OT : Eurobasket 2025 semifinals | Türkiye vs Greece | & | Finland vs Germany |

[UcanUwill]

France announced final 12. Funny thing, was it last week they cut Hornets center Debate, but days later Poirier got injured and he wont be able to play, so France called Diabate again, but he said - no, I am good...

France roster

C: Alexandre Sarr, Mouhammadou Jaiteh
PF: Guerschon Yabusele, Jaylen Hoard
SF: Zaccharie Risacher, Bilal Coulibaly, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot
SG: Elie Okobo, Isaia Cordinier
PG: Theo Maledon, Sylvain Francisco, Matthew Strazel

Man, France centers : Victor, Rudy, Lessort, Poirier, Fall.but Mouhammadou Jaiteh is going to Eurobasket.

Does not matter. That will be very experimental frontcourt. 'Normal' frontcourt for the future will be around Raynaud/Wembanyama + Risacher/Coulibaly (at the wing). Pf spot will be a mix of players (Sarr being one of them, Victor probably as well in Fiba bball).
Knowing there are other options at the 4/5 spots (like Tillie, Batcho..).

Diabate refused to come back and staff did not want to call (insist on) another option (we had Bodian Massa that made the preparation, and some other possible options).

Our main issue will remain the consistency on both ends - of our backcourt compare to other teams.

We are not competiting with best teams (far from it). We belong to the Finland/Turkey etc tier (and that's being optimistic).

This year it does matter, because France went from arguably having most dominant bigmen lineup to having underwhelming one, and against certain teams now, they have disadvantage at that match up now. If guy like Sengun, Porzinigs or Jonas have huge games, this team could lose to those lesser teams now, there is a window for those teams to beat France now. With Rudy, Lessert and Victor they would have been dominant.

[Mirotic12]

France announced final 12. Funny thing, was it last week they cut Hornets center Debate, but days later Poirier got injured and he wont be able to play, so France called Diabate again, but he said - no, I am good...

France roster

C: Alexandre Sarr, Mouhammadou Jaiteh
PF: Guerschon Yabusele, Jaylen Hoard
SF: Zaccharie Risacher, Bilal Coulibaly, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot
SG: Elie Okobo, Isaia Cordinier
PG: Theo Maledon, Sylvain Francisco, Matthew Strazel

Man, France centers : Victor, Rudy, Lessort, Poirier, Fall.but Mouhammadou Jaiteh is going to Eurobasket.

This should be a good opportunity for Francisco and Strazel to establish themselves in France's national team. They are both dynamic players and very clutch.

It should also be a good opportunity for Jaiteh. He's a nice all around big man. I'm not sure if he's healthy though. He had several injuries and wasn't playing at the end of the season.

[bravor]

Yes it does not matter, since for world competitions (WC and hopefully olympics), the guys selected this year won't be playing barring major injuries. When i say 'experimental', what i mean is that this Eurobasket should be aimed at giving responsabiities to both Risacher & Coulibaly, maybe couple more.

But it's not like Poirier or Diabate would have fixed anything against top teams. Most players in the 12 are average to good players, so at best, it will bring a slighty above average result.

Btw i dont get why Italy is not in the poll. On a good day they can beat absolutely anyone (and serbs are not gonna deny that). KNowing it's kinda Gallo's jubilee, i would think they will get extra motivation. Not gonna lie though, i did vote for Serbia. But it's one of those Eurobasket when a lot can happen.

[Swuul]

Every place I look it says they joined FIBA in 1992 and can't find anything before that.

I can't, because only the national associations were and are FIBA members. For example Basketball England was always reprsesented by Basketball Great Britain in FIBA committees. In 1996 it was decided, that no sub-associations could take part in any FIBA sanctioned tournaments either, only teams presenting the parent associaction (hence England, Scotland and Wales could no longer take part in FIBA sanctioned tournaments).

I played in 1980 or 1981 (or maybe 1982?) in a FIBA youth tournament (could have been a friendly tournament, can't really remember anymore), where three of the six teams came from Soviet Union (Soviet Union, Kazakstan and Lithuania, if memory serves right). Wish I had any photos from that.

That's the point. Each republic indeed had separate teams, it's just they competed only in internal USSR tournaments and sometimes some friendly, non-FIBA tournaments (just like another poster shared a photo of LT youth team against US college team or something)

For a non-FIBA tournament it is odd that I (and all the others) got a FIBA participiation diploma :p

Like I said earlier, sub-association national teams were accepted in some spesific situations. That did end in 1996.

[sisibilio]

Abalde also out of the Eurobasket (not that big of a deal tbh)
Saint-Supery suffered an ankle sprain vs France, if he's out too and Diaz doesn't recover i might finally get my chance.

[Swuul]

I don't think I have ever watched a "friendly game" with FIBA rules last 2 hours 20 minutes, with 67 fouls called (this in the Finland at Poland friendly today). The polish coach was sent out after technical fouls. At times it did look more like Aussie football rather than basketball.

[sunsbg]

Markkanen is an ATG if only NT play was taken into consideration.

Already put a bet on Serbia so I can feel engaged in this tournament, but I want to bet a dark horse too. Who's the most worthy candidate ?

[Mavrelous]

Markkanen is an ATG if only NT play was taken into consideration.

Already put a bet on Serbia so I can feel engaged in this tournament, but I want to bet a dark horse too. Who's the most worthy candidate ?

Latvia.

[BruttoNostra]

I can't, because only the national associations were and are FIBA members. For example Basketball England was always reprsesented by Basketball Great Britain in FIBA committees. In 1996 it was decided, that no sub-associations could take part in any FIBA sanctioned tournaments either, only teams presenting the parent associaction (hence England, Scotland and Wales could no longer take part in FIBA sanctioned tournaments).

I played in 1980 or 1981 (or maybe 1982?) in a FIBA youth tournament (could have been a friendly tournament, can't really remember anymore), where three of the six teams came from Soviet Union (Soviet Union, Kazakstan and Lithuania, if memory serves right). Wish I had any photos from that.

That's the point. Each republic indeed had separate teams, it's just they competed only in internal USSR tournaments and sometimes some friendly, non-FIBA tournaments (just like another poster shared a photo of LT youth team against US college team or something)

For a non-FIBA tournament it is odd that I (and all the others) got a FIBA participiation diploma :p

Like I said earlier, sub-association national teams were accepted in some spesific situations. That did end in 1996.

First of all - kudos for the diploma, it's definitely much higher level of ball than I ever played, and I guess the majority of this forum as well.
But I really can't find any evidence of separate soviet republics in FIBA tourneys before 1991 (between 1991 and 1993 there were some crazy stuff, at least in football, not sure about basketball) - neither in google nor with AI tools nor on wiki or kazakh basketball federation website.
You yourself mentioned it "could have been a friendly tournament".
Also, another explanation might be like "Spain B" team playing friendly games this summer is equal to some USSR B/C/D-team, but consisting of single republic players, just for fun/whatever political reasons.

Anyway, I don't want really to derail this thread, and I have huge respect for you playing on such a high level - my international basketball experience can be summed with two YMCA-style sessions in US during work trips + welcoming our Lithuanian colleagues (and I'm talking about software engineers, ffs) in my country just to be amazed how the most clumsy Lithuanian guy was head and shoulders better than whatever street/semi-pro level me and my local guys played.

Back on topic of this Eurobasket, am I the only one here NOT being convinced by "slim" Luka? I'm talking about not seeing 31 lost lbs. (edit - just went to Skinny Luka thread and apparently other people think the same).
I'm a huge Luka fan and wish him MVP and ring and whatever this upcoming season, but for me personally he doesn't seem any significantly slimmer this summer than in any summer with the NT (though a bit slimmer than with Lakers, I can admit it, but his summers were always when he was in a best shape). Yes, his outside the court images, especially in a crowd of non-athletic people, always look better than his on-court double-chin appearance.
I mean, comparing him today vs that Men's Health magazine cover from a month ago - he looks like he added some weight, while in reality I guess he is more or less the same, and it's probably plenty of favorable angles and who knows, maybe some photoshop/special effects in that magazine.

[Bob8]

That's the point. Each republic indeed had separate teams, it's just they competed only in internal USSR tournaments and sometimes some friendly, non-FIBA tournaments (just like another poster shared a photo of LT youth team against US college team or something)

For a non-FIBA tournament it is odd that I (and all the others) got a FIBA participiation diploma :p

Like I said earlier, sub-association national teams were accepted in some spesific situations. That did end in 1996.

First of all - kudos for the diploma, it's definitely much higher level of ball than I ever played, and I guess the majority of this forum as well.
But I really can't find any evidence of separate soviet republics in FIBA tourneys before 1991 (between 1991 and 1993 there were some crazy stuff, at least in football, not sure about basketball) - neither in google nor with AI tools nor on wiki or kazakh basketball federation website.
You yourself mentioned it "could have been a friendly tournament".
Also, another explanation might be like "Spain B" team playing friendly games this summer is equal to some USSR B/C/D-team, but consisting of single republic players, just for fun/whatever political reasons.

Anyway, I don't want really to derail this thread, and I have huge respect for you playing on such a high level - my international basketball experience can be summed with two YMCA-style sessions in US during work trips + welcoming our Lithuanian colleagues (and I'm talking about software engineers, ffs) in my country just to be amazed how the most clumsy Lithuanian guy was head and shoulders better than whatever street/semi-pro level me and my local guys played.

Back on topic of this Eurobasket, am I the only one here NOT being convinced by "slim" Luka? I'm talking about not seeing 31 lost lbs. (edit - just went to Skinny Luka thread and apparently other people think the same).
I'm a huge Luka fan and wish him MVP and ring and whatever this upcoming season, but for me personally he doesn't seem any significantly slimmer this summer than in any summer with the NT (though a bit slimmer than with Lakers, I can admit it, but his summers were always when he was in a best shape). Yes, his outside the court images, especially in a crowd of non-athletic people, always look better than his on-court double-chin appearance.
I mean, comparing him today vs that Men's Health magazine cover from a month ago - he looks like he added some weight, while in reality I guess he is more or less the same, and it's probably plenty of favorable angles and who knows, maybe some photoshop/special effects in that magazine.

I'm seeing him every year in Krk, so I can guarantee you he never was a slim as this year. You have to see him in person to understand how big dude he's. If you expect him looking as Sga than you will be disappointed.

But it's true he was in pretty good shape some of other years too, especially before 23/24 season, when he avg. 34/9/10. You're not having those numbers being fat. Luka was in bad shape last preseason and before 22/23 season. He was in pretty good shape other years, but never as good as this year.

Talking constantly about conditioning of a player, who was 5x in a row in first All Nba team is kinda funny though. I would say that Luka and Jokic benefit from those extra pounds, so there is very fine line how much weight should he lose.

[Mavrelous]

Back on topic of this Eurobasket, am I the only one here NOT being convinced by "slim" Luka? I'm talking about not seeing 31 lost lbs. (edit - just went to Skinny Luka thread and apparently other people think the same).
I'm a huge Luka fan and wish him MVP and ring and whatever this upcoming season, but for me personally he doesn't seem any significantly slimmer this summer than in any summer with the NT (though a bit slimmer than with Lakers, I can admit it, but his summers were always when he was in a best shape). Yes, his outside the court images, especially in a crowd of non-athletic people, always look better than his on-court double-chin appearance.
I mean, comparing him today vs that Men's Health magazine cover from a month ago - he looks like he added some weight, while in reality I guess he is more or less the same, and it's probably plenty of favorable angles and who knows, maybe some photoshop/special effects in that magazine.

I think big portion the 31 lbs come from low carb cut, which result in massive water loss and very slim look, I have similar build to Luka, though 2-3 inches shorter, and on keto cuts I lose 20-25 lbs in one month, more than half of it muscle glycogen stores and the water it holds, your muscles look very flat and lean with much less bulk, just a guess, but it also explains how Luka looks fat/skinny on few weeks apart sometimes, you can gain 2-3 lbs a day when you go back to eating just 200 grams of carbs a day, which isn't a lot by balanced diet measure.
He looks very similar to how he was in 23 summer, which isn't a bad thing, he came in and had 34/9/10 and finals run.

[Ferulci]

France announced final 12. Funny thing, was it last week they cut Hornets center Debate, but days later Poirier got injured and he wont be able to play, so France called Diabate again, but he said - no, I am good...

France roster

C: Alexandre Sarr, Mouhammadou Jaiteh
PF: Guerschon Yabusele, Jaylen Hoard
SF: Zaccharie Risacher, Bilal Coulibaly, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot
SG: Elie Okobo, Isaia Cordinier
PG: Theo Maledon, Sylvain Francisco, Matthew Strazel

Man, France centers : Victor, Rudy, Lessort, Poirier, Fall.but Mouhammadou Jaiteh is going to Eurobasket.

No Nadir Hifi is maddening. He's the type of firestarter we need if we want to have a chance against Serbia or Germany. And yeah, it took a crazy turn of events for Jaiteh to be a back-up, when you know France that Victor, Rudy, Lessort, Fall, Poirier, Beringer and Reynaud weren't available. We're about to play lots of small ball.

[durden_tyler]

Any other prospects for the NBA we must watch? Of course not the already current NBA stars playing but potentially role players like France's Yabusule in the Olympics, where he turned heads and got the bag.

[BruttoNostra]

For a non-FIBA tournament it is odd that I (and all the others) got a FIBA participiation diploma :p

Like I said earlier, sub-association national teams were accepted in some spesific situations. That did end in 1996.

First of all - kudos for the diploma, it's definitely much higher level of ball than I ever played, and I guess the majority of this forum as well.
But I really can't find any evidence of separate soviet republics in FIBA tourneys before 1991 (between 1991 and 1993 there were some crazy stuff, at least in football, not sure about basketball) - neither in google nor with AI tools nor on wiki or kazakh basketball federation website.
You yourself mentioned it "could have been a friendly tournament".
Also, another explanation might be like "Spain B" team playing friendly games this summer is equal to some USSR B/C/D-team, but consisting of single republic players, just for fun/whatever political reasons.

Anyway, I don't want really to derail this thread, and I have huge respect for you playing on such a high level - my international basketball experience can be summed with two YMCA-style sessions in US during work trips + welcoming our Lithuanian colleagues (and I'm talking about software engineers, ffs) in my country just to be amazed how the most clumsy Lithuanian guy was head and shoulders better than whatever street/semi-pro level me and my local guys played.

Back on topic of this Eurobasket, am I the only one here NOT being convinced by "slim" Luka? I'm talking about not seeing 31 lost lbs. (edit - just went to Skinny Luka thread and apparently other people think the same).
I'm a huge Luka fan and wish him MVP and ring and whatever this upcoming season, but for me personally he doesn't seem any significantly slimmer this summer than in any summer with the NT (though a bit slimmer than with Lakers, I can admit it, but his summers were always when he was in a best shape). Yes, his outside the court images, especially in a crowd of non-athletic people, always look better than his on-court double-chin appearance.
I mean, comparing him today vs that Men's Health magazine cover from a month ago - he looks like he added some weight, while in reality I guess he is more or less the same, and it's probably plenty of favorable angles and who knows, maybe some photoshop/special effects in that magazine.

I'm seeing him every year in Krk, so I can guarantee you he never was a slim as this year. You have to see him in person to understand how big dude he's. If you expect him looking as Sga than you will be disappointed.

But it's true he was in pretty good shape some of other years too, especially before 23/24 season, when he avg. 34/9/10. You're not having those numbers being fat. Luka was in bad shape last preseason and before 22/23 season. He was in pretty good shape other years, but never as good as this year.

Talking constantly about conditioning of a player, who was 5x in a row in first All Nba team is kinda funny though. I would say that Luka and Jokic benefit from those extra pounds, so there is very fine line how much weight should he lose.

Yea, I'm the last person in the world you should convince even a fat Luka is an MVP candidate and a great playoff performer.
If you saw him live and have previous summers as a benchmark - awesome, and great to hear. Even losing 31lbs he still looks strong enough to hold his own, but hopefully it will help at least to reduce an injury risk (or the severity of it).

[UcanUwill]

Any other prospects for the NBA we must watch? Of course not the already current NBA stars playing but potentially role players like France's Yabusule in the Olympics, where he turned heads and got the bag.

You mean players who are not in the NBA, but could make NBA?

I think it is not all over for Artūrs Žagars from Latvia. A 6'2 point guard.

6'5 PG Sergio De Larrea from Spain

6'4 PG Theo Maledon from France.

6'4 PG Aleksa Avramović and 6'11 PF Filip Petrušev from Serbia

6'8 SF Isaac Bonga from Germany

6'9 PF Tadas Sedekerskis and 6'10 C Ažuolas Tubelis from Lithuania

6'10 C Roman Sorkin from Israel

6'7 SF Gabriele Procida from Italy

These players come to mind for me. Those are not best European players, but players I would not be surprised to see in the NBA in a few years, considering their age, or play style, or willingness to play in NBA summer league or expressed NBA interest in the past. Yebusselle was a bit different as he was one of the best PFs in Europe at a time, I would not say these guys are the same, but based on the said parameters, I think these ones fit.

Obviously there could be more, but I highlighted these ones for now. Out of these, I think Aleksa Avramović, Filip Petrušev and Theo Maledon are probably the best players from European perspective at least. But sometimes, insignificant role players make best NBA players as long as they play NBA level defense, and out of these, Isaac Bonga fits, some Euro fans might be surprised he receives NBA interest as he is just a role player, but his defensive capabilities for example are really good. Same for Serbian PG Aleksa Avramović, they would be plus defenders in the NBA day one IMO, it is the shooting that would be in question.

[Mavrelous]

I think it is not all over for Artūrs Žagars from Latvia. A 6'2 point guard.

What happened to him? He had a killer world cup (or Olympics don't remember).

[sisibilio]

Lucas Langarita and Alvaro Cardenas joining spanish training camp, just in case.

[UcanUwill]

I think it is not all over for Artūrs Žagars from Latvia. A 6'2 point guard.

What happened to him? He had a killer world cup (or Olympics don't remember).

He is doing well, he played for insignificant Lithuanian club at a time, but after world cup he signed with Fenerbachce Istanbul, then he was loaned to another Lithuanian team, but later came back to Fenerbache and he had his moments. But he also had serious injury and missed a lot of time. Fenerbachce are current Euroleague champions and is top 5 team in Europe, so team is stacked and there were times when Zagars would just warm the bench, but I think in moments he played he proved to be Euroleague caliber guard.

He maybe did not fulfilled his pre draft potential, some people comapred him to Navarro when he was young, but he still became very capable offensive guard.

[Mavrelous]

I think it is not all over for Artūrs Žagars from Latvia. A 6'2 point guard.

What happened to him? He had a killer world cup (or Olympics don't remember).

He is doing well, he played for insignificant Lithuanian club at a time, but after world cup he signed with Fenerbachce Istanbul, then he was loaned to another Lithuanian team, but later came back to Fenerbache and he had his moments. But he also had serious injury and missed a lot of time. Fenerbachce are current Euroleague champions and is top 5 team in Europe, so team is stacked and there were times when Zagars would just warm the bench, but I think in moments he played he proved to be Euroleague caliber guard.

He maybe did not fulfilled his pre draft potential, some people comapred him to Navarro when he was young, but he still became very capable offensive guard.

When he played in the WC, he was also coming off injury, am I remembering right?
Really liked his game, has guts like Saras.

[-Luke-]

Any other prospects for the NBA we must watch? Of course not the already current NBA stars playing but potentially role players like France's Yabusule in the Olympics, where he turned heads and got the bag.

You mean players who are not in the NBA, but could make NBA?

I think it is not all over for Artūrs Žagars from Latvia. A 6'2 point guard.

6'5 PG Sergio De Larrea from Spain

6'4 PG Theo Maledon from France.

6'4 PG Aleksa Avramović and 6'11 PF Filip Petrušev from Serbia

6'8 SF Isaac Bonga from Germany
[...]

Wasn't there some serious NBA hype around Žagars after the last World Cup? I wonder if he had offers from NBA teams and decided to stay in Europe.

Some NBA fans might remember Bonga as he was drafted by the Lakers in the same draft as Mo Wagner and played four seasons in the NBA. It was the right decision for him to go back to Europe and he has really improved. Could make the jump to the NBA again in the playoffs. The was also some NBA hype around Andi Obst after 2023, because he hit like 25 threes in the semis against USA. I guess it's too late for him now.

Aleksa Avramović... man, don't remind me of that guy. I still have nightmares because he played like prime Jason Kidd on the defensive end in 2023. Great guy. Would rather die than lose a game.