Eurobasket 2022 Finals : SPAIN are European champions!!!

[gabri3l3]

Some good players miss something, they are not great shooters or they don't have great vision etc

Doncic has everything and his problem is he cannot work on his conditioning

He can't? You mean he won't. He hasn't tried to slim down for 3 years now, it is what it is at this point. I keep hoping that he'll take his conditioning seriously.

Everyone can see Luka needs to train better, and that he isn't much of an athlete. But what is strange is how no one talks about Giannis and his poor conditioning. I have not yet seen Giannis finish even a quarter of basketball without him looking like he is completely gassed and totally exhausted.

At times, Giannis looks like the poorest conditioned athlete on Greek NT and the Bucks. Of course you have to cut him some slack, because he's 6-11, and they make him handle the ball a lot, and move a lot on defense, so that's part of it. But still, his conditioning is very clearly nowhere near to being where it needs to be.

are you really questioning giannis conditioning? I can't believe what I'm reading

[BobbyPortisEyes]

lmao Giannis with poor conditioning, this guy is a master troll.

[styLesdavis]

He can't? You mean he won't. He hasn't tried to slim down for 3 years now, it is what it is at this point. I keep hoping that he'll take his conditioning seriously.

Everyone can see Luka needs to train better, and that he isn't much of an athlete. But what is strange is how no one talks about Giannis and his poor conditioning. I have not yet seen Giannis finish even a quarter of basketball without him looking like he is completely gassed and totally exhausted.

At times, Giannis looks like the poorest conditioned athlete on Greek NT and the Bucks. Of course you have to cut him some slack, because he's 6-11, and they make him handle the ball a lot, and move a lot on defense, so that's part of it. But still, his conditioning is very clearly nowhere near to being where it needs to be.

are you really questioning giannis conditioning? I can't believe what I'm reading

+1

But never forget that Mirotic12 is one of the biggest trolls on this board.

If i should name two players with the best conditioning in the nba i would choose Curry and Giannis.

[zaymon]

Slaughter is embracing his polish journay he is definetly part of the team. He makes us proud more than player who would have some connections but didnt put his heart into it.
He definetly has polish heart.

In my opinion that's a weird way to look at things, but you are free to express your opinion on the internet. Maybe it's a little bit biased opinion not see what Slaughter truly is. It's time to wake up.

If Slaughter chose to play for another country than Poland, he would make that country proud as well and in that case he could have a Croatian or Bosnian heart for example, if those countries hired him before Poland. He is a mercenary and had no connection to Poland before joining to play for Poland. He is getting salary to play for Poland and that's that. Slaughter is happy to be paid. It's his job to play for Poland and for his club team. I can only imagine where Poland would be without Slaughter. Poland would have a massive point guard problem without him.

Yes he is a mercenary, and yes we would have a massive point guard hole without him thats a fact.
I am talking about his behaviour as a player and as a man after he agreed to play for us and he is a class act.
I have no problem taking someone into our polish community if he shows values as a human being. Most poles dont care about skin color or ethnic background.
Rules are what they are, we didnt violate any of them. If you go far enough you can say americans should only play ethnic indians becouse they took their land not so long ago. Funny enough big part of americans dont want to play for their country, money is more important to them.

[edededtut]

Koponen retired now after the tournament, because his hips are completely done. He can barely run anymore.

Koponen is not that old yet and could still have been close to his prime as a player had his body not fallen apart - had Finland had healthy Petteri against Spain I'd bet they would not have had 19 turnovers and the result might have been different.

Lots of ifs, but it really would have been nice to see what the "wolfpack" could have achieved with a healthy Koponen and current version of Markkanen. In 2017 they were pretty good in the group stage when Lauri hadn't yet played a game in NBA.

But I guess that's what it is for small countries with small talent pools - getting all the top players to be in shape and on the top of their games at the same time is difficult. Anyway, maybe the youngsters of the current team are even better than Koponen was in a few years time.

[Mavrelous]

France should win easily today, my money on Germany later.

[Mirotic12]

I’ve always loved Ponitka. Definitely worth a two-way at the very least. He came to summer league years ago and rebounded like crazy but I’m not sure if he ever hit a shot. With the success of journeyman with unique skill sets like GP2 finally breaking through in their late 20’s I’d think someone would take a flyer on Ponitka. Kind of a Polish Pat Connaughton with worse shooting and better vision.

Even bad shooter Ponitka is pretty good Euro player, if he can hit those shots, dude is just flat out star. But as I said, is he a good NBA fit? he doesnt have talent to be on ball, and hes really best on ball. As stated many times, you arent finding NBA stars who aren't in NBA, thats just not happening, you are looking at role players, and you need to be sure they have role player skills. That is why to me it is so crazy guys like Kyle Kuric never played in the NBA, dude was argubly the best off ball catch and shooter there is, any team on earth would fine use of that.
Guys like Ponitka I love, but I always look at those with skepticism. To me guys like Kuric, matured Chris Singleton seemed like they were more NBA material.

In general I agree with you. You have to be really **** good to deserve the ball in your hands in the NBA as a non shooter, and that is where Ponitka thrives. But I think in the right situation he could bring enough as a secondary playmaker, cutter, rebounder and general facilitator to contribute to a rotation. Guys with his competitiveness, passing and strength who play bigger than they are are often a smart bet. I’d also hit him with the dreaded “sneaky athletic” label that a lot of white guys complain about but is often true.

I've watched Ponitka in EuroLeague and EuroCup for years. I've always been a fan of his. But, basically, this is how his career goes:

He has like 2-3 weeks of red hot play and great performances, he has within a season, 1-2 huge games, and then in the rest of the season, he is as average a player that there is. Even in EuroCup, for most of the season, he is just an average player.

There are lots of better players than him in Europe.

[Mirotic12]

I always been a bit pessimistic about this topic, because we have seen so many good Euros look so bad in the NBA. The latest and most relevant is Facu, not European, but I mean Euroleague star. He was so good, but at NBA level dude is terrible, I really believed in him, but the big difference, is that everyone in the NBA can handle the ball pretty much, you will watch Nuggets game, and Barton will grab defensive rebound and he will just bring the ball, maybe even try play pick and roll or try to score himself. Other time it will be Gordon, etc. So Facu will just be iced for numerous possessions, because what he can do is not special anymore. I imagine Ponitka would find the same fate, it is just such a huge gap between overall talent. Being such a good ball handler and creator is great and unique in Europe, but in the NBA, everyone is basically that, we forget how good these players are, especially NBA ones. Being a good ball handler and creator is not unique in the NBA, being top 10 in the world at that is unique. That is why guys like Spanoulis, Jasikevicius, Facu, Milos, failed, there is nothing special about them at NBA level for them to warrant playmkaing duties. Meanwhile Theis, Kleber, found their place, all they needed to do is to play D and hit a shot, they aren't stealing any of that USG% from them stars.

Wait a second....did you actually just compare Milos Teodosic and Vassilis Spanoulis in ball handling to Facu Campazzo and Sarunas Jasikevicius? Please tell me you didn't mean that and that you are joking. I have always liked Campazzo, I love his hustle and competitiveness, and Jasikevicius is easily one of my all time favorite players ever............

But you are putting those two in the same sentence with Teodosic and Spanoulis as ball handlers? Dude, you claim to have seen all these players play and you actually think that? On what planet is that even remotely true?

Teodosic and Spanoulis are light years better ball handlers than Campazzo and especially, especially Jasikevicius. Spanoulis would be like 10 levels above Jasikevicius in ball handling. These players are not in in the same universe, as far as ball handling goes.

[Mirotic12]

Yeah, I love any time Euroleague guy makes a jump to the NBA, and I support them all. It is contradictory, but I would love to see that more often, but I also want Euroleague to get stronger. To me, it is always exiting to see how Euroleague guy will do in the NBA, and vice versa, always fun to see NBA guy come to top Euro team.

I thought many times of Joe Ingles and Danny Green, they prove how much sheer luck where you land, and other factors that arent actual player's talent level have to do with who succeeds in the NBA and who doesn't. Joe Ingles was cut by Doc, Danny Green was cut from post Decision CAVS. He already had a deal with Euro team, but Spurs gave him invite and 2 years later he always won Finals MVP. Makes you wonder how many NBA washouts really had in them to be more than just relevant, but they just never got a fair chance. Like, how come prime Macijauskas couldn't play in the NBA, but man landed on a team that was run a dumbbutt who in 2021 does not yet know Yugoslavia is not a country anymore. Imagine if Macijauskas landed on Pops team instead, we are talking about completely different career.

Same with Spanoulis for example, people like like to dunk on Spanoulis now, hes like a punchline, and yeah, he never had enough talent to be a star, but you really think Spanoulis couldn't figure out to be NBA player, I mean come on.

Prime Macijauskas was basically almost an automatic 3 points on the scoreboard, if you left him open on the perimeter. I remember him before all of his injuries, and he was having these huge shooting hot streaks, but they were lasting for like 2 months. He didn't do much other than shoot, but his shooting was crazy, when he was hot.

How he was used by his NBA team absolutely did wreck any chance that he had in the NBA, just like the same thing happened to Drazen Petrovic, who would have been forever labeled "a bust" and a "Euro scrub" by NBA only fans, if the Nets didn't trade for him - because he was one week from going back to Europe, before the Nets traded for him. And just like the same thing totally wrecked Vassilis Spanoulis' NBA career. It wasn't until just the very recent years, that NBA coaches started giving any real chances to European guards that came from the EuroLeague as established players. Prior to that, basically, no matter how good the player was, he was not getting a chance in the NBA, with 95+% of the coaches.

However, in the case of Macijauskas, it ultimately wouldn't have mattered. Because even if he was given a fair chance by his team, he would have still ended up with a very short NBA career. Unfortunately, his body seemed like it was made of glass. He was completely physically destroyed by like age 28. His Olympiacos contract was maybe the second worst contract in the history of Europe, behind Childress' of course.

[a-French-Fan]

France should win easily today, my money on Germany later.

France easily today?! But...What do you do about our traditions ?^^

[God Squad]

As a novice in this FIBA thing... Germany beats Spain and France beats Poland. But there have been so many upsets so far anythings possible.

[bravor]

No matter what, there will be a french in finale (cf Aaron Cel)

May the better win. i wish it's us though, we owe it to Italian fans (and turkish fans as well).

[darmani]

Mateusz Ponitka: "I'm not an NBA GM too, like Doncic said. I'm not even in the EuroLeague"

Watch on YouTube

[ShazamDaShiznt]

Fantastic tournament so far. Some of the worst reffing I have ever seen and three most popular stars gone from the tournament with no medal to win.

Also Fiba got slapped in the face with those rules of allowing one foreigner to help the team. AJ Slaughter scored couple crucial points to bring Polish back the confidence after they lost the lead. Without him the Ponitka show would not be enough. They thought foreigners would just improve competition, but they did not think that these average teams would actually eliminate their biggest cash cows, like the Slovenia. The casual fans are not going to watch semifinals of France and Poland, and this is what Fiba deserves for providing a low quality tournament with dumb rules.

Also how in the world did they manage to get Slovenia, France, Germany and Lithuania in one group? What kind of stupid ranking system do they have?

[bravor]

And Bosnia...

[lambchop]

Mateusz Ponitka: "I'm not an NBA GM too, like Doncic said. I'm not even in the EuroLeague"

Watch on YouTube

To be fair, Ponitka was in the Euroleague with Zenit. He actually decided to stay with them or wanted to despite the war situation, but then received a lot of criticism from Gortat who said that Ponitka shouldn't be the captain of the Polish team, he actually said it's "sad" that Ponitka is captain. Dude definitely made Gortat eat his words.

I'm not sure why no Euroleague team recruited or signed. He's very solid as a club team player, but never had gaudy numbers.

Edit: I just heard that Ponitka only signed a three month contract with a Eurocup team this season and Baskonia is interested in signing him. So he might end up in the Euroleague after all.

[Chuck Diesel]

Former Poland Coach Mike Taylor has been great as a color analyst. Invaluable insight.

[UcanUwill]

Mateusz Ponitka: "I'm not an NBA GM too, like Doncic said. I'm not even in the EuroLeague"

Watch on YouTube

To be fair, Ponitka was in the Euroleague with Zenit. He actually decided to stay with them or wanted to despite the war situation, but then received a lot of criticism from Gortat who said that Ponitka shouldn't be the captain of the Polish team, he actually said it's "sad" that Ponitka is captain. Dude definitely made Gortat eat his words.

I'm not sure why no Euroleague team recruited or signed. He's very solid as a club team player, but never had gaudy numbers.

Edit: I just heard that Ponitka only signed a three month contract with a Eurocup team this season and Baskonia is interested in signing him. So he might end up in the Euroleague after all.

I dont know why Ponitka rubs so many people the wrong way. He doesnt even speak with his family, cause they had some kind of break up conflict.

I understand that him going back to Russia seemed bad, but everyone jumped on him hard, without even knowing any details. 2 days later he left Zenit, maybe he just went there to resign in person, maybe to say goodbye to his teammates. But so many people, especially in Poland, especially figured the worst about him.

[Chuck Diesel]

I’d like to see Yabusele take another crack at the NBA. He’s gotten way better since he left and the league better suits his skillset.

[Alonzo_Morning]

I’d like to see Yabusele take another crack at the NBA. He’s gotten way better since he left and the league better suits his skillset.

Let's not go crazy now

Come on Poles!