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

[UcanUwill]

Strazel is out, replaced by Hifi.
The front court defense is going to suck big big time...

Hifi is probably better fit in my opinion, I saw Strazel as third string PG over there, and he is super short, so I wasn't sure how important he must be. I don't know, maybe you guys think Strazel was better than Francisco, me, a Lithuanian guy, I probably overvalue Francisco cause he was so good this past season over here, in LKL finals he was incredible.

Hifi is 3 centimeters taller than Strazel with trex arms so it's not really a change on this side and he really struggles defensively on NT level.
Francisco and Okobo are already point oriented profiles (Okobo more iso and Francisco more a slasher) with a mediocre/lazy defense for Okobo. Strazel was bringing another profile, more poised/team oriented and a real upgrade on the defensive side vs Hifi.

I guess the coach will go with Maledon as the starter, having Francisco as a backup and Hifi as an offensive joker when nothing works for the two other guys and the team badly needs to score.

I did not see EL games with Francisco this year, how was he in defense with Zalgiris? Can he put pressure on the ball?

I would not say Francisco is a guy who puts a ton of pressure, no. He is not a defensive player, I don't think he is bad, but he is definitely offensive oriented. Maledon is 6'4 and I think he will definitely start, Francisco is very good off the bench heat check player, who is not bad point guard either. But his ball handling and quickness is elite, he can create space very easily.

[Mirotic12]

Everybody here are laughing with your post.
And they are not Panathinaikos fans.....

Saying Trinchieri is a better coach than Spanoulis would probably get someone banned for outrageous trolling on a European basketball forum. Unless it was a Panathinaikos fan site of course.

And it is a fact, that Scariolo and Pesic are usually like the 3rd, 4th, 5th choices for EuroLeague teams. Anyone that closely follows EuroLeague knows that.

On the other hand, not only was Spanoulis the first choice of Monaco, he was also the first choice of ASVEL, Baskonia, Bayern, and Efes.

So he is definitely seen as a more desirable coach option for EuroLeague teams than Scariolo and Pesic. The factually incorrect personal opinions of a few posters here that say otherwise, don't change that actual reality.

[LuDux1]

Trinchieri ~ Draymond Green of Euro coaches

[Mirotic12]

I never look at friendly results to fully project tournament, some questions get answered, but it is not a real thing. As Lithuanian fan, I remember we having terribly friendlies, but dominant tournament, 2007 comes to mind, we sucked in most friendles than Eurobasket started and we blew most teams out. Or in contrary, I remember during Butautas era, we just killed Super Spanish team right before tournament, everyone got their hopes up and then we lost to Poland and didn't even make out of the group stage, that coach Butautas era were a dark times for us.

One time friendlies didn't lie was for team USA in 2004. They sucked in these friendlies, I remember optimists tried to make out as, its fine its fine, it is jsut friendlies. But then Olympics started and the barely made out of the group, granted they won bronze at the end, so not terrible, but it was still very disappointing team USA.

Team USA are the one exception to the prep games don't really matter rule. For the simple obvious reason that unlike all other national teams, their strategy is to try to win all the prep games.

[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.

Strazel is out, replaced by Hifi.
The front court defense is going to suck big big time...

Hifi is probably better fit in my opinion, I saw Strazel as third string PG over there, and he is super short, so I wasn't sure how important he must be. I don't know, maybe you guys think Strazel was better than Francisco, me, a Lithuanian guy, I probably overvalue Francisco cause he was so good this past season over here, in LKL finals he was incredible.

I like both Strazel and Francisco. Strazel is really smart, he's balsy, and he's very clutch.

You are not overrating Francisco at all. More like underrated him. He's a serious baller and super clutch. He's definitely one of the most underrated players in EuroLeague.

For example, he's way better than Lonnie Walker was on the same team.

[Swuul]

Who will be the young future stars looking for a breakout in Eurobasket 2025?
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-eurobasket-2025/news/who-will-be-the-breakout-stars-at-fiba-eurobasket-2025

[Mirotic12]

Who will be the young future stars looking for a breakout in Eurobasket 2025?
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-eurobasket-2025/news/who-will-be-the-breakout-stars-at-fiba-eurobasket-2025

It's too bad Zougris got that ankle injury. I would rather have him in Greece's roster than Katsivelis.

[UcanUwill]

European Superstars really helped growing Eurobaskets popularity, especially in the US. I have seen quite a few US podcast talk Eurobasket, they however never even mentioned that AMeriCup is happening right now and their country plays in it. Eurobasket gets all attention, Hoops collective dropped entirely Eurobasket pod.

[UcanUwill]

Lithuania has comfortable 18 point lead vs Britain late in the third, despite the fact they made 1 three in the entire game so far. British players are clearly few levels below, altho Akwasi Yeboah had some nice individual skill moments.

Hate Great Britain jerseys, looks similar to Chechia but that GREAT BRITAIN on it with that super small and crappy font, looks so bad, like its NBA practice jersey or smth. They just should not spell their name on their uniform, too long, just incorporate British flag motives in it, thats what I would do if I designed their unis.

[_NoMas]

It’s Neemias Queta’s world and we’re all just living in it

[UcanUwill]

It’s Neemias Queta’s world and we’re all just living in it

Just wanted to say, he had dominant first half it seems. I watched the other game, but I will check the second half.

[nomansland]

I'm in Spain. Anyone know how to access all of the games? I'm willing to pay if necessary.

[CharityStripe34]

I'm in Spain. Anyone know how to access all of the games? I'm willing to pay if necessary.

Courtside 1891

[nomansland]

I'm in Spain. Anyone know how to access all of the games? I'm willing to pay if necessary.

Courtside 1891

Thanks. I went there but it looked a little suspicious.

[Joao Saraiva]

Neemias with a stellar performance for Portugal so far.

[Joao Saraiva]

However only Lisboa, Travante and Queta are giving the team a solid game. That's too short. Whenever Travante (3 fouls) and Neemias are not in it's another game.

[Jellybeans]

Q should dominate because i wouldnt call does czech bigs really bigs

[-Luke-]

Not a lot of fan interest in Germany vs. Montenegro it seems.

[Joao Saraiva]

Q should dominate because i wouldnt call does czech bigs really bigs

Still it's not like he's playing on a great squad either. But let's see how he performs against better bigs. So far it was impressive, even the outside shot was on point!

[knicksfan974]

Not a lot of fan interest in Germany vs. Montenegro it seems.

It's pretty pathetic how small the amount of travelling basketball fans is for many countries, even for the biggest of European countries. Small sports/basketball passionate countries like Finland and Lithuania always have big fan support no matter where the tournament is played, but don't know if there are many other countries who can match these fanbases. Looks to me like big countries like Germany and France have pretty pathetic amount of fans supporting them abroad, especially considering the huge population size of these countries.