FIBA World Cup 2023 (FIRST thread)

[AussieCeltic]

Which NBA team will have most players in the World Cup? If I count right, Utah Jazz currently has most with five (Markkanen, Kessler, Fontecchio, Olynyk, Clarkson).

Didn't go through all teams, but Orlando could also have five: Banchero, Wagner brothers, Ingles, Bitadze.

(Or are we counting from last season? Then Ingles doesn't count for Orlando).

Mavericks have:

Luka, Maxi Kleber, Powell, Ntilikina (not sure he still has a contract though), Bertans, Josh Green.

Exum as well.

[AussieCeltic]

The Australian squad won't have Ben Simmons who's already ruled himself out, but still has 11 NBA roster players in it.

Patty Mills, Matisse Thybulle, Joe Ingles, Jock Landale, Josh Green, Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum, Xavier Cooks, Jack White, Dyson Daniels and Josh Giddey

It's pretty sad that Australia can't find a better guard than him. I mean really?

He's only in the squad to take out opposition players knees

I’ll be surprised if Delly makes the team.

[DrPampiloni]

Didn't go through all teams, but Orlando could also have five: Banchero, Wagner brothers, Ingles, Bitadze.

(Or are we counting from last season? Then Ingles doesn't count for Orlando).

Mavericks have:

Luka, Maxi Kleber, Powell, Ntilikina (not sure he still has a contract though), Bertans, Josh Green.

Exum as well.

Right! Mark Cuban must be really ecstatic.

[SOUL]

Didn't go through all teams, but Orlando could also have five: Banchero, Wagner brothers, Ingles, Bitadze.

(Or are we counting from last season? Then Ingles doesn't count for Orlando).

Mavericks have:

Luka, Maxi Kleber, Powell, Ntilikina (not sure he still has a contract though), Bertans, Josh Green.

Exum as well.

I think OKC has the most (or potentially)

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada)
Josh Giddey (Australia)
Lu Dort (Canada)
Aleksej Pokusevski (Serbia)
Vasilije Micic (Serbia)
Davis Bertans (Latvia)
Jack White (Australia)
Usman Garuba (Spain)

[UcanUwill]

Mavericks have:

Luka, Maxi Kleber, Powell, Ntilikina (not sure he still has a contract though), Bertans, Josh Green.

Exum as well.

I think OKC has the most (or potentially)

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada)
Josh Giddey (Australia)
Lu Dort (Canada)
Aleksej Pokusevski (Serbia)
Vasilije Micic (Serbia)
Davis Bertans (Latvia)
Jack White (Australia)
Usman Garuba (Spain)

Oh, wow. Doubt Poku makes the team, but still.

[zonedefense]

Which NBA team will have most players in the World Cup? If I count right, Utah Jazz currently has most with five (Markkanen, Kessler, Fontecchio, Olynyk, Clarkson).

Didn't go through all teams, but Orlando could also have five: Banchero, Wagner brothers, Ingles, Bitadze.

(Or are we counting from last season? Then Ingles doesn't count for Orlando).

Mavericks have:

Luka, Maxi Kleber, Powell, Ntilikina (not sure he still has a contract though), Bertans, Josh Green.

Kleber is out. Apparently Schröder doesn´t want him on the team.

Read on Twitter

[Tor_Raps]

Who's KAT playing for? See the subject updated with no actual post here lol

[DoctaJ]

Who's KAT playing for? See the subject updated with no actual post here lol

DR - all articles say that he's been in contact daily with the DR team reps - and the DR team reps expect him to play. But who knows.

[DoctaJ]

Didn't go through all teams, but Orlando could also have five: Banchero, Wagner brothers, Ingles, Bitadze.

(Or are we counting from last season? Then Ingles doesn't count for Orlando).

Mavericks have:

Luka, Maxi Kleber, Powell, Ntilikina (not sure he still has a contract though), Bertans, Josh Green.

Kleber is out. Apparently Schröder doesn´t want him on the team.

Read on Twitter

I don't know the history of this or anything beyond what's in the article but from that, seems like an insane overreaction from Kleber. I don't think what Schroder said was that bad and could have easily been cleared up with a phone call..

Kleber either must really not want to play or there's more going on behind the scenes against Kleber, imo.

[zonedefense]

Mavericks have:

Luka, Maxi Kleber, Powell, Ntilikina (not sure he still has a contract though), Bertans, Josh Green.

Kleber is out. Apparently Schröder doesn´t want him on the team.

Read on Twitter

I don't know the history of this or anything beyond what's in the article but from that, seems like an insane overreaction from Kleber. I don't think what Schroder said was that bad and could have easily been cleared up with a phone call..

Kleber either must really not want to play or there's more going on behind the scenes against Kleber, imo.

Just skimming through a couple of related articles. German coach asked for commitment from the start for the next olympic cycle. Players that want to be a part of the team cannot just skip the eurobaskets or world cup.
Kleber had nagging knee and back issues and played on his last leg during the Mavs WCF run. Did not play for Germany in the eurobaskets last summer.
Kleber was nominated for the world cup. Even though he skipped the eurobakets. Schröder wasn´t happy about it and called out Kleber. Mentioning that Kleber did not play in the eurobaskets because he just signed a new contract with the Mavs and prefered to work on his game. In my opinion some of it is out of line. Especially for the so called captain of the team.

[djw]

Yeah, the translation in the article above is a little off. Schröder‘s statement was sth along the lines of „Maxi said he wanted to work on his game. But he‘s got no game.“ Then he adds how he‘d rather have Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann on the team over Maxi because he was there last year.
And then following up on that with a statement where he cited hearsay as a source of Maxi‘s decision to skip the Eurobasket.

Whereas he mentions no criticism of e.g. Oscar da Silva who skipped the Eurobasket to prepare for his season at Barcelona.

I can get why Maxi wouldn‘t want to be there anymore.

[Mirotic12]

Greek 18 man prelim roster:

Point Guard:

Thomas Walkup 6-4: (Olympiacos) (EuroLeague)
Dimitris Flionis 6-3: (AEK Athens) (FIBA Champions League)
Dimitris Moraitis 6-4: (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)

Shooting Guard:

Giannoulis Larentzakis 6-5: (Olympiacos) (EuroLeague)
Lefteris Bochoridis 6-5 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Michalis Lountzis 6-6 (Olympiacos) (EuroLeague)

Small Forward:

Kostas Papanikolaou 6-9 (Olympiacos) (EuroLeague)
Ioannis Papapetrou 6-9 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Vassilis Charalampopoulos 6-8 (Sassari) (FIBA Champions League)

Power Forward:

Giannis Antetokounmpo 7-0 (Milwaukee Bucks) (NBA)
Dimitris Agravanis 6-10 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Thanasis Antetokounmpo 6-7 (Milwaukee Bucks) (NBA)

Center:

Georgios Papagiannis 7-3 (Fenerbahce) (EuroLeague)
Dinos Mitoglou 6-11 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Kostas Antetokounmpo 6-10 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)

Camp players:

Nikos Rogkavopoulos 6-8 (Baskonia) (EuroLeague)
Lefteris Mantzoukas 6-10 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Vangelis Zougris 6-8 (Peristeri) (FIBA Champions League)

[DoctaJ]

Kleber is out. Apparently Schröder doesn´t want him on the team.

Read on Twitter

I don't know the history of this or anything beyond what's in the article but from that, seems like an insane overreaction from Kleber. I don't think what Schroder said was that bad and could have easily been cleared up with a phone call..

Kleber either must really not want to play or there's more going on behind the scenes against Kleber, imo.

Just skimming through a couple of related articles. German coach asked for commitment from the start for the next olympic cycle. Players that want to be a part of the team cannot just skip the eurobaskets or world cup.
Kleber had nagging knee and back issues and played on his last leg during the Mavs WCF run. Did not play for Germany in the eurobaskets last summer.
Kleber was nominated for the world cup. Even though he skipped the eurobakets. Schröder wasn´t happy about it and called out Kleber. Some of it completly out of line. Mentioning that Kleber did not play in the eurobaskets because he just signed a new contract with the Mavs and prefered to work on his game. In my opinion some of it is out of line. Especially for the so called captain of the team.

Yeah, the context definitely matters. To me it reads like Schroder didn't know that Kleber's injury was the reason he skipped. I don't see why he would take exception to sitting out due to injury/recovery. If he did know, then it's pretty crappy to call Kleber out with a misdirection.

I could see Kleber's frustration if that was the case. But if Schroder didn't know the reason, that's why I said seems like an easy phone call fix.. "actually, Dennis, I sat out because I had an injury. Looking forward to playing again." Must be something more behind the scenes. Just kind of doesn't make sense.

[Mirotic12]

No Kostas Sloukas and no Nick Calathes for Greece. Maybe, just maybe, coach Itoudis has finally come to his senses. They were quite possibly the two biggest cancers the Greek NT has ever had. So what if they were considered to be top 5 point guards in Europe? They always found a way to somehow screw up the national team in every tournament.

Perhaps Itoudis finally realized it, and that they are out of the team "for rest" is just PR stuff. Or if it's true that they are just resting, well, there is probably no hope to have them off the national team until they retire. Anyway, for at least this upcoming World Cup, it is good addition by subtraction with those two being gone. Now Itoudis can just select some guards that are not ego driven ball hoggers and hero ballers, without actually being good enough to successfully play that way (Sloukas), or that make the national team play the entire game 4 against 5 on offense, because every team leaves them unguarded the whole game (Calathes).

It looks bad on paper not having two of the best point guards in Europe, but in reality, the team has the chance to function more normally now on offense.

[DoctaJ]

Kostas Antetokounmpo C 6-11
Thanasis Antetokounmpo PF 6-7

Here's a Q for you, Mirotic. I'm not really familiar at all with Kostas and Thanasis - do you think they actually deserve to be on the team? Or are there others in your eyes that would actually more deserving? Just curious.

[Mirotic12]

Here's a Q for you, Mirotic. I'm not really familiar at all with Kostas and Thanasis - do you think they actually deserve to be on the team? Or are there others in your eyes that would actually more deserving? Just curious.

Neither one of them should be on the team. I think it's pretty much generally accepted in Greece that they get on the team to make Giannis happy. But there are definitely numerous better Greek players than both of them at their positions. If it wasn't for Giannis, I seriously doubt that either of them would have been on the senior team at an actual major tournament yet.

[UcanUwill]

Kostas is nobody, he had so many chances and he always ends up burried in rotation on whichever team hes on. Thanasis had his moments in NT last year, but yeah, the fact he is in the NBA, is absolute joke, like put him back in EUrope now, is he even a top 300 player, I think no way, but the guy is NBA vet by now haha.

[UcanUwill]

Greek 18 man prelim roster:

Point Guard:

Thomas Walkup 6-4
Dimitris Flionis 6-3
Dimitris Moraitis 6-4

Shooting Guard:

Giannoulis Larentzakis 6-5
Lefteris Bochoridis 6-5
Michalis Lountzis 6-6

Small Forward:

Kostas Papanikolaou 6-9
Ioannis Papapetrou 6-9
Vassilis Charalampopoulos 6-8

Power Forward:

Giannis Antetokounmpo 7-0
Dimitris Agravanis 6-10
Thanasis Antetokounmpo 6-7

Center:

Georgios Papagiannis 7-3
Dinos Mitoglou 6-11
Kostas Antetokounmpo 6-11

Young camp players:

Nikos Rogkavopoulos 6-8
Lefteris Mantzoukas 6-10
Vangelis Zougris 6-8

This team can't shoot, opponents will pack the paint on Giannis all day

[Mirotic12]

Kostas is nobody, he had so many chances and he always ends up burried in rotation on whichever team hes on. Thanasis had his moments in NT last year, but yeah, the fact he is in the NBA, is absolute joke, like put him back in EUrope now, is he even a top 300 player, I think no way, but the guy is NBA vet by now haha.

When Thanasis was in Panathinaikos in EuroLeague, he was definitely the best fouler in the league, but that was basically the extent of his basketball contributions. As far as Kostas goes, he's been a 3rd string center on every team he's been on in his career, both clubs and the national team.

I guess it's OK that they get in the national team, to help keep Giannis happy, but there are definitely better options than them for Greece at their positions.

I guess at least they do both provide about 2-3 really nice highlight dunks to look at in each tournament.

[Tor_Raps]

When do the rosters have to be finalized?

I'm sure there are many guys on the preliminary roster right now that won't actually play in the tournament.