FIBA "AmeriCup" 2017

[mojo13]

I think you guys are dreaming if you think Nba players are gonna participate in this tournament. Historically Nba players only participated when there was an Olympic birth on the line like in '99,'03 and '07. In the odd years when world championships births were on the line like in 2005 they didn't even participate. So with nothing on the line this tournament is equivalent to the Pan Am games. No chance you'll see Nba players.

I was talking about NBA players playing in the Qualification games for the FIBA World Cup. Not this "AmeriCup".

During the summer non-NBA season windows I am sure you'll at least see the Team USA "Select Team" level guys playing. Maybe a couple top players sprinkled in. USA Basketball has training camps most summers for the Select guys anyways.

They could easily participate in the AmeriCup as well for training purposes.

Here is the Select Team from 2016

https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2016/06/2016-usa-mens-select-team.aspx

Selected for the 2016 USA Basketball Select squad were: Malcolm Brogdon (University of Virginia); Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns); Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Detroit Pistons); Willie Cauley-Stein (Sacramento Kings); Kris Dunn (Providence College); Aaron Gordon (Orlando Magic); Jerami Grant (Philadelphia 76ers); Gary Harris (Denver Nuggets); Rodney Hood (Utah Jazz); Brandon Ingram (Duke University); Brice Johnson (University of North Carolina), Stanley Johnson (Detroit Pistons); Zach LaVine (Minnesota Timberwolves); CJ McCollum (Portland Trail Blazers); Doug McDermott (Chicago Bulls); Emmanuel Mudiay (Denver Nuggets); Jahlil Okafor (Philadelphia 76ers); Jabari Parker (Milwaukee Bucks); Julius Randle (Los Angeles Lakers); D’Angelo Russell (Los Angeles Lakers); Marcus Smart (Boston Celtics); Myles Turner (Indiana Pacers); Denzel Valentine (Michigan State University); Justise Winslow (Miami Heat) and Cody Zeller (Charlotte Hornets).



Note: Using Team USA in the FIBA Americas in 2005, I think is a poor example. That was the high point of USA Basketball's complete disarray and breakdown. As we know things have changes drastically since. Having a "Select Team" of younger players to draw own that get familiarity with each other and the FIBA game is part of it....

[JGX]

I was talking to someone on another thread (who is usually reliable)

LOL, I think some people here might have a different opinion of that poster's reliability...or sanity...

Who knows with FIBA though. An ambitious "idea man" like Baumann is always a dangerous thing in an international sports organization. The draw for the qualifiers is just a couple weeks away, so we should have concrete schedule information soon.

[usagre]

I think you guys are dreaming if you think Nba players are gonna participate in this tournament. Historically Nba players only participated when there was an Olympic birth on the line like in '99,'03 and '07. In the odd years when world championships births were on the line like in 2005 they didn't even participate. So with nothing on the line this tournament is equivalent to the Pan Am games. No chance you'll see Nba players.

[Steadysoul]

This is a mess. FIBA has their heads up their ass per usual. I was talking to someone on another thread (who is usually reliable) and he said he saw an interview with a FIBA official who said the USA would not be without NBA players as they can schedule all their games in the summer windows if they want. Is that true? Who knows... it seems no one knows anything solid.

I really hope this is true.

[Mindozas]

This is a mess. FIBA has their heads up their ass per usual. I was talking to someone on another thread (who is usually reliable) and he said he saw an interview with a FIBA official who said the USA would not be without NBA players as they can schedule all their games in the summer windows if they want. Is that true? Who knows... it seems no one knows anything solid.

I guess even FIBA and ULEB have no idea what will happen. Funny thing that lately France, Turkey, Italy clubs stated that starting from next season, they will go back under ULEB wing. So ULEB will have basically all the best clubs in its tournaments with majority of best players. I just can't imagine who will play for NTs if there'll be no agreement

[mojo13]

About a week ago, after another shareholders meeting, Zalgiris GM said that EL is undecided what to do, no decision yet, most likely it be made only on July, when schedule for next season will be confirmed, but so far it looks unlikely that there'll be any agreement with FIBA

This is a mess. FIBA has their heads up their ass per usual. I was talking to someone on another thread (who is usually reliable) and he said he saw an interview with a FIBA official who said the USA would not be without NBA players as they can schedule all their games in the summer windows if they want. Is that true? Who knows... it seems no one knows anything solid.

[Mindozas]

It was announced by Jordi a few months ago that EuroLeague and EuroCup players would be allowed to play.

Did something change recently?

About a week ago, after another shareholders meeting, Zalgiris GM said that EL is undecided what to do, no decision yet, most likely it be made only on July, when schedule for next season will be confirmed, but so far it looks unlikely that there'll be any agreement with FIBA

[mojo13]

Euroleague might not let their players to play too, so far no agreement between them and FIBA, so Euroleague, Eurocup players might be left out aswell

It was announced by Jordi a few months ago that EuroLeague and EuroCup players would be allowed to play.

Did something change recently?

[Steadysoul]

Indeed. FIBA was desperate to increase World Champs level, cause it went down drastically, not much players cared about it, for that they even changed the name of competition to look more like FIFA World Cup. But that wasn't a bad move, they made some other, just liek you wrote - schedule is most obvious. Thnx god that atleast they understood and listened to players opinion, that Olympics is the main event and made WC only as qualifiers to it. Otherwise who knows what would have happened, we could even lose only international event where all the bigest starts comes to compete

I mean the ultimate issue is that most players were playing every summer in the previous format. The better teams had no time off. When only two teams has spots for the next big event and one team has a monopoly on one of those spots it makes it hard. This is especially true of the NBA players. Hard to justify playing in both Eurobasket and the Olympics if you have to do the additional QT as well and them do it again the next year.

[Mindozas]

I totally get what FIBA was trying to do but they took the long way round.
They could have made every event every four years and give teams a break after the Olympics instead of that stupid schedule in the middle of seasons.

Indeed. FIBA was desperate to increase World Champs level, cause it went down drastically, not much players cared about it, for that they even changed the name of competition to look more like FIFA World Cup. But that wasn't a bad move, they made some other, just liek you wrote - schedule is most obvious. Thnx god that atleast they understood and listened to players opinion, that Olympics is the main event and made WC only as qualifiers to it. Otherwise who knows what would have happened, we could even lose only international event where all the bigest starts comes to compete

[Steadysoul]

Euroleague might not let their players to play too, so far no agreement between them and FIBA, so Euroleague, Eurocup players might be left out aswell

I totally get what FIBA was trying to do but they took the long way round.
They could have made every event every four years and give teams a break after the Olympics instead of that stupid schedule in the middle of seasons.

[Mindozas]

I can easily see Canada using this a pre-requisite for the Qualification team. Or at least try to get most of the group together. It would be nice to see the better non-NBA guys there.

I would say 99% of USA basketball fans have no idea of the new qualification process. Or even care at this point.
They will soon be surprised that the USA needs to play in qualification games for the WC (as opposed to directly qualifying by winning the Olympics) and without NBA players.

I am sure USA Basketball has some sort of plan in place. A D-league allstar team would be good enough to qualify through the first round at least. The 2nd round? Probably but who knows?

This AmeriCup really doesn't have much value though other than a training session of sorts.


I think the best Canada could hope for with the first WC Qualification window in November is something like:

K. Pangos, O Hanlan
P. Scrubb, Brady Heslip
Aaron Doornekamp, T. Scrubb
Melvin Ejim, Kyle Wiltjer, Anthony Bennett
Khem Birch, Robert Sacre

Euroleague might not let their players to play too, so far no agreement between them and FIBA, so Euroleague, Eurocup players might be left out aswell

[JGX]

For the US I liked the idea of sending a single D-League team to the qualifiers during the NBA season. With limited preparation time there will be a big advantage in having guys who already play together.

Really curious to see what other Americas teams are able to assemble for the qualifiers, especially Canada where a lot of the guys who play the qualifiers would be pushed aside for NBA players if they actually make it to the World Cup.

[carlo]

USA Basketball made yesterday official announcement:

https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2017/04/americup-draw.aspx

Top three finishing teams and Argentina will advance to sf.

[tres equis]

This Americup is supposedly a qualification tournament for the Panamerican Games, i think 7 teams qualify.