Official FIBA World Championship Thread (and long preview)

[Chuck Diesel]

This guy announcing the USA scrimmage just said Udrich quit his team because he was not starting??

The Dragon starting I guess??

I read that they chose to start Jaka Lakovic over Udrih. Lakovic plays like a Slovenian Eddy House.

[Theo Papaloukas]

That's what I'm saying. I know we have to play our game to the best of our ability and all that, but lets not pretend some of these huge guys like Sofo and Savas don't exist. I wonder what Tony Ronzone thinks about all this.

Exactly. Bourousis and Maric would have no trouble backing down Odom and carving out space under the rim for an easy layup/dunk. There's no way Odom could defend a guy like Ante Tomic or Tiago Splitter for extended periods of time. JaVale McGee or Tyson Chandler are needed.

My roster and thoughts after the blue and white scrimmage:

Rose / Westbrook
Curry / Billups / Gordon
Durant / Gay / Iguodala (or Granger)
Odom / Love
Chandler / Lopez (or McGee)

- Rose is a stud, everyone knows it and he was the best point guard out there today. The one three he hit looked good and he's been working on his J all summer.
- Westbrook can do a lot of what Rose does and his defense in the full court press will be a necessity
- Billups is already a lock to make it.
- Curry is the best shooter in on the team and can also run the point. He's a zone buster.
- Eric Gordon is another very good defender...also one of the better shooters. He's strong enough to take contact and finish at the rim as well.
- Kevin Durant - no explanation necessary. 1st option. Star player.
- Rudy Gay - will probably see some time wtih Durant and could be the scoring punch the team needs off the bench.
- Andre Iguodala - can defender 3 positions very well, and is an explosive athlete in transition. If his jumper is falling, he'll make the team over G-Force.
- If Iggy's not shooting it well, I'd like to see Granger on the team, he's a great shooter, ok defender, and can play both the 3 and 4.
- Odom is another lock.
- Kevin Love is the best rebounder, hits the 3, is a great outlet passer and will be useful in getting the break started. He's suited to the international style of play and could probably be a backup 5 also.
- Tyson Chandler - extremely athletic, a good shot blocker and finisher and a much needed defensive big man for this team.
- Lopez - is recovering from mono and looked slow and nonexistent out there, I put him on here because we need size, but I could deal with leaving him off, sliding Love to the 5 and having Granger or Wallace as the backup 4.
- McGee - he can do a lot of what Chandler does but without the consistency. He's clearly the most athletic big on the team and killed it in summer league, he could be an asset for this team and get a ton of easy dunks playing alongside the guards on this team.

Cuts:
- Rondo - can't shoot at all, he might make it because of his ability to penetrate the zone
- Wallace - great defender but couldn't get anything going on offense, teams that clog the lane can shut him down offensively.
- Mayo - a great shooter and good offensive player, but if Gordon is outplaying him, then he becomes unnecessary
- Jeff Green - got destroyed by Durant and missed a bunch of easy shots, I don't see a place for him on this team

[mikhailjordan]

I think I'd start Tyson or McGee at center, Lopez really looked off his game he used to be JACKED, mono did quite a number on him

[lilojmayo]

http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/natio ... 07_24.html


He and his fellow teammate Gay were the best on the Blue Team . They were the only team players doing anything on the Blue team. When they both sat out that was when White made their runs.

OJ Mayo deserves to be the starting shooting guard for this team after how he played.
18 points 7 rebounds 2 assists 7-12 FG 3-6 3pt

If he doesn't make it you know that the training camp is fixed.

[DanielBoone]

If they make roster selections based on the televised exhibition game where nobody is trying, we're really screwed.

[Jimmy76]

If they make roster selections based on the televised exhibition game where nobody is trying, we're really screwed.

beat me to it

[360]

From one OJ fan to another. STFU! Seriously. Stop trying to push this guy onto everyone. If anything, you're turning people off.

[Miklo]

http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/national/showcase_box_score__2010_07_24.html


He and his fellow teammate Gay were the best on the Blue Team . They were the only team players doing anything on the Blue team. When they both sat out that was when White made their runs.

OJ Mayo deserves to be the starting shooting guard for this team after how he played.
18 points 7 rebounds 2 assists 7-12 FG 3-6 3pt

If he doesn't make it you know that the training camp is fixed.

Merge

[sdeezy]

From one OJ fan to another. STFU! Seriously. Stop trying to push this guy onto everyone. If anything, you're turning people off.

[Chuck Diesel]

Scary quote from COlangelo during his interview with Jim Rome-

"If this were a 6-5 and under league, we’d win going away. It’s as simple as that”.

Also referred to Russell Westbrook as "Dexter".

[Kalewipoeg]

How popular would you guys estimate the FIBA Worlds are? Obviously not on FIFA World Cup Level but I imagine it gets it's fair share of publicity, considering the fact that Basketball is the 3rd most popular sport in the world (Soccer and Cricket 1st and 2nd.)

cricket? just because India has 1 billion people shouldnt make this the 2nd most popular sport in the world..

[noido]

I always thought rugby was next behind soccer on a number of nations basis.

[AussieBuck]

How popular would you guys estimate the FIBA Worlds are? Obviously not on FIFA World Cup Level but I imagine it gets it's fair share of publicity, considering the fact that Basketball is the 3rd most popular sport in the world (Soccer and Cricket 1st and 2nd.)

cricket? just because India has 1 billion people shouldnt make this the 2nd most popular sport in the world..

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the nations of the West Indies. That'd be about a third of the world's population.

[Sedale Threatt]

Basically England and all its former colonies. A lot of people, yeah, but pretty limited on a world-wide scope if you look at it on a national basis. Living in England for three years, it seemed like a fringe sport even there. If darts weren't more popular, it was damn close.

[Sedale Threatt]

So, I missed most of the scrimmage, and I have no desire to wade into the Rose/Rondo debate in the game thread. (Yawn.) Who looked good? I was crapping on Iguodala yesterday and it seems like he had a pretty decent game. Gay, too. Durant I completely expected; he's going to be our best player by far.

[Kalewipoeg]

How popular would you guys estimate the FIBA Worlds are? Obviously not on FIFA World Cup Level but I imagine it gets it's fair share of publicity, considering the fact that Basketball is the 3rd most popular sport in the world (Soccer and Cricket 1st and 2nd.)

cricket? just because India has 1 billion people shouldnt make this the 2nd most popular sport in the world..

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the nations of the West Indies. That'd be about a third of the world's population.

those other nations dont have that big population to make cricket rank that high.. but i cant believe it really is #2 sport in the world, according to the guy i was quoting

[sisibilio]

Assuming Chris Sheridan’s roster projection shakes out (and I have no reason to believe it won’t), I really don’t understand the makeup of this roster. It looks like we’re heading to Turkey with six guards under 6-3 and only three guys used to playing in the front court. One of the main defenses seems to be “well, FIBA is different”. Well I probably watch more FIBA ball than most Americans, and I can assure you that we will still be facing there are still gigantic and skilled opposing big men who know how to use their size to exploit smaller opponents. Colangelo and the coaching staff can talk all they want about playing a “different style” of offense by taking advantage of all the speed and quickness on the roster. Sure we can pick up the tempo, but we’re also going to have to keep the other team from scoring in the paint. Are we really that confident in our zone defense?

Guys like Rudy Gay and Danny Granger are comfortable scoring and knocking down shots. It makes no sense to me to take them out of the comfort zones by asking them to go down low and bang with the likes of Marc Gasol and Ioannis Bourousis. Why not bring some players to camp who’s job it is to play defense in the post, rebound and block shots? I keep hearing “Lebron and Carmelo played the four for us in the past”. Well, as good as Granger and Rudy Gay are, they are no Lebron and Carmelo. Those two guys could probably be full time power forwards in the NBA if their coaches wanted them to, Gay and Granger could not. Plus, those teams also had the defensive presence of Dwight Howard to rely on and some overpowering perimeter firepower that won’t be around in Turkey.

Not to mention that Carmelo and LeBron (particulary Melo) playing the 4 was the reason that the US zone looked like a highway many times in 04-06 and even in Beijing, and this year you won't have a defensive monster like Howard guarding his backs (Chandler is fine but he's not Dwight and Mcgee and lopez are definitely not DPOY candidates).

[Cruel_Ruin]

Rose/Curry
Mayo/Gordon
Durant/Gay
Love/Green
Chandler/McGee

That could be a solid international squad. I like the shooting and passing on that team.

[Tommy Sneakers]

Rose/Rondo/Billups
Curry/Gordon
Durant/Gay/Iggy
Love/Odom
Chandler/Lopez

Odom and Billups will make as the vets. I think Westbrook is made redundant by Rondo. Curry is the best shooter we have and is a very good passer (important to beat zone D). Goron/Mayo, Granger/Iggy, and Lopez/Mcgee are all tossups for me. Chandler looked like a monster in that game and deserves the starting job.

[Chlorpromazine]

Rose/Curry
Mayo/Gordon
Durant/Gay
Love/Green
Chandler/McGee

That could be a solid international squad. I like the shooting and passing on that team.

Looks like last year's sophomore team, and honestly, it's the best squad the US can send.