2024 Olympic BASKETBALL Thread (Pt.3)

[Pachinko_]

Maaan. I don't even get it, I've been to Athens . It's full of wild dogs, they don't even have money to bribe the refs but they still officiated the game like they just got a new holiday house

maybe you should let the refs shoot your free throws LOL

[durden_tyler]

Greece had a chance to win that via double digits but now they're at the mercy of Serbia (while Australia at the mercy of Canada).

Weird things happen at this point of the tournament. LOL

[Mirotic12]

Aside from the money, there is the question of competitiveness. Only until they get hurt (losing the WC, etc) that they actually send the best teams and in recent years, looks like every four years (Olympics) is fine establishing or reestablishing the supposed dominance. So you are correct, the Americans are not changing their playstyle and/or how they compose the teams (though appears this year, they are willing to add role players) until the international teams are consistent threats to the crown.

I'm not talking about the way they compose the teams or competing with the Europeans. There is no competition, the Europeans could become twice as good as the Americans and still they would lose for the simple reason that American States are united as one team and European States aren't, their good players are scettered across 20 different national teams.

I'm talking about the NBA being forced to adopt some of the good aspects of European basketball, like refereeing the game properly like Duffman100 said. It's not gonna happen no matter what happens in the Olympics. The NBA sells really well as it is and therefore it's not going to change, it's a star driven league and the fans pay to see their stars score a million points uninterrupted by such petty details like basketball rules, period.

Point taken. So yeah, while the FIBA/Euro game is faster, some rules are better (goaltend on missed shots, 5 fouls) refs better (maybe, they all know the spread too, and they favor the home/established teams as seen in the France-Japan and Spain-Nigeria games) there is near zero chance the NBA adapts to the FIBA game because simply they don't have to change it. i can see FIBA adapting to the NBA rules if it comes to that. LOL

The EuroLeague already wanted to change to the NBA sized court and the NBA 3 point line, but FIBA blocked it. FIBA has no control over the EuroLeague, but the EuroLeague regulations go by whatever the international rules are. So even though the EuroLeague made those changes, if FIBA doesn't agree to it, then they keep the same rules, to not have different rules, like the NBA does.

However, the EuroLeague did not want to add the defensive 3 seconds, and said they would never adopt such a rule.

On FIBA's side, they said they were open to eventually adopting the changes the EuroLeague wanted, and might go to the NBA court size and 3 point line, but they won't do so until it's economically feasible for all of the clubs around the world to be able to change their arena seating layouts and their courts.

However, like the EuroLeague, FIBA said that they would never adopt a rule like the defensive 3 seconds. FIBA then later also reaffirmed that, after the NBA block of FIBA's voting committee proposed to add the defensive 3 seconds rule to FIBA. FIBA heads again said they would never consider such a rule.

So the NBA size court and the NBA 3 point line are likely going to be adopted by FIBA, but they are not going to adopt the defensive 3 seconds rule, as it is considered to be very anti-sportive pretty much everywhere outside of the US and Canada.

[NYKat]

Something I was thinking about as I was driving… (don’t know if it’s been brought up yet and not interested in searching through all the threads)

If Team USA is the Avengers, who is each member?

Lebron= Captain America
Steph= Iron Man
KD= Thor
Joel Embiid= Hulk
Ant man= Spiderman
Jrue Holiday= Dr. Strange
Jason Tatum= Black Panther
Booker=Black Widow
AD=Vision
Bam=War Machine
Halliburton= Ant Man
Derrick White=Hawkeye
Kawhi=Scarlet Witch

Thoughts?

[Mirotic12]

I always thought FIBA desperately promoting 3x3 basketball was absolute nonsense. So anyway I gave it a chance yesterday and watched for a bit, and it was total letdown and an awful product. No way in hell 3x3 basketball will never be what for example beach volley is compared to real volleyball, no matter how hard FIBA execs try to make it happen.

It would have been much better if they made the 5x5 a 16 team field, rather than add in the 3x3.

[durden_tyler]

Something I was thinking about as I was driving… (don’t know if it’s been brought up yet and not interested in searching through all the threads)

If Team USA is the Avengers, who is each member?

Lebron= Captain America
Steph= Iron Man
KD= Thor
Joel Embiid= Hulk
Ant man= Spiderman
Jrue Holiday= Dr. Strange
Jason Tatum= Black Panther
Booker=Black Widow
AD=Vision
Bam=War Machine
Halliburton= Ant Man
Derrick White=Hawkeye
Kawhi=Scarlet Witch

Thoughts?

All good, except Embiid should be Ant Man-- he shrinks during the big moments.

[NYKat]

Something I was thinking about as I was driving… (don’t know if it’s been brought up yet and not interested in searching through all the threads)

If Team USA is the Avengers, who is each member?

Lebron= Captain America
Steph= Iron Man
KD= Thor
Joel Embiid= Hulk
Ant man= Spiderman
Jrue Holiday= Dr. Strange
Jason Tatum= Black Panther
Booker=Black Widow
AD=Vision
Bam=War Machine
Halliburton= Ant Man
Derrick White=Hawkeye
Kawhi=Scarlet Witch

Thoughts?

All good, except Embiid should be Ant Man-- he shrinks during the big moments.

Actually, I just now noticed that I didn’t even think to make Ant Man = Ant Man… that would have been obvious too, lol

[Mirotic12]

Walkup and Mitoglu having a good game, giving up 53 points to this Greek team is bad. Glad to see that Euroleague players responded, we were getting a bit too much trashed talked about this Greek team in particular. Defeinitely did not expect +17 from Greece tho.

Numerous posters here constantly saying that main rotation players on big EuroLeague clubs are the same level, or even worse than G-League players, is "a bit too much trashed talked"? Just a "bit too much"? More like ludicrous, all-time, hall of fame level trolling.

[homecourtloss]

Just to set the record straight here, since as usual, just stating facts in these discussions gets you labeled [paraphrasing] "a troll", "a Euro homer", "an NBA hater", "nuts", "crazy", etc.

Giannis did in fact have a horrendous game on defense against Spain, and it was so bad that Basket News felt they needed to write an article about it, after they did their post game video breakdown analysis.

Again, for posting mere objective analysis and facts here, you will get labeled as a troll, a nut job, a hater, a Euro lover, etc. It's just ridiculous and absurd that such a great and huge basketball forum like this one, has such attack posts against objective game analysis.

You made post after post about Giannis’s bad defense and about Walkup being the worst player in the tournament but haven’t made a post today about Giannis being the best player on the court and Walkup being Greece’s 2nd best player by a mile without whom it would have lost.

Weird.

[durden_tyler]

Before this Spain vs Canada match-up, let it be known that while Canada is already guaranteed to make the QF, they still want to win this via a big margin because they'd want to end up as #2 overall, which means avoiding the USA until the gold medal round (separate side of the bracket)

Currently,

USA +43 (pending last game vs Puerto Rico, so should add more and be #1)
France +16
Germany +33

So mathematically, it's still possible that Germany catch up with the US but France vs Germany is expected to be a non-blowout. Whichever team wins this match-up will join USA and Canada* (they are 8.5 favorites vs Spain) as the 3-0 teams.

Canada is currently at +17. So they are sort of cheering for France, with their pts difference closer. If Germany wins, by say 1 point vs France, then Canada wants to win by at least 17 points for them to have a shot at stealing that overall #2 seed.

[durden_tyler]

Just to set the record straight here, since as usual, just stating facts in these discussions gets you labeled [paraphrasing] "a troll", "a Euro homer", "an NBA hater", "nuts", "crazy", etc.

Giannis did in fact have a horrendous game on defense against Spain, and it was so bad that Basket News felt they needed to write an article about it, after they did their post game video breakdown analysis.

Again, for posting mere objective analysis and facts here, you will get labeled as a troll, a nut job, a hater, a Euro lover, etc. It's just ridiculous and absurd that such a great and huge basketball forum like this one, has such attack posts against objective game analysis.

You made post after post about Giannis’s bad defense and about Walkup being the worst player in the tournament but haven’t made a post today about Giannis being the best player on the court and Walkup being Greece’s 2nd best player by a mile without whom it would have lost.

Weird.

He only notices the negative things for the most part. He tries to be objective but that Euro bias always comes out. i've come to understand his perspective-- hate everything NBA. LOL

[Mirotic12]

man, it really felt that Greece had 7.5 players and half of them are in that hair loss age
proud of them for fighting till the end

Calathes had brain loss as well. Walkup finally had a solid game. That third quarter was brutal. Gianni barely touched the ball.

Now have to hope Canada blows out Spain? All the point differential stuff is confusing.

It was an elimination game for Greece. This is what Calathes has done his entire FIBA career in elimination games. He's been doing the same thing in elimination games for the last 15 years. For years and years, he got away with it without any criticism from almost of the Greek media and fans, because of all the stans of a certain Greek club team backing him to such absurd levels.

It's just weird though that many years after he left that club team, he still gets defended so much in the Greek media and by many Greek fans. I guess it's just because he never signed with another certain Greek club, because then in that case, Greek social media and some certain Greek sports media would be calling for his head to roll, even if he was having spectacular performances in every game he played.

man, it really felt that Greece had 7.5 players and half of them are in that hair loss age
proud of them for fighting till the end

Let's apply the Team USA sports media and fan rules to Greece NT. Since something like 8-10 of Greece's best players are missing from the Olympic tournament, we can just say that the first two losses against Canada and Spain don't count, and in fact, didn't really even happen at all, and that the close win against Australia, would have actually been a 50 point blowout, only if "we just had all of our best players"...

[Mirotic12]

Just to set the record straight here, since as usual, just stating facts in these discussions gets you labeled [paraphrasing] "a troll", "a Euro homer", "an NBA hater", "nuts", "crazy", etc.

Giannis did in fact have a horrendous game on defense against Spain, and it was so bad that Basket News felt they needed to write an article about it, after they did their post game video breakdown analysis.

Again, for posting mere objective analysis and facts here, you will get labeled as a troll, a nut job, a hater, a Euro lover, etc. It's just ridiculous and absurd that such a great and huge basketball forum like this one, has such attack posts against objective game analysis.

You made post after post about Giannis’s bad defense and about Walkup being the worst player in the tournament but haven’t made a post today about Giannis being the best player on the court and Walkup being Greece’s 2nd best player by a mile without whom it would have lost.

Weird.

What's weird is Giannis not playing defense on a single possession in an entire game, and if someone pointed that out, they got attacked and incorrectly accused of being all sorts of bad things. That happening on such a serious basketball forum is extremely weird.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

I love the point differential stuff and how it forces teams to play till the very end and you end up with lots of moments when people take the a**hole three. Yesterday Sabrina hit a bomb with less than 10 seconds after her teammates and coach reminded her that point diff matters, love it

[God Squad]

I just feel excited to be invited to the party (Olympic basketball). Canada has been bad for so long until this new generation.

[Mirotic12]

Feels like Aussies are on the cusp of a transitional period between the old guard ie/Patty and other vets and the new crop coming up. It's the case for several teams, like Argentina and Spain.

Spain and Argentina are not really between generations, so much as they are just back to their normal levels. Spain and Argentina had golden generations in 2000s, and for Spain even in 2010s. But that's not the norm for them.

For Argentina, they were usually just one of the better teams in Latin America, along with Brazil, Puerto Rico, and some various other teams from time to time. For Spain, they were usually just one of the better European teams, and not the best European team clearly by a wide margin, like they were from like around 2006 to 2017. Actually, teams like Lithuania and Greece had very consistent top 3-5 finishes in tournaments for a long time, while Spain wasn't at that same level.

Argentina and Spain can't be expected to repeat those golden generations they had. That's just not very realistic.

[G R E Y]

Feels like Aussies are on the cusp of a transitional period between the old guard ie/Patty and other vets and the new crop coming up. It's the case for several teams, like Argentina and Spain.

Spain and Argentina are not really between generations, so much as they are just back to their normal levels. Spain and Argentina had golden generations in 2000s, and for Spain even in 2010s. But that's not the norm for them.

For Argentina, they were usually just one of the better teams in Latin America, along with Brazil and Puerto Rico, and for Spain, they were usually just one of the better European teams, and not the best European team clearly by a wide margin, like they were from like around 2006 to 2017. Actually, teams like Lithuania and Greece had very consistent top 3-5 finishes in tournaments for a long time, while Spain wasn't at that same level.

Argentina and Spain can't be expected to repeat those golden generations they had. That's just not very realistic.

I just meant in the context of turnover from old to young. Don't both teams have players old as dirt lol

[Mirotic12]

Feels like Aussies are on the cusp of a transitional period between the old guard ie/Patty and other vets and the new crop coming up. It's the case for several teams, like Argentina and Spain.

Spain and Argentina are not really between generations, so much as they are just back to their normal levels. Spain and Argentina had golden generations in 2000s, and for Spain even in 2010s. But that's not the norm for them.

For Argentina, they were usually just one of the better teams in Latin America, along with Brazil and Puerto Rico, and for Spain, they were usually just one of the better European teams, and not the best European team clearly by a wide margin, like they were from like around 2006 to 2017. Actually, teams like Lithuania and Greece had very consistent top 3-5 finishes in tournaments for a long time, while Spain wasn't at that same level.

Argentina and Spain can't be expected to repeat those golden generations they had. That's just not very realistic.

I just meant in the context of turnover from old to young. Don't bother teams have players old as dirt lol

Oh yeah, in that case definitely.

USA
Brazil
Spain
Australia
France
Argentina

It's all the rage to have FIBA national teams full of 35-40+ year old players.

[G R E Y]

Wasn’t feeling confident in an Aussie medal tbh, feels like they’re between good teams at the moment.

A few more promising future NBA guys in the pipeline like Dash Daniels (2026 draft), Johnny Furphy (Pacers, 2024 35th pick), Rocko Zikarsy, Alex Toohey, and I’ll get in early here - Roman Siulepa.

Feels like Aussies are on the cusp of a transitional period between the old guard ie/Patty and other vets and the new crop coming up. It's the case for several teams, like Argentina and Spain.

If Australia was an NBA team, they would be prime to make package trades. Plenty of good to really good FIBA guys, but missing that guy to take it to the next level. Patty filled the role brilliantly over his international career, but it just felt like they needed another star to be true perennial medal threats. Hopefully Giddey’s development keeps going strong with more usage in Chicago

Giddey is in a weird tweener spot now where he is young and part of the next gen for the national team, hasn't really broken out yet in NBA (be it glut of talent on OKC and him not getting the chance, we'll see) but he's also under some contract pressure to perform at a higher level more consistently. At least on Bulls he'll get a bigger chance. Did I read he got injured today or was that a previous game?

[cdubbz]

Going to catch this Canada Spain matchup.

Seems like they have to be one of USA biggest opponent. They have good wing defenders in Dort & Brooks and then the scoring they have as well with Murray, SGA and Barrett. Imagine they had Wiggins & Edey on the bench for depth too.