2019 FIBA World Cup Thread

[bundabergdevil]

Jerry Colangelo on the US losses and roster construction moving forward

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/09/12/us...ntent=20190912

"I can only say, you can’t help but notice and remember who you thought you were going to war with and who didn’t show up," Colangelo said. “I’m a firm believer that you deal with the cards you’re dealt. All we could have done, and we did it, is get the commitments from a lot of players. So with that kind of a hand you feel reasonably confident that you’re going to be able to put a very good representative team on the court. No one would have anticipated the pull-outs that we had."

"Going forward for USA Basketball, we’re going to need the cooperation of teams, agents and then there has to be communication with players 1-on-1 to solidify those commitments," Colangelo said. "I am going to be anxious to see how many players reach out early to indicate that they wish and want and desire to play. But I’ll make this statement: It’s as much about maybe who we don’t want as much as who we want."

Picking a nit here but that ain't the quote...unless he's self-dealing and we have a Me, Myself, and Irene situation here.

[johnb]

Popp’s my favorite NBA coach/admin without a Duke connection. His response afterward was perfect. Owned the losses, and praised the guys who showed up. As is true for the players, this is a part time gig on top of a very long season.

Jerry Colangelo, meanwhile, has lots of irons in the fire but has run USA basketball since 2005. He sets the rules. He’s the supposed mastermind when USA wins, but now, after the embarrassment, he puffs up and says he’ll “remember” who didn’t show up. Puhlease. Yeah, he’ll remember the great players because all of the best players will—if they want—get to play in the Olympics.

Jerry has had a good long run in the sport, and has gotten very rich in the process, but this may be his last run with USA, and he probably realizes he should have left with Coach K.

[JasonEvans]

Jerry Colangelo, meanwhile, has lots of irons in the fire but has run USA basketball since 2005. He sets the rules. He’s the supposed mastermind when USA wins, but now, after the embarrassment, he puffs up and says he’ll “remember” who didn’t show up. Puhlease. Yeah, he’ll remember the great players because all of the best players will—if they want—get to play in the Olympics.

Yeah, but I think the back end of the Olympic roster could end up going to players who showed up for this team. I could see guys like Walker, Mitchell, and Tatum (or perhaps Barnes or Turner or Middleton) getting spots on the roster as a way of showing NBA players that there is a reward for stepping up when others are stepping back. Make no mistake, the top 8 guys on the team will be the best NBA players who come out, but spots 9-12 could be tilted toward folks who have helped Team USA in the past versus guys who had better things to do in August.

-Jason "this is especially true of Tatum and Mitchell, who are at least somewhat likely to be important players for Team USA for the next decade" Evans

[Steven43]

Almost 5 years to the day, this Woj on K hack job, a veritable polish civil war, seems even more absurd then the day he wrote it

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-ne...044717393.html

Adrian Wojnarowski lost any credibility he might have had as a basketball writer/commentator the moment he attacked Coach K with completely unfounded allegations, followed by not one shred of supporting evidence. He (Wojnarowski) has been dead to me ever since.

[robed deity]

Adrian Wojnarowski lost any credibility he might have had as a basketball writer/commentator the moment he attacked Coach K with completely unfounded allegations, followed by not one shred of supporting evidence. He (Wojnarowski) has been dead to me ever since.

That article was terrible, and it's the only thing I think of every time I see Woj on tv now. He's a decent writer, but rarely provides any actually basketball analysis (like Zach Lowe, for instance). I guess his role is more of "the guy who breaks the stories", and he should stick to that, because opinion pieces like the K story clearly aren't his forte. Horrible take.

[Neals384]

I don’t see anything of substance here. You’re just looking for an excuse to knock Popovich for some strange reason. He was one of the greatest coaches of all time before he started coaching Team USA in these games that most basketball fans don’t give much credence to whatsoever — hardly any basketball fans even watch the games, much less care — and he still retains that exact same rarified coaching status afterwards. It changes exactly nothing.

Did Coach K’s humiliating upset losses to Lehigh in 2012 and Mercer in 2014 lessen his coaching legacy in your eyes? Vaunted juggernaut Lehigh went on to lose their very next game by 12 points. Mighty Mercer went on to lose their next game by 20 points. These were not good teams that beat Duke. The 2011-2012 Duke team had at least 7 or 8 players who spent time on an NBA roster. The 2013-2014 team had a similar number of NBA players. And Coach K had been coaching these two Duke rosters for an entire season at the time his teams suffered their crushing upset losses. Popovich had his Team USA roster for virtually no time at all in comparison. And coaches, players, and fans take NCAA tournament games FAAAAR more seriously than Team USA games. So what do you say now, Chillin?

Dont we have a forum rule that requires a 7 day suspension for mentioning Lehigh or Mercer? So, 14 days out for Steven43? Mods?

just kidding Steven!

[Billy Dat]

While I know not many are interested, the final is set.

Spain took two overtimes to beat Australia. Argentina continued its improbable run, with zero current NBA players, by soundly beating France by 14. Old man Scola had 28 and 13.

Spain v Argentina for Gold
Australia v France for Bronze

Australia has major motivation having never won an international medal. I am taking them, and I'll go against the grain and say that Argentina is going to grab the improbable gold.

[TheOldBattleship]

Just wanted to take a minute to rant about Luis Scola, who just absolutely annihilated France this morning and had Rudy Gobert, fresh off of completely owning the paint against the US, completely baffled. He put up 28 and 13 in that game!!!! Here are the outrageous, hilarious highlights.

The guy is just a beast, particularly in the international. He's what, 38 now? 39? This is apparently where he trains, now! He can barely run, but he was somehow leading the break in transition all game. He still moves the entire defense with those super goofy-looking ball fakes around the basket he was breaking out a decade ago with the Rockets. He now shoots threes? He's still just a complete magician in the paint, always in the right spot, and is just a joy to watch as a cutter. He's been such a great, fun player for so long; it's awesome to see him still going nuts against the best national teams in big-time FIBA tournaments.

My one criticism is that he cut his trademark slightly gross long hair. Bring the locks back, Luis!

[Steven43]

Dont we have a forum rule that requires a 7 day suspension for mentioning Lehigh or Mercer? So, 14 days out for Steven43? Mods?

just kidding Steven!

In a certain sense I agree with your sentiment. Maybe I should be banned for 14 days. Those Lehigh and Mercer games still haunt me.

[cspan37421]

Just wanted to take a minute to rant about Luis Scola, ...
My one criticism is that he cut his trademark slightly gross long hair. Bring the locks back, Luis!

I had no idea Adam Carolla was Argentinian.

[flyingdutchdevil]

While I know not many are interested, the final is set.

Spain took two overtimes to beat Australia. Argentina continued its improbable run, with zero current NBA players, by soundly beating France by 14. Old man Scola had 28 and 13.

Spain v Argentina for Gold
Australia v France for Bronze

Australia has major motivation having never won an international medal. I am taking them, and I'll go against the grain and say that Argentina is going to grab the improbable gold.

The man is 39 years old. 39!

Power to Argentina. I hate their soccer team, but I love their basketball team. Whole immensely greater than the sum-of-the-parts.

[Billy Dat]

Just wanted to take a minute to rant about Luis Scola, who just absolutely annihilated France this morning and had Rudy Gobert, fresh off of completely owning the paint against the US, completely baffled. He put up 28 and 13 in that game!!!! Here are the outrageous, hilarious highlights. The guy is just a beast, particularly in the international. He's what, 38 now? 39? This is apparently where he trains, now! He can barely run, but he was somehow leading the break in transition all game. He still moves the entire defense with those super goofy-looking ball fakes around the basket he was breaking out a decade ago with the Rockets. He now shoots threes? He's still just a complete magician in the paint, always in the right spot, and is just a joy to watch as a cutter. He's been such a great, fun player for so long; it's awesome to see him still going nuts against the best national teams in big-time FIBA tournaments. My one criticism is that he cut his trademark slightly gross long hair. Bring the locks back, Luis!

I think this is why I love FIBA and don't understand why more basketball lovers don't get into it. I love the NBA and I love college basketball, which are two pretty different games and I love them for their differences. FIBA is the third leg of that style tripod, the offenses are so interesting, and the players have such a different bag of tricks. Scola is the poster boy, I love that guy.

I had no idea Adam Carolla was Argentinian.

I am cracking up, I have always said that Scola is a handsome Carolla or Carolla is an ugly Scola.

[TheOldBattleship]

I had no idea Adam Carolla was Argentinian.

Oh my god. This can't be unseen.

[JasonEvans]

I had no idea Adam Carolla was Argentinian.

[Natty_B]

France today was similar to how ACC teams seem to always follow up a upset over Duke with a loss.

[ice-9]

Here is what I don't get, Colangelo supposedly put into place certain requirements to make sure that what happened this summer wouldnt happen again. Coaches and Players had to commit to a full international cycle (2 or 4 years), as did the coaches. It seemed for a while that everyone bought into the idea that playing for the National Team was an honor, and was an important aspect of their career. This summer as player after player backed out, I couldn't figure out what was going on. I get that this is the FIBA tournament, and at least from the US perspective, less important than the Olympics, but still. Why weren't NBA coaches encouraging their players to play this summer? I know that there are some injury issues, and some players like Lebron are probably past it in age, but there is group of really exciting younger players that absolutely should be held accountable for not committing to this process. And why didn't the media put more social pressure on these guys to be a part of the process?

Players not showing up is important context, but at the end of the day the roster that played was the most talented and deepest in the tournament and yet came 7th with 3 losses (should've been 4). That's underperformance regardless of who no-showed.

The real issue is not talent, it's clearly something else.

I read an article somewhere that said this FIBA team if in the NBA would be easily favored to win the championship.

[ice-9]

Fair enough.

But we got movement from it meaning ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to it being a triviality in 3 hours and 22 minutes.

Ahhhh, The Offseason.

- Chillin

I'm seriously impressed with y'all's patience in arguing against a hyberbole. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. NOT AN IOTA. Lol.

[Steven43]

Fair enough.

But we got movement from it meaning ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to it being a triviality in 3 hours and 22 minutes.

Ahhhh, The Offseason.

- Chillin

Only a DBR poster would try to say that the distinction between the two has significance worth mentioning.

[Steven43]

I'm seriously impressed with y'all's patience in arguing against a hyberbole. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. NOT AN IOTA. Lol.

And I’m not so seriously impressed with your attempt at humor.

[ice-9]

And I’m not so seriously impressed with your attempt at humor.

But...it wasn't humor. It was me being impressed.