Tokyo Olympic Basketball Tournament Discussion

[Yuri36]

If Luka’s gonna be one of the all time greats but he’s just gotta get in better shape. Not a “hater,” just the truth. Consistently wears down in the 4th quarter of big games. Stay away from that Slovenian cream cake & take note of the work Giannis put in to change his body.

I'm a huge Luka fan and I totally agree with tout.
That and stopping his childish consistant whinning toward refs (that's perhaps what J.Kidd meant in parts when he talked about helping Luka to become a better leader)

[Yuri36]

Luka's priorities are on point. He is already a national hero at 22. Just past month he took Slovenia to first ever Olympics, took us to semifinals among Top 4 teams in the world, achieved 2nd most points at Olympics and 2nd most assists at Olympics in the history of games. I'm sure you think he should be doing cardio and throwing free throws in the gym.

I think as an objective Dallas fan you can see Luka could be better if his conditioning was better—— right?


That’s not an insult. Luka came in out of shape last year and he got off to a bad start. It may be diet or something but he fades. Not taking shots at him but honestly at 22 - it’s hard to imagine dudes not chugging mountain dews, Donuts and gaming on the ps5 like his contemporaries...because that’s what I did in early 20s and I wasn’t sitting on a 200mil contract. Imagine being so good that you ain’t even in your final form and you already Luka?

Luka is great, but ofcourse not perfect. We know he is not in top shape. He may be in top shape being a role player, but for him to carry such load, having so big usage rate, he needs to be in elite shape. He is not, ok? He should lose a couple kg's. I hope he decides one summer to be all-in on conditioning. But not this summer, I guess, he needs some rest. After the playoffs and Olympics.

Agree 100%
Not saying he should go to MJ or Kobe's extremes there but he certainly has to do much much more than what he is seemingly doing in term of work ethics or conditioning, especially considering the God level talents he has received when it comes to basketball.....he has to fulfill them!
Toni Kukoc in a great old interview said that what impressed him the most about MJ was how hard he trained and how he never ever took a frigging day off.
He also said that this attitude was viral and directly set the standard and the example to his teammates.

[sixers4real]

Why do they have Gold medal game way ahead of Bronze medal game? Seems so weird.

Yeah it's so anti-climatic.

Are they gonna even do the three team medal ceremony pn the podium? Can’t imagine the gold & silver winners are going to want to wait around 48 more hours for the conclusion of the bronze game.

It’s 8,5 hours, not 48. Games are on the same day

[Chuck Diesel]

Yeah it's so anti-climatic.

Are they gonna even do the three team medal ceremony pn the podium? Can’t imagine the gold & silver winners are going to want to wait around 48 more hours for the conclusion of the bronze game.

It’s 8,5 hours, not 48. Games are on the same day

Oh you’re right, misread trying to adjust to Tokyo dates. Makes way more sense.

[Chuck Diesel]

Read on Twitter

?s=21

Ok Timothe. Noted.

[TimRobbins]

With Durant, does the US beat France?

Yes. Probably by a wide margin.

[TimRobbins]

The heck you smoking mang?

Which other Olympic teams have Tatum and Lavine waiting to check in on the bench?

Whoop dee doo they beat Patty and Joe.

Take KD out they still should win gold comfortably anything less is a chokejob.

Tatum ad Lavine are good players, but they are not a game changer. The only player on this team who is "dream-team" worthy is Durant.

[Perseus1966]

Oh boy is womens basketball getting worst,or its just me?
Shack could make 3 shows only with serbia.

[Perseus1966]

To this point Prepelič was 90% FT shooter in this tournament (17/19). But made only 3/6 today

Prepelic has been the biggest fool's gold player in Europe for years. He plays bad literally any time something is on the line. Some EuroLeague teams were foolish enough to sign him, and they always got rid of him quite fast.

[Perseus1966]

To this point Prepelič was 90% FT shooter in this tournament (17/19). But made only 3/6 today

Prepelic has been the biggest fool's gold player in Europe for years. He plays bad literally any time something is on the line. Some EuroLeague teams were foolish enough to sign him, and they always got rid of him quite fast.

It happens every time ,against greece had 6/9 3s i think.

[nextlife]

Oh boy is womens basketball getting worst,or its just me?
Shack could make 3 shows only with serbia.

Having watched most women's basketball international teams this olympics, USA and Japan are the only teams fun to watch. Hope Japan wins France so we get a fun gold medal matchup.

[Perseus1966]

Oh boy is womens basketball getting worst,or its just me?
Shack could make 3 shows only with serbia.

Having watched most women's basketball international teams this olympics, USA and Japan are the only teams fun to watch. Hope Japan wins France so we get a fun gold medal matchup.

Really japan?
I watched usa -aus usa -srb only

[nextlife]

Oh boy is womens basketball getting worst,or its just me?
Shack could make 3 shows only with serbia.

Having watched most women's basketball international teams this olympics, USA and Japan are the only teams fun to watch. Hope Japan wins France so we get a fun gold medal matchup.

Really japan?
I watched usa -aus usa -srb only

Yeah, check them out if you get a chance. They play France in 4 hours. Rui Machida is fun to watch

[DCasey91]

The heck you smoking mang?

Which other Olympic teams have Tatum and Lavine waiting to check in on the bench?

Whoop dee doo they beat Patty and Joe.

Take KD out they still should win gold comfortably anything less is a chokejob.

Tatum ad Lavine are good players, but they are not a game changer. The only player on this team who is "dream-team" worthy is Durant.

It matters zero to the competition your facing

USA just beat Patty, Ingles, Thybulle and spuds

Congratulations I guess.

[zike_42]

With only two games to go, what are people's All-Tournament Five? Like All-NBA Five, but I didn't know how to name it. Maybe Olympics All-Star Five? Luka and KD would be locks. Probably Mills and Gobert? Rubio? Fournier?

EDIT: Luka averaged 24.2ppg (#2), 10.0rpg (#2), 10.0apg (#1), 1.2bpg (#6), 1.2spg (#28). What an unreal tournament.

[leolozon]

Honestly, before the France-Slovenia game, I thought that France would win the match up 6-7 times out of ten, but now I think it's the opposite. It's a shame they couldn't hit FTs and Luka had the type of shooting performance he has just twice per year. It was such an outlier shooting wise.

I hope Luka realizes that his technical cost his team and he learns to keep his emotions in check. It's a learning experience and maybe this is the wake up call. Giving up even 1 point to the opposite team can cost you the game.

[BlueSan]

He wont...
Neither will he build a giannis or Čančar type of a body

[Mavrelous]

Honestly, before the France-Slovenia game, I thought that France would win the match up 6-7 times out of ten, but now I think it's the opposite. It's a shame they couldn't hit FTs and Luka had the type of shooting performance he has just twice per year. It was such an outlier shooting wise.

I hope Luka realizes that his technical cost his team and he learns to keep his emotions in check. It's a learning experience and maybe this is the wake up call. Given up even 1 point to the opposite team can cost you the game.

It didn't cost them the game, Blazic (IIRC?) also had a tech, Frech coach had a tech, Fournier had the offensive foul that gave SLO possession while leading with a minute to go, it's a game with ups and downs you can't pinpoint single point here and there.
If there's anything he needs to fix is his tendency to gamble on defense, this also is a sign of fatigue.

[leolozon]

Honestly, before the France-Slovenia game, I thought that France would win the match up 6-7 times out of ten, but now I think it's the opposite. It's a shame they couldn't hit FTs and Luka had the type of shooting performance he has just twice per year. It was such an outlier shooting wise.

I hope Luka realizes that his technical cost his team and he learns to keep his emotions in check. It's a learning experience and maybe this is the wake up call. Given up even 1 point to the opposite team can cost you the game.

It didn't cost them the game, Blazic (IIRC?) also had a tech, Frech coach had a tech, Fournier had the offensive foul that gave SLO possession while leading with a minute to go, it's a game with ups and downs you can't pinpoint single point here and there.
If there's anything he needs to fix is his tendency to gamble on defense, this also is a sign of fatigue.

I didn't say that he cost them the game. I said that 1 point can cost you the game. That was 1 point, but there are many turnarounds in a game.

[Archx]

Honestly, before the France-Slovenia game, I thought that France would win the match up 6-7 times out of ten, but now I think it's the opposite. It's a shame they couldn't hit FTs and Luka had the type of shooting performance he has just twice per year. It was such an outlier shooting wise.

I hope Luka realizes that his technical cost his team and he learns to keep his emotions in check. It's a learning experience and maybe this is the wake up call. Given up even 1 point to the opposite team can cost you the game.

It didn't cost them the game, Blazic (IIRC?) also had a tech, Frech coach had a tech, Fournier had the offensive foul that gave SLO possession while leading with a minute to go, it's a game with ups and downs you can't pinpoint single point here and there.
If there's anything he needs to fix is his tendency to gamble on defense, this also is a sign of fatigue.

I didn't say that he cost them the game. I said that 1 point can cost you the game. That was 1 point, but there are many turnarounds in a game.

Don't forget a clear missed goaltending that took away 2 points from Slovenia. And another potential goaltending later on. We were a bit unlucky yes.