Team Canada Basketball Thread V3.0

[ItsDanger]

Bertans knees are cooked. Whatever he could provide on offense, he's going to give up even more on defense.

[Boselecta]

If Kelly Olynyk was European he would be touted as some big threat we need to worry about. Stretch bigs are the last thing I'm worried about. Its the big body back to the basket centers that worry me because we lack size.

For stretch bigs we can just throw guys like brooks, powell, brissett, and dort on them.

[Mirotic12]

I'm disappointed in you Mirotic! Usually you are quite informative.

Not a single name mentioned that Canada needs to be concerned about... tell me some guys that are going to "eat our front court for dinner" or let "agkagk" know he doesn't have much to worry about, beyond the NBA names we already know.

Too many people still don't understand how good Olynyk is (even Canadian fans). Powell for that matter has some world class elite skillsets as well.

I don't need to name any names. I already it explained it. I never said anything about eating your frontcourt for dinner. It's just you said there were no athletic fives that could shoot and that's wrong. That's all.

I would have to see the final rosters to tell.

I will just give you the example of Greece's prelim roster. All of these players are centers or forward-centers, all of them are big men (6-10+), all of them are athletic, all of them have 3 point range.

Dimitris Agravanis 6-10 255
Dino Mitoglou 6-11 255
Georgios Tsalmpouris 7-2 235
George Papagiannis 7-3 265

So just Greece alone has 4 of them in training camp, and that's quite typical for good European national teams. I can't say for sure which players will be on the actual rosters.

If you narrow it down to just 7 footers, it's still two, and Mitoglou is also close enough at 6-11.

Georgios Tsalmpouris 7-2 235
George Papagiannis 7-3 265

[mojo13]

I'm disappointed in you Mirotic! Usually you are quite informative.

Not a single name mentioned that Canada needs to be concerned about... tell me some guys that are going to "eat our front court for dinner" or let "agkagk" know he doesn't have much to worry about, beyond the NBA names we already know.

Too many people still don't understand how good Olynyk is (even Canadian fans). Powell for that matter has some world class elite skillsets as well.

I don't need to name any names. I already it explained it. I never said anything about eating your frontcourt for dinner". It's just you said there wer no athletic fives that could shoot and that's wrong. That's all.

I would have to see the final rosters to tell.

I will just give you the example of Greece's prelim roster. All of these players are centers, all of them are athletic, all of them have 3 point range.

Dimitris Agravanis
Dino Mitoglou
Georgios Tsalmpouris
George Papagiannis

So just Greece alone has 4 of them in training camp, and that's quite typical for good European national teams. I can't say for sure which players will be on the actual rosters.

I almost snorted in laugher seeing Papagiannis listed here, who didnt make a 3 his entire NBA career. Turns out he did not make a three his entire 12 year career in the NBA and Europe....until this year where he knocked down 18 in 33 EuroLeague/Greek League games (at over 50%!).
That was shocking to see... you can teach an old dog new tricks. Go Big Papa!
(still has never hit a three in FIBA play).

[Mirotic12]

I almost snorted in laugher seeing Papagiannis listed here, who didnt make a 3 his entire NBA career. Turns out he did not make a three his entire 12 year career in the NBA and Europe....until this year where he knocked down 18 in 33 EuroLeague/Greek League games (at over 50%!).
That was shocking to see... you can teach an old dog new tricks. Go Big Papa!
(still has never hit a three in FIBA play).

He used to shoot 3 pointers all the time when he was younger. He had 3 point range since he was like 16. NBA scouts supposedly told him they didn't like him shooting 3s so he stopped it. Then when he left the NBA, Pitino didn't like him shooting 3s in EuroLeague either.

His coaches this season didn't care, as they are typical Euro style coaches. He was shooting 3s all the time as a teenager. I don't know if it's true or not, but I read before that Vlade Divac was sold on drafting him at #13, after he hit a bunch of 3s in his draft workout with the Kings.

[SharoneWright]

Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic will not play for the Serbian national team in the upcoming FIBA World Cup as he rests from Denver's extended postseason run, a source told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38063582/source-nikola-jokic-skip-fiba-world-cup-serbia

[mojo13]

Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic will not play for the Serbian national team in the upcoming FIBA World Cup as he rests from Denver's extended postseason run, a source told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38063582/source-nikola-jokic-skip-fiba-world-cup-serbia

still a really good team for Serbia.
But this pushed Canada's betting odds even higher.

Updated odds to win tournament Top 10
USA Even
Canada 4-1
Australia. 8-1
Spain 11-1
France 11-1
Slovenia 11-1
Serbia. 20-1
Greece. 30-1
Germany. 40-1
Italy. 40-1


I still think Canada is way too high here considering the draw and should be the same as Spain/France. But I guess they are just countering the money coming in here. Crazy high for Canada...

Germany still looks like the good bet here to me.


That side of the draw keeps getting weaker and weaker and the odds to make the playoffs for the DR and PR is getting better and better.
One counter today is Kyle Anderson was appoved to play today for China (same pool as PR).

[Hair Canada]

The unevenness between the two sides of the draw becomes starker with every passing day.

* the Manilla side includes:

- A young and inexperienced US (who will nevertheless be the favorites).
- Serbia with no Jokic, Micic, Kalinic, and probably also the currently injured Poku, so maybe 1 or 2 NBA players.
- Lithuania without Sabonis (1 NBA player on the roster)
These are probably the strongest 3 teams on this side of the draw.
- Then we have Greece, probably without Giannis and his brother Kostas, also missing sloukas, Calathes and Dorsey. That's their entire backcourt from last year's Eurobasket and 60 points and 15 assists between them and Giannis that will be missing, with no one else on the team scoring more than 7 or dishing more than 2 last year.
- Italy without Banchero who decided to commit to the US, as well as Gllinari, who's still recovering from injury, leaving them with no NBA players.
- A bunch of rather mediocre Arfican, American, and Asian teams like South Sudan, Angola, China, Jordan, NZ, the Philippines, and the DR.

Now, compare this to the the Japan and indonesia side, which includes:

- Canada (25 NBA players, with quite a few of them finally suiting up)
- Spain (5 NBA players and European Champions last year and quarter finalists in the Olympics in 2021)
- France (10 NBA players; European silver medalists last year; Olympic silver medalists in 2021)
- Germany (6 NBA players and European Bronze medalists last year)
- Australia (10 NBA players and Olympic Bronze medalists in 2021)
- Slovenia with Luka (4th place in the 2021 Olympics, 6th in last year's Eurobasket, and Gold medalists in the 2017 Eurobasket)
- Finland with Markanen (finished top-8 in last year's Eurobasket)
- Latvia with Porzingis (finished #5 in the 2017 Eurobasket)
- Hosts Japan with Hachimura and Watanabe.
- Georgia (a huge frontcourt that includes 2 NBA players and a top Euroleague player)
- Brazil with former leaguers like Neto, Cabolco, and Louzada.

This list includes 4 of the top-7 teams in the world (and that's with #4 Argentina not even qualifying) and 5 of the 8 teams that reached the QF in the last Olympics (compared with only two on the other side of the draw). Add in the stacked Germany and Canada teams (both not ranked in FIBA's top 10) and realize that at least 3 of these 11 teams will not even make it to the top-16 and most of them (at least 7) will fail reaching the quarter finals.

[DrCoach]

Watch on YouTube

[Mirotic12]

The unevenness between the two sides of the draw becomes starker with every passing day.

* the Manilla side includes:

- A young and inexperienced US (who will nevertheless be the favorites).
- Serbia with no Jokic, Micic, Kalinic, and probably also the currently injured Poku, so maybe 1 or 2 NBA players.
- Lithuania without Sabonis (1 NBA player on the roster)
These are probably the strongest 3 teams on this side of the draw.
- Then we have Greece, probably without Giannis and his brother Kostas, also missing sloukas, Calathes and Dorsey. That's their entire backcourt from last year's Eurobasket and 60 points and 15 assists between them and Giannis that will be missing, with no one else on the team scoring more than 7 or dishing more than 2 last year.
- Italy without Banchero who decided to commit to the US, as well as Gllinari, who's still recovering from injury, leaving them with no NBA players.
- A bunch of rather mediocre Arfican, American, and Asian teams like South Sudan, Angola, China, Jordan, NZ, the Philippines, and the DR.

Now, compare this to the the Japan and indonesia side, which includes:

- Canada (25 NBA players, with quite a few of them finally suiting up)
- Spain (5 NBA players and European Champions last year and quarter finalists in the Olympics in 2021)
- France (10 NBA players; European silver medalists last year; Olympic silver medalists in 2021)
- Germany (6 NBA players and European Bronze medalists last year)
- Australia (10 NBA players and Olympic Bronze medalists in 2021)
- Slovenia with Luka (4th place in the 2021 Olympics, 6th in last year's Eurobasket, and Gold medalists in the 2017 Eurobasket)
- Finland with Markanen (finished top-8 in last year's Eurobasket)
- Latvia with Porzingis (finished #5 in the 2017 Eurobasket)
- Hosts Japan with Hachimura and Watanabe.
- Georgia (a huge frontcourt that includes 2 NBA players and a top Euroleague player)
- Brazil with former leaguers like Neto, Cabolco, and Louzada.

This list includes 4 of the top-7 teams in the world (and that's with #4 Argentina not even qualifying) and 5 of the 8 teams that reached the QF in the last Olympics (compared with only two on the other side of the draw). Add in the stacked Germany and Canada teams (both not ranked in FIBA's top 10) and realize that at least 3 of these 11 teams will not even make it to the top-16 and most of them (at least 7) will fail reaching the quarter finals.

For Greece, not having Calathes, Sloukas, and Dorsey is the good old addition by subtraction. Greece can get better guard play from others besides them.

Sloukas "the best point guard in Europe", is a stat obsessed ball hog, a choker, a cancer, and he's also a horrific defender. He's a pretend lead guard, that can't perform 9 out of 10 times when it really matters. He also doesn't know how to properly lead a team, or how to play with Giannis, because he has an obsession with having to be the man on whatever team he plays on. This is the guy that insists he plays the old Spanoulis role in Panthinaikos / Olympiacos in EuroLeague, and on the Greek NT, but while Spanoulis was the most clutch player in Europe's history, Sloukas is one of the biggest chokers in Europe's history. But he insists on trying to be the next Spanoulis no matter what, even if it costs his teams titles.

Calathes is an offensive liability, and makes any team he is on play 4 against 5 on offense, when he is on the floor, because he is such an awful shooter that the other teams just always leave him unguarded. He can't play without the ball in his hands. He is an awful fit with Giannis, because he can't shoot. And he's a point guard that is too slow to guard any quick point guards. He's also a choker and cancer that basically was the main reason for all of Greece's elimination losses for years.

Dorsey doesn't have enough offensive skills to be a guard, as he's really an undersized small forward. It might be OK if he was at least a 3 and D guy, but he's a horrible defender. And while he's a very good shooter, he can't score if the other team puts a physical defender on him.

They are just guys with big names. Sloukas and Calathes are considered by many to be top 10, or top 5, or even top 3 point guards (top 1 for Sloukas) in Europe, and they are the biggest fool's gold and fraud players in Europe. You can't win jack squat with either of them leading your team. They got lucky that in Europe they played with Vassilis Spanoulis and Dimitris Diamantidis, and because of that, people thought they were great players. But as supposed team leaders, they are both complete jokes.

Dorsey is a role player that basically can do nothing but shoot open jumpers. After his Maccabi contract was up, they didn't want him anymore. Olympiacos had the chance to re-sign him and they didn't want him anymore either. He went to Fener, and quickly got benched. There's a reason for that, and it's because he's basically a one dimensional player on offense, and a bad defender.

As far as Kostas Antetokounmpo goes, he's been a 3rd string center on every pro team he has played on, and he's basically done absolutely nothing in EuroLeague or with the Greek NT. There are numerous other Greek centers that are better than he is.

So none of those particular absences is a problem for Greece at all.

USA always gets the easiest schedule in every tournament.

[Hair Canada]

Mirotic, you're a Greek national team enthusiast and I think it's legit to question these three players (I'm also not a big fan of Dorsey and think that Sloukas is somewhat overrated). But I also think you're selling them a bit short. Only a year ago, in the Eurobasket, Dorsey and Sloukas put up 24 points per game between them on excellent shooting efficiency (43% from 3 and 86% from the line on a nice volume). Sloukas is a career 40% from 3 in Euroleague and over the last 6 years he's adding to this 6 assists per game on roughly a 3:1 A:TO ratio. Calathes is not a great shooter (far from it), but he's one of the smartest players in the Euroleague and one of the league's all time best passers. In fact, he's the Euroleague all-time assists leader and led the league in assists in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022, usually putting up a very good A:TO ratio (which was also the case in last year's Eurobasket).

Now, there might indeed be some defensive issues here and perhaps the fit with Giannis is not ideal, but Giannis is likely not coming. So to just dismissing not having these two Euroleague greats and the team's best shooter from last year, saying that Greece is better off without them, seems to be over the top. These are players with a lot of experience in FIBA international competitions and that at least is not easy to replace.

I guess we'll see, but Greece without this backcourt and Giannis strikes me as a very mediocre European team. No NBA players, no players who scored more than 9 points in the Euroleague last year, and a questionable inexperienced backcourt.

[Mirotic12]

Mirotic, you're a Greek national team enthusiast and I think it's legit to question these three players (I'm also not a big fan of Dorsey and think that Sloukas is somewhat overrated). But I also think you're selling them a bit short. Only a year ago, in the Eurobasket, Dorsey and Sloukas put up 24 points per game between them on excellent shooting efficiency (43% from 3 and 86% from the line on a nice volume). Sloukas is a career 40% from 3 in Euroleague and over the last 6 years he's adding to this 6 assists per game on roughly a 3:1 A:TO ratio. Calathes is not a great shooter (far from it), but he's one of the smartest players in the Euroleague and one of the league's all time best passers. In fact, he's the Euroleague all-time assists leader and led the league in assists in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022, usually putting up a very good A:TO ratio (which was also the case in last year's Eurobasket).

Now, there might indeed be some defensive issues here and perhaps the fit with Giannis is not ideal, but Giannis is likely not coming. So to just dismissing not having these two Euroleague greats and the team's best shooter from last year, saying that Greece is better off without them, seems to be over the top. These are players with a lot of experience in FIBA international competitions and that at least is not easy to replace.

I guess we'll see, but Greece without this backcourt and Giannis strikes me as a very mediocre European team. No NBA players, no players who scored more than 9 points in the Euroleague last year, and a questionable inexperienced backcourt.

I am just looking at Greece's camp roster, and finally with these cancers like Sloukas and Calathes off the team, there are some normal guards added, and some others that can take a bigger role.

For example, Giannoulis Larantzakis has had to take a smaller role than someone like Dorsey, because Dorsey played in the NBA, so he must be better. Yes, the Greek federation and Greek coaches use this same mentality, just like a general realgm poster.

The fact is that Larentzakis is way better than Dorsey could ever be. Not even close. I mean he's a far superior player to Dorsey in every way. He is probably even a better shooter than Dorsey. Because all Dorsey can do is hit those open jumpers and good looks. He can't hit shots with a good defender on him. And the vast majority of shots he takes are open jumpers. So that's why you can't just look at shooting percentages. Guys that only shoot open jumpers but hit 40%, but can't make contested jumpers are not the best shooters. You have to actually see them in games, and how they shoot.

Larentzakis can hit contested jumpers, he's a better shooter off the dribble, he has deeper shooting range, he's got an equally quick shooting release. Plus, he's a way better ball handler, passer, rebounder, defender, shot creator, play maker, etc. But he never played in the NBA, so he has had to take a backseat to Dorsey. It's better for Greece to just have Larentzakis take over as the main two guard. Much, much better.

Calathes has for years choked away games for Greece, and was basically the reason they lost every elimination game that ended their tournaments for years. The worst example was in the 2015 EuroBasket. Greece was undefeated, they had the best team, they were better than Spain...it was the best Greek roster of all time (Bourousis, Zisis, Giannis, Fotsis, Spanoulis, Perperoglou, Printezis, etc., guys like Sloukas, Papanikolaou, Calathes, Kosta Koufos, were as they should be, just role players). But they also had a terrible coach, and cancerous chokers like Calathes, that could destroy everything, IF the incompetent coach decided to put them in charge at the end of a game.

Greece had the lead over Spain in the quarters, late in the game, and was in control of the game. Then Greece's coach got cute, and decided that it was a chance to rest Spanoulis. So he took Spanoulis, who was playing point guard and running the offense, and was controlling the whole tempo of the game, was dictating how the game was going, and Spain couldn't get control of the game rhythm, because he was controlling the game's flow so much.

But the coach decided to take Spanoulis out of the game for rest, with the theory that if he rested him in the 4th quarter, then he would be fresh for the last few minutes of the game. He replaced him with Calathes in the 4th quarter and some of crunch time. Within a mere matter of a few minutes of time, the game completely flipped by 180 degrees, and Spain, just like that, had a lead and was in complete control of the game. The game was over and done with, just from a few ridiculous possessions with Calathes.

The coach of course panicked, and put Spanoulis back in, but it was too late. Spanoulis and Giannis were fighting hard until the end of the game, and they almost made a comeback, as Giannis missed a three at the buzzer that would have won the game. But if the coach simply never put Calathes in the game, Greece would have sailed on to an easy gold medal, in probably total domination. None of the other teams could even challenge them. And that was the one time in the recent years that they had a more talented team than Spain, even if Spain had Gasol, Navarro, etc. But an incompetent coach and a cancerous choker like Calathes ruined the tournament.

OK, so now you have one of the best coaches in the EuroLeague in Itoudis, and you get rid of Calathes, and replace him with some point guard that can actually shoot, so the other team can't make Greece play 4 on 5 on offense. It doesn't have to be some great point guard, just a competent ball handler, passer, shooter and decision maker...

[Mirotic12]

So in Greece's camp they have guys like Dimitris Flionis and Vassilis Toliopoulos, that are both equally good ball handlers to Calathes, that are both equally good defenders to Calathes, as he's too slow to guard quick point guards, and actually Flionis is a better defender than Calathes, but the difference is that both of them are much better shooters than Calathes is, especially Toliopoulos.

Flionis is one of the better point guards in FIBA Champions League, and while his talent level is limited, he's an extremely steady, smart, tough and poised player on offense, and a very good defender. Toliopoulos unfortunately has never done much of anything in his senior career. But offensively, he was a dynamite level player in the youth levels. His talent is undeniable. Maybe he just needs a chance at some point.

Now yes, Calathes is a better all around player than they are. Because he is a very versatile defender, he's a great passer, he's great at running pick and roll, he's a really good rebounder for a guard, he is very good at protecting the ball, he has great court vision, he's great in the open court.......so yes, he's a better all around player. But we are talking about how do players fit together into a national team. And because he can't shoot, he's a liability. It's the same problem he always had in EuroLeague. In all those years he was on Panathinaikos, they never won a single playoff game. It was because the other team just left him open the whole game, and made the rest of the team play 4 vs. 5 on offense. So for years and years, they never won a playoff game.

Guys like Flionis or Toliopoulos, if you leave them open, they will knock down threes with a good percentage. And they are perfectly capable of bringing the ball up and handling pressure.

Then when you consider that Greece naturalized Thomas Walkup, they don't even need Calathes. So it is addition by subtraction IMO. But with all of that being said, Greece will also have the problem of Thomas Walkup is also a bad shooter, and EuroLeague teams often leave him unguarded also. He often gets the "Calathes defense" used on him the same way. And unlike Calathes, he's also often shy about trying to score. Sometimes he goes a whole game without attempting a shot, which is crazy.

So if Greece's coach decides to play Walkup 30 minutes a game, then all of the same problems with Calathes can arise. If we compare Walkup to Calathes as overall players, Walkup is nowhere near as good of a ball handler, passer, or rebounder as Calathes is. However, Walkup is a much better defender, he's a much more physical player, and he's a much, much, much more athletic player than Calathes is. He's also at his career's absolute peak, while Calathes is at his obvious decline. So all in all, it's still better to not have Calathes on the team...

[Mirotic12]

As for Sloukas....he's a huge cancer. It's so obvious. Olympiacos was silently shoving him out of the team, and doing all the little things they could to nudge him out. Which eventually worked. Olympiacos' coach Bartzokas made a huge blunder when he decided to sign Sloukas to a big deal and give him the lead of the team.

You have to understand that up until that point, Sloukas was a role player his whole career. A role player in Olympiacos the first time, he was like a 7th or 8th man or something, then a role player in Fener, where players like Bogdan Bogdanovic, Udoh, Vesely, Bjelica, etc. were all clearly more important than him.

He got a big name though, because he was in the rotations of so many teams that went to the EuroLeague finals and that won multiple championships. But it was like Derek Fisher on the Lakers, except he wasn't even that important on his teams, as Fisher was.

Olympiacos decided to make him their lead player then. It was disatrous. It doesn't matter what any stats say, or that they made the Final Four last season, and the Finals this season. That was all despite Sloukas. He's a gigantic cancer. He's a ball hog, he's a choker, he seems overly concerned with his stats, he almost never plays any defense, even though, he's actually capable of being a good defender if he wants to, he demands the ball in his hands all the time, even when he's choking, he plays too much hero ball, even though he's not good enough to play that way, etc.

It's honestly like he has a complex from playing with prime Spanoulis on Olympiacos, when he was younger. Sloukas had said before that Spanoulis was his idol when he was a kid, and then when he was playing with Spanoulis, he said he wanted to eventually be the next Spanoulis. It's like he can't play as his own self, and he wants to copy Spanoulis. But you can't do that unless you are super clutch. That was Spanoulis' main basketball gift. EuroLeague voted him the most clutch player ever. While Sloukas is actually pretty much a definite big time choker for the most part.

The clutch gene is just something you have or don't have. But if you don't have it, you can't emulate your playing style after the most clutch player. It just makes no sense. But that is how he plays, like he is determined as all hell that he's going to decide the outcome of games, he's going to be making all the decisions late in the game, he's going to decide who gets the ball, who gets shots, he's going to take the last shot, etc. It's a disastrous mix for a club team like Olympiacos that is trying to win championships, and it's even worse for a national team, when you play single elimination round after round, and you have Giannis on that team, and he needs the ball an incredible amount of time to be at all effective in any way.

It's further exemplified by the point that previous lead guards Greece had like Nikos Zisis, Vassilis Spanoulis, Theo Papaloukas, and Dimitris Diamantidis, while they were all much better individual players than Sloukas, they were all the opposite mentality, and were 100% team first players. If anything, when Zisis and Spanoulis played with Giannis, they deferred to him too much, as for example, Spanoulis was running pick and roll with Giannis like every time they were in a set, which in all honesty, Giannis wasn't nearly good enough then to be doing that. But it would be ideal now. But Sloukas, who isn't even 1/10 as good a player, will be fighting with Giannis over who is the lead guy to get the ball.

Sloukas is a really good shooter, and he's equally as good as a spot shooter, off the dribble, catch and shoot, he's very good at pick and roll, he's a very good passer, he has good court vision, and he's a very good ball handler. But his decision making, basketball IQ, and defense are just terrible. He's basically the Greek version of Thomas Heurtel, except that Heurtel is actually very clutch, and Sloukas is a choker. So Thomas Heurtel, except not clutch. And if you don't know Thomas Heurtel, he is a guy that never lasts more than one season or two on any EuroLeague team, because his hero ball, ball hogging, and chucking get him off every team. But he's at least a really clutch player. And teams still can't wait to get rid of him. Sloukas is like him, but is a choker.

So I think it's better for Greece to just have someone like Flionis or Toliopoulos on the team. Or even just a defensive specialist. They have Dimitris Moraitis, Michalis Lountzis, and Lefteris Bochoridis in their training camp. None of them is anywhere near as good as Sloukas as an all around player overall. But they are all athletic, they are all versatile players, they are all good defenders, and on offense, they will mainly just bring the ball up the floor and wait for an open shot, or an open lane to drive. Which in reality, while it means that they are all obviously much less skilled and much less talented players than Sloukas (they are end of bench role players for big EuroLeague teams), it also means that they are not going to cause Greece to lose games over ego either.

[Hair Canada]

I'm not a Greek basketball expert, though I do have some nostalgia to those Gallis and Yanakis days in the late 80s and I also loved watching Diamantidis and Spanoulis play in the 2000s.

But again, I think you're selling Sloukas and especially Calathes short. Calathes is not only the all time Euroleague leader in assists. He's also played well for the national team in the past. I watched some games in the 2019 WC and there's an argument he was Greece's best player (or at least on par with Giannis), shooting the ball well (13.5ppg on 42% from 3) and creating for others (6 assists per game) and playing very solid defense. He was hardly the reason the team didn't make it to the QF (that was a bit of a fluke in fact, as they beat the Czech Republic, which did make it and lost a nail biter to Brazil).

Now, you may like Flionis and Toliopoulos, but the fact remains that neither of them has been good enough to make it to a Euroleague team and it's not because they are young. Floinis last year in AEK with 7 points and 3 assists in 22 minutes per game in the Greek leauge is hardly reassuring.

So I might be wrong, but until proven otherwise, I think this is a mediocre Greek team, which could have used some higher Euroleague talent infusion. I would swtich them to the Canadian side of the draw any day with any of France, Slovenia, Spain, Germany, or Australia without giving it another thought (and I'm sure those teams would have also loved to switch them with Canada).

[BilboBanginz]

No Alvarado for Puerto Rico

Read on Twitter

[Fairview4Life]

No Alvarado for Puerto Rico

Read on Twitter

That tweet and pic makes it look like they are protecting the other competitors from him lol.

[PoundTown]

Our roster shouldn't fear anyone. We could arguably have the best starting backcourt in the tournament and definitely the top one outside of the US. We have an All NBA player and a dude who was the second best player on an NBA champion team. If this team can come together as a unit and play as a team, meaning Dillon Brooks and Lu Dort figure out they are there for defence first and offence secondary. Those are the things we don't know yet. Going to be annoying if egos get in the way, but egos aside, in a one game situation, this team has enough talent to beat anyone, and we can say that for the first time ever.

It really just takes Shai playing his normal All NBA game at the same time as Jamal having one of his games where he catches fire and they have a chance at the States.

[ItsDanger]

Training camp starts Aug 1st for a week before departing for exhibition games then onto World Cup I'm assuming. In the end, we're talking about 6 weeks time commitment which is quite long. They need to shorten this and/or pick a more convenient location other than SE Asia (but maybe the players like this location?).

[mojo13]

Canada FIBA World Cup schedule:
Friendlies (in Germany & Spain)
8/9 vs Germany
8/12 vs New Zealand
8/13 vs Germany/China
8/18 vs Spain
8/19 vs Domincan Rep
Maybe 1 more in Jakarta 22nd-23rd

Round 1 of the WC (Jakarta)
8/25 vs France
8/27 vs Lebanon
8/29 vs Latvia

Round 2: TBD