FIBA WORLD CUP 2019 | SPAIN are new WORLD CHAMPIONS

[Catchall]

I'm watching the highlights here. USA's pick-and-roll defense flat out sucks. Turks are getting open looks and mismatches every time. USA's bigs are too slow to guard pnr. Why not bring a player like Jonathan Issac or JJJ ?

[obispo]

I am sure no one knows Turkey's coach outside of Turkey but he is a really top talented perfect young coach. If any NBA team offer him an assistant coach job after his days in NT, this will be a huge earning for that team.

He already won a miracle championship in Turkish league against giant teams.

MI 6 cihazımdan Tapatalk kullanılarak gönderildi

[UcanUwill]

Anyhow,if I am not wrong, we already know 12 out of 16 teams that will play in second round. Second round looks stacked, for those who complained about blowouts.

12 teams that clinched the spot are :

Argentina
Russia
Serbia
Italy
USA
Brazil
Poland
Spain
France
Dominican republic
Lithuania
Australia

[saritasbora]

I am sure no one knows Turkey's coach outside of Turkey but he is a really top talented perfect young coach. If any NBA team offer him an assistant coach job after his days in NT, this will be a huge earning for that team.

He already won a miracle championship in Turkish league against giant teams.

MI 6 cihazımdan Tapatalk kullanılarak gönderildi

Nice try Gala fan but he is not better than Ergin Ataman

[Lunartic]

Dwight Howard?
Noah?
Mike Conley

Just throwing names out and it's possible they declined but this is poor roster construction for FIBA

Lots of better options than freaking Plumlee, but just want to point out that Noah already played for France national and doesnt qualify.

This 'lots of better options' keeps getting pointed out, but we have no idea whether those better options would have committed. We only get the end result of the roster, not the extensive conversations with players, agents, etc., we do not have any of the insider deciding factors that go into the final decisions.

This is not particularly aimed at you, UcanUwill, I'm just using it as a representative comment that gets repeated. It's easy to say oh better roster would be better, but given that so many guys bailed, it's not out of realm of reality to assume that what we have are the guys who were willing to commit. Yes they are struggling, but you can see how much it means to them. So I think the proper criticism should go to the bailouts. The next step is instilling some programs at grassroots levels that address future WC tournaments. I think with the game being more global, this is hopefully something that gets more meaningful attention.

I understand what you're saying and you're not wrong. However, there is no question that the roster construction is poor as far as fit and specific required talents.

When you have Lebron, Davis, Durant, and Harden to choose from, you can mortgage fit for the overwhelming talent disparity. When you are relying on underachieving young players you need to be conscious of the actual team fit.
Sometimes sacrificing "talent" for skillset is worth it.

For example, Mitchell might be more talented than Conley but Conley would be a better fit as far as play-making, shooting and calming vet presence. You can argue that Conley might have declined and that's valid but I don't believe the Team USA exhausted all options and instead went with the best talent they could find.

Even now, USA "out-talents" the rest of the world teams despite being undermanned yet they're struggling based on fit and having glaring holes in roster construction. Whereas, teams like Turkey have far less talent but are more cohesive as far as fit and gave the USA a run for their money in a game that easily could have been a Team USA loss.

[Catchall]

Mitchell had a big time offensive rebound to set up Tatum to get fouled on the 3 attempt at the end of regulation. He got way up and snatched the ball from Osman.

[G R E Y]

Wait so Greece is out?!

[Gooner]

I'm watching the highlights here. USA's pick-and-roll defense flat out sucks. Turks are getting open looks and mismatches every time. USA's bigs are too slow to guard pnr. Why not bring a player like Jonathan Issac or JJJ ?

Myles Turner is normally good in that area, but Pop is not doing a good job coaching.

[NavalAviator94]

I am sure no one knows Turkey's coach outside of Turkey but he is a really top talented perfect young coach. If any NBA team offer him an assistant coach job after his days in NT, this will be a huge earning for that team.

He already won a miracle championship in Turkish league against giant teams.

MI 6 cihazımdan Tapatalk kullanılarak gönderildi

He did a great job. I was impressed by him.

[Catchall]

I'm watching the highlights here. USA's pick-and-roll defense flat out sucks. Turks are getting open looks and mismatches every time. USA's bigs are too slow to guard pnr. Why not bring a player like Jonathan Issac or JJJ ?

Myles Turner is normally good in that area, but Pop is not doing a good job coaching.

USA was giving up open drives, open mid-range shots, open 3s or guys like Illyasova shooting over Kemba Walker. It was really bad.

The USA didn't have a defensive game plan. It's like they didn't know who the opponent was and just sort of went with it. Turkey was pretty comfortable with the looks they were getting all night with individual players playing to their strengths. It's like there was no scouting. USA probably thinks they have enough offensive talent to run a few plays and play out the game, but it might not work out that way.

[sunsbg]

'Our superstars are not playing' excuses just started. I thought every NBA player was supposed to be at least 5x better than those FIBA scrubs and will be dominating with easy.

Giannis - 13p/4r in 28 mins
Team USA almost lost to an average team

Are there still questions about NBA stats being inflated, FIBA tournaments are tougher ?

[UcanUwill]

Wait so Greece is out?!

Greece is not out, but they are not clinched yet, will play life or death game against New Zealand. Winner of that advances

[darmani]

In FIBA you get credited with an assist if a pass leads to a shooting foul and the receiver makes at least 1 free throw. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

No, that's not true at all.

[UcanUwill]

Some photos from todays action :

Spoiler:

[G R E Y]

I find the FIBA rules for who plays whom frustratingly unclear. That's on me as I have some catching up to do about the international game, but for now, how are the teams going on to the second round getting sorted as to who they play next? And does point differential count at this stage?

[UcanUwill]

I understand what you're saying and you're not wrong. However, there is no question that the roster construction is poor as far as fit and specific required talents.

Honestly, instead of Plumlee, I rather have some FIBA rule tested Euroleague star center. Like Bryan Dunston.

In FIBA you get credited with an assist if a pass leads to a shooting foul and the receiver makes at least 1 free throw. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

No, that's not true at all.

i believe thats true, at least it is that way in the Euroleague.

I find the FIBA rules for who plays whom frustratingly unclear. That's on me as I have some catching up to do about the international game, but for now, how are the teams going on to the second round getting sorted as to who they play next? And does point differential count at this stage?

Its not that you dont know FIBA rules, FIBA changes their tournament format almost every time, so its easy to be confused. This is how the whole system looks like :

http://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019/competition-system

[stoo]

In FIBA you get credited with an assist if a pass leads to a shooting foul and the receiver makes at least 1 free throw. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

No, that's not true at all.

So do you know why you've said that's not true at all? I just wonder

[Nuntius]

Man, the USA-Turkey and Brazil-Greece games were wild. Group K (the group that these 4 teams will compete in if Turkey and Greece win their last games) is going to be an absolute bloodbath.

First of all, allow me to give huge props to Brazil. They really played an excellent game and they deserved to beat us. I talked about Varejão in one of my previous posts. He was amazing and the best player on the floor in this game. Alex Garcia and Marquinhos also had amazing games. Garcia doesn't look 39 years old at all. He was great on both ends. Those 3 and Barbosa are what gave Brazil this victory. Their old guard carried them.

Now, let's talk about Greece.

Look, I realize that Sloukas missed that final FT that could have tied the game up. But I can't blame him for this loss. He was our main offensive cog in the second half and we wouldn't be in a position to tie the game up and send it to OT without him. If we're being honest, we should never have been in that position to begin with. Louzada's foul was mind-boggling.

Giannis was good. No, he wasn't the NBA MVP-type that most of you know. Giannis can't be that kind of player under FIBA rules unless he becomes a great shooter. I think that one of our mistakes was that we underutilized Giannis in the 4th quarter. He rarely got the ball in a position that would allow him to initiate offense. We didn't utilize him as a ball-handler. We should have given him the ball more at the top of the key and then have Sloukas screen for him and flare back out for a 3. The one time we tried it, it worked well and Giannis drove to the rim and got fouled.

Printezis was great. He was the one that was hitting the big shots to keep us in the game (Sloukas was mainly creating those shots) and he hit that big 3 that tied the game up.

Calathes had a great stat-line. He had an amazing first half. But in the second half, he was the main reason why we lost. He screwed up. A lot. He missed his open 3s, he turned the ball over and he even fumbled two rebounds away from Papagiannis (which gave the possession back to Brazil). He is a significantly better player than he showed in that second half but that half was just brutal for us. That performance in the second half is one of the reasons why we lost.

Bourousis was bad. He didn't manage to impact the game at all. It's why he wasn't used at all in the 4th. In my opinion, that was a good decision since he was clearly outmatched in this game.

Papapetrou was below average. He missed some shots that he should have hit and he wasn't very good on the defensive end. We need more from him.

Papanikolaou was above average. He helped defensively and on the board. He also hit two crucial FTs at the end. We do need a bit more from him on the offensive end, though.

Papagiannis was a bit above average. He was much better than Bourousis and he basically did his job. He didn't finish particularly well at the rim but he did protect the rim on the defensive end.

Thanasis only played 4 minutes so I can't really grade him.

So, yeah, basically I believe that Calathes in the second half and Bourousis throughout the game were the players that deserve the vast majority of the blame tonight. But it's not just the players who deserve blame. The coach deserves a lot of blame as well. Aco Petrović outcoached him hard. Petrović made adjustments to his defensive plan at the end of the first half and Skourtopoulos was never able to make adjustments of his own. We didn't have an answer to these adjustments and they are a big reason why we lost. That and the pitiful transition defense. This one also cost us.

Greece is in a very tough spot now. We have to play a do or die game against New Zealand in two days and then we're facing off against Turkey and the US. If we beat both Turkey and the US then yeah, we will advance to the quarter-finals, but that's a very, very tall task, especially after today's lackluster performance. If we can't beat the US then this is how we can advance to the quarter-finals:

Step 1) We need to beat Turkey. Lose to both Turkey and the US and you're out, playing for spots 13-16.

Step 2) We need Brazil to lose to both the US and Turkey.

If that happened then we'd have a triple tie-breaker between Brazil, Greece and Turkey. All 3 teams would have a 1-2 record and all 3 teams would have a 1-1 record against each other. So, point differential in the games between these 3 teams would be the deciding factor and since we only lost by 1 point today, it would be possible to come out on top and advance.

[stoo]

I find the FIBA rules for who plays whom frustratingly unclear. That's on me as I have some catching up to do about the international game, but for now, how are the teams going on to the second round getting sorted as to who they play next? And does point differential count at this stage?

I would like to know that as well. I know that you transfer, probably 2 points for a win and 1 point for a loss, to a second group stage. So with 3 wins you probably start second stage with 6 points. I don't know about point differential

[LuDux1]

In FIBA you get credited with an assist if a pass leads to a shooting foul and the receiver makes at least 1 free throw. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes