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

[Mirotic12]

Turns out trolling about free throws seems to come in a popularity basis cause no one is concern trolling about luka 14 fts per game on a 40 minute game tournament

It's been discussed in the thread, several pages back.

[DanEu]

Turns out trolling about free throws seems to come in a popularity basis cause no one is concern trolling about luka 14 fts per game on a 40 minute game tournament

When you play 35+ minutes and handle the ball 90% of the time you will get a lot of free throws. Some more deserved than others.

[mpoo_sin]

I think Luka might be the best FIBA player of the 2000s. Ginobili has a strong argument over him with that Olympic gold, but he also had a significantly better supporting cast.

Nowitzki had to carry a similar load. However, he obviously didn't have Luka's playmaking ability.

If we are talking about the supporting casts of the teams as a comparion:

That Argentina team was crazy stacked. Manu was playing on a super team for FIBA standards.

Dirk did carry a big load, but those 2000s German teams certainly had better support players than Slovenia has now.

While Dirk's teammates weren't good overall. I do agree that Okulaja would probably be Slovenia's 2nd best player now too. He averaged 10 ppg for Khimki Moscow which isn't easy to do.

R.I.P.

[Mirotic12]

If we are talking about the supporting casts of the teams as a comparion:

That Argentina team was crazy stacked. Manu was playing on a super team for FIBA standards.

Dirk did carry a big load, but those 2000s German teams certainly had better support players than Slovenia has now.

While Dirk's teammates weren't good overall. I do agree that Okulaja would probably be Slovenia's 2nd best player now too. He averaged 10 ppg for Khimki Moscow which isn't easy to do.

R.I.P.

I didn't even know.

[Mirotic12]

While Dirk's teammates weren't good overall. I do agree that Okulaja would probably be Slovenia's 2nd best player now too. He averaged 10 ppg for Khimki Moscow which isn't easy to do.

He averaged 13.2 ppg and 6.3 rpg in EuroLeague with Barsa.

https://www.proballers.com/basketball/player/3426/ademola-okulaja

So definitely better than Luka's current teamates.

And he wasn't the best teamate Dik had on those German teams.

Those Dirk era German teams had much better guards and big men than Slovenia has right now.

Of course, Dirk also faced tougher competition than Luka has. That era was stacked with USA, FR Yugoslavia, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Lithuania, Argentina, Russia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia all having really strong teams. The competition in terms of the number of good teams was higher back then.

[Mephariel]

Embid was at least in the USA for a long time. So that's quite a bit different example. But yes, there's an asterisk. For the country with the most talent and depth to be adding naturalized players, that qualiied for two other teams, one of them also being one of the best teams in the world (France), is ridiculous.

Everyone knows they did it just to make France a potentially weaker opponent at the Olympics. That's a very clear abuse of the rules.

The examples of Slovenia with Randolph and L. Brown with Spain were just absolutely egregious abuses of the rule.

Randolph had never even been to Slovenia and was playing for their national team.

So that's a huge asterisk gold. And most people I have talked with about this agree.

Your opinion and your people's opinion means nothing.

Well, it's definitely the majority opinion.

Show me this majority. Your friends? LOL. Who is saying this? Nobody. Netflix has a entire documentary on the 2024 Olympics and the word asterisk wasn't mentioned.

[Mirotic12]

Your opinion and your people's opinion means nothing.

Well, it's definitely the majority opinion.

Show me this majority. Your friends? LOL. Who is saying this? Nobody. Netflix has a entire documentary on the 2024 Olympics and the word asterisk wasn't mentioned.

Anthony Randolph has never played in the Olympics.

https://www.fiba.basketball/en/players/159900-anthony-randolph

[Mirotic12]

How a great player as Spanoulis was, can be such a bad coach?. I don't get It.

One of the worst teams of the tournament while having a Super star like Giannis.

Latvia , Litueva or Israel with less talent are much better teams.

Latvia and Israel are eliminated and Greece, with its such a bad coach, is still alive.

[Prez]

How a great player as Spanoulis was, can be such a bad coach?. I don't get It.

One of the worst teams of the tournament while having a Super star like Giannis.

Latvia , Litueva or Israel with less talent are much better teams.

Latvia and Israel are eliminated and Greece, with its such a bad coach, is still alive.

The luxury of having Giannis. 37/10 on 18/23 FG in just 29 minutes, continues to carry Greece.

[Greek]

Israel unlike Spain decided to let Giannis to beat them marking the 3. It didnt matter, we all know that Giannis can win a game alone. This time we didnt shoot well but we won again.

On a side note. Everyone is talking about Muurinen (and rightful so) but none about Samodurov. His performance and especially the offensive rebounds plus the spacing that can provide was crucial for the game. Since today shall be our 3rd big after Giannis and Mitoglou, ahead of Costas.

P.S. hopefully none (Please Use More Appropriate Word) will attack me about Samodurov because he is playing for my team and Costas for Olympiacos.

Sent from my SM-G996B using RealGM mobile app

[Mirotic12]

How a great player as Spanoulis was, can be such a bad coach?. I don't get It.

One of the worst teams of the tournament while having a Super star like Giannis.

Latvia , Litueva or Israel with less talent are much better teams.

Latvia and Israel are eliminated and Greece, with its such a bad coach, is still alive.

The luxury of having Giannis. 37/10 on 18/23 FG in just 29 minutes, continues to carry Greece.

Spanoulis is maximizing Giannis. No other coach had. No coach for Greek NT and no NBA coach the Bucks had has ever used him as well.

Even Itoudis, who the European media calls a coaching genius and all time coaching legend didn't know how to use Giannis.

Spanoulis is using him perfectly and Doc Rivers sure does not.

Greece had this same luxury of having Giannis for over a decade, and none of the coaches until Spanoulis could figure out what way to use a unique player like him.

[KGtabake]

Samodurov will become a joy to watch.
The best greek prospect since Giannis.
Hopefully he will find more playing time next season in Panathinaikos (I don't know how easy this will be with Hernangomez and Mitoglou on his position).
If he doesn't, he should leave for the NCAA.
He will be the next star of this nation.

[Greek]

How a great player as Spanoulis was, can be such a bad coach?. I don't get It.

One of the worst teams of the tournament while having a Super star like Giannis.

Latvia , Litueva or Israel with less talent are much better teams.

Latvia and Israel are eliminated and Greece, with its such a bad coach, is still alive.

The luxury of having Giannis. 37/10 on 18/23 FG in just 29 minutes, continues to carry Greece.

As I commented just after you is pick your poison. Double Giannis and we will kill you from the 3. Guard the 3? Giannis will kill you. This is the best team (even if its flawed) that we ever put around him. From what ive seen now is not just a bull in the bar, he is at his best ever, having the maturity and the experience above his rest of his skills and physical advantages. Giannis that i saw today is even better player than his MVP years and yes you are right. He is a luxury for us and we are blessed having him

Sent from my SM-G996B using RealGM mobile app

[Mirotic12]

Israel unlike Spain decided to let Giannis to beat them marking the 3. It didnt matter, we all know that Giannis can win a game alone. This time we didnt shoot well but we won again.

On a side note. Everyone is talking about Muurinen (and rightful so) but none about Samodurov. His performance and especially the offensive rebounds plus the spacing that can provide was crucial for the game. Since today shall be our 3rd big after Giannis and Mitoglou, ahead of Costas.

P.S. hopefully none (Please Use More Appropriate Word) will attack me about Samodurov because he is playing for my team and Costas for Olympiacos.

It's only one club team fan base that tries to divide up the national team.

Why should Samodurov be behind Mitoglou? He's way more talented than Mitoglou.

And Kostas has no business being on the national team, unless both Zougris and Papagiannis are injured.

[Bob8]

Latvia and Israel are eliminated and Greece, with its such a bad coach, is still alive.

The luxury of having Giannis. 37/10 on 18/23 FG in just 29 minutes, continues to carry Greece.

Spanoulis is maximizing Giannis. No other coach had. No coach for Greek NT and no NBA coach the Bucks had has ever used him as well.

Even Itoudis, who the European media calls a coaching genius and all time coaching legend didn't know how to use Giannis.

Spanoulis is using him perfectly and Doc Rivers sure does not.

Greece had this same luxury of having Giannis for over a decade, and none of the coaches until Spanoulis could figure out what way to use a unique player like him.

Or is the argument that Giannis just started to understand the game when Spanoulis became the coach and it's all coincidence? That Giannis even though he had 2 NBA MVPs and a finals MVP was just totally clueless about how to play in FIBA before Spsnoulis?

Israel coach is an idiot, Giannis had 15 dunks, just foul him before and let him shoot FTs. They didn't make a single strong foul on him, it's insane.

Lithuanian will play totally differently and will put him on FT line. More FTs for Giannis more chances for Lithuania to win. You can be sure Lithuanian coaches won't watch him dunking 15x like Israel did.

[Mirotic12]

Samodurov will become a joy to watch.
The best greek prospect since Giannis.
Hopefully he will find more playing time next season in Panathinaikos (I don't know how easy this will be with Hernangomez and Mitoglou on his position).
If he doesn't, he should leave for the NCAA.
He will be the next star of this nation.

It shouldn't be. He's way more talented than either of them.

[Prez]

Latvia and Israel are eliminated and Greece, with its such a bad coach, is still alive.

The luxury of having Giannis. 37/10 on 18/23 FG in just 29 minutes, continues to carry Greece.

Spanoulis is maximizing Giannis. No other coach had. No coach for Greek NT and no NBA coach the Bucks had has ever used him as well.

Even Itoudis, who the European media calls a coaching genius and all time coaching legend didn't know how to use Giannis.

Spanoulis is using him perfectly and Doc Rivers sure does not.

Greece had this same luxury of having Giannis for over a decade, and none of the coaches until Spanoulis could figure out what way to use a unique player like him.

Or is the argument that Giannis just started to understand the game when Spanoulis became the coach and it's all coincidence? That Giannis even though he had 2 NBA MVPs and a finals MVP was just totally clueless about how to play in FIBA before Spsnoulis?

He averaged 29 ppg and was literally EuroBasket top scorer in 2022 without Spanoulis, but sure, "totally clueless"

[Greek]

Samodurov will become a joy to watch.
The best greek prospect since Giannis.
Hopefully he will find more playing time next season in Panathinaikos (I don't know how easy this will be with Hernangomez and Mitoglou on his position).
If he doesn't, he should leave for the NCAA.
He will be the next star of this nation.

Well Ataman likes bigs who can shoot, i am quite sure that will find minutes for him at C as well. I have high hopes for Avdalas as well, who for now as a prospect i have him above Samo. Maybe he will be the big guard that we used to have with Diamantidis and Papaloukas. If those 2 pan out among with Zougris maybe we will have something for the future after all.

[Mirotic12]

He averaged 29 ppg and was literally EuroBasket top scorer in 2022 without Spanoulis, but sure, "totally clueless"

The team's offense was horrific under Itoudis. All the other players just stood and watched. Giannis created nothing for any other player.

The offense was so stagnant and no players had any rhythm to shoot and everything was just stand still and throw up a 3 pointer.

Giannis had no connection to the rest of the team. The only player that could function like that was one dimensional Dorsey, that only shoots jumpers.

And on defense, the team had no system, no identity, no cohesion, no communication, and Giannis was out of his spot on defense and missing assignments, failing to rotate, and making mistakes all over on switches.

The team's coaching under Spanoulis is light years better than it was then, and so is Giannis' performance.

And quite frankly, any claims to the contrary are massive trolling.

[lambchop]

No knock on Jokic who played amazing, but I have to give Doncic and Giannis a ton of credit for doing what needed to be done fore their teams to advance. Whether it was Luka dominating the ball and scoring 50% of his teams or Giannis shooting 85% in an elimination game, they simply got the job done.