FIBA WORLD CUP 2019 | SPAIN are new WORLD CHAMPIONS

[Mirotic12]

Calathes and Giannis cannot be in the same team. To be honest Calathes maybe the most overrated player in Europe. Unplayable in important matches.

If you are not aware, Panathinaikos (I am sure you know their owner) controls the Greek basketball federation. The only reason Calathes has been on Greece's national team all these years is because of that. Panathinaikos wants him there. Calathes' horrible shooting has haunted Greek national team for like 10 years now.

Like you say, he becomes a negative, and his team plays 4 against 5, every time important games come up, whether it is EuroLeague playoffs with Panathinaikos, or any key game with Greece national team. He becomes as you said, basically unplayable. He wouldn't be on the national team for like 7 years now I think, if it wasn't for Panathinaikos' control of the federation.

What is hilarious, is that ESPN, every time they mention Greece, they say he is their 2nd best player and one of the best, they even said at one point he might be the best point guard in the tournament....................they are either being incredibly nationalistic, since Calathes is from Florida, or they have never seen a game played in Europe ever, or both.

The guy's nickname in Europe is "Nick The Brick", and they keep talking like he's some amazing all time legend in Europe. In reality, every single year EuroLegaue fans are laughing at him during the playoffs.

He's probably due for one is his patented 1 for 14 overall and 0 for 8 from 3 point range shooting performances at any time now.

[limbo]

No team can play in rhythm, especially in shooting, if one guy is playing one to 4 or one to 5 all the time, driving recklessly into the lane, hoping for bail out calls from the refs, and then if they don't come, just chucking the ball out to the perimeter and expecting players to consistently knock down long distance shots with no movement or no pace or rhythm.

That's a proven successful strategy in the NBA. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in FIBA unless your 'one guy' can actually shoot the ball. I've seen Kyrie dismantle you guys in 5 minutes playing 1v5. The problem is Giannis can't shoot, so when Greece tries to play team basketball, that means Giannis biggest strength, which is putting pressure at the rim with his driving, becomes nullified and now you're playing team basketball with multiple players that can't shoot.

That's never worked at any high level of basketball. Giannis' play style in half court offense against any good defense is atrocious to watch - the ugliest basket style there is. Serbia wouldn't win with him playing like that, USA wouldn't win with him playing like that, we saw how good the Bucks looked trying to do so against the Raptors, once they cut off his free drives to the basket, and the refs stopped giving him all those bail out calls.

How are you telling me what Giannis does doesn't work at any high level of basketball when we just saw him do what he does in Milwuakee and it resulted in 60 wins in the RS and almost Finals appearance. Yes they lost to the Raptors, but that's the best team in the World with elite defense and it's a one series sample. Every great player in history has had series where they went up against elite defenses and struggled and eventually lost.

Giannis' offensive game in the half court is very limited, and no team is going to be successful if they let him try to hero ball in half court against a good defensive team. He's playing one of the lowest IQ and least skilled styles of basketball there is.

[/quote][/quote]

Milwaukee were successful. Just because they didn't win it all doesn't mean they weren't successful. Giannis no doubt has serious limitations to his skillset, but what he does well, he does extremely well. Similar to Shaq. Dude was flawed as hell as a basketball player but was just such a physical force that it didn't matter. The problem is, FIBA game is very different from NBA, there's less space to beat people off the dribble and penetrate (which is Giannis bread and butter). That's why having a shot in FIBA basketball is a lot more important.

Ok, i get it, you hate Giannis and you're happy the small FIBA court exposed his lack of shooting. And i agree, it's a problem, but what's definitely not Giannis fault is Greece shooting 7/27 from three, having a shortage of talent in the backcourt, overloading the roster with slow old big men, sucking defensively etc.

[SlowPaced]

Giannis has been outright awful for half of the tournament. He was the main reason for both of Greece's losses. He would need to have an incredble finish to the tournament to have any chance at being the MVP.

Giannis was the main reason for Greece's loss today?!

In a game against the United States where he was 7/11 for 15-13, and Sloukas was 5/12, Printezis was 2/10, Papapetrou was 3/11, Calathes was 2/6, Bourousis was 1/5 and Papanikolaou was 0/3?

Please cut the pretense that your opinions on Giannis don't come a place of disdain. You are not fooling anyone.

[homecourtloss]

and some want to make giannis the scapegoat.....i don't think he's had worst teammates

He is not playing smart either and he is overrated playmaker, he is forcing drive against 4 USA players in the paint. Nick Nurse,Toronto showed his flaws, Pop isnt blind.

Greece are too weak, they would lose anyway but not by 20 if Giannis could shoot,pass better.

Skickat från min SM-N950F via Tapatalk

Did you see how many open shots greece missed?

They did, but so did the US. 7/30 on threes, a bunch of really open ones by decent shooters.

[LuDux1]

I heard Doncic was all hype too. Funny how that turned out.

Call me back when another country of 2 mil people wins a major international event of Top 3 most popular sport in the World. I'll wait

Man are lucky we don't concentrate our athletes into single sports (like Lithuania where basketball is life) and have this Alps situation going on, where a lot of talented athletes decide to pursue winter sports and obscure stuff like rifle shooting, motocross and bocce, otherwise it would be peak for man. Most of the country plays football/soccer, lol.

I bet motorcross and bocce steals lots of tall athletic Slovenian men from basketball

[limbo]

Lol, we played without Jokic, Teodosic and with injured Jovic who played few min. You had great coach. (Serbian).

Now with Dragic retired, and with Jokic and even more improved Bogdan, your not gonna beat us for at least next 100 years. Unless you give passport to more USA players.

Teodosic been done and dusted at that point, couldn't guard a traffic cone, and Jovic got locked by man like Aleksej Nikolic playing 2nd tier basketball in German Bundesliga. Too easy.

Nah, we'll just take more Serbians. That's what we do. We take Serbians and make them better.

Man, i love bantering Serbs. You better win this free tournament or else there's more coming from me if you get bent over by Joe Harris and them

[limbo]

I bet motorcross and bocce steals lots of tall athletic Slovenian men from basketball

Really improves your vantage point to see where to throw the bocce balls better

[rale93lfc]

Lol, we played without Jokic, Teodosic and with injured Jovic who played few min. You had great coach. (Serbian).

Now with Dragic retired, and with Jokic and even more improved Bogdan, your not gonna beat us for at least next 100 years. Unless you give passport to more USA players.

Teodosic been done and dusted at that point, couldn't guard a traffic cone, and Jovic got locked by man like Aleksej Nikolic playing 2nd tier basketball in German Bundesliga. Too easy.

Nah, we'll just take more Serbians. That's what we do. We take Serbians and make them better.

Man, i love bantering Serbs. You better win this free tournament or else there's more coming from me if you get bent over by Joe Harris and them

You probably more % Serbian then Slovenian. As I told you, Jovic played injured. I love Alex Nik anyway.

You are probably trolling for this part where you said ,,this free tournament,,. This cup is at least 2s stronger then that Euro you won.

[Coach Carter]

He is not playing smart either and he is overrated playmaker, he is forcing drive against 4 USA players in the paint. Nick Nurse,Toronto showed his flaws, Pop isnt blind.

Greece are too weak, they would lose anyway but not by 20 if Giannis could shoot,pass better.

Skickat från min SM-N950F via Tapatalk

Did you see how many open shots greece missed?

They did, but so did the US. 7/30 on threes, a bunch of really open ones by decent shooters.

I'll give you his shooting but there was nothing wrong with Giannis passing today.

US got production from at least 6 of their guys, for greece at best half that.

[Pharmcat]

The whole Greek freak family of Bros have been exposed as frauds and paper tigers in this tournament . Taking a cheap shot and not apologizing for it just goes to show how mentally weak the brother is

[limbo]

You probably more % Serbian then Slovenian. As I told you, Jovic played injured. I love Alex Nik anyway.

You are probably trolling for this part where you said ,,this free tournament,,. This cup is at least 2s stronger then that Euro you won.

Pretty sure i'm 0% Serbian

Fact of the matter is we would've blown you out that game if Dragic and Doncic didn't get injured. Dragic was peppering you guys for 30 points in the 1st half. I thought we were going to lose in the 4th quarter because we relied so heavily on our stars and had no depth but then Prepelic became Klay Thompson, lmao. Fun times.

2x stronger? I don't know man... Teams like Poland and Czech Republic making deep runs. At least we had to beat France, Greece, Latvia, Spain and Serbia to win the gold. So far, the best team you've beaten is Italy, lmao.

Most European teams look at more or less the same level, aside from France who are definitely better now with this roster. But i guess Australia and USA E team kinda make it a bit more top heavy, huh.

[Alatan]

Lol, we played without Jokic, Teodosic and with injured Jovic who played few min. You had great coach. (Serbian).

Now with Dragic retired, and with Jokic and even more improved Bogdan, your not gonna beat us for at least next 100 years. Unless you give passport to more USA players.

Teodosic been done and dusted at that point, couldn't guard a traffic cone, and Jovic got locked by man like Aleksej Nikolic playing 2nd tier basketball in German Bundesliga. Too easy.

Nah, we'll just take more Serbians. That's what we do. We take Serbians and make them better.

Man, i love bantering Serbs. You better win this free tournament or else there's more coming from me if you get bent over by Joe Harris and them

Do you know that both Dragic and Doncic are part Serbian? You probably do. Anyway there is this joke that goes something like this.

Why does a Serb go to Slovenia? To find a job.
And why does a Slovenian go to Serbia? To find his father.

Enough said.

[limbo]

Harder to find quality jobs here than you might think. Also, no one cares about the father, men are expandable, it's always the mother that they tie the lineage to. Sperm is cheap, eggs are expensive

Anyway, never seen a Serb take defeat gracefully. It's always some form of excuse. Either you weren't at full strength, or we cheated because we gave Randolph the passport (which is legal and done by every other country far more frequently than us, Italy has 60mil population and still finds a way to neutralize 2 Americans and gets slapped) and when all else fails, they just outright claim our spoils for their own because we had a Serbian coach, lmao. The lengths these man go for national pride is insane. It's like the whole point of their exsistance.

Anyway, you guys are getting clapped as soon as we rebuild around Doncic. Mark my words.

OK, enough of this national pride ting. I was just here to banter some Serbs but they took it too personal, so now we're moving on to actual basketball, i hope.

[Coach Carter]

I'm happy giannis has haters. It means he's good.

[rale93lfc]

You probably more % Serbian then Slovenian. As I told you, Jovic played injured. I love Alex Nik anyway.

You are probably trolling for this part where you said ,,this free tournament,,. This cup is at least 2s stronger then that Euro you won.

Pretty sure i'm 0% Serbian

Fact of the matter is we would've blown you out that game if Dragic and Doncic didn't get injured. Dragic was peppering you guys for 30 points in the 1st half. I thought we were going to lose in the 4th quarter because we relied so heavily on our stars and had no depth but then Prepelic became Klay Thompson, lmao. Fun times.

2x stronger? I don't know man... Teams like Poland and Czech Republic making deep runs. At least we had to beat France, Greece, Latvia, Spain and Serbia to win the gold. So far, the best team you've beaten is Italy, lmao.

Most European teams look at more or less the same level, aside from France who are definitely better now with this roster. But i guess Australia and USA E team kinda make it a bit more top heavy, huh.

Yeah, I agree that first round is preatty week at world cup. But from round two its get stronger. It's your fault that your pool of players is not that big and didn't qualy for world cup. (ok FIBAs fault a bit too).

It's not true that ,,most euro selections are more or less the same,,. Go and check rosters now and on euro. Lot of NBA players plays now and didn't played on Euro. For Serbia it's Jokic who is game changer, for Greece its Giannis. For Lithuania Valenciunas and Sabonis. France I'm not sure who played for them on euro, but pretty sure that wasnt this srong. It's maybe adding 1 or 2 players per selection, but they are game changers.

+ adding USA, Australia, Argentina and Brazil makes it even harder.

[limbo]

Valanciunas played in 2017. No Sabonis, though, otherwise the same squad.

Greece the same but without Giannis.

France was very different. No Gobert, Batum, M'Daye, Ntilikina, Albicy, but had guys like Diaw, Lauvergne, Huretel, Seraphin, Westernmann

Spain the same core + Pau and Navarro. Navarro was pretty washed, but Pau was still a respectable force.

Russia had Shved and Mozgov, they were definitely much better than they are at this tournament.

There was Latvia (missing here) who had one of the best teams in the tournament with Porzingis, Bertans bros.

[LuDux1]

France has all of their best players. .. Ditto Lithuania.

Gudaitis, Motiejunas

Man are lucky we don't concentrate our athletes into single sports (like Lithuania )

So, Schwarzenegger visits Lithuania during Gorby's blockade of 1992. Because fuel is scarce he rents bicycle. He goes to shop and leaves his bicycle with paper note attached with text "Touch my bicycle and I will kill you. Schwarzenegger". Few minutes later he comes out. Bicycle is gone, paper note has additional text "Catch me if you can. Umaras"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gintautas_Umaras

[bisme37]

Smart's defense on Giannis was incredible today. Not a lot of players who can score 3 points and still be the most important player on the floor.

[bb22]

Great game plan and effort on D by team USA. Only mistake I saw was playing Middleton so many minutes when he was clearly not playing well on either end.
I didn't watch him much during the season, but his ball-handling and penetration looks awful.

[a-French-Fan]

Watch on YouTube

I only Saw highlights and was agree with him!
But then Friends who did see thé game told that "ok he is right for Gobert's goaltending, but hé can't be so angry against refs for the whole game, actually he can thanks them for 29 FTs"

And they also told me about Albicy's flopping ...


So, who Saw the whole game ? Did my Friends were objectives?

(I will see the whole game tomorrow)