2024 Olympic Basketball Discussion Thread

[Rainwater]

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This SHOULD be a cakewalk for Team USA

hahahahahaha

[_jin]

While the OQT semifinals are being played, World Champions Germany host France at 4pm CET for a preparation friendly, before a rematch in France in 2 days.

[_jin]

France up 23-11 against Germany after the 1st quarter. Collet still experimenting by switching full lineups every 5 mins while Germany is using more standard rotations but are missing the Wagner bros and Theis.
18K people in the arena in Koln, german people are really great fans, great atmosphere.

[_jin]

Schroder arguing with the refs, he forgot about FIBA rules

[knicksfan974]

28-48 halfime score for France. After beating Turkey by 50 France continuing to dominate.

[_jin]

28-48 halfime score for France. After beating Turkey by 50 France continuing to dominate.

France's defense is insane, even with Wemby/Gobert off. Just like Turkey, Germany has to resort to shooting 3s, they already shot 18 (at 11%) and only took 11 2 pointers. On the other end of the floor they dont have the size to matchup against France bigs, their 4 bigs are combining for 36 pts.

[UcanUwill]

Well, there will be no Luka in Olympics, thats for sure.

[Archx]

France will beat US in the Olympics.

[RookieStar]

Without the Wagner bros, GER looks small

[a-French-Fan]

Schroder arguing with the refs, he forgot about FIBA rules

Are the refs germans? The most often during friendly games refs are locals. And so, if it is the case today, during Olympics he won't be able to speak like he does today.

[_jin]

France easily discards Germany 90-66. The gap could have been even wider but Collet is still testing players and lineups, using a 15 man rotation, switching full lineups every 5 mins and no one playing above 19mins when Gordon Herbert is using standard rotations but Germany was missing 3 key players. Hopefully they'll be back on monday for the rematch. I hope Collet makes a quick decision on the final 12man roster, I want to see them play normal rotations.

Wemby with 25pts in 19 mins on 10/16 FG and 5/9 3P. He's shooting 7/13 from 3 in the first 2 friendlies. Schroder the little sh*t stirrer with 23pts on 7/16 shooting.

[knicksfan974]

France easily discards Germany 90-66. The gap could have been even wider but Collet is still testing players and lineups, using a 15 man rotation, switching full lineups every 5 mins and no one playing above 19mins when Gordon Herbert is using standard rotations but Germany was missing 3 key players. Hopefully they'll be back on monday for the rematch. I hope Collet makes a quick decision on the final 12man roster, I want to see them play normal rotations.

Wemby with 25pts in 19 mins on 10/16 FG and 5/9 3P. He's shooting 7/13 from 3 in the first 2 friendlies. Schroder the little sh*t stirrer with 23pts on 7/16 shooting.

Wemby at times looked again absolutely ridiculous, like a cheat code video game character. The hype around him in Paris will be unbelievable.

[Greek]

Greece dominated Slovenia without even Giannis being our best player. With Sloukas in the Olympics I think that we will be quite dangerous team, this is the best team that we had in the last decade

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[UcanUwill]

Greece dominated Slovenia without even Giannis being our best player. With Sloukas in the Olympics I think that we will be quite dangerous team, this is the best team that we had in the last decade

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Sloukas should be back for Olympics? Well, damn then....

Non serious take - greeks should just qualify for Olympics for all events, by default

[Mirotic12]

Greece dominated Slovenia without even Giannis being our best player. With Sloukas in the Olympics I think that we will be quite dangerous team, this is the best team that we had in the last decade

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The 2015 team was way better. They were just sabotaged by a totally incompetent coach in Katsikaris and a totally incompetent federation that hired him, and pushed the whole Olympiacos versus Panathinaikos ridiculousness nonsense in the media and social media, to distract the players. That team was absolutely stacked, and with even a half decent coach, would have very easily won every game and the gold medal.

Sloukas should be back for Olympics? Well, damn then....

Sloukas is the biggest egomaniac player in Europe. Even bigger than Mike James. He really thinks he's like 50-100 times better than he actually is. He can only help Greece if he accepts a proper role. Otherwise, he will be a huge cancer, just as he has been his whole career. Somehow, after winning EuroLeague with Ataman's system, which is EuroLeague's version of an NBA guard playing for Mike D'Antoni, I doubt that he will be willing to accept a proper role. If he wants everything to revolve around him, as he always does on every team, until they can't stand him anymore and can't wait to get rid of him, then he will just make the team worse.

If he is willing to accept a role the team actually needs from him, then yeah, he can help a lot. Dimitris Moraitis has no business at all being on the team, as all he can do is hustle, handle the ball, and create some turnovers. He's a defensive specialist that can handle the ball, and that's about it. Sloukas is of course miles better than he is. But his ego is out of control, and it seems unlikely that he can properly check it.

[Pachinko_]

Sloukas should be back for Olympics? Well, damn then....

Sloukas is the biggest egomaniac player in Europe. Even bigger than Mike James. He really thinks he's like 50-100 times better than he actually is. He can only help Greece if he accepts a proper role. Otherwise, he will be a huge cancer, just as he has been his whole career. Somehow, after winning EuroLeague with Ataman's system, which is EuroLeague's version of an NBA guard playing for Mike D'Antoni, I doubt that he will be willing to accept a proper role. If he wants everything to revolve around him, as he always does on every team, until they can't stand him anymore and can't wait to get rid of him, then he will just make the team worse.

If he is willing to accept a role the team actually needs from him, then yeah, he can help a lot. Dimitris Moraitis has no business at all being on the team, as all he can do is hustle, handle the ball, and create some turnovers. He's a defensive specialist that can handle the ball, and that's about it. Sloukas is of course miles better than he is. But his ego is out of control, and it seems unlikely that he can properly check it.

Screw him, I'm ok with Calathes/Walkup/Larentzakis/Toliopoulos/Kalaitzakis.
I'm more concerned about not having anything on the bench at the 5 and the 3.

[Mirotic12]

Screw him, I'm ok with Calathes/Walkup/Larentzakis/Toliopoulos/Kalaitzakis.
I'm more concerned about not having anything on the bench at the 5 and the 3.

Yeah, the chemistry of the team, at least so far, is much better without Sloukas. Not that I'm against him being on the team. I've always liked him as a player, as long as he plays within his limits. But he has to check his ego, otherwise, he's such a cancer, both on the court and in the locker room.

IF, he is willing to properly integrate into the team, both on the floor and in the locker room, then it would be great. But based on the last few years, that seems quite unlikely.

The lack of another big is why I wanted Agravanis on the team. I think you disagreed with me about him being one of the best players that was missing, but he is. He's better than Kostas, and the team only has two centers. And that's a problem with fouls and injuries. Plus, let's be honest here, both Kostas and Papagiannis are soft. Papagiannis is an absolute freak physical specimen, with his enormous size, wingspan, mobility, speed, leaping ability, strength. He was just toying with Team USA's centers at the World Cup, and yet with all of that, he is soft. Kostas is also soft. He looks like his brother, but he's the antitheses of him, in how soft he is.

Agravanis is a lot of things, but soft isn't one of them. He's an absolute dog and also an absolute goon, and almost every successful team has at least one of those kinds of guys. The whole Greek roster has no one that's a real banger, bruiser, goon enforcer. Plus, Agravanis would give the team options at the five that Kostas and Papagiannis don't. He can shoot and spread the floor, unlike Kostas, and he can cover better on the perimeter and on switches than either of them.

As far as the bench options at the 3, maybe Papapetrou comes back if they make the Olympics. He supposedly needed to recover from an injury. Maybe he would be healthy by then. Or maybe they can get Rogkavopoulos back. He took the summer off because he said he needed to rest. But maybe after some time off, he would like a chance to play at the Olympics.

[Mirotic12]

Screw him, I'm ok with Calathes/Walkup/Larentzakis/Toliopoulos/Kalaitzakis.
I'm more concerned about not having anything on the bench at the 5 and the 3.

Yeah, the chemistry of the team, at least so far, is much better without Sloukas. Not that I'm against him being on the team. I've always liked him as a player, as long as he plays within his limits. But he has to check his ego, otherwise, he's such a cancer, both on the court and in the locker room.

IF, he is willing to properly integrate into the team, both on the floor and in the locker room, then it would be great. But based on the last few years, that seems quite unlikely.

The lack of another big is why I wanted Agravanis on the team. I think you disagreed with me about him being one of the best players that was missing, but he is. He's better than Kostas, and the team only has two centers. And that's a problem with fouls and injuries. Plus, let's be honest here, both Kostas and Papagiannis are soft. Papagiannis is an absolute freak physical specimen, with his enormous size, wingspan, mobility, speed, leaping ability, strength. He was just toying with Team USA's centers at the World Cup, and yet with all of that, he is soft. Kostas is also soft. He looks like his brother, but he's the antitheses of him, in how soft he is.

Agravanis is a lot of things, but soft isn't one of them. He's an absolute dog and also an absolute goon, and almost every successful team has at least one of those kinds of guys. The whole Greek roster has no one that's a real banger, bruiser, goon enforcer. Plus, Agravanis would give the team options at the five that Kostas and Papagiannis don't. He can shoot and spread the floor, unlike Kostas, and he can cover better on the perimeter and on switches than either of them.

As far as the bench options at the 3, maybe Papapetrou comes back if they make the Olympics. He supposedly needed to recover from an injury. Maybe he would be healthy by then. Or maybe they can get Rogkavopoulos back. He took the summer off because he said he needed to rest. But maybe after some time off, he would like a chance to play at the Olympics.

[CodeBreaker]

Without the Wagner bros, GER looks small

They're not playing in Olympics?

[Mirotic12]

Without the Wagner bros, GER looks small

They're not playing in Olympics?

Yeah they are, as long as they don't get inured.