[basketballfan333]

Thought this was a great read for you Eurobasket junkies. Includes thoughts on the favorites (Spain, Turkey, Lithuania, etc) and also a breakdown of Serbia's response to Italy's zone.

LINK

This post has been edited by basketballfan333: 04 September 2011 - 07:24 PM

[ZEUS]

Nice article, is that your site?

Welcome aboard, somehow I doubt though you are from Afghanistan?

[Black Urum]

Welcome on board @rodhig7 !

Hope to see a lot more posting from you.

[MaccabiTA]

ZEUS, on 04 September 2011 - 09:23 PM, said:

Nice article, is that your site?

Welcome aboard, somehow I doubt though you are from Afghanistan?

Afghan people are known as basketball enthusiasts

This post has been edited by MaccabiTA: 04 September 2011 - 10:30 PM

[TeoTheGreek13]

ZEUS, on 04 September 2011 - 09:23 PM, said:

Nice article, is that your site?

Welcome aboard, somehow I doubt though you are from Afghanistan?

I doubt that he will stay in talkbasket!!!
I don't believe he will reach number 10 in posts!

[TeoTheGreek13]

So far we've seen a great tournament full of surprises and great, tough games!

I hope it stays that way!!

[stefans]

TeoTheGreek13, on 04 September 2011 - 10:42 PM, said:

I doubt that he will stay in talkbasket!!!
I don't believe he will reach number 10 in posts!

Like most members from "Afghanistan"

[Raze Lupin]

My impressions:

SPAIN: ESPANA has the best and most deep collection of athletes, skill players in Eurobasket. They are well coached. All the players show good BB IQ. The team plays good defense and good offense. Spain seems to have the ability to switch gears. They play weak opponents in low gear and today when they play Lietuva they play high gear. I had my doubts about chemistry BUT not now. I will say I detest how European teams "sand bag" in group stages! They purposely play to the level of their opponents and sometimes lose games on purpose for better final positions. Many strong teams with 3 wins will purposely play at a low level or lose to rest players...

FRANCE: France is better than I expected without center Ronny Turiaf. I thought that France and Italy would be on the same level, meaning B+ level. I was wrong. What is scary about France is that they are missing one of their best inside player Ronny Turiaf. With Ronny Turiaf and Joakim Noah at the front court and Tony Parker in the back court France looks scary good. The biggest test is how they handle Serbia. France has show that they are A level. With game changer Tony Parker they can beat anyone.

SRBIJA!! Serbia is Serbia. These guys have soul and body. Serbia seems to be mentally strong displaying an overall great psychology. Duda has this team at a good place. Srbija vs France should be interesting.

LIETUVA Jonas V is amazing! He is def ready for NBA next year. he is almost as athletic as American Blake Griffin! Lietuva can still win gold. I'm impressed with them. Today Spain showed that the liths have some weaknesses on defense. Turkey also exposed Liths weak interior defense. Still I would bet on the home team against most opponents. Most teams don't have the Front court power or guards to expose this weakness.

TURKEY Turkey has grade A athleticism, skill, fundamentals and creativity. Turkey on paper could easily be undefeated right now. Reality is games are not played on paper and Turkey lacks overall maturity especially in the 4th quarter. Turkey needs to learn to finish strong! As far as physically gifted and depth of players they easily rank among the top 3 in this tourney along with France and Spain.

ITALIA Italy has similar problems as Turkey. They have 7 quality players. Good coaching but lack defensive intensity and chemistry. Italy needs to play consistent and learn to finish strong.

FYROM Bo Mcalebb is playing amazing. Getting beat by FYROM is like getting hit by an earthquake, being attacked by a wild bear and struck by lighting all in the same day. Say what you will but he is not winning alone. During the Greece game he did not score the last 6 minutes of the game??!! Greece had their chance to win a close game. They did not because of these guys; Pero Antic and Todor Grechevski. Today Antic had 14pts and 19rbs 3ast and 2blks!!! Don't only blame Bo alone if your team loses to FYROM! Don't blame naturalization! If you let two old guys with back problems beat your national team then blame fate, God or the universe. Or just be reasonable and admit your team played poorly cause they let some old guys out rebound and play defense on them.....


FINLAND They are playing the best basketball in the tournament. I admire this team because they are playing to 100% of their abilities. Great shooting and ball movement, great defense, excellent coaching. I really like this team.

Great Britian DENG...DENG DENG DENG DENG!! GB has overall quality talent. I'd give them a solid B-. They play with heart and direction. Just think how good they will be win they have Pops and Ben Gordan in the line up. The Oly games could be a bit more interesting with those guys.

This post has been edited by Raze Lupin: 05 September 2011 - 01:02 AM

[TeoTheGreek13]

stefans, on 04 September 2011 - 11:48 PM, said:

Like most members from "Afghanistan"

Not only from Afghanistan!

[TeoTheGreek13]

Raze Lupin, on 05 September 2011 - 12:49 AM, said:

FYROM Bo Mcalebb is playing amazing. Getting beat by FYROM is like getting hit by an earthquake, being attacked by a wild bear and struck by lighting all in the same day. Say what you will but he is not winning alone. During the Greece game he did not score the last 6 minutes of the game??!! Greece had their chance to win a close game. They did not because of these guys; Pero Antic and Todor Grechevski. Today Antic had 14pts and 19rbs 3ast and 2blks!!! Don't only blame Bo alone if your team loses to FYROM! Don't blame naturalization! If you let two old guys with back problems beat your national team then blame fate, God or the universe. Or just be reasonable and admit your team played poorly cause they let some old guys out rebound and play defense on them.....

We didn't BLAME naturalization.
The only reason that we lost to FYROM(even with our 8 absences) was the lack of passion in this game(of course we didn't have a good night either).
We don't look for excuses, we know who we are(as the Greek national team) and we know who THEY are.

We only care for somehow finish in top-6 and qualify for the Olympics.
We will come in full force(of course without our best player, Diamantidis) and then you will see the real Greek team!!

I have to admit though, that the most possible scenario is that we won't qualify for the pre-Olympic tournament.

This post has been edited by TeoTheGreek13: 05 September 2011 - 01:43 AM

[ZEUS]

Raze, we played FYROM the last Eurobasket and blasted them 30 or so points- trust me, they were supreme SHIT. Gecevski didn't play that well, although I know he can play really well, he's been playing supremely for PAOK these past two seasons now, and I hope we keep him on board. He is a player who doesn't have much of a body but he has a good brain, and that's what makes him a pretty good player that you could definitely underestimate when you just look at him (he looks like he's gonna die from TB or something )

Let's not kid ourselves, FYROM doesn't have any tradition in basketball whatsoever, so it just paid a new age David Rivers to come and stick some rubbing alcohol up its pooh chute to resurrect it. That's what pisses me off about naturalization. If they had local talent to fill the gaps and make an amazing team, then all the more power to them. But this wasn't the case.

Antic did play between mediocre to good in the Hellas match. Bo McCalebb however was the big driving force that our n00bz0rz couldn't handle, as well as having unexplained jitters which I haven't seen for years. Still, we can't blame such a new team of ours that's only been training for two weeks before the friendly tournaments, and it's main PG is in bad condition from injury and came last to start practicing with the squad. At least when the other teams will have to start rebuilding their teams again, we'll already be ready to smash 'em and mash 'em much like Bo did with us yesterday

[ZEUS]

Raze Lupin, on 05 September 2011 - 12:49 AM, said:

I will say I detest how European teams "sand bag" in group stages! They purposely play to the level of their opponents and sometimes lose games on purpose for better final positions. Many strong teams with 3 wins will purposely play at a low level or lose to rest players...

Tactics my friend, tactics, you forgot about the last World Championship and so many 'lost games' fiascos (that we were also part of too ) ?

[Raze Lupin]

ZEUS, on 05 September 2011 - 02:00 AM, said:

Tactics my friend, tactics, you forgot about the last World Championship and so many 'lost games' fiascos (that we were also part of too ) ?

Yes and I remember OLY 2008 when USA beat Spain by 30 then in Final game Spain shows there true stength and almost beat USA! So it is difficult to analyze their true strength in group stage. For example Before today I thought Spain was normal A class team BUT when they play Liths the look like world Cup Champions....They were saving there strength I believe. It's smart BUT deceptive. Sneaky Europeans...lol