FIBA World Cup 2023 (FIRST thread)

[Mirotic12]

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.

Yep, FIBA covers the insurance for the contracts, and even has a formula for future potential contracts. But the thing is, they have one of the biggest insurance appraisal companies in the world that does the evaluations. So they evaluate what Schroder can actually potentially get in an upcoming NBA contract, and that's all they will insure for.

They don't just let the player himself claim any imaginary number he comes up with in his dreams, and then say that fictional amount will be covered. It's pretty hilarious actually that Schroder would even ask for something as ridiculous as that, even after his previous ridiculous contract opt outs and so forth.

[Mirotic12]

Italy's prelim roster:

Marco Spissu (EuroCup)
Nico Mannion (EuroLeague)
Tomas Woldetensae (FIBA Champions League)

Stefano Tonut (EuroLeague)
Alessandro Pajola (EuroLeague)
Matteo Spagnolo (EuroLeague)

Simone Fontecchio (NBA)
Luigi Datome (EuroLeague)
Gabriele Procida (EuroLeague)
Riccardo Visconti (Italian League)

Nicolo Melli (EuroLeague)
Giampaolo Ricci (EuroLeague)
Guglielmo Caruso (EuroLeague)

Achille Polonara (EuroLeague)
Luca Severini (FIBA Champions League)
Mouhamet Diouf (FIBA Champions League)

[Klomp]

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.

Speaking from a Timberwolves perspective, nothing we've seen locally this summer has hinted that he will participate. I think the report of interest is all stemming from a podcast he did during the season with Austin Rivers, but we really haven't heard any indication since.

EDIT: Maybe there's a chance

Read on Twitter

[Mirotic12]

Venezuela's prelim roster:

[Mirotic12]

Finland's prelim roster:

[Mirotic12]

This is very useful. FIBA added a roster tracker for all of the teams in the tournament:

https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/news/roster-tracker-who-will-be-playing-in-the-fiba-basketball-world-cup-2023

[-Luke-]

https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/news/greece-announce-world-cup-preliminary-squad-with-superstar-giannis-antetokounmpo

Gianni on the preliminary roster for Greece. I think it was expected and doesn't say much about whether he will actually play. But there's hope.

[UcanUwill]

OUtside of terrible Lithuanian accents, I found this pretty interesting to see.

Watch on YouTube

[Mirotic12]

Greece changed their camp roster already. Now it's:

Point Guard:

Thomas Walkup 6-4 (Olympiacos) (EuroLeague)
Vassilis Toliopoulos 6-2 (Aris) (EuroCup)
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)
Panos Kalaitzakis 6-7 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)

Small Forward:

Kostas Papanikolaou 6-9 (Olympiacos) (EuroLeague)
Ioannis Papapetrou 6-9 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Nikos Rogkavopoulos 6-8 (Baskonia) (EuroLeague)
Thanasis Antetokounmpo 6-7 (Milwaukee Bucks) (NBA)

Power Forward:

Giannis Antetokounmpo 7-0 (Milwaukee Bucks) (NBA)
Dinos Mitoglou 6-11 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Dimitris Agravanis 6-10 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Lefteris Mantzoukas 6-10 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Nikos Chougkaz 6-10 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)

Center:

George Papagiannis 7-3 (Fenerbahce) (EuroLeague)
Kostas Antetokounmpo 6-10 (Panathinaikos) (EuroLeague)
Georgios Tsalmpouris 7-2 (Bilbao) (Spanish League)
Vangelis Zougris 6-8 (Peristeri) (FIBA Champions League)
Manos Chatzidakis 6-10 (AEK Athens) (FIBA Champions League)

This should pretty much confirm that Tyler Dorsey, Naz Mitrou-Long, Kostas Sloukas, Elijah Mitrou-Long, Nick Calathes, Vassilis Charalampopoulos, and Kosta Koufos are not playing with Greece at the World Cup.

[GYK]

I was thinking about how the US doesn’t have an MVP caliber player under 30. The real contenders are all 30+ and Joker, Giannis, Luka and Joel. Healthy Zion, imo, is the closest to that caliber and even then he’s a leap away.
But the US is still the favorite. Obviously we know the US talent is far greater but still this is a “weak” team by USA standards. There’s a lack of MVP caliber players we haven’t seen in forever.
I think the change in playstyle made us stronger for FIBA basketball. Not the rule set but the impromptu team up.
Pick and Roll basketball streamlined the skillset. On and off ball.
While I think previous teams were far more talented I think we’ve got to a point a team lead by All Star reserves should be able to kick and shoot their way into victory.
I mean 1-4 play big guard today. Would be previous gens wings are point guards, lead ball handlers and point forwards. The better you are the more hub responsibility you get.
I think we’ve lost some skills but at the same time you can argue it’s the strongest era of All Star reserves we’ve ever seen in the NBA.

[Klomp]

I was thinking about how the US doesn’t have an MVP caliber player under 30. The real contenders are all 30+ and Joker, Giannis, Luka and Joel. Healthy Zion, imo, is the closest to that caliber and even then he’s a leap away.
But the US is still the favorite. Obviously we know the US talent is far greater but still this is a “weak” team by USA standards. There’s a lack of MVP caliber players we haven’t seen in forever.
I think the change in playstyle made us stronger for FIBA basketball. Not the rule set but the impromptu team up.
Pick and Roll basketball streamlined the skillset. On and off ball.
While I think previous teams were far more talented I think we’ve got to a point a team lead by All Star reserves should be able to kick and shoot their way into victory.
I mean 1-4 play big guard today. Would be previous gens wings are point guards, lead ball handlers and point forwards. The better you are the more hub responsibility you get.
I think we’ve lost some skills but at the same time you can argue it’s the strongest era of All Star reserves we’ve ever seen in the NBA.

It's maybe not a group of established talent, but they're not far off. Just for example, 5 of the top 13 vote getters in Most Improved voting last season are on the team. And two of the top three vote getters in ROY.

It reminds me a lot of the Redeem Team group. Even though that team had some more established talent too that this group lacks, its core group was between 22 and 26 (Wade, Bosh, Anthony, Williams, James, Paul, Howard).

[UcanUwill]

I was thinking about how the US doesn’t have an MVP caliber player under 30. The real contenders are all 30+ and Joker, Giannis, Luka and Joel. Healthy Zion, imo, is the closest to that caliber and even then he’s a leap away.
But the US is still the favorite. Obviously we know the US talent is far greater but still this is a “weak” team by USA standards. There’s a lack of MVP caliber players we haven’t seen in forever.
I think the change in playstyle made us stronger for FIBA basketball. Not the rule set but the impromptu team up.
Pick and Roll basketball streamlined the skillset. On and off ball.
While I think previous teams were far more talented I think we’ve got to a point a team lead by All Star reserves should be able to kick and shoot their way into victory.
I mean 1-4 play big guard today. Would be previous gens wings are point guards, lead ball handlers and point forwards. The better you are the more hub responsibility you get.
I think we’ve lost some skills but at the same time you can argue it’s the strongest era of All Star reserves we’ve ever seen in the NBA.

It's maybe not a group of established talent, but they're not far off. Just for example, 5 of the top 13 vote getters in Most Improved voting last season are on the team. And two of the top three vote getters in ROY.

It reminds me a lot of the Redeem Team group. Even though that team had some more established talent too that this group lacks, its core group was between 22 and 26 (Wade, Bosh, Anthony, Williams, James, Paul, Howard).

2008 and even 2006 teams were pretty stacked, most of best Americans played, this is not comparable. Altho 2006 team lost to Greece in Semis regardless. I would try to aim what 2010 team did, they had one young but superstar player, and other players were super role players basically, second best player on that team was Iguodala, I remember Granger was a big flop of that tournament, it was do it all glue guys that shined. Everyone said that team sucked, but guess what, they looked great.

Obviously the big difference that this team does not have that clear closer, first option guy and cohesion can suffer from that. But it has guys where its hard to find a belief where they would fail as teammates, thinking guys like Hart, Haliburton, Kessler.

[Klomp]

I was thinking about how the US doesn’t have an MVP caliber player under 30. The real contenders are all 30+ and Joker, Giannis, Luka and Joel. Healthy Zion, imo, is the closest to that caliber and even then he’s a leap away.
But the US is still the favorite. Obviously we know the US talent is far greater but still this is a “weak” team by USA standards. There’s a lack of MVP caliber players we haven’t seen in forever.
I think the change in playstyle made us stronger for FIBA basketball. Not the rule set but the impromptu team up.
Pick and Roll basketball streamlined the skillset. On and off ball.
While I think previous teams were far more talented I think we’ve got to a point a team lead by All Star reserves should be able to kick and shoot their way into victory.
I mean 1-4 play big guard today. Would be previous gens wings are point guards, lead ball handlers and point forwards. The better you are the more hub responsibility you get.
I think we’ve lost some skills but at the same time you can argue it’s the strongest era of All Star reserves we’ve ever seen in the NBA.

It's maybe not a group of established talent, but they're not far off. Just for example, 5 of the top 13 vote getters in Most Improved voting last season are on the team. And two of the top three vote getters in ROY.

It reminds me a lot of the Redeem Team group. Even though that team had some more established talent too that this group lacks, its core group was between 22 and 26 (Wade, Bosh, Anthony, Williams, James, Paul, Howard).

2008 and even 2006 teams were pretty stacked, most of best Americans played, this is not comparable. Altho 2006 team lost to Greece in Semis regardless. I would try to aim what 2010 team did, they had one young but superstar player, and other players were super role players basically, second best player on that team was Iguodala, I remember Granger was a big flop of that tournament, it was do it all glue guys that shined. Everyone said that team sucked, but guess what, they looked great.

Obviously the big difference that this team does not have that clear closer, first option guy and cohesion can suffer from that. But it has guess where its hard to find a belief where they would fail as teammates, thinking guys like Hart, Haliburton, Kessler.

Good call on that.

And the homer in me fully expects Ant to be that first option/closer.

[Pachinko_]

The main problem the US teams always had is a lack of understanding what the different rules actually mean and how much they can push things on the floor, especially on defense. Jrue Holiday was saying in an interview that he had an epiphany mid-tournament, like wait, what? You saying I can body people like that and it's not a foul? And he started doing exactly that and lead them to a(nother) gold. Easily. But most US players are not always students of the international game like that. If they were, watch out.

Having said that, right now they're lucky that good international players are dispersed in many small countries, which means their good batches come few and far between. Right now there doesn't seem to be a really good team around, if team USA were going against the Gasol brothers Spain or the Divac/Stojakovic Serbia, they'd be in trouble.

[UcanUwill]

The main problem the US teams always had is a lack of understanding what the different rules actually mean and how much they can push things on the floor, especially on defense. Jrue Holiday was saying on an interview that he had an epiphany mid-tournament, like wait, what? You saying I can body people like that and it's not a foul? And he started doing exactly that and lead them to a(nother) gold. Easily. But most US players are not always students of the international game like that. If they were, watch out.

Having said that, right now they're lucky that good international players are dispersed in many small countries, which means their good batches come few and far between. Right now there doesn't seem to be a really good team around, if team USA were going against the Gasol brothers Spain or the Divac/Stojakovic Serbia, they'd be in trouble.

After yet anothe NBA and Euroleague season, watching FIBA tournaments right now, yeah, it is crazy how much allowed the defense is, guys bodying and sometimes just swatting arms at others. USA teams big strenght has always been defense, they usually just get so much steals. Everyone says how athletic and how they love to run, team USA, but it all starts because they get so many balls stolen mid court. THat level athletes who used to very high speed basketball, usually has quicker hands and hand eye coordination, and watching USA in the past, it shows. Also the thing where from young age, in USA, players with physical tools advantage get a lot of atenttion and dev time, cause they do have most potential. In Europe, that kind of sifting process is rare, because there is less to work to begin with.

[JXL]

If what Kerr said in the interview is true, expect Brunson to average 35 in this tourney. I don't think the US will get gold here unless Serbia doesn't have Jokic available.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

[Mirotic12]

2008 and even 2006 teams were pretty stacked, most of best Americans played, this is not comparable. Altho 2006 team lost to Greece in Semis regardless. I would try to aim what 2010 team did, they had one young but superstar player, and other players were super role players basically, second best player on that team was Iguodala, I remember Granger was a big flop of that tournament, it was do it all glue guys that shined. Everyone said that team sucked, but guess what, they looked great.

Obviously the big difference that this team does not have that clear closer, first option guy and cohesion can suffer from that. But it has guys where its hard to find a belief where they would fail as teammates, thinking guys like Hart, Haliburton, Kessler.

The 2010 US team, and especially the 2014 US team, were way better than this 2023 US team.

[Mirotic12]

The main problem the US teams always had is a lack of understanding what the different rules actually mean and how much they can push things on the floor, especially on defense. Jrue Holiday was saying on an interview that he had an epiphany mid-tournament, like wait, what? You saying I can body people like that and it's not a foul? And he started doing exactly that and lead them to a(nother) gold. Easily. But most US players are not always students of the international game like that. If they were, watch out.

Having said that, right now they're lucky that good international players are dispersed in many small countries, which means their good batches come few and far between. Right now there doesn't seem to be a really good team around, if team USA were going against the Gasol brothers Spain or the Divac/Stojakovic Serbia, they'd be in trouble.

They barely beat France in the final. A missed wide open 3 pointer by Fournier at the end of the game, decided the game. That was it. In no way at all was that an easy gold medal win.

[ShootersShoot]

2008 and even 2006 teams were pretty stacked, most of best Americans played, this is not comparable. Altho 2006 team lost to Greece in Semis regardless. I would try to aim what 2010 team did, they had one young but superstar player, and other players were super role players basically, second best player on that team was Iguodala, I remember Granger was a big flop of that tournament, it was do it all glue guys that shined. Everyone said that team sucked, but guess what, they looked great.

Obviously the big difference that this team does not have that clear closer, first option guy and cohesion can suffer from that. But it has guys where its hard to find a belief where they would fail as teammates, thinking guys like Hart, Haliburton, Kessler.

The 2010 US team, and especially the 2014 US team, were way better than this 2023 US team.

There is no player the caliber of durant, who the usa was able to put a versatile roster of odom, iguodala, billups around with a really good bench.

2014 was a whole other beast that future usa world cup rosters would be hard pressed to match. KD, steph, kyrie, klay, cousins, AD, harden...absolutely insane team

2023 if they are to win will need to rely on versatility and depth...,
Brunson, hali, ant, mikal, ingram, jjj, reaves, kessler I think will make up the rotation..everyone brings at least an elite skill or is well rounded..and all those guys can shoot except kessler

2019 only really had one go to scorer in mitchell and below average defense & playmaking.

[UcanUwill]

No Jokic for Serbia

https://www.mozzartsport.com/kosarka/vesti/obistinile-se-crne-slutnje-srbija-bez-jokica-na-mundobasketu/457142