.

Why lot of you still underestimate Serbia...