2024 Olympic Basketball Discussion Thread

[UcanUwill]

Puerto Rico just put Lithuania out of the Olympics and qualified. Alvarado went ham. Wow.

Sorry to UcanUwill.

https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-olympic-qualifying-tournament-2024-san-juan-puerto-rico/news/puerto-rico-ends-20-year-olympic-draught-with-historic-win-over-lithuania

Yeah, very disappointing outcome for us, second time in a row we miss Olympics entirely. Thats the downside of basketball getting more and more popular worldwide, so many nations can play the game, poor ass country with 2.5 milion population cant just walk their way to Olympic semis anymore
just because they care and have tall people, these days are freaking over.

Sabonis once again was trash, I swear if I ever see anyone again suggest he is better than his pops... dude can get 500 straight double doubles, dude is as mid as they come. I wasnt even convinced he is better than Tubelis out there.

Its a guards game now, and we have one decent guard on the team - Grigonis, and Puerto Rico gameplanned brilliantly to stop him, no one else showed up, well, Jokubaitis was good, he was giving them trouble, but by third quarter we were done, shots were not falling and players got afraid, they started hesitating, doubting themselves, passing up good shots. Puerto Rico were the opposite, with the help of home crowd they caught a wave and ran with it.

[UcanUwill]

wemby's getting overrated. noone cared when siakam and embiid played for cameroon but wemby who led the spurs to the lottery is going to be the difference.

I do not get what you mean? When did these guys played for Cameroon for starters, we all did care that they NEVER PLAYED.

Also, you just needed to see Wembanyama I guess. Yeah, he was on a team with 21 wins, they lost like 22 games in a row, because Popovich played Sochan as lead guard for half a season, that team record meant nothing at all.

By the end of the season, Wembanyama already was undoubtfully the most dominant defensive player in a game of basketball. The gripe with him was always shot selection and shooting ability. Even that gotten a big upgrade, especially when he was moved to center position, first half of season, they didnt even play him as center, despite him being guaranteed points near the rim. And their guard playmaking was awful, Sochan again...

Despite all that, Wembanyama was amazing, the day next season starts, he is top 10 player in the league at least, but we will see where he ranks by next March, guy could win MVP, it wouldn't be shocking.

Overrated? Have you seen how France looks with him, and how they looked without him? What was his plus minus versus Tutkey, +44 I think, and Turkey shot literally below 5% from the floor, when Victor was on the court, 1-24 shooting. If not the injuries, this guy will undoubtfully be a GOAT, Hair Jordan better prep for new online battle...

[_jin]

Spain announces its final roster with one change, Juan Nunez is sent back home and replaced by Alex Abrines who missed the OQT due to an injury.
Not a fan of replacing a player who helped you qualify, and while Juan Nunez will be important for them in the future and they could have used another PG for depth, they also need the shooting Abrines brings even though he doesnt bring much else at this point.

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[lambchop]

Spain announces its final roster with one change, Juan Nunez is sent back home and replaced by Alex Abrines who missed the OQT due to an injury.
Not a fan of replacing a player who helped you qualify, and while Juan Nunez will be important for them in the future and they could have used another PG for depth, they also need the shooting Abrines brings even though he doesnt bring much else at this point.

Read on Twitter

It would have been an utter waste of Nunez time to have time glued to the bench. At least he has the summer to work on his game and prepare for his season with Barcelona.

[UcanUwill]

Spain announces its final roster with one change, Juan Nunez is sent back home and replaced by Alex Abrines who missed the OQT due to an injury.
Not a fan of replacing a player who helped you qualify, and while Juan Nunez will be important for them in the future and they could have used another PG for depth, they also need the shooting Abrines brings even though he doesnt bring much else at this point.

Read on Twitter

It would have been an utter waste of Nunez time to have time glued to the bench. At least he has the summer to work on his game and prepare for his season with Barcelona.

True, tho from Spanish side, if Lorenzo or Diaz get hurt, they are in trouble. Maybe not. they have Llull, he can run some point, I was ready to write how its risky to only have 2 ball handlers, but yeah, I remembered Llull is here. Abrines will be helpful, he should be in regular rotation.

But I agree cutting a guy after qualifying is a bit dirty, even if he barely played. We were at same spot, if qualified, Jonas would have joined the team, and one of Motiejunas or Tubelis would have been cut...

Nunez tho is young, I think he was happy to be here and doubt takes it very personally.

[_jin]

Spain announces its final roster with one change, Juan Nunez is sent back home and replaced by Alex Abrines who missed the OQT due to an injury.
Not a fan of replacing a player who helped you qualify, and while Juan Nunez will be important for them in the future and they could have used another PG for depth, they also need the shooting Abrines brings even though he doesnt bring much else at this point.

Read on Twitter

It would have been an utter waste of Nunez time to have time glued to the bench. At least he has the summer to work on his game and prepare for his season with Barcelona.

There are different school of thoughts when it comes to that. His skills would improve faster by staying at Barcelona workign all summer but there are also a lot of positives you can get from being around your national team (especially one like Spain stacked with vets) in an Olympics tournament, even if you dont play. There's also practicing individually alone with a trainer in a gym versus practicing as a team and for a PG the latter is obviously better. And Nunez is already quite skilled, he needs to work on his body and turn some fat into muscle but I personally think it'd have been better for his long term career to stay with the Spanish squad.

[_jin]

Final Japanese roster.

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[Johnny Bball]

Puerto Rico just put Lithuania out of the Olympics and qualified. Alvarado went ham. Wow.

Sorry to UcanUwill.

https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-olympic-qualifying-tournament-2024-san-juan-puerto-rico/news/puerto-rico-ends-20-year-olympic-draught-with-historic-win-over-lithuania

Yeah, very disappointing outcome for us, second time in a row we miss Olympics entirely. Thats the downside of basketball getting more and more popular worldwide, so many nations can play the game, poor ass country with 2.5 milion population cant just walk their way to Olympic semis anymore
just because they care and have tall people, these days are freaking over.

Sabonis once again was trash, I swear if I ever see anyone again suggest he is better than his pops... dude can get 500 straight double doubles, dude is as mid as they come. I wasnt even convinced he is better than Tubelis out there.

Its a guards game now, and we have one decent guard on the team - Grigonis, and Puerto Rico gameplanned brilliantly to stop him, no one else showed up, well, Jokubaitis was good, he was giving them trouble, but by third quarter we were done, shots were not falling and players got afraid, they started hesitating, doubting themselves, passing up good shots. Puerto Rico were the opposite, with the help of home crowd they caught a wave and ran with it.

Great point for that game. Because that game is a great example of that.

[Jasen777]

The starting 5 against the Select Team was Curry, Ant, Tatum, Bron, Embiid

LeBron as FIBA Melo!

[fuller4379]

They need to ban the pros from playing in the Olympics and go back to amateurs.

[bisme37]

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[_jin]

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I was wondering if there was a way I could watch it in France then I saw the time, 4:30am CET, I'm not staying up for a friendly lol even if it looks really interesting. Hopefully they'll fly to France soon so the next preparation games are at more convenient hours.

[UcanUwill]

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I was wondering if there was a way I could watch it in France then I saw the time, 4:30am CET, I'm not staying up for a friendly lol even if it looks really interesting. Hopefully they'll fly to France soon so the next preparation games are at more convenient hours.

Its usa vs can, i think if you really want, you probably could find a rerun, even if its torrent, lets pretend i didn't say that, but hey... would be interesting to at least get a boxscore, usa basketball should provide it, at least both canadian and usa official pages are in English. I tried to find boxscore for Greek friendlies, and yeah, how are those federations still have only domestic language option on their page, I do not speak alpha beta gamma.

[Mirotic12]

Its usa vs can, i think if you really want, you probably could find a rerun, even if its torrent, lets pretend i didn't say that, but hey... would be interesting to at least get a boxscore, usa basketball should provide it, at least both canadian and usa official pages are in English. I tried to find boxscore for Greek friendlies, and yeah, how are those federations still have only domestic language option on their page, I do not speak alpha beta gamma.

Greece 78 - Poland 73

https://stats.basket.gr/international-events/friendly-matches/2023-2024/gamedetails/id/97B65498-E463-4F42-A607-134141FD9760

Greece 86 - Montenegro 57

https://stats.basket.gr/33thAcropolisTournament/gamedetails/id/0418FED7-4B2C-4AB4-99A1-48567FDB233F

Greece 102 - Bahamas 75

https://stats.basket.gr/33thAcropolisTournament/gamedetails/id/C1901BC5-CCEE-4093-9EE1-CE234C5EF29F#play_by_play

[_jin]

One of the greatest honors you can bestow on an athlete. Congrats Giannis (and Antigoni Drisbioti whoever she is).

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[Mirotic12]

One of the greatest honors you can bestow on an athlete. Congrats Giannis (and Antigoni Drisbioti whoever she is).

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Miltos Tentoglou declined to do it actually. So Giannis got pretty lucky with that one.

[Pachinko_]

One of the greatest honors you can bestow on an athlete. Congrats Giannis (and Antigoni Drisbioti whoever she is).

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Miltos Tentoglou declined to do it actually. So Giannis got pretty lucky with that one.

Still a huge honour, I'm happy for him.

[CodeBreaker]

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I was wondering if there was a way I could watch it in France then I saw the time, 4:30am CET, I'm not staying up for a friendly lol even if it looks really interesting. Hopefully they'll fly to France soon so the next preparation games are at more convenient hours.

you're about to miss a classic wire to wire battle between 2 nations

[_jin]

Jovic and Davidovac are out of the Abu Dhabi trip Serbia will take next week to face off against Australia and Team USA. Jovic should be back for the Olympics but there are doubts around Davidovac's availability for the tournament.

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[Jadoogar]

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well that was fast