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EuroBasket prediction 2017

  • Thread starter Thread starter Straight forward2
  • Start date Start date
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Straight forward2

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Let's count down contenders:

1. SPAIN. A bit reluctantly and with some doubts I'm saying Spain is still No.1 to win it all. No other NT has the depth and champs vibe like Spain. Obviously Pau used to be the guarantee of success for them and it's hard to expect him to be there, but they do have options. If they will pack one of the Gasols, they're good to go with guys like Llull, Redriguez, Rubio and Hernangomez will give them size and toughness under the boards as well. Probably most vulnerable in years, but I simply can't put anyone else in the first place.

2. SERBIA. Coherence, Teo, upcoming super talent Jokič and the recent success. Serbia poised to contend.

3. FRANCE. New post-Parker era upcoming. Gobert, Seraphin, Lauvergne (and still Diaw?) will be a tough frontcourt to handle, all glued by De Colo and Batum. Wouldn't they lack true leadership though.

4. CROATIA. A bit unpopular pick as Croatia yet to establish as a true winner, powerhouse, but they are coming and it was obvious in OG. Bogdanovic, Hezonja, Saric, Simon all are ready for big games and likely Bender might already see some minutes. Croatia is a bit shaky, but if Bogdanovic and Saric will play BIG Croatia can expect good things to come.

5. LITHUANIA. Finalists of 2 previous Eurobaskets won't be easy to handle as always. I expect most of the players to come as next 2018 is a window. Lekavicius and Grigonis should shake calm backourt waters hopefully. Sabonis and Kuzminskas poised for bigger role and a possible trump card - Motiejunas.

6. GREECE. A bit out of the map recently long year powerhouse. Still extremely deep team which struggled to succeed has one of the most explosive players in the word (Greek Freak) and eager to get back on track. They should re-establish identity. Winning identity.

7. ITALY. Used to be half a step from the glory last few years. If they will pack all best players, should be among contenders again. Yet Italy might be a bit irritated with all those loses, some players collapsing mentally (Gentille). Fast to play big and to crash I suppose.

And things get complicated...very complicated...

8. TURKEY. I must go with Turkey. They are host and respectable team which had success at home before. Turkey recently had great success at youth category, yet they are about to build almost entirely new core and unfortunately for them they won't have Kanter as a guy to go. The question is - do they have ripped material to fight for big things.

9. LATVIA. Underrated team which potentially might pack Porzingis. But he's not the only one to shine - Davis Bertans is a heck of an athletic stretch 4. Latvia one of the dark horses of the EB.

10. SLOVENIA. Recent 17yo sensation Doncic linked with Goran Dragic. Sounds pretty good. Couple of other solid guards. Permanently underperforming Slovenia opens new page with new BB prodigy. They need a whole bunch, whole core including competitive frontline to realistically compete for high though.

11. GEORGIA. Another underrated team which can cause a lot of trouble. Great starting 5, but a bit short bench. Pachulia is good as ever :)

12. RUSSIA. To low? Probably, but they used to be a mess. Can they collect all their best player and to bounce back?It's a test for Kirlilenko as a president of federation. They might be a powerhouse, but they are so out of the map now. They need to gather them selves mentally in the first place and to clean the mess inside.

13. CZECH REPUBLIC. Satoransky and Vesely. Could be a pain in the ass again, just like in 2015 EB.

14. POLAND. Gortat, Lampe, Karnowski. Solid roster, solid team. I doubt they would go anywhere far though.

15-17, FINLAND. UKRAINE, BELGIUM. Teams which had some surprising success recently. No idea if they can keep it up. Specially Finland. Ukraine might be pretty good if Alex Len and all players show up. The same with Belgium which has some solid athletic backourt.

18. GERMANY. Another team looking forward to a new era. Maybe first steps to the bright future. Paul Zipser, Schröder and plenty of youngs.

19. MONTENEGRO. Vucevic and Co. Pekovic unfortunately retiring from basketball. However it's rather competitive Balkan team.

20. ISRAEL. Hosts. High expectations. Tough group. The only true international name Casspi. Tough task.

21. GREAT BRITAIN. No idea what kind of team do they bring. Might be way too low or absolutely spot on as a non-basketball country.

22-24. HUNGARY. ROMANIA. ICELAND.
 
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Straight forward said:
8. TURKEY. I must go with Turkey. They are host and respectable team which had success at home before. Turkey recently had great success at youth category, yet they are about to build almost entirely new core and unfortunately for them they won't have Kanter as a guy to go. The question is - do they have ripped material to fight for big things.

22-24. HUNGARY. ROMANIA. ICELAND.
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Quite optimistic prediction for Turkey, thanks. I don't even know if we can field a decent 12-men roster. Maybe they can start building on upcoming talents like Ulubay, Gecim etc, but the new coach, Ufuk Sarica, does not give me much hope.

Hungary on the other hand could fare a bit better, they came with 6-0 from the qualies on top of previous EuroBasket teams G.Britain and MKD. But I doubt they can push out any of Czech Rep or Montenegro for the first 4 places.

For a better evaluation, we should consider the composition of the groups.

Group A: France, Greece, Slovenia, Finland*, Poland, Iceland
Group B: Lithuania, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, Israel*,Georgia
Group B: Spain, Croatia, Czech Rep, Montenegro, Hungary, Romania*
Group D: Serbia, Russia, Turkey*, Latvia, Great Britain, Belgium
 
Levenspiel said:
but the new coach, Ufuk Sarica, does not give me much hope.
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why is that?
he is not a hyped coach but he is doing a good job with his teams.
his teams are playing good looking team basketball.
I have a high oppinnion about him, would put him above any other turkish coach at the moment.
 
Wouldn't a power ranking be more interesting than the final predictions? We often see top teams being eliminated in prior to the semi's, but that's mostly because of the competition system. The end result says quite little of the team. Unless the team is Champion.
So here it goes:

1.Spain They were clearly the best team aside from the USA last year. I expect them to be the same this year.
2.Serbia A full roster and a good average age, but more importantly, they have become accustomed in playing together for a couple of seasons now.
3.France Tony Parker may not be part of the team, but that doesn't necessarily have to be bad. Still a lot of talent for France.

4.Greece They were eliminated in the OQT last year against the Croats, but Greece missed some key players. I can't help but think that with Printezis, Papanikolaou, Sloukas and Pappas they have the potential to be somewhat better that last year.
5. Italy It's obvious the Italians are coming back again in the word stage of basketball. They can make the QF no matter what. Then they can beat anyone on any given day. I ranked them fifth, but they can go even further.
6. Croatia During the OQT they gained some good momentum after beating Greece and Italy. But they will have to repeat the good results at least one more summer if I were to consider Croatia more than top 6 material.
7. Lithuania Like every non-Lithuanian I always underestimate these guys so they can reach the final once again.


^^The above four teams are more or less on par with each other.

8. Germany Ze Germans are slowly maturing in the game of basketball. Even without an uber-player like Nowitzki.
9. Turkey Surely they will be far better than 9th since they play at home. Semi finals are quite likely. But roster wise they are on par with Russia and Germany.
10. Russia Probably getting a bit stronger again.

11. Belgium Not quite as strong as the above teams, but not far from it either. The Belgians have invested in their team for quite some years now.
12. Slovena
13. Finland
14. Montenegro
15. CZ
16. Israel
17. How many teams are playing nowadays? Let's leave it here.

An extra note. Aside from the rankings, all teams are closer to each other than ever. Especially 4 to 12.
 
Victorious said:
Wouldn't a power ranking be more interesting than the final predictions?
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I guess it doesn't really matter now, one way or another now it looks like not some ranking for 2017 tournament, but pure power ranking of European NTs :) As this Eurobasket is the first one in modern era, which isn't qualifier to any major tournament, none can say how teams will look like in September. I simply have no clue how players will react to it, I just hope it won't turn into another withdrawal fest like 2013 or even bigger. So personally I'll wait atleast till summer to think about mine ranking, too unpredictable situation now IMO :)
 
Sarıca had a lot of success with Karşıyaka and now coaching an overachieving Beşiktaş. The only thing scares me is about him is how he treated Güven in Karşıyaka. Right now we need to adapt and develop youngsters in NT such as Ulubay, Yurtseven, Geçim, Taşkıran, Özdemiroğlu, Koşut. I hope he does that instead of playing the old guys. I know he plays good in Beşiktaş with him but for example I don`t want to see Muratcan Güler in NT. That`s my only worry. I think this competition should be where we give keys of the NT to Osman-Korkmaz-Ulubay core. Ant similar to 2006 world cup we can overachieve with players who just want to prove themselves
 
There is no known final composition of the teams,so it is hard to talk about , but there is a national teams which has a lot of high deep rotation players, and in any case, the fight for the medals are: Spain, Lithuania, France maybe even Serbia. The following is a teams that can achieve high results if you have all of your best basketballs players are: Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy and Latvia. Other teams practically not have chance.

(Team Lists the groups in random order)
 
G&B said:
but there is a national teams which has a lot of high deep rotation players, and in any case, the fight for the medals are: Spain, Lithuania, France maybe even Serbia.
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Maybe even Serbia...:D Cool story bro.
 
I would not be surprised to see an all jugobasket final at Eurobasket 2017
 
I believe this eurobasket someone from Greece /Italy gonna win a medal.They choke so many times , its time when they will get some luck in playoffs.Other main semifinal contenders will be same teams from 2013-2016 period.
 
Serbia clear favorite. And not because it's my team, but it's just a fact. Interesting article on Serbian B92 portal yesterday going about sweet torment of coach Djordjevic's pending decisions on C position. Deep rotation on practically all positions.
Anyhow lots of things depending on the response of players and injury lists. For us, things at this moment look fine - all players seem to be willing to play. I really hope that players from all NTs will respond and compete in last tournament before 2 year pause. If that happens, than Serbia, Spain, France and Greece for me are top contenders (as said I give edge to Serbia). From second row, Lithuania, Croatia and maybe Italy.
 
Picek said:
Marković left the NT so your statement is not true.
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Yes I know he left. Markovic told he's done, so I don't count hum to the roster. Out of players who are to be counted, all seem to be willing to play. Markovic will be missed with his tremendeous deffensive skills and solid clutch performanse, but Teo, Jovic and Nedovic can cover PG with ease.
 
First we must see final rosters. Spain is still No1 favorite with brothers, without them they are not.

About my team, key players are Teo, Jokic, Bjelica and Bogdanovic. I hope to see Marjanovic or Kuzmic instead of Stimac.
 
@Shawswhank:Italy for medal?with this team of losers?Lol

I hope to see Pascolo,Melli,Abass,Fontecchio and Cervi in the next eurobasket for many minutes!

target 1/8 final
 
For Italy it was one shot from semifinal in eurobasket2015,one shot from Olympic games.There can come time when that belinelis nonsense shot gonna fall in :) You were really close in 2015 and now not to try to learn from it,but destroy entire team would be stupid desicion.You will never win a medal,if after dissapointing tournament gonna change half of the team.Either way Messina wont do that.Those playoofs looses makes your players stronger and wiser.This eurobasket2017 is last chance for Bellineli's generation to win a medal.
 
I think most talented player of Italy is clearly Gallinari and he's at the prime of his BB career. Belinelli is not that old yet as well 30yo. Bargnani 31. The question is - does Italy have mental strength to gather together and to play coherent basketball. They had one of the best teams on on the paper in 2015, but they played a little too primitive BB. Too much ISO, hero ball. Yet they still were close of getting to the semis. I think Messina should try to build around Gallinari, to make some priorities and to cut some of big stars. To me it would be Bargnani and I would keep Belinelli under short leash. And Italy has to actually play defence. The team has the same problems as some Balkan teams, plenty of talent, but no coherence, correct state of mind.
 
If I were coaching Italy, I'd leave Bargnani and Belinelli home, in case they were having the same effect as in the past, in my opinion that improves Italian chances by a lot. Not that they're bad players, but in the past they didn't fit one bit and hurted their team.

It will be interesting to see how Antetekoumpo can mold in with the Greek team.

When Serbs are not hungry and are considered as a favourites, that didn't work out on some occasions in the past.

Croatia has all the talent and all the psychos possible, together in the same team. Have no idea how to fix that and I don't think their coach does either.

Slovenia hasn't produced a noticable big man since Erazem Lorbek, he didn't pass the medical for some really average teams this year, however might still be the best PF/C we've got and play for NT - that says it all :D

Spain is great individualy yet getting old.

Turkey has the ussual issue with lacking some better guards for my taste.

Russia will probably put up a defensively very strong team and overachieve compared to general expectations

Lithuanian backcourt is getting old, yet in the past that prooved to be to their advantage, wouldn't count them out for some good result.

imo France is the favourite with or without Parker, they're probably the strongest team in europe as far as individual quality goes and stacked at every position.
 
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