Do you think Serbia can dominate European basketball once again ?

[milic17]

Im just really excited about the new wave of players coming but also sad to see many generations end. Aleksandrov was a star at youth level but i guess was developed well later on but then again niether was teodosic. You need good coaches and coaches that ahve faith in the player and team not just give up on them its sad actually how many players that had big potential have gone missing. Aleksandrov is still young and hopefully he can develop into a good player as for riky rubio i like him hes going to be abig star do you think he will be better than navarro?

[milic17]

Many reasons why we had pretty weak team in this Eurobasket. First of all, federation hired mediocre coach- R. Butautas. Second main reason that cut also Sireika from the post, it's our poor traditions of point guards. Give few decent PG players for current NT and they would be at the top in this Eurobasket. Third reason, you can't expect a lot when Šaras, Šiškauskas, Kaukėnas are suddenly gone. We need some time to integrate our prospects and we'll be fine.

Its the same phase we went through after our golden boys left.. I just hope use are back in top form sooner then later. I remember watching Lithuania at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when i was a kid ahh good memories

[fastbreak]

Evidently, Spain appeared consecutively in the finals of the last four major international tournaments. That's the biggest achievement ever by any European national team.

Serbia 1995 european champion,1996 silver olympics,1997 european champion,1998 world champion,1999 european bronze,2001 european champion,2002 world champion.
This is the biggest achievement by any European national team ever.

[milic17]

Serbia 1995 european champion,1996 silver olympics,1997 european champion,1998 world champion,1999 european bronze,2001 european champion,2002 world champion.
This is the biggest achievement by any European national team ever.

fuk those where the good days the basketball we played was amazing i miss bodiroga i remember when he was just a youngster playing excellent basketball then he became one of the best euro players ever...

[Captain CAAAVEMAAAAANNN!!]

Serbia 1995 european champion,1996 silver olympics,1997 european champion,1998 world champion,1999 european bronze,2001 european champion,2002 world champion.
This is the biggest achievement by any European national team ever.

Great one. Too bad they missed 99 and 2000 finals because it could have been a record. it's like Spain, they got medals in the 99, 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2009 Eurobaskets but couldn't claim gold in 2005 due to that buzzer beater from Dirk Nowitzki. Could have been a better mark.

[SunOverHStreet]

I doubt they will dominate like Spain has been doing in the last few years. But they should get successful results by some intervals. Teodosic, alone, just not enough for domination from this new generation. I don't think the rest are that special. Every national team has an extremely special player so they will be successful but they won't dominate.

I've said in previous post how word domination can be hard and really not suitable for some team to say. Even though, Spain is the greatest team in last seven or six years, they didn't manage to dominate in the tournaments and was left empty handed when nobody expected that(I'm talking about gold). Today, everybody play basketball and I'm pretty sure that times of old Yugoslavia and SSSR are over. I'm thinking that USA only have capacity for such thing, because of enormous player base and huge tradition. We were lucky to have such generation that did manage to achieve all that success, but those days are over and it will be hard for everyone to repeat that.

[Srle]

I am sure we are going to continue to contend in the next 5,6 years.We have very talented core of players born 87 to 93. Also if we add Pavlovic(who's going to play big minutes in Minnesota this year) and Milicic(Duda can calm him) we will be one of the favorites next year for one of the medals.

[Srle]

Remember this Spanish golden generation couldn't do nothing till 2003. This generation of Serbian player is already ahead of schedule.

[Genjuro]

Remember this Spanish golden generation couldn't do nothing till 2003. This generation of Serbian player is already ahead of schedule.

Bronze medal in 2001 with Gasol (17.3 ppg) and Navarro (15 ppg) as leaders, and a significant contribution from Raül López.

[Srle]

Yes my bad.But real results arrived in 2005.What I want to say if these guys stay together couple of years they will be hard to beat in 3,4 years.They already learned how to win against top competition this year.

[pohani komarac]

Can't sy much more about other temas, because I don't have clear impression about France, Croatia and other teams.

Croatia as always is loaded with tall people talented for sport, will we benifit that only time will tell. As for near future we also have lots of talents and players but will they disapere like most Croatian talents also time will tell.

One shoking thing:


http://www.fibaeurope.com/Default.asp?cid={5179A822-D4B1-4476-AD04-EDBC445D6DC6}&compID={2248A846-FA78-40FF-B03C-54B460890F45}&season=1994&

http://www.fibaeurope.com/Default.asp?cid={5179A822-D4B1-4476-AD04-EDBC445D6DC6}&compID={2248A846-FA78-40FF-B03C-54B460890F45}&season=1996&

http://www.fibaeurope.com/Default.asp?cid={5179A822-D4B1-4476-AD04-EDBC445D6DC6}&compID={2248A846-FA78-40FF-B03C-54B460890F45}&season=1998&

http://www.fibaeurope.com/Default.asp?cid={5179A822-D4B1-4476-AD04-EDBC445D6DC6}&compID={2248A846-FA78-40FF-B03C-54B460890F45}&season=2000&

http://www.fibaeurope.com/Default.asp?cid={5179A822-D4B1-4476-AD04-EDBC445D6DC6}&compID={2248A846-FA78-40FF-B03C-54B460890F45}&season=2002&

It is just shoking thing that Croatia was in 5 stright finals at U-18 championship while our U-20 team never won a medal. This is just a proof that we have talent, but we have uncapable coaches and fedaration. This players that played these championship are players born 1976 to 1985. so that means 24-33 years. I know that wining medal in youth categories doesn't necesery mean talent but in 5 stright generations there should be some talent and judging by that at the moment we should be dominant, not Spain

[Wu-Tang]

I am sure we are going to continue to contend in the next 5,6 years.We have very talented core of players born 87 to 93. Also if we add Pavlovic(who's going to play big minutes in Minnesota this year) and Milicic(Duda can calm him) we will be one of the favorites next year for one of the medals.

Firstly, to answer the thread question: Maybe. Plenty of variables need to quadrate for such an outcome to become reality, but i wouldn't dare writing the option off.

Secondly, I had been most pleased were your assumptions eventually to come true, but if you don't mind, due to which factors do you base such an optimistic statement? I believe it is even questionable whether Milicic will average more than 20mpg in NYK.

[Straight forward]

I am sure we are going to continue to contend in the next 5,6 years.We have very talented core of players born 87 to 93. Also if we add Pavlovic(who's going to play big minutes in Minnesota this year) and Milicic(Duda can calm him) we will be one of the favorites next year for one of the medals.

If you will add such morons as Milicic you won't go anywhere far I believe your coach is smart enough not to call such players even to the preparation camp.

[penzias]

I want to point out that superstar prospects not always turn out to be useful players.

Just take the current core into account. Tepic and Teodosic were nice cadet and junior players, but the clear-cut star from their generation was Nemanja Aleksandrov. Velickovic never was a significant contributor in youth NTs. Bjelica never played in a youth NT. Krstic didn't play with the junior NT.

Indeed, an excellent thing about most of these guys is that they aren't NBA prospects. Tepic, Teodosic and Velickovic were never selected in the draft even if they were already good players when draft elegible. Macvan and Bjelica might be, but their style is much more European friendly. So they are developing their games in Europe, without the spoiling factor that everything related to the NBA can provide (especially for Balkan players).

About future domination, it's difficult to happen. They would need to keep improving a lot and perhaps to add a real superstar to take their game to an extra level (a bit like Gasol does with Spain).

Anyway, this is not old basketball anymore. Now there are many competitive countries, and it's not that easy. Even you can argue if the word dominate can be applied to the Spanish team (of course I'm not talking about this Eurobasket in particular but about last years in general).

That's it, i don't see any superstar prospect among the serbian youngsters as for example have Croatia with Zubzic or Lithuania with Motiejunas or Valanciunas.
Will they still be able to be succesful and win a championships even without a superstar? maybe, it hapeened in the past and might happen again, but dominate without a superstar? i don't think so.

[Straight forward]

That's it, i don't see any superstar prospect among the serbian youngsters as for example have Croatia with Zubzic or Lithuania with Motiejunas or Valanciunas.
Will they still be able to be succesful and win a championships even without a superstar? maybe, it hapeened in the past and might happen again, but dominate without a superstar? i don't think so.

Sometimes superstars come from nowhere, Like Šiškauskas in Lithuania. IMHO, Teodosic showed some clear signs that he might become a real European super star. BTW, Mačvan is not ranked worse than Motiejūnas, though he looked a little bit too passive and limited in the offensive end IMHO, but It's his first Eurobasket only.