2024 Olympic BASKETBALL Thread (pt.6: USA Men & Women Win Gold)

[DonaldSanders]

Is France going to start Gobert and Wemby? If Embiid is guarding Gobert, who is guarding Wemby? Durant?

Not sure what France is going to do vs. USA, but Gobert has had his minutes cut heavily. He only played 5 minutes vs. Germany! Lessort took the backup minutes and was feasting. I don't think we'll be seeing Gobert/Wemby on the court together much, if at all.

[cdubbz]

Was Curry’s defense bad in the first half against Serbia? I thought he had solid defense, but wasn’t special or anything. Saw him get beat once or twice, but awful?

Listening to Bill Simmons and he mentioned Curry’s 1st half defense contributed to Serbia lead. To be fair Serbia nailed triples against every defender it felt like.

[Ruma85]

Was Curry’s defense bad in the first half against Serbia? I thought he had solid defense, but wasn’t special or anything. Saw him get beat once or twice, but awful?

Listening to Bill Simmons and he mentioned Curry’s 1st half defense contributed to Serbia lead. To be fair Serbia nailed triples against every defender it felt like.

I would disagree with Simmons, seems like he just wants ratings.

[Mamba81p]

I don't know what you called "equal footing." I just know that Europe certainly has a hand in his development and the NBA does as well. He has been with the Mavs for 6 years. Majority of his prime years professionally are being developed in America. If anything, NOT giving credit to the NBA for developing him and attributing this to "natural" happening is greedy and foolish. If you believe Luka would be just as good now after spending 6 years on Fiji Islands instead the NBA, then go ahead and live that fantasy.

I don't know if there anything more to say. Anyone who is not blind will agree that the NBA has contributed massively to the development of international players, including many of the anchor players in the Olympics now.

lol, why do you keep bringing up the Fiji Islands? See, this really gives the game away.

Like I totally and completely understand how aggravating it is to have foreign posters come in here and take ignorant potshots at our league and our players. I get it. Truly. And I totally understand the desire to push back on that and plant the flag, perhaps even aggressively. I've done it for years. There are at least a few other posters I've been dying to see pop their heads back up but they probably won't now that we're on the verge of another gold.

But you're basically doing the same exact sht when, for example, you keep bringing up some random Pacific island in comparison to diminish non-NBA competition. Which I even get to an extent; I too get tired of hearing about the Euroleague as if it's even remotely in the same galaxy as the NBA. But that doesn't mean it and a handful of other leagues still aren't high quality. That's where they would be playing, not some isolated backwater. And why would a player of his caliber and schooling be significantly diminished by that? Why would he not still be a world-class player?

For the majority of these players, the NBA builds on strong foundations that have already been built elsewhere and that should be respected. That's it. It shouldn't be that hard to understand. If it's still not sinking in, go back to the very first wave of players who actually did come over here in the 80s/90s as finished products, and how good they were, and recognize that things have improved light years since then.

I don't think this is a white and black thing. If we were to attribute percentages to whom should get credit, for Luka probably NBA gets about 10-15%. He did develop further here but he was already a prodigy at Real Madrid.
On the other extreme you have Giannis, SGA, and Embiid, where 90% goes to US development.
In the middle there are guys like Jokic, Porzingis. They were polished, but far from finished product. IMO NBA should get more than 50% of the credit.
Even within Europe there is a difference between clubs, some develop better, others less so. We don't know how Luka would look like if he didn't play for Real since he was a kid. Maybe Jokic might have been so much better earlier if he went to Spain, but it's impossible to know of course.

I think multiple things can be true:
- international basketball developed a lot. They did learn a lot from US coaches and training methods and at the same time they benefited from the spectacular rise of the NBA around the world. I think basketball is the second most desired sports career in Europe.
- US still produces top talent, and here I think a lot of folks get it wrong. We see all these comments how US doesn't produce talent anymore, and that something is wrong.
-the gap of talent between NBA and the rest of the world is bigger than ever, and with the new TV deal it will get worse. There are no more players like bodiroga in Europe anymore. Every team has their top 2-3 players in NBA now and in some cases more than 5.
That makes it very hard to see how good some players can become of they never come to NBA.
The finished products have been actually worse than they were 30 years ago. Micic, Teodosic were considered the best in Europe when they came here and we see the results
- the lack of competition puts a cap on the development of a player. There is no way Jokic becomes even half the player he is today if he played his whole career with Mega Basket.

[Wingy]

Is France going to start Gobert and Wemby? If Embiid is guarding Gobert, who is guarding Wemby? Durant?

Apparently wemby been shooting from 3 really poorly. If that’s the case I would put Lebron on wemby and out muscle the kid. If he starts shooting switch to KD.

Wemby’s so overrated at this stage of his career. People high on what he can be falsely applying that to the present.

Several US guys will do just fine checking him. Yes, Lebron’s a good choice. Bam. AD. Sure KD would be serviceable.

[Slim Tubby]

It's embarrassing that the US Team is treating beating Serbia like some major achievement.

Nah...it's a tribute to Serbia and their guys for how well they played. Their passion and team chemistry was impressive.

Sent from my N152DL using RealGM mobile app

[Pachinko_]

Well, nobody expected France. At least they are the one team that can match USA's physicality with the two aliens plus a couple of beefy dudes, they're definitely not the kind you will abuse in the paint. Guards are mostly terrible, not sure how long Cordinier will look like he just snorted 5 lines but at least they're all reasonably athletic, they can run and defend. Fournier seems in good shape but as always with Fournier it depends what kind of night he's having.

Nobody was picking France and that was mostly because of the coach, many times in the past they looked like they had a squad but could never quite put it all together on the floor. This time though he seems to have found something in the last couple of games. Yabusele ane Lessort are strong enough to push anyone out of the paint and mobile enough to switch and stay on a guard as needed, they take care of the low stuff while Wemby's length and mobilty takes care of the high stuff with the help of limited minutes from Gobert off the bench. Team USA is a different beast of course, with Embiid on the floor he might need to finetune his rotation, but so far this scheme works well for France on defense. Add Ntilikina and Batum who are respectable defenders and plug a lot of holes and it all comes together very nicely.

Lessort, Cordinier and Yabusele have been unexpected heros on offense, can they keep it up one more time? Can Wemby and Fournier have a good shooting night? If so we might have a game in our hands, you never know.

[G R E Y]

I thought I was nervous before the previous two games.

I don't have words for how I feel now HHHHHHHNNNGHH!

I can only imagine how the athletes feel. Of course this is what they train for so we're wired differently but still what a moment and opportunity...

[Prestige]

Read on Twitter

[Pachinko_]

Was Curry’s defense bad in the first half against Serbia? I thought he had solid defense, but wasn’t special or anything. Saw him get beat once or twice, but awful?

Listening to Bill Simmons and he mentioned Curry’s 1st half defense contributed to Serbia lead. To be fair Serbia nailed triples against every defender it felt like.

I thought he was alright, got caught in screens a couple of times but always tried to fight through.
Team USA's effort on D seemed good in general, It was mostly Serbia's ball movement and shot selection that was very good and accurate that game, plus some inconsistent shooters shot better than their averages.

[Crives]

Hold on a minute, tomorrow game isn’t only on peacock right?

[Mephariel]

I don't know what you called "equal footing." I just know that Europe certainly has a hand in his development and the NBA does as well. He has been with the Mavs for 6 years. Majority of his prime years professionally are being developed in America. If anything, NOT giving credit to the NBA for developing him and attributing this to "natural" happening is greedy and foolish. If you believe Luka would be just as good now after spending 6 years on Fiji Islands instead the NBA, then go ahead and live that fantasy.

I don't know if there anything more to say. Anyone who is not blind will agree that the NBA has contributed massively to the development of international players, including many of the anchor players in the Olympics now.

lol, why do you keep bringing up the Fiji Islands? See, this really gives the game away.

Like I totally and completely understand how aggravating it is to have foreign posters come in here and take ignorant potshots at our league and our players. I get it. Truly. And I totally understand the desire to push back on that and plant the flag, perhaps even aggressively. I've done it for years. There are at least a few other posters I've been dying to see pop their heads back up but they probably won't now that we're on the verge of another gold.

But you're basically doing the same exact sht when, for example, you keep bringing up some random Pacific island in comparison to diminish non-NBA competition. Which I even get to an extent; I too get tired of hearing about the Euroleague as if it's even remotely in the same galaxy as the NBA. But that doesn't mean it and a handful of other leagues still aren't high quality. That's where they would be playing, not some isolated backwater. And why would a player of his caliber and schooling be significantly diminished by that? Why would he not still be a world-class player?

For the majority of these players, the NBA builds on strong foundations that have already been built elsewhere and that should be respected. That's it. It shouldn't be that hard to understand. If it's still not sinking in, go back to the very first wave of players who actually did come over here in the 80s/90s as finished products, and how good they were, and recognize that things have improved light years since then.

What are you even arguing about? Who said European leagues have not improve? Of course they have. I said that the NBA plays a big role in building the players with strong foundation into the finish product that they are. That is not a controversial statement. If you interview Doncic himself, he would say the same thing.

Everyone one can see that. Seriously, what are you even arguing about? You are like arguing about nothing standing in front of a mirror.

[cdubbz]

Hold on a minute, tomorrow game isn’t only on peacock right?

idk I illegally stream everything

[Mrakar]

Read on Twitter

Some of these calls are quesitonable and i wouldnt include them in those 2 videos, but there was like 6-7 mistakes that 10 year old kid would see like Embiid and Lebron travel, Durant stepping out, that Jokic foul before Durants 3, Booker foul on Jokic.... Its like 10-12 point swing only there without the less obvious ones...
Shame that such a strong team needed help from refs to get the gold...This one will sting for years for Serbia fans.

[Slim Tubby]

Read on Twitter

I wagered Durden's entire bankroll on the red, white and blue. He can thank me later.

Sent from my N152DL using RealGM mobile app

[KG Leonard]

Is France going to start Gobert and Wemby? If Embiid is guarding Gobert, who is guarding Wemby? Durant?

Apparently wemby been shooting from 3 really poorly. If that’s the case I would put Lebron on wemby and out muscle the kid. If he starts shooting switch to KD.

The last two games that is true but the 3 games before he was shooting 44% from 3pt.

I doubt USA will triple double him like Canada, Germany did and forget the bruising, bully ball PF/C that got switched to SF, guards that was too small for Yabisuele/ Lessort.

[Johnny Tomala]

USA, Serbia.

[durden_tyler]

Read on Twitter

I wagered Durden's entire bankroll on the red, white and blue. He can thank me later.

Sent from my N152DL using RealGM mobile app

So you're betting both sides? LOL.

And that's the cue for the odds in today's games:

Germany +2.5
O/U 170.5

USA -16.5
O/U 175.5

Have to sit on this for a bit, no real leans though i initially liked Serbia and USA and both unders. But a bit more time to think about this-- last bet in this Olympics so have to make sure we're up entering the NFL (regular) season!

And oh, no betting of entire bankrolls on single bets, that's bad and and you'll be accused of being addicts around here, so just 50% maybe. LOL

[xb3at band1tx]

Hard for me not to see how USA doesn't abuse France's low-tier guards and make this a double digit win

[Ruma85]

I don't know what you called "equal footing." I just know that Europe certainly has a hand in his development and the NBA does as well. He has been with the Mavs for 6 years. Majority of his prime years professionally are being developed in America. If anything, NOT giving credit to the NBA for developing him and attributing this to "natural" happening is greedy and foolish. If you believe Luka would be just as good now after spending 6 years on Fiji Islands instead the NBA, then go ahead and live that fantasy.

I don't know if there anything more to say. Anyone who is not blind will agree that the NBA has contributed massively to the development of international players, including many of the anchor players in the Olympics now.

lol, why do you keep bringing up the Fiji Islands? See, this really gives the game away.

Like I totally and completely understand how aggravating it is to have foreign posters come in here and take ignorant potshots at our league and our players. I get it. Truly. And I totally understand the desire to push back on that and plant the flag, perhaps even aggressively. I've done it for years. There are at least a few other posters I've been dying to see pop their heads back up but they probably won't now that we're on the verge of another gold.

But you're basically doing the same exact sht when, for example, you keep bringing up some random Pacific island in comparison to diminish non-NBA competition. Which I even get to an extent; I too get tired of hearing about the Euroleague as if it's even remotely in the same galaxy as the NBA. But that doesn't mean it and a handful of other leagues still aren't high quality. That's where they would be playing, not some isolated backwater. And why would a player of his caliber and schooling be significantly diminished by that? Why would he not still be a world-class player?

For the majority of these players, the NBA builds on strong foundations that have already been built elsewhere and that should be respected. That's it. It shouldn't be that hard to understand. If it's still not sinking in, go back to the very first wave of players who actually did come over here in the 80s/90s as finished products, and how good they were, and recognize that things have improved light years since then.

What are you even arguing about? Who said European leagues have not improve? Of course they have. I said that the NBA plays a big role in building the players with strong foundation into the finish product that they are. That is not a controversial statement. If you interview Doncic himself, he would say the same thing.

Everyone one can see that. Seriously, what are you even arguing about? You are like arguing about nothing standing in front of a mirror.

Just for future discussions, get to your argument quicker, it will save everyone time.