FIBA World Cup 2023 (FIRST thread)

[Mirotic12]

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.

Usually, the FIBA rule is the roster has to be finalized 24 hours before the tournament starts.

[DoctaJ]

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.

Figured that was the case but was hoping they were actually deserving. Sucks for those that should be next up.

[Mirotic12]

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

It's better than having Nick Calathes on the team, like all the previous recent years though. Calathes is the worst shooter at the point guard position in the history of the EuroLeague. Greece always had to play 4 on 5 on offense whenever he was on the court, because every single opposing defense would just decide not to guard him.

So just by not having Calathes on the team, the overall shooting is better.

[mediocrityrules]

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.

Figured that was the case but was hoping they were actually deserving. Sucks for those that should be next up.

Thanasis hasn't played meaningful NBA minutes for a few seasons now. He's like the Bucks version of Haslem, on the end of the bench as a cheerleader and towel waver, but gets a minute here and there in blowouts. He's just on the list for Giannis, just like he'll make the greek national team for Giannis.

[lambchop]

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.

Kleber was never been about that national team life. Dude never played on any youth national teams either, except once when they played a tournament against US high school teams in the US and that put him on the draft/NBA scout map.

The same goes for Hartenstein. He went to one of the youth national team training camps and pretty much everyone complained that he was super arrogant. That's why he's never even considered for these tournaments.

Germany generally does a terrible job of getting their youth national players on board from the start. Spain even got Nuñez to participate in the U20 event this summer, despite being essentially the only guard with regular Eurocup minutes in the whole tournament.

[Pachinko_]

Any news from Serbia?

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[Ruma85]

Any news from Serbia?

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About the roster?

[Pachinko_]

Any news from Serbia?

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About the roster?

Μainly that, but anything really. Their camp seems awfully quiet.

[Ruma85]

Any news from Serbia?

Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk

About the roster?

Μainly that, but anything really. Their camp seems awfully quiet.

Yeah we are, something should come up on the news soon.

[-Luke-]

From all I've read I had the impression that Kleber easily could have played last summer. Here's a quote from basketball.de (translated): "After two exhausting years marked by the pandemic with only short summer breaks, I will use this summer to get a break mentally and physically" (https://basketball.de/weltweit/nationalmannschaft-em-vorbereitung-franz-moritz-wagner-daniel-theis-dabei-bonga-kleber-fehlen/). Nothing about injury. So I get why Schröder thought he wasn't commited, although I think Schröder's quote was an overreaction and out of place. Kleber also hadn't signed an extension before the tournament. Theis also wasn't 100%, but he played (and was very important).

A few weeks ago I watched an interview with national team coach Gordon Herbert and he mentioned that all 12 players from last summer deserve a chance. So from that standpoint it makes sense. Mo Wagner and Bonga also didn't play last summer, but they were really injured. And Mo was there with the team during the tournament. So I think he will be almost a lock for this summer.

[jk31]

From all I've read I had the impression that Kleber easily could have played last summer. Here's a quote from basketball.de (translated): "After two exhausting years marked by the pandemic with only short summer breaks, I will use this summer to get a break mentally and physically" (https://basketball.de/weltweit/nationalmannschaft-em-vorbereitung-franz-moritz-wagner-daniel-theis-dabei-bonga-kleber-fehlen/). Nothing about injury. So I get why Schröder thought he wasn't commited, although I think Schröder's quote was an overreaction and out of place. Kleber also hadn't signed an extension before the tournament. Theis also wasn't 100%, but he played (and was very important).

A few weeks ago I watched an interview with national team coach Gordon Herbert and he mentioned that all 12 players from last summer deserve a chance. So from that standpoint it makes sense. Mo Wagner and Bonga also didn't play last summer, but they were really injured. And Mo was there with the team during the tournament. So I think he will be almost a lock for this summer.

I just listened to a german podcast by andre voigt with dennis schröder and there dennis stated, that Kleber cited "working on his game" last season as one of the reasons why he didn't commit to the national team. and that sounded like some sort of poor excuse to stay absent from the team. thats why dennis is so harsh with his critics against kleber.
he also said on a sidenote that he would have nothing against kleber coming as long as he is fully committing to play every role and doing everything that is asked from him, and it sounded like that would've not been the case.

[DrPampiloni]

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.

Kleber was never been about that national team life. Dude never played on any youth national teams either, except once when they played a tournament against US high school teams in the US and that put him on the draft/NBA scout map.

The same goes for Hartenstein. He went to one of the youth national team training camps and pretty much everyone complained that he was super arrogant. That's why he's never even considered for these tournaments.

Germany generally does a terrible job of getting their youth national players on board from the start. Spain even got Nuñez to participate in the U20 event this summer, despite being essentially the only guard with regular Eurocup minutes in the whole tournament.

Kleber blew his knee already when he was 17 and skipped a whole year of basketball. He was supposed to play in the under 20 European championships in 2012 but also got injured again after playing in some friendly matches before the tournament. The bold sentence makes no sense when you take into account his injury history.

EDIT: This was a real low-blow from Dennis Schröder, considering he skipped the Olympics because he feared getting injured before signing an NBA contract in 2021.

[DoctaJ]

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.

Kleber was never been about that national team life. Dude never played on any youth national teams either, except once when they played a tournament against US high school teams in the US and that put him on the draft/NBA scout map.

The same goes for Hartenstein. He went to one of the youth national team training camps and pretty much everyone complained that he was super arrogant. That's why he's never even considered for these tournaments.

Germany generally does a terrible job of getting their youth national players on board from the start. Spain even got Nuñez to participate in the U20 event this summer, despite being essentially the only guard with regular Eurocup minutes in the whole tournament.

Kleber blew his knee already when he was 17 and skipped a whole year of basketball. He was supposed to play in the under 20 European championships in 2012 but also got injured again after playing in some friendly matches before the tournament. The bold sentence makes no sense when you take into account his injury history.

EDIT: This was a real low-blow from Dennis Schröder, considering he skipped the Olympics because he feared getting injured before signing an NBA contract in 2021.

To be fair, Dennis did say that he would have understood if it was contract related - so it's not like he's being contradictory. He had exception with him skipping out on a commitment to improve his game - it really doesn't sound like he knew that Kleber was injured..

That said, I think both of them are handling this poorly. IMO, the only one way Kleber quits the team so easily after Dennis' comments instead of just calling him to clear it up, is if he didn't actually want to play in the first place.

[jk31]

EDIT: This was a real low-blow from Dennis Schröder, considering he skipped the Olympics because he feared getting injured before signing an NBA contract in 2021.

to get the facts straight: Schröder skipped the Olympics because of insurance reasons. The DBB was not willing/able to get an appropriate insurance for him.

[niQ]

So basically Schroder questioned Kleber's commitment, and Kleber's drastic decision was to... quit? Ok.

[Wagonband]

So basically Schroder questioned Kleber's commitment, and Kleber's drastic decision was to... quit? Ok.

It's more of Schroeder saying that he isn't welcome, and Kleber saying that if that's the case he won't come

[DoctaJ]

So basically Schroder questioned Kleber's commitment, and Kleber's drastic decision was to... quit? Ok.

That's what I'm getting at. Maybe poor form for Dennis to bring it up on in an interview or whatever instead of just talking to Kleber, but it doesn't really seem like Kleber was that committed..

[-Luke-]

So basically Schroder questioned Kleber's commitment, and Kleber's drastic decision was to... quit? Ok.

It's more of Schroeder saying that he isn't welcome, and Kleber saying that if that's the case he won't come

Sure, but Schroeder isn't the coach. The coach apparently was of the opinion that Kleber is welcome, otherwise he wouldn't have nominated him for the preliminary roster (like Hartenstein). Granted, I don't know if any conversations took place in the background with Herbert. But it seems strange that he refuses to play because of a comment from a teammate who does not make decisions.

Real Madrid and Barcelona players win titles together despite killing each other during the season. So Kleber and Schroeder should be able to get along somehow.

Anyway, at least PF/C is a pretty deep position if Voigtmann/Theis/Wagner/Thiemann are all healthy.

[DrPampiloni]

EDIT: This was a real low-blow from Dennis Schröder, considering he skipped the Olympics because he feared getting injured before signing an NBA contract in 2021.

to get the facts straight: Schröder skipped the Olympics because of insurance reasons. The DBB was not willing/able to get an appropriate insurance for him.

Because Dennis wanted an insurance for a contract up to 100M $ that did not exist (and also never materialised since he signed a 1 year MLE contract with the Celtics in the end). Good luck trying to arrange that insurance even with the best insurance company. This is all well documented, I can point you to the official interviews, but they are in German.

[DrPampiloni]

Kleber was never been about that national team life. Dude never played on any youth national teams either, except once when they played a tournament against US high school teams in the US and that put him on the draft/NBA scout map.

The same goes for Hartenstein. He went to one of the youth national team training camps and pretty much everyone complained that he was super arrogant. That's why he's never even considered for these tournaments.

Germany generally does a terrible job of getting their youth national players on board from the start. Spain even got Nuñez to participate in the U20 event this summer, despite being essentially the only guard with regular Eurocup minutes in the whole tournament.

Kleber blew his knee already when he was 17 and skipped a whole year of basketball. He was supposed to play in the under 20 European championships in 2012 but also got injured again after playing in some friendly matches before the tournament. The bold sentence makes no sense when you take into account his injury history.

EDIT: This was a real low-blow from Dennis Schröder, considering he skipped the Olympics because he feared getting injured before signing an NBA contract in 2021.

To be fair, Dennis did say that he would have understood if it was contract related - so it's not like he's being contradictory. He had exception with him skipping out on a commitment to improve his game - it really doesn't sound like he knew that Kleber was injured..

That said, I think both of them are handling this poorly. IMO, the only one way Kleber quits the team so easily after Dennis' comments instead of just calling him to clear it up, is if he didn't actually want to play in the first place.

As the DBB itself stated, there was an official meeting between staff, Dennis, Maxi and Johannes Voigtmann (the co-captain with DS) after **** hit the fan, but before Maxi made the ultimate decision. We will probably hear about what happened during that meeting in some podcast 10 years from now...