Colin Cowherd with the harsh reality for American born young players

[BostonCouchGM]

Cowher is a moronic tool with prisoner of the moment type takes. The NBA draft just happened and besides Wembanyama and Coulibaly the lottery was dominated by U.S. born players. The same thing happened the draft before it, the one before that and will happen next draft and then every draft after. Steph, Lebron, Kawhi and other US players have won all but a few of the championships in the last 20 seasons. We lose some of these tournaments like EYBL because we don't send even our 2nd tier young players not because our kids aren't better.

[Xatticus]

At the end of the day I think this is a simple matter where if Euro talent is going to turn pro at 15-16 and get better coaching between then and when they enter the nba they are going to develop their talent better than we do here in the us/Canada. Giannis not really included since he developed mostly after the fact. That's going to be an ongoing thing though until we figure out how to do a better job and tbh I doubt it will change much. People just look at Kobe and LeBron and assume this system works fine to create superstars but their work ethics are incredibly rare even for nba players. For every Kobe or LeBron we had 5-10 kids who came in out of hs and barely had careers despite being top 15 picks. This has been a criticism of how we develop talent for over 20 years. Maybe we need like a national academy where talented bb players at the age of 13 and up and can get scholarships and start playing bb year round with good coaching like they do in tennis or some other sports.

The AAU system is horrible for developing players to be nba contributors...it’s all “scoring” and no team work...but the euros have put out 2 outliers - Giannis and Jokic...no one else has won anything. And even those two were surrounded by great players all over the roster...just last year Steph and won a ring...before Giannis is was Lebron....we are in a era of Jokic and Giannis dominance but not European dominance- because no other euros other than these 2 are really perennial top 5 in mvp vote getters amd also high work ethic

I don't know, man. It seems to me that you are taking literally something I thought was obviously intended as hyperbole. I might be giving Cowherd a bit too much credit, but that would be a new one for me. I can't stand that man.

It wasn't long ago that it would've been considered unfathomable that the best player would ever be anything other than American. Here we are though, and I don't believe it is happenstance.

There are about 100 fully professional soccer clubs in England and they are all trying to identify and develop talent. Man United has an under-9 squad. Even for players that slip through the cracks of the professional ranks, there are many tiers of semi-pro and amateur clubs. This is the system that European basketball clubs follow. Doncic was training with Olimpija's youth setup before the age of 10 and he signed his first pro contract at the age of 13.

I happen to follow an organization (OKC) that prioritizes talent acquisition and development, but this process is severely hampered by the NBA's roster restrictions. The NBA's system is archaic and restrictive. It significantly disincentivizes investment into talent until such talent is eligible for the draft and worthy of a guaranteed contract. Otherwise, there is a high probability that there will be zero return on investment.

The thing is... basketball is seldom the first love of European basketball players. There is a saying that goes... every successful European basketball player is a failed European football player. I don't believe that Doncic, Antetokounmpo, or Jokic are simply a product of a numbers game and the rising popularity of the sport in Europe. I'm sure that's a component, but the larger issue is that European talents are in a system that gives them more opportunity to realize their potential.

None of this much matters to me personally as I don't care where the players I'm watching come from, but there is a lot of denial in this thread regarding the changing landscape of the NBA.

[Speadge]

I am not commenting Colin Cowherd or try to start something, but:

None of these guys have beaten America at the Olympics since 2004

That's a bit hard, considering the fragmentation of the European countries.

You don't compete at the Olympics with the individual federal state vs whole continent, like these guys do.
I mean some individual country like Slovenia has 2 million population. Spain 47 mil population. Portugal 10 mil population. Serbia 7 mil population, and so on ... and they play against you as individual state, not as Europe.
United States on the other hand compete as a whole, with 332 mil population.

[KillMonger]

Do people respect his basketball opinions? Often times he comes across to me as a casual with a microphone

[JN61]

“Europeans are hard workers, Americans care about popularity”

Pretty true statement.

Blanket statements like that are almost never true. Plus, this particular statement has a lot of racial undertones which just makes it even less likely to be true (while also making it about 10 times worse).

Sure buddy

[Pachinko_]

There are about 100 fully professional soccer clubs in England and they are all trying to identify and develop talent. Man United has an under-9 squad. Even for players that slip through the cracks of the professional ranks, there are many tiers of semi-pro and amateur clubs. This is the system that European basketball clubs follow. Doncic was training with Olimpija's youth setup before the age of 10 and he signed his first pro contract at the age of 13.

I happen to follow an organization (OKC) that prioritizes talent acquisition and development, but this process is severely hampered by the NBA's roster restrictions. The NBA's system is archaic and restrictive. It significantly disincentivizes investment into talent until such talent is eligible for the draft and worthy of a guaranteed contract. Otherwise, there is a high probability that there will be zero return on investment.

Thanks, this is all I've been trying to say. It's not a question of which side of the Atlantic is better at basketball, that's irrelevant. It's a question of finding the best aspects of both and seeing if something can be brought to the other side. The best basketball minds from both sides have been doing it anyway for decades while we here on this board are lost in pointless antagonism.

I agree that the biggest downside of the American system and also its biggest paradox is that the organisations with the most resources, the NBA teams, are not allowed to invest those resources in developing talent, and the best teenagers are left in the hands of amateurs for years. Worse, those amateurs (even when they are really professional) have no real incentive to develop that talent long term because they know the kid is soon gone. So if the kid is good at 2 things and sucks at 1 other thing that takes a long time to fix, they will typically milk the 2 things for what they're worth and ignore the rest, because they have no real reason not to. And they will certainly not bother to teach them the "Mens team system" like they do in Europe, because there is no men's team. And that's how you end up with minbdlowingly talented guys like Zion/KAT/Wiggins making it all the way to the NBA and then realising they have fundamental gaps in team defense for example, and they have to start learning now (and make no mistake it takes years, you can't just overcome with willpower and wingspan).

Having said that, there is a massive upside. If you're searching for the best 1-1 or even 1 against everybody kind of player, that player will be American 99% of the time. The Lukas of this world are just outliers. Europeans can't compete in that department and that's not just talent, it's their system, too much focus on team from a young age. When the best teenagers in the US are given the keys of an AAU/highschool/college team and are told to finish all the possessions that they can, you better believe they will become really good at doing just that. The 15 year old in Europe who joins a mens professional team, is still a kid, and those men don't give a crap how prodigious the kid might be. He will have to follow the team system, do the right things and wait for his turn, or else. That teaches humility, discipline and maybe produces better rounded players, but it also takes something away from that selfish offensive development that a guy like Zion would have.

Which one is better? Hard to tell, I'd say probably a hybrid of the two. The Spanyards and Serbians are really good at finding the right balance in their youth systems, they teach structure but with enough freedom to develop skills. Because despite what people think there are many different flavours and schools of thought within Europe, they're not all the same. Far from it.

[CobraCommander]

At the end of the day I think this is a simple matter where if Euro talent is going to turn pro at 15-16 and get better coaching between then and when they enter the nba they are going to develop their talent better than we do here in the us/Canada. Giannis not really included since he developed mostly after the fact. That's going to be an ongoing thing though until we figure out how to do a better job and tbh I doubt it will change much. People just look at Kobe and LeBron and assume this system works fine to create superstars but their work ethics are incredibly rare even for nba players. For every Kobe or LeBron we had 5-10 kids who came in out of hs and barely had careers despite being top 15 picks. This has been a criticism of how we develop talent for over 20 years. Maybe we need like a national academy where talented bb players at the age of 13 and up and can get scholarships and start playing bb year round with good coaching like they do in tennis or some other sports.

The AAU system is horrible for developing players to be nba contributors...it’s all “scoring” and no team work...but the euros have put out 2 outliers - Giannis and Jokic...no one else has won anything. And even those two were surrounded by great players all over the roster...just last year Steph and won a ring...before Giannis is was Lebron....we are in a era of Jokic and Giannis dominance but not European dominance- because no other euros other than these 2 are really perennial top 5 in mvp vote getters amd also high work ethic

I don't know, man. It seems to me that you are taking literally something I thought was obviously intended as hyperbole. I might be giving Cowherd a bit too much credit, but that would be a new one for me. I can't stand that man.

It wasn't long ago that it would've been considered unfathomable that the best player would ever be anything other than American. Here we are though, and I don't believe it is happenstance.

There are about 100 fully professional soccer clubs in England and they are all trying to identify and develop talent. Man United has an under-9 squad. Even for players that slip through the cracks of the professional ranks, there are many tiers of semi-pro and amateur clubs. This is the system that European basketball clubs follow. Doncic was training with Olimpija's youth setup before the age of 10 and he signed his first pro contract at the age of 13.

I happen to follow an organization (OKC) that prioritizes talent acquisition and development, but this process is severely hampered by the NBA's roster restrictions. The NBA's system is archaic and restrictive. It significantly disincentivizes investment into talent until such talent is eligible for the draft and worthy of a guaranteed contract. Otherwise, there is a high probability that there will be zero return on investment.

The thing is... basketball is seldom the first love of European basketball players. There is a saying that goes... every successful European basketball player is a failed European football player. I don't believe that Doncic, Antetokounmpo, or Jokic are simply a product of a numbers game and the rising popularity of the sport in Europe. I'm sure that's a component, but the larger issue is that European talents are in a system that gives them more opportunity to realize their potential.

None of this much matters to me personally as I don't care where the players I'm watching come from, but there is a lot of denial in this thread regarding the changing landscape of the NBA.

Jokic and Giannis are just like hakeem and Tim-

Big men that take being great seriously - they make big serious men in Europe-

I expect the world to periodically make a better basketball player than the best rhe US has.

Yao minus shaq was the best big man for a minute and if injury doesn’t hit and he plays in this era Yao would be top what ever -

The us doesn’t have iq and drive on lock- the rest of the world produces competence at all things- including basketball

[CpttCanada]

Can someone please explain to me how this topic turned in racism and hating young black men? I never got an answer.