FIBA ASIA Cup Qualifiers

[Silent Killer]

Did guam utilize the naturalized player slot on jericho cruz or they cn hire any american palymaker to increase their chances? And if there are guys like jericho inbtheir roster might as well apply for pba draft..or go bleague ala takumi simon

Cruz is considered local for guam..

Afaik they dont have any NP.

Though they can get g.leaguers from mainland US and play for them.

[Giannis34GOD]

You also have a tendency to overhype teams on the basis of 1 or 2 games.

Look at their base talent first. If their recent success is due to a bunch of naturalized players or exempted ineligibles, then it’s not telling much.

Qatar’s recent resurgence in good form is due to Lewis and Harris. Simple as that. Take those players away, then they’re back to being kulelat.

You know why the Asia Elite 8 (China, Lebanon, Iran, Philippines, Korea, Japan, Jordan, and NZ) are always competitive? Because the basketball talent, infrastructure, viewership, and competitiveness has been around for decades. Outside Australia, these are the teams that can consistently form competitive teams.

ASEAN and Gulf Teams simply aren’t there yet which is consistent with their lopsided W-L records against the Elite 8 favoring the latter.

Look at Saudi Arabia. How many times have they beaten any of the Elite 8 in an official FIBA competition? Once against Jordan in 2021 and the latter was without Al-Dwairi and Tucker.

Other teams can compete outside of top 8 or 9 (if we include Taiwan), the result of scores between top tier and mid tier are closer and closer years goes by, before the results between Jordan or Lebanon vs KSA or Japan vs Guam will be a lopsided matches, even last 10 years, you can't consider them as threat.. fast forward today, the scores don't lie.. maybe you can tell they not give their all on that matches.. Before even they just use 40% of their strength, they can still trash those teams by 40 or more points.. This new format giving those rising basketball programs chance to experience playing top tier teams consistently... Now even they go all out, they can't even blow away those teams because they are basically improve... As for Thailand, they should stick to the core again and get some experience playing best teams in Asia...

[sroth3839]

Other teams can compete outside of top 8 or 9 (if we include Taiwan), the result of scores between top tier and mid tier are closer and closer years goes by, before the results between Jordan or Lebanon vs KSA or Japan vs Guam will be a lopsided matches, even last 10 years, you can't consider them as threat.. fast forward today, the scores don't lie.. maybe you can tell they not give their all on that matches.. Before even they just use 40% of their strength, they can still trash those teams by 40 or more points.. This new format giving those rising basketball programs chance to experience playing top tier teams consistently... Now even they go all out, they can't even blow away those teams because they are basically improve... As for Thailand, they should stick to the core again and get some experience playing best teams in Asia...

Problem is, the top 8/9 are also improving every generation and can still pull away from the bottom challengers. The only team who has declined significantly is Kazakhstan and it was always expected from them. They haven’t been a serious contender since the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship.

Staying competitive is one thing. Winning over the established teams is another.

We beat Latvia and proved we could give the top 20 teams trouble. That doesn’t mean we’re already in their level. We gotta prove it first.

[sroth3839]

I stand corrected.

India has improved (or maybe they're just having a good shooting night) and are now leading Iraq by almost 20.

Now this will be interesting. If all three teams end up with 1-1, I wonder who makes it.

If India makes it, I wonder if they can sustain this level of play against stronger teams.

[Giannis34GOD]

I stand corrected.

India has improved (or maybe they're just having a good shooting night) and are now leading Iraq by almost 20.

Now this will be interesting. If all three teams end up with 1-1, I wonder who makes it.

If India makes it, I wonder if they can sustain this level of play against stronger teams.

India didn't improve, it just Iraq sucks... In previous match ups between Iraq and India, the latter has the numbers of Iraq.. they beat them twice.. and I also notice that Iraq still not changing their naturalized player, Mayfield has been their NP since 10 years ago and he's not your type of NP that elevate your team to the higher level, they have to replace him w/ younger and more talented one... I'm sure Bahrain will beat India a huge margin tomorrow... Bahrain is too good to be here in this round..

[sroth3839]

India didn't improve, it just Iraq sucks... In previous match ups between Iraq and India, the latter has the numbers of Iraq.. they beat them twice.. and I also notice that Iraq still not changing their naturalized player, Mayfield has been their NP since 10 years ago and he's not your type of NP that elevate your team to the higher level, they have to replace him w/ younger and more talented one... I'm sure Bahrain will beat India a huge margin tomorrow... Bahrain is too good to be here in this round..

Yeah. It was a combination of India waxing hot from the outside due to poor close out and Iraq having no offense besides give the ball to Al-Khafaji (their veteran C).

[ARMIR]

Same here bro. Bahrain & Iraq would beat India for the last 2 remaining slots. I think tonight's game between Taiwan & Thailand is already a done deal - there's no way Thailand will beat a hot Taiwanese team tonight.

So this leaves Gilas as the only SEA team to make it to the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup. Quite frustrating that after all these years, after all these talk about Indonesia, Thailand catching up with the Philippines in South East Asian basketball, all these talk about Thailand & Indonesia gaining significant improvement, pagdating sa Asian level basketball, these two SEA teams continue to suck.

Why would we want them to improve or catch up with Gilas,as far as I'm concerned,every time they meet they should be beaten to a pulp until they just,like the same feeling Filipinos get when it gets beaten in the Asian qualifiers for the World Baseball Classic,a game where the Filipinos were once kings and the prospect of the first colored player to play in the MLB would have come from.If there's a way of convincing China that them using their half Chinese players is a bad look for them it would be nice,and tell them they're too strong and don't need NPs,or even Japan just keep sending their B or C teams,so it would be fair for the rest of Asia.

[Giannis34GOD]

Why would we want them to improve or catch up with Gilas,as far as I'm concerned,every time they meet they should be beaten to a pulp until they just,like the same feeling Filipinos get when it gets beaten in the Asian qualifiers for the World Baseball Classic,a game where the Filipinos were once kings and the prospect of the first colored player to play in the MLB would have come from.If there's a way of convincing China that them using their half Chinese players is a bad look for them it would be nice,and tell them they're too strong and don't need NPs,or even Japan just keep sending their B or C teams,so it would be fair for the rest of Asia.

For the benefit also of our national team for the future.. the reason also why our basketball program have slow progress internationally because our backyard region in terms of basketball competition is too weak.. unlike other regions such as West Asia, East Asia and even Gulf region improved fastly because they have competition in one another in their region.. even Guam, because they are in Oceania battling giants such as Australia and NZL, they have to force to improve their basketball program.. Guam is way way better than Thailand and Indonesia, who are consistent 2nd and 3rd place in seagames... The improvement of Indonesia, Thailand and other SEA countries in basketball will benefit us long term...

[Giannis34GOD]

Yeah. It was a combination of India waxing hot from the outside due to poor close out and Iraq having no offense besides give the ball to Al-Khafaji (their veteran C).

The guards of Iraq are too weak, even their naturalized player is not that impact.. he's look like just a local player, that we all know a naturalized player should be their best player, especially such as team like them that lack of local talents.. if they can't qualify again, they should move on with Mayfield.. he's not that guy that lead them into highest level.. they have a good run in 2016-2018.. they actually beat China in 2016 Fiba Asia challenge cup and Iran in 2018 world cup qualifiers, they also qualified in 2017 Fiba Asia cup, where they have good impression, even they gave us a good fight when last time we faced them in 2017... Since then, they were on downward.. lose to India in group stage of 2021 qualifiers and didn't qualified.. now it will repeat again.. they have a good coach with Coach Matic (former Fiba Asia cup gold medalist with Iran in 2009), India is not that good.. it just Iraq didn't capitalized India's weakness especially in guard position..

[Giannis34GOD]

What is happening to Bahrain? A year ago, they are really look promising, they even represent Asia in OQT and played against Italy and Puerto Rico and I think it will gained experience for them moving forward.. fast forward now, they are struggling to beat one of Asian basketball minnows in India... They have also great games when they have almost beat China, Japan and Korea in the past.. they have also a coach who also led Lebanon silver medal finish in 2022 Fiba Asia in coach Jad El Hajj...

[sroth3839]

What is happening to Bahrain? A year ago, they are really look promising, they even represent Asia in OQT and played against Italy and Puerto Rico and I think it will gained experience for them moving forward.. fast forward now, they are struggling to beat one of Asian basketball minnows in India... They have also great games when they have almost beat China, Japan and Korea in the past.. they have also a coach who also led Lebanon silver medal finish in 2022 Fiba Asia in coach Jad El Hajj...

There's a reason I said these teams aren't quite there yet.

Inconsistency.

[JAMSKIE]

Oh my!!!!
Kakainin ko pala mga sinabi ko about India, Bahrain & Iraq a few days ago in w/c I predicted easy wins for Bahrain & Iraq against India.

Tapos tinambakan pa ng India yung Iraq!!

[Giannis34GOD]

There's a reason I said these teams aren't quite there yet.

Inconsistency.

For Bahrain, The problem was until now they still not changing their naturalized player.. I have respect to Wayne Chism.. he's one of the best PBA imports who played last decade.. but he's too old already, can't even play longer minutes than he used too before... either they qualified or not, they have to change their naturalized after this tournament... Bahrain wasted Mustafa Rasheed's great game, I think Iraq might steal the slot from Bahrain if they are still like this ..

[Giannis34GOD]

Oh my!!!!
Kakainin ko pala mga sinabi ko about India, Bahrain & Iraq a few days ago in w/c I predicted easy wins for Bahrain & Iraq against India.

Tapos tinambakan pa ng India yung Iraq!!

This is what I don't like about India.. sometimes they are looking good but on the next round, they are really terrible.. I'm not sold on them until they prove it in the main tournament this summer... I think India and winner of either Bahrain or Iraq will be the bottom 2 teams in the upcoming Fiba Asia cup this summer...

[JAMSKIE]

For the benefit also of our national team for the future.. the reason also why our basketball program have slow progress internationally because our backyard region in terms of basketball competition is too weak.. unlike other regions such as West Asia, East Asia and even Gulf region improved fastly because they have competition in one another in their region.. even Guam, because they are in Oceania battling giants such as Australia and NZL, they have to force to improve their basketball program.. Guam is way way better than Thailand and Indonesia, who are consistent 2nd and 3rd place in seagames... The improvement of Indonesia, Thailand and other SEA countries in basketball will benefit us long term...

This is the very reason why I don't make it a big deal seeing Gilas winning SEA Games gold. What's the glory of winning a championship in a tournament where your opponents are among the weakest in Asia? We've seen how Indonesia & Thailand got clobbered by other Asian teams & how they struggled to figure respectably in the qualifiers & actual Asian tournaments despite of their improvements. Yes, Indonesia & Thailand are improving but so do most Asian teams. Indonesia may have nearly upset South Korea in the 2025 Asia Cup qualifiers but it was more like South Korea being a rebuilding team & the Koreans overconfident of beating a lowly opponent which made Indonesia stayiing close in that game vs. Korea.