2015 Eurobasket

UcanUwill · Post #1 » by **UcanUwill** » Mon Dec 8, 2014 4:33 pm

http://www.eurobasket2015.org/en/default.asp

Group A

France

Russia

Finland

Israel

Poland

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Group B

Spain

Serbia

Italy

Turkey

Germany

Iceland

Group C

Croatia

Greece

Slovenia

Macedonia

Georgia

Netherlands

Group D

Lithuania

Ukraine

Latvia

Czech Republic

Belgium

Estonia

Group A rosters

Spoiler:

Group B rosters

Spoiler:

Group C rosters

Spoiler:

Group D rosters

Spoiler:

(Will add more rosters later)

Muizha · Post #2 » by **Muizha** » Mon Dec 8, 2014 8:43 pm

Love the draw for Latvia - if they beat Lithuania (and they certainly can at home), they can go out this group in the first place

UcanUwill · Post #3 » by **UcanUwill** » Tue Dec 9, 2014 12:45 pm

Muizha wrote:Love the draw for Latvia - if they beat Lithuania (and they certainly can at home), they can go out this group in the first place

Will Porzingis play? Latvia desperately needs to upgrade their frontcourt if they want to beat Lithuania. Mārtiņš Meiers and other Latvian bigs were just terrible. I remember they played Lithuania last year, and Lithuania's Arturas Gudaitis of all people just demolished Latvian bigs that time.

Muizha · Post #4 » by **Muizha** » Tue Dec 9, 2014 8:07 pm

UcanUwill wrote:
Muizha wrote:Love the draw for Latvia - if they beat Lithuania (and they certainly can at home), they can go out this group in the first place

Will Porzingis play? Latvia desperately needs to upgrade their frontcourt if they want to beat Lithuania. Mārtiņš Meiers and other Latvian bigs were just terrible. I remember they played Lithuania last year, and Lithuania's Arturas Gudaitis of all people just demolished Latvian bigs that time.

If his new NBA team doesn't restrict him to do so, I think he will definitely be on the squad. The game against Lithuania was at the beginning of training camp phase for the Eurobasket qualification so Latvia's roster was pretty experimental, for example, they didn't have their best big man by far in Kaspars Berzins, who offers a great deal of rim protection. Also Davis Bertans (who missed last year's tournament) will probably play some 4 also, so their front-court should be a bit better this time.

Btw, the last time when both teams played in a competitive game was in Eurobasket 2013, when Lithuania had a hard fought win 67-59

UcanUwill · Post #5 » by **UcanUwill** » Tue May 5, 2015 10:53 am

Lithuania's head coach Jonas Kazlauskas announced preliminary 25 player list today :

PGs

Mantas Kalnietis -- (Lokomotiv Kuban

)
Adas Juškevičius -- (Lietuvos rytas

)
Lukas Lekavičius -- (Žalgiris

)
Žygimantas Janavičius -- (Lietuvos rytas

)
Mindaugas Girdžiūnas -- (Neptūnas

)
Vaidas Kariniauskas -- (Žalgiris

)

SGs

Renaldas Seibutis -- (Darussafaka

)
Artūras Milaknis -- (Žalgiris

)
Martynas Pocius -- (Galatasaray

)
Martynas Gecevičius -- (Lietuvos rytas

)
Edgaras Ulanovas -- (Žalgiris

)

SFs

Jonas Mačiulis -- (Real Madrid

)
Mindaugas Kuzminskas -- (Unicaja

)
Gediminas Orelik -- (Lietuvos rytas

)
Deividas Gailius -- (Neptūnas

)
Rokas Giedraitis -- (Šiauliai

)

PFs

Donatas Motiejūnas -- (Rockets NBA)
Paulius Jankūnas -- (Žalgiris

)
Linas Kleiza -- (Emporio Armani

)
Domantas Sabonis -- (Gonzaga NCAA)

Cs

Jonas Valančiūnas -- (Raptors NBA)
Antanas Kavaliauskas -- (Lietuvos rytas

)
Darjuš Lavrinovič -- (Grissin Bon

)
Artūras Gudaitis -- (Žalgiris

)
Robertas Javtokas -- (Žalgiris

)

jolbin · Post #6 » by **jolbin** » Tue May 5, 2015 12:34 pm

Nice roster from Lithuania..

From Slovenija, the biggest question mark i see is whether Goran Dragić will play, and subsequently, if he doesnt, will Beno replace him? Will Begić play?
If everything goes as planned i hope to see the following roster

Dragić/Udrih - Klobučar (Rebec, Nikolić, Rupnik)
Z.Dragić - Blažič - Luka Dončič (Prepelić, Lapornik,Hrovat, Mesicek, Kastrati)
D.Lorbek - E.Murić (Nikolic, Mahkovic)
Balažič - Zupan (D.Murić,E.Lorbek???)
Vidmar - Begić/Omić/Rizvić - Slokar (Krusic, Bolcina?)

I suspect Doncic will play on ECH, despite his 16 years of age, as the federation sees him as the next golden boy of Slovenian basketball.
The PF position seems weak, as always in last years.Next guy in line is undersized bad knees Dino Murić with no skill but really nice hustle and heart.. Boki Nachbar is really missing there..

knicksfan974 · Post #7 » by **knicksfan974** » Sun May 17, 2015 10:20 am

Finland will most likely have an almost identical roster to the one they had in 2014 FIBA World Cup.

UcanUwill · Post #8 » by **UcanUwill** » Thu May 21, 2015 1:14 pm

France's 24 men preliminary squad. Scary good.

PGs

Tony Parker -- (Spurs NBA)
Thomas Heurtel -- (Anadolu Efes

)
Léo Westermann -- (Limoges CSP

)
Antoine Diot -- (Strasbourg IG

)

SGs

Nando De Colo -- (CSKA Moscow

)
Evan Fournier -- (Magic NBA)
Fabien Causeur -- (Laboral Kutxa

)
Edwin Jackson -- (Barcelona

)

SFs

Nicolas Batum -- (TrailBlazers NBA)
Mickaël Gelabale -- (Limoges CSP

)
Charles Lombahe-Kahudi -- (Le Mans

)
Jérémy Leloup -- (Strasbourg IG

)

PFs

Boris Diaw -- (Spurs NBA)
Joffrey Lauvergne -- (Nuggets NBA)
Adrien Moerman -- (Limoges CSP

)
Kim Tillie -- (Laboral Kutxa

)
Nobel Boungou-Colo -- (Limoges CSP

)
Florent Piétrus -- (Nancy

)

Cs

Rudy Gobert -- (Jazz NBA)
Alexis Ajinça -- (Pelicans NBA)
Ian Mahinmi -- (Pacers NBA)
Kevin Séraphin -- (Wizards NBA)
Ali Traoré -- (Strasbourg IG

)
Mouhammadou Jaiteh -- (JSF Nanterre

)

Mirotic12 · Post #9 » by **Mirotic12** » Thu May 21, 2015 10:17 pm

I don't think these are actual preliminary rosters. These are the 24 player FIBA register lists. Every federation each year has to register 24 players for their national team. In other words, each year every national team has to submit 24 players to be registered as eligible to play for their national team.

At the earliest possible time, there is I believe an alternate place (a 25th place) that lasts for a short period of time, and is then removed.

That is all these lists are. They are not actual preliminary rosters, which implies the coaches actually contacted the players about who will play, and who they want to play.

UcanUwill · Post #10 » by **UcanUwill** » Tue May 26, 2015 4:27 pm

Serbia announced their 24 men preliminary squad :

PGs

Miloš Teodosić -- (CSKA Moscow

)
Nemanja Nedović -- (Valencia

)
Stefan Marković -- (Unicaja

)
Vasilije Micić -- (Bayern Munich

)

SGs

Bogdan Bogdanović -- (Fenerbahçe

)
Stefan Jović -- (Crvena zvezda

)
Dragan Milosavljević -- (Partizan

)

SFs

Nikola Kalinić -- (Crvena zvezda

)
Marko Kešelj -- (KK Mega Basket

)
Nemanja Dangubić -- (Crvena zvezda

)
Marko Simonović -- (Élan Béarnais

)
Rade Zagorac -- (KK Mega Basket

)

PFs

Nemanja Bjelica -- (Fenerbahçe

)
Zoran Erceg -- (Galatasaray

)
Milan Mačvan -- (Partizan

)
Luka Mitrović -- (Crvena zvezda

)
Stefan Birčević -- (Estudiantes

)
Đorđe Majstorović -- (Metalac Valjevo

)

Cs

Boban Marjanović -- (Crvena zvezda

)
Miroslav Raduljica -- (Timberwolves NBA)
Vladimir Štimac -- (Bayern Munich

)
Ognjen Kuzmić -- (Warriors NBA)
Nikola Milutinov -- (Partizan

)
Nikola Jokić -- (KK Mega Basket

)

UcanUwill · Post #11 » by **UcanUwill** » Mon Jun 1, 2015 4:00 pm

Emir Preldzic will not play this year. Anyway, what happened to him anyway, he had a very underwhelming season.

UcanUwill · Post #12 » by **UcanUwill** » Mon Jun 1, 2015 6:14 pm

Belgium announced 27 men preliminary squad

PGs

Sam Van Rossom -- (Valencia

)
Thomas Akyazili -- (Antwerp Giants

)
Lionel Bosco -- (Mons-Hainaut

)
Manu Lecomte -- (Miami NCAA)
Niels Marnegrave -- (Oostende

)

SGs

Matt Lojeski -- (Olympiacos

)
Jonathan Tabu -- (Emporio Armani

)
Guy Muya -- (Oostende

)
Alexandre Libert -- (Pepinster Wolves

)
Senne Geukens -- (Kangoeroes

)
Idris Lasisi -- (Mons-Hainaut

)
Quentin Serron -- (Oostende

)
Olivier Troisfontaines -- (Leuven Bears

)

SFs

Vincent Kesteloot -- (Okapi Aalstar

)
Loic Schwartz -- (Charleroi

)
Wen Mukubu -- (Charleroi

)
Jean-Marc Mwema -- (Antwerp Giants

)
Jean Salumu -- (Oostende

)

PFs

Axel Hervelle -- (Bilbao

)
Maxime de Zeeuw -- (Virtus Roma

)
Pierre-Antoine Gillet -- (Oostende

)
Yannick Desiron -- (Leuven Bears

)
Sacha Massot -- (Charleroi

)

Cs

Ioann Iarochevitch -- (San Sebastian

)
Khalid Boukicho -- (Oostende

)
Amaury Gorgemans -- (Mons-Hainaut

)
Kevin Tumba -- (Leuven Bears

)

UcanUwill · Post #13 » by **UcanUwill** » Tue Jun 2, 2015 4:39 pm

Posted Belgium's preliminary yesterday. Lets go to something better.

Russian 22 men preliminary squad

PGs

Aleksey Shved -- (Knicks NBA)
Dmitry Khvostov -- (Nizhny Novgorod

)
Mikhail Kulagin -- (Rossiya Novogorsk

)

SGs

Anton Ponkrashov -- (Unics

)
Vitaly Fridzon -- (CSKA Moscow

)
Evgeny Voronov -- (Lokomotiv

)
Dmitry Kulagin -- (Zenit

)
Artem Vikhrov -- (Zenit

)
Egor Vyaltsev -- (Khimki

)

SFs

Sergei Monia -- (Khimki

)
Nikita Kurbanov -- (Lokomotiv

)
Semen Antonov -- (Nizhny Novgorod

)
Pavel Antipov -- (Unics

)

PFs

Andrey Vorontsevich -- (CSKA Moscow

)
Andrey Zubkov -- (Lokomotiv

)
Evgeny Valiev -- (Zenit

)
Pavel Korobkov -- (CSKA Moscow

)

Cs

Timofey Mozgov -- (Cavaliers NBA)
Sasha Kaun -- (CSKA Moscow

)
Ruslan Pateev -- (Khimki

)
Artem Klimenko -- (Avtodor Saratov

)
Andrey Desyatnikov -- (Zenit

)

Mirotic12 · Post #14 » by **Mirotic12** » Tue Jun 2, 2015 8:18 pm

So Belgium has a main lineup like this,

PG Sam Van Rossum
SG Jonathan Tabu
SF Matt Lojeski
PF Axelle Hervelle
C Maxime de Zeeuw

That is pretty good. And they have a pretty good coach also. Only thing is that Tabu had a bad knee injury early in the year and missed almost the whole season after he had surgery, and so far since he came back he has played really bad. But if he was able to play to his normal level, that is a pretty strong team. No one would want to play them. Definite dark horse for sure if he can come back healthy. I cannot remember them ever having such a strong team as this.

Von Bismarck · Post #15 » by **Von Bismarck** » Wed Jun 3, 2015 12:29 am

My take on Eurobasket;

1.tier Spain & France

Still top of Euro basketball even though they will be weakened due to many players that won't play this summer. For Spain that list includes Gasol brothers and most likely Mirotic/Ibaka as well. Calderon and Rubio won't play either. Spain will easily compensate Rubio absence cause they have Llull and Sergio Rodriguez there. However, Spain will be notably weakened at 4/5. Noah and most likely Parker won't play for France. Which leaves France with Heurtel as their starting playmaker, jekyll and hyde type of a player. On other positions, France is covered fine. Also, Batum has been overrun by injuries. I don't know if he will even play, but if he does, I don't think he will be 100% ready.

2.tier Serbia and Greece

Serbia comes with the world silver in her backpocket. Krstic won't be playing this year, so now they have Raduljica with no club in god knows which shape and Marjanovic from Zvezda, we'll see how Marjanovic translates his game to the national team where they play much faster than in Zvezda. Serbia is strong at 1-2 with many good player, especially Teodosic and Bogdan Bogdanovic. At 3 they have solid Euro guy Kalinic. 4 is covered pretty well with Bjelica as Euro MVP and Erceg I presume as his backup. What can you say about Greece? I think names like Spanoulis, Antetokumpo, Koufos, Papanikolau, Printezis, Perperoglou, Borousis, Mantzaris, Calathes and the rest say enough. We'll however see, how many of them will play, I presume almost all of those mentioned.

3.tier Croatia and Lithuania

Croatia comes after 4th place in Slovenia 2013 and 1/8 finals loss in 2014 against France. Croatia has very interesting generation with both established players and young starts. For Croatia we have TOP 3 Euroleague center for 3-4 years, Ante Tomic. Compared to the NBA centers he's a bit weak but has incredible handles and passing skills for a center that size. We have Bogdanovic from the NETS who has his rookie season this year, averaging 9p 3r 1a, prior to that he was one of the Euroleague top scorers for few years. Rudez, 3PT guy from the Pacers. He's able to get into hot streaks. And of course Dario Saric and Mario Hezonja, nothing needs to be said about these young fellas. Lithuania will be weakened due to Motiejunas canceling yesterday. However, Lithuania is always dangerous. Valenciunas will be their top player, I hope he can make that step-up and lead now when it's expected of him.

Others who can surprise - Italy, Germany (if Dirk and/or Schroeder plays), Turkey and Slovenia (though heavily weakened due to Goran Dragic canceling) and Russia. Bosnia would be in this group too but since Nurkic and Djedovic won't play, Teletovic most likely won't play as well - that leaves them to almost nothing.

There are some other interesting countries with good individuals such as Latvia, Belgium and Georgia

UcanUwill · Post #16 » by **UcanUwill** » Wed Jun 3, 2015 2:12 pm

Von Bismarck wrote:My take on Eurobasket;

Spoiler:
1.tier Spain & France

Still top of Euro basketball even though they will be weakened due to many players that won't play this summer. For Spain that list includes Gasol brothers and most likely Mirotic/Ibaka as well. Calderon and Rubio won't play either. Spain will easily compensate Rubio absence cause they have Llull and Sergio Rodriguez there. However, Spain will be notably weakened at 4/5. Noah and most likely Parker won't play for France. Which leaves France with Heurtel as their starting playmaker, jekyll and hyde type of a player. On other positions, France is covered fine. Also, Batum has been overrun by injuries. I don't know if he will even play, but if he does, I don't think he will be 100% ready.

2.tier Serbia and Greece

Serbia comes with the world silver in her backpocket. Krstic won't be playing this year, so now they have Raduljica with no club in god knows which shape and Marjanovic from Zvezda, we'll see how Marjanovic translates his game to the national team where they play much faster than in Zvezda. Serbia is strong at 1-2 with many good player, especially Teodosic and Bogdan Bogdanovic. At 3 they have solid Euro guy Kalinic. 4 is covered pretty well with Bjelica as Euro MVP and Erceg I presume as his backup. What can you say about Greece? I think names like Spanoulis, Antetokumpo, Koufos, Papanikolau, Printezis, Perperoglou, Borousis, Mantzaris, Calathes and the rest say enough. We'll however see, how many of them will play, I presume almost all of those mentioned.

3.tier Croatia and Lithuania

Croatia comes after 4th place in Slovenia 2013 and 1/8 finals loss in 2014 against France. Croatia has very interesting generation with both established players and young starts. For Croatia we have TOP 3 Euroleague center for 3-4 years, Ante Tomic. Compared to the NBA centers he's a bit weak but has incredible handles and passing skills for a center that size. We have Bogdanovic from the NETS who has his rookie season this year, averaging 9p 3r 1a, prior to that he was one of the Euroleague top scorers for few years. Rudez, 3PT guy from the Pacers. He's able to get into hot streaks. And of course Dario Saric and Mario Hezonja, nothing needs to be said about these young fellas. Lithuania will be weakened due to Motiejunas canceling yesterday. However, Lithuania is always dangerous. Valenciunas will be their top player, I hope he can make that step-up and lead now when it's expected of him.

Others who can surprise - Italy, Germany (if Dirk and/or Schroeder plays), Turkey and Slovenia (though heavily weakened due to Goran Dragic canceling) and Russia. Bosnia would be in this group too but since Nurkic and Djedovic won't play, Teletovic most likely won't play as well - that leaves them to almost nothing.

There are some other interesting countries with good individuals such as Latvia, Belgium and Georgia

Have to agree with those tiers. What about Macedonia, will Bo play or they'll go with other naturalized player? Bo is one of my favs, I know he laid an egg in the Euroleague this year, but he was still good in German league.

Von Bismarck · Post #17 » by **Von Bismarck** » Wed Jun 3, 2015 4:31 pm

UcanUwill wrote:Have to agree with those tiers. What about Macedonia, will Bo play or they'll go with other naturalized player? Bo is one of my favs, I know he laid an egg in the Euroleague this year, but he was still good in German league.

Nope. Bo won't play, neither will Antic. FYROM is very weak. Maybe they take their other naturalized player this time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hendrix). But who knows. Anyways, Jeff Teague wouldn't help them

In FYROM's group in Zagreb, I see Croatia and Greece dominating and taking first two places. It would be a huge surprise if it wouldn't end that way. I think Croatia can overcome Greece in electric atmosphere in Zagreb. Slovenia and Georgia will fight for the 3rd place, usually I'd say Slovenia would win without a problem, but since Dragic is absent and Georgia has some decent NBA & Euro players, it will be interesting.

UcanUwill · Post #18 » by **UcanUwill** » Wed Jun 3, 2015 6:07 pm

Interested to see what Boban Marjanovic can do on a different team than Zvezda.

Mirotic12 · Post #19 » by **Mirotic12** » Wed Jun 3, 2015 9:16 pm

Von Bismarck, just out of curiosity, where are you getting all of these player absences from? As far as I know, Tony Parker already said he is playing this summer, as did Nicolas Batum.

Also, as far as I know, the Gasol brothers never said anything about not playing this summer. Marc Gasol merely said he would not be dealing with the national team until he was done with free agency, which is standard procedure. And I don't think Ibaka or Mirotic ever said they were not playing this summer. The only thing I am aware of is that Mirotic has said over and over he is not going to play for Spain again unless they choose him instead of Ibaka as their naturalized player, since you can only have one naturalized player on your team at a time. Otherwise, he will play for Montenegro. Maybe that is what you meant?

I also don't recall Goran Dragic ever saying he was not playing this summer either. Only thing I heard was Udrih not playing because of an injury, supposedly, but he never plays for Slovenia so no surprise really.

As for the tiers, I honestly think people are these days either greatly overrating Spain and France, or greatly underrating teams like Greece and Serbia, and maybe even Croatia, although I hesitate on Croatia a bit because they are so inconsistent. But they have all the talent for sure.

If you want to say which teams you think are favorites, or will win, or finish at top or whatever, that is not the same thing as putting teams into a tier. A tier implies the level of the teams based on nothing but their talent and ability if they bring all their players.

And France and Spain are no better than those other teams in that way at all to be put in another tier above them, unless you are just doing the usual lazy "counting how many NBA players they have" thing.

For example, the only difference between a team like Spain and teams like Serbia, Croatia, and Greece in the last 10 years was that Spain always had all their best players play for them, while the other three almost never once had it. But if they have such, Spain isn't better than them, and never was.

But here it is discussed like, well if we have all of the players in the teams, or even was further said, well take away 1/3 of Spain's best players and they are still for sure better. Makes no sense at all. No way could Spain be in a higher tier under that scenario.

And France was same way. They went for years never having a good tournament, and only started doing well recently, because they started playing together as a team. Talent was always there, but they never would play proper basketball. But it did not mean they were necessarily tiers lower than Spain. They always had same team they had when they did bad in every tournament, and same team when they started doing good. They just played team basketball finally.

The point is, putting teams by tiers should be on what material they have, not how you think they might play or finish. Two different things.

UcanUwill wrote:Emir Preldzic will not play this year. Anyway, what happened to him anyway, he had a very underwhelming season.

Preldzic counts as Turkey's naturalized player (he is Bosnian Slovene). Turkey has wanted a naturalized (for example paid) American guard in their team for a long time now. They have made offers to players like Keith Langford, Andrew Goudelock, Jordan Farmar, etc. Finally, they made a deal with Bobby Dixon. So to get Dixon, then Preldzic can't play in the team, since you can only have one naturalized player at a time.

This is of course quite ironic, since Turkey is almost always the team using the most naturalized players in every tournament anyway, but they just get around it because they changed the names of all the players and well, the whole issue is very well known. It's just ironic, because in case of Preldzic he is the one one player they legally naturalized, and so he can't play.

wilt · Post #20 » by **wilt** » Thu Jun 4, 2015 10:05 am

Dirk announced he will play on a press conference just now