FIBA WORLD CUP 2019 | SPAIN are new WORLD CHAMPIONS

[Slartibartfast]

I wonder if a Big Brother system where the basketball powerhouses can adopt a little brother team and help them get established would be interesting.

[Jstock12]

chinese basketball return to dark ages

how crazy is that 1 billion people in that country and yet they still waiting for another nba level talent similar to yao ming plus it's the most popular sport in that country too. Japan is on the other hand gradually close the gap between them and already have 2 NBA players in their team and probably more will come

A lot of it is infrastructure, coaching and the ability to produce consistent talent. Yao Ming was an amazing superstar talent. If not for injuries he would had a great career. The only reason why they don't produce more talent like him, and this is just a guess, is that most kids in China don't get the same opportunities as in other countries. Especially in the more rural regions of China.

[Johnny Firpo]

Serbians look like the team to beat, they are brutally talented with near perfect cohesion. If Team USA or Greece beats them, it will be a monumental effort.

[gundysmullet]

The world cup is a competition inclusive of representatives from all the regions of the world. For regions that have multiple quality teams they have trials beforehand.

They would do all countries but it'd be too big, so they do regions.

Yes, but they are sacrificing talent for “inclusion”. Instead of it being merit based they are letting in horrific teams over superior ones simply due to geographic location. It’s stupid.

That's the basis of world competition. It's an opportunity to let regions feel involved.

It's not stupid, one could argue that the USA could field 20 teams, why don't they just do that? Maybe even more, possibly one for each state. I'm sure that probably sounds stupid to you.

Nonsense. It is the basis for the “entitlement” mentality and “everyone gets a participation trophy” mentality. Competition should be based on merit, and merit alone. And USA cannot field, 20 teams, because it is not 20 countries, it is one country. I’m sorry, but your points are awful.

[gundysmullet]

Why is everyone complaining about the pool size.... that's literally what the first round is for. 3 games in the bigger pools, then cut in half, where all the teams will be quite strong and the games will all be super competitive.

Imagine the round 2 games of (guessing)
USA/ Greece/ Turkey/ Brazil
Russia Argentina China Poland
Serbia Spain Italy Tunisia
Australia Lithuania Germany France

That will be an insane few days of basketball, AND THEN we have quarters....

They are complaining because you have crap teams like “Jordan” and “Tunisia” that have no business being there in place of superior teams solely based on the purpose of “inclusion”.

[LuDux1]

"Detroit Pistons" took place of better team based on purpose of "inclusion"

[Zombiesonics]

Serbians look like the team to beat, they are brutally talented with near perfect cohesion. If Team USA or Greece beats them, it will be a monumental effort.

really? bit hyperbolic there after a game vs the phillppines.

[WarriorGM]

Yes, but they are sacrificing talent for “inclusion”. Instead of it being merit based they are letting in horrific teams over superior ones simply due to geographic location. It’s stupid.

That's the basis of world competition. It's an opportunity to let regions feel involved.

It's not stupid, one could argue that the USA could field 20 teams, why don't they just do that? Maybe even more, possibly one for each state. I'm sure that probably sounds stupid to you.

Nonsense. It is the basis for the “entitlement” mentality and “everyone gets a participation trophy” mentality. Competition should be based on merit, and merit alone. And USA cannot field, 20 teams, because it is not 20 countries, it is one country. I’m sorry, but your points are awful.

Let's take this argument to its logical conclusion. There's no reason to have the tournament to begin with because all the best players play in the NBA already. The World Cup is a waste of time. Euroleague is a waste of time. NCAA is a waste of time. The Olympics are a waste of time. Why should anyone bother to participate? If you don't like it, don't watch.

[Johnny Firpo]

Serbians look like the team to beat, they are brutally talented with near perfect cohesion. If Team USA or Greece beats them, it will be a monumental effort.

really? bit hyperbolic there after a game vs the phillppines.

Their two games so far are part of why I'm saying this, but there are more important factors. Team USA looked pretty bad against the Czech team, and, well, their roster is just bad by their standards. They can beat Serbia, but again, I think it will/would take almost everything they have. I think this Serbian team is at the level of the 2008 and 2012 Spain teams, the ones that actually played two tight Olympic finals against a vastly superior Team USA team.

[darmani]

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[Zombiesonics]

Their two games so far are part of why I'm saying this, but there are more important factors. Team USA looked pretty bad against the Czech team, and, well, their roster is just bad by their standards. They can beat Serbia, but again, I think it will/would take almost everything they have. I think this Serbian team is at the level of the 2008 and 2012 Spain teams, the ones that actually played two tight Olympic finals against a vastly superior Team USA team.

What serbian guard is as good as navarro or the other guards on those spain teams? Thats what i'm skeptical about. Jokic and bjelica will be better than whoever USA plays at the 4+5 sure but the mismatches stop there for Serbia.

[mixerball]

serbia is wasting too much effort on blowing up teams. They seem to forget that it's juste the begining of the comp.
Gonna backfire at one time.

team basketball normaly wastes less effort than hero ball. but were we watching the same game? serbians easily waltzed through the game. also, check out the minutes played for serbian players. djordjevic is rotating heavily.

[TreymondGreen]

Gosh I love seeing the Phillipines get absolutely throttled.

[Johnny Firpo]

Their two games so far are part of why I'm saying this, but there are more important factors. Team USA looked pretty bad against the Czech team, and, well, their roster is just bad by their standards. They can beat Serbia, but again, I think it will/would take almost everything they have. I think this Serbian team is at the level of the 2008 and 2012 Spain teams, the ones that actually played two tight Olympic finals against a vastly superior Team USA team.

What serbian guard is as good as navarro or the other guards on those spain teams? Thats what i'm skeptical about. Jokic and bjelica will be better than whoever USA plays at the 4+5 sure but the mismatches stop there for Serbia.

Bogdanovic is a much, much better FIBA player than he is an NBA player, for whatever reason. He isn't bad in the NBA, mind you, but he is a totally different animal under FIBA rules. Then it's not really about being majorly talented0 with the rest of those guys, but how good of those players as role players. They have size, IQ, shooting. Their two PGs are both around 6'5-6'6, they are excellent shooters and very good team defenders, and just solid, solid pieces to have in a team concept. I could be wrong, but I honestly think they are superior from a team standpoint right now, and they have the best player, which could also be key.

[limbo]

I'm favoring Serbia in this tournament as well, against any team. Obviously, they can be beaten, not only by the US, i can see Greece and Lithuania beating them and maybe Australia, France and Spain on a good day, but in my opinion, they should be the favorites.

The US team is too flawed. They can be competitive via depth/talent but at the same time, the talent and depth they have isn't really that insane to begin with (come on; Plumlee, Lopez, Joe Harris... really?) and i seriously doubt Pop can work magic with such a random assortment of players in such a small time frame.

The roster as a whole is just really weird on top of having zero chemistry, zero international experience, no clearcut hierarchy, no direction/system and clearly less fire and fight than other international teams with players who live for these types of events.

Most of these guys strike me as isolation rhythm players that have a tendency of pounding the ball and seeking mid-range jump shots (Tatum, Brown, Barnes, Mitchell... you can put Kemba here as well, although he's much smarter and efficient in what he does). That's mostly what i saw in the game vs. the Czech Republic. Does anyone trust these guys to be consistent?

No elite playmakers. There's a lack of players that understand how to exploit the pick and roll, scratch that, there's even a lack of great options as the screener (outside Turner, Lopez, are there even any guys who know how to set a proper screen, roll or pop for a shot? You know, easy simple offense).

Defensively the strategy is just to pressure teams on the ball and how they screw up. There's no cohesion there whatsoever, and there no room for it either way since Pop is basically changing lineups every 2 minutes.. A mediocre team like the Czech Republic had no trouble running offense against the US, you think ball pressure is gonna phase the elite teams on this tournament with multiple elite NBA and Euroleague players? I doubt it.

Basically, if the US is gonna win this tournament, it's going to be on a steady diet of jump shots by guys like Mitchell, Tatum, Brown, Barnes, Middleton, Smart, White...) Not that it can't happen, but i don't really trust those guys not to put up bricks when the pressure is on. Idk, i'd rather take my chances with Serbia. Jokic is better than any US player at this tournament by a country mile. Bogdanovic is arguably better than Mitchell in this setting, when he's the primary offensive option on the perimeter he does well, especially in FIBA basketball. Bjelica is better than guys like Barnes and Brown too, definitely more consistent in international ball.

[Dtown84]

While I think Serbia could either be one of the teams to beat, or the team to beat, I wouldn't get too excited about destroying Angola or the Philippines. They have Italy on Wednesday, and then will play Spain on either Friday or Sunday we'll have a better sense of how good they are then.

[limbo]

Yeah, i think most of us understand that Angola and Philippines are two of the worst teams at this tournament. These are the types of games you take away pretty much zero intel from. Italy is the first real game.

[stoo]

While I think Serbia could either be one of the teams to beat, or the team to beat, I wouldn't get too excited about destroying Angola or the Philippines. They have Italy on Wednesday, and then will play Spain on either Friday or Sunday we'll have a better sense of how good they are then.

It were preparation games, but still, Serbia won all 10 of them prior to this cup, including 2 times against Italy, easy, Greece (without Jokic) and Lithuania... Optimistic people here (lot of them from Serbia), are not saying their thing just because of Angola and Philippines

[bb22]

Serbians look like the team to beat, they are brutally talented with near perfect cohesion. If Team USA or Greece beats them, it will be a monumental effort.

really? bit hyperbolic there after a game vs the phillppines.

Their two games so far are part of why I'm saying this, but there are more important factors. Team USA looked pretty bad against the Czech team, and, well, their roster is just bad by their standards. They can beat Serbia, but again, I think it will/would take almost everything they have. I think this Serbian team is at the level of the 2008 and 2012 Spain teams, the ones that actually played two tight Olympic finals against a vastly superior Team USA team.

I don’t think they are anywhere close. They have a solid team with 1 superstar level player and one above average guard. Boban and Bjelica are solid too. Everyone else isn’t NBA worthy. They’ve been practicing since early July, most of the team participated in the last couple of word championship qualification games, and they also played in the euro championship recently.
They’ve improved over the past 5 years, but also lost by 30+ to the states in both previous finals. Spain gave two of the most talented US squads a scare in both ‘08 and ‘12 and had a squad of NBA all stars and some of the best euroleague guys.

[stoo]

Turkey is gonna be the test tomorrow for USA