FIBA thread

[zack54attack]

Some basketball!

 

[zack54attack]

Took OT and 2 FT's for USA to beat Turkey... woof.

 

[clonetrooper264]

Clearly the worst squad the USA has put out since allowing NBA players to join. The overall level of the world competition has increased dramatically as well so don't be surprised to see the USA not take home the gold in this FIBA.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Did Lebron construct this squad?

Like who let him be GM he didn't even come, I don't get how that became a thing.

 

[Raskolnikov]

but seriously, they don't have any mature shooters except Barnes/Middleton...so my first move would be to find my best line-up, and its gotta to include both small forwards to stretch the floor.

Walker-Barnes-Middleton and then probably whoever you need to defensively/rebounding, with Harris being an interesting scoring option.

There is now doubt they still have the talent to win, but they don't have a great collection of guys well suited to the international game. 3 point shooters matter a lot. Mitchell/Tatum are not mature, and they are your other go to scorers.

The bigs are not impressive for a stretch game, though Lopez does at least anchor them with competence. Typically an all-star NBA team has more overwhelming athletes on it at the 3 and 4.

I just find something about the roster construction extremely awkward and limiting. Its a hard job for Pop, and I think he is a stubborn guy, not sure he is willing to try enough things fast enough to figure it out. ??

Walker-Barnes-Middleton-Mitchell-Tatum is where they need to dominate. Feature and build teams around different pairs and trio's of them.

Walker-Tatum-Middleton-Barnes-Harris could probably play some small ball.

Walker needs floor spacers. These bigs need floor spacers.

Turkey beat them but for missed free throws. Clearly they are tight because they know they are beatable. They are going to have to play with joy and free spirit to pull this off. Band together and realize you are actually underdogs playing a variant of basketball kind of like the NBA. Its not our game exactly and their personell is all wrong. We have the wrong tools.

but to think Walker-Tatum-Middleton-Barnes-Harris-Lopez-Mitchell can't figure out a plan with Pops guidance to overwhelm Jokic...I don't think is accurate.

They just need to figure out their roles and keep the distance shooting to Tatum-Mitchell-Barnes-Harris-Middleton only.

Nobody else should be taking 3's and getting into that type of contest with foreign specialists. Those are the only 5 green lights. But 5 is enough? Maybe Mitchell and Harris shouldn't even qualify.

 

[Raskolnikov]

This team should create valuable depth to supplement next years Olympic team as well...so even a loss will not be total.

Its nice to assess fit with a player like Kemba Walker and see how the team performs in real international situations. They don't have scrimmage schedules for years together like the rest of these teams.

They are playing good hard defense and at some point will have to hit some clutch shots. They need to figure out how to space the floor and limit their slashers to 1 or 2 on the court at a time, but work them hard in rotation. Guys like Walker/Mitchell need to keep driving but not play together alot, imo. Redundant.

 

[RoseMVP1]

I still don't get how Lavine didn't even get a camp invite.

 

[Axl Rose]

I still don't get how Lavine didn't even get a camp invite.

Its possible that he did but quietly turned it down. If he wasn't invited im glad that he wasn't as i don't want him to risk injury playing for this bum team and maybe he uses not being invited as motivation. That would be a win for us.

 

[Raskolnikov]

They dismantled the Greek Freak danger.

They will be a hard out, and every game the NBA guys play the better they are at FIBA version of basketball.

 

[JimJohnson]

USA losing to France by 6 pts at the half.

 

[zack54attack]

Off...

 

[JimJohnson]

https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2019/09/12/jerry-colangelo-usa-basketball-world-cup-roster/
Jerry Colangelo says he will remember the players who backed out of their commitments to play in the World Cup.

 

[Raskolnikov]

https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2019/09/12/jerry-colangelo-usa-basketball-world-cup-roster/
Jerry Colangelo says he will remember the players who backed out of their commitments to play in the World Cup.

Then he is senile and lost his ability to lead.

Perhaps Pop isn't the right guy, for what is an emotional tournament. You could make a case for a college coach being the right flavor there, of taking a group of guys, adjusting to new rules and playing a single quick season with that group.

Its not like they couldn't have beaten France, who had a nice balance to their team. Don't like to see guys getting taken like that by Nitkila..

Their scorers were young and their bigs were limited. They were thin at stretch forwards, and several players on the roster don't fit the international game much at all.

Everyone in charge is very old...I'd like to see them clean house BEFORE the olympics, this tourney wasn't very good for U.S. basketball and an internal review is in order to address the issues around why better players weren't interested.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Losing to Serbia and squeaking by Poland's collection of division I NCAA players is not good.

4. I was baffled by the roster selection, but must concede their control over guys they wanted was poor. But they were not constructed with stretch bigs and mature 3-point shooters for FIBA.
3. Losing Tatum was tough as he is one of the ones that has an international game future.
2. Scorers were mostly young.
1. My biggest disappointment was Pop's rotations. Guys got playing time like White and a white kid I don't even know that had no business playing over Barnes/Middleton.

The U.S. didn't go down with their best players on the court even among the guys they brought.

With all that they had a great chance to defeat France and advance anyway. Gobert is a different player and for a minute before they lost Heyward they were actually the team that was playing Golden State the toughest at their peak. Nikolina should not have punked them like that, but France was a dangerous group.

Spain probably would have handled the U.S.

 

[RoseMVP1]

If he wasn't invited im glad that he wasn't as i don't want him to risk injury playing for this bum team and maybe he uses not being invited as motivation. That would be a win for us.

Agreed. Every time I see a Lavine workout video, I get more hyped for the season. I love his work ethic. I think this could be the year the stars finally align and he has his big breakout year that lead to more wins and a playoff berth.

 

[anotheridiot]

Losing to Serbia and squeaking by Poland's collection of division I NCAA players is not good.

4. I was baffled by the roster selection, but must concede their control over guys they wanted was poor. But they were not constructed with stretch bigs and mature 3-point shooters for FIBA.
3. Losing Tatum was tough as he is one of the ones that has an international game future.
2. Scorers were mostly young.
1. My biggest disappointment was Pop's rotations. Guys got playing time like White and a white kid I don't even know that had no business playing over Barnes/Middleton.

The U.S. didn't go down with their best players on the court even among the guys they brought.

With all that they had a great chance to defeat France and advance anyway. Gobert is a different player and for a minute before they lost Heyward they were actually the team that was playing Golden State the toughest at their peak. Nikolina should not have punked them like that, but France was a dangerous group.

Spain probably would have handled the U.S.

I am pretty sure every general manager got on the phone to the agents of the players as soon as Tatum got hurt. You dont know what Pop did and how tied his hands were.

 

[Raskolnikov]

I am pretty sure every general manager got on the phone to the agents of the players as soon as Tatum got hurt. You dont know what Pop did and how tied his hands were.

All 3 Celtics sat out the end of tourney so you are correct that at least Ainge did this.