France national team 2010

[rikhardur]

Noah States Desire To Play With France

The man many people believe to be the key for France to reach the podium at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, Joakim Noah, desperately wants to be with Les Bleus when they play in Turkey.

Noah, who is in London for an NBA Europe Live game with the Chicago Bulls against the Utah Jazz, says he thoroughly enjoyed his time with the national team this summer but simply wasn't allowed to remain with the team for their successful EuroBasket Additional Qualifying Round campaign.

France survived without him in the AQR, but only managed a fifth-place finish at the EuroBasket in Poland.

"I spent two superb weeks (in France) and I know that Tony (Parker) did everything that he could for me to remain," Noah said.

"I hope to be a part of the group for next year ahead of the World Championship and then for the Olympic Games."

Noah says he has yet to ask Chicago about playing for France next summer in Turkey.

"No, it's not the best time," he said. "We have a long season, an important one and we will see once the season is over."

France had the look of world beaters six games into the EuroBasket but then came up against Spain in the Quarter-Finals and crashed to defeat with Pau Gasol's performance leading to their demise.

The EuroBasket MVP scored 28 points, pulled down nine rebounds and blocked four shots in that 86-66 Spain win.

Noah's combative presence, France coach Vincent Collet said in Poland, would have given the team a much better chance in that game.

"It's a super group and I believe that I can bring something to it," Noah said.

"At the EuroBasket, the team didn't play badly but they were missing an interior presence."

http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_PI7TVYg2GxIVsszHJ3USG1.articleMode_on.container_frontpage.html

[rikhardur]

FRA – Parker, France welcome chance to meet Spain early on

PARIS (2010 FIBA World Championship) – France are looking ahead to the 2010 FIBA World Championship with a lot of optimism, despite being drawn in Group D with Lithuania and the team that knocked them out of EuroBasket medal contention, Spain.

Canada, New Zealand and Lebanon are also in the pool and French playmaker Tony Parker believes the table is now set for Les Bleus to have a good tournament.

"I think the draw is not too bad,” Parker said.

“We have not been drawn in the group of death (Parker didn’t specify whether A, B or C is the Group of Death).

“(France coach) Vincent (Collet) says our goal is to finish in the top two places of our group and I share that aim.

“We have the means to get there.”

At the draw, French Basketball Federation President Yvan Mainini and Spanish Basketball Federation supremo Jose Luis Saez sat side by side and when the two teams were paired, each smiled at the other.

“It is not necessarily a bad thing to have Spain in the group as we will avoid them in the knockout rounds,” said Collet, whose French team went undefeated at the EuroBasket in Poland before going up against Spain in the Quarter-Finals.

“We do have the spirit of revenge although it is a shame to play them first as we would have preferred to meet them later on in the group as we look to grow in the tournament. However, this might create an opportunity to surprise them.”

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/37898/arti.html

[ip84]

Didn't know where to put the summery I made of Antoine Diot performance vs Belgium... so I'll put it here.

Yeah, it was log ago, but there are no torrents of LeMans games (even those which I manage to see at streams) and there are no game highlights of Diot at all.

This is also first think I upload that requires a serious video edition...



p.s.
If somebody will explain me how to make the boilsoft video work with avi (it tells me my codecs doesn't installed well, but they are) or know a solution to a problem that mkvmerge don't cut the file at some points (I had to make cuts longer or shorter then I wanted at the edges) I'll make this one better...

[rikhardur]

FRA – Noah injury a big blow for Collet

CHICAGO (2010 FIBA World Championship) – France coach Vincent Collet has new cause for concern about the availability of Joakim Noah after the Chicago Bulls shut down their big man indefinitely because of plantar fasciitis.

The 6ft 11in centre was sent back to Chicago from his team’s current road trip in order to receive treatment on his left foot and no precise date has been for his return.

“We’re shutting him down. It’s the best course of action right now,” said Bulls general manager Gar Forman. “We’ll re-evaluate it after the All-Star Break.”

Noah joined the French national side coached by Collet last summer for their preparation games ahead of the Additional Qualifying Round (AQR) for EuroBasket 2009 and averaged 13 points and 7.5 rebounds in two games played in Strasbourg.

France tried to keep the 24-year-old on the squad for the AQR games against Italy and Finland, but the Bulls made it quite clear he was not to play past the preparation round. Noah obliged, heading back stateside promptly.

This will be a particularly big blow for France as Noah has made great strides in his third NBA season. Through 46 games, he was averaging a double-double of 11.2 points and 12.0 rebounds, the latter ranking him third best in the league.

He had a breakthrough performance in last year’s memorable Eastern Conference first round playoff series against the Boston Celtics and so far this season had looked to have picked up where he left off.

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/38361/arti.html

[rikhardur]

FRA – Batum warming up for Turkey in style

PORTLAND (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Nicolas Batum missed the first 45 games of the NBA season while recovering from shoulder injury but he looks better than ever right now with the Portland Trail Blazers.

And that’s great news for France, who will play at the FIBA World Championship later this year in Turkey.

The 21-year-old had 31 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals in Saturday's big win over Minnesota while on Monday, Batum drilled four of seven shots from behind the arc and finished with 21 points.

For a player best known for his defense, Batum is showing he’s becoming the complete player under Portland coach Nate McMillan – an assistant coach of Team USA.

"I think I'm more mature this year," said Batum.

"My approach of the game is different.

"When I play the game, I'm different because I see more. I've learned a lot. I'm just more mature than last year."

McMillan believes Batum became a more confident player last summer when he represented France.

The 2.01m guard/forward competed in the Additional Qualifying Round, and at the EuroBasket and helped France earn a trip to the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

With the French national side at the EuroBasket, he developed into one of the side's most potent players when it came to attacking the basket.

At the EuroBasket, Batum averaged 9.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.

"I want to be more aggressive on offense," Batum said. "Do my thing on offense and have fun."

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/38764/arti.html

[albiongate]

Rodrigue Beaubois (Dallas Mavericks) may play at the World Championship. French staff contacts him last week. Beaubois had never play for any french national team so far.

[penzias]

Another great game yesterday for Batum, he's becoming a deadly shooter.

[ip84]

Another great game yesterday for Batum, he's becoming a deadly shooter.

And besides the 22 points at crazy percentages I liked this play:



BTW, it's wide screen video so my advice is to watch it not embedded...

[albiongate]

Noah, Traoré, Diaw, Batum, Beaubois & Parker can lead France to a medal at the World Championship.

[raph]

That's very optimistic, even with both noah and parker. If we could get both noah & moiso to play next summer, i would be hoping for something big but we most likely gonna have to do without both of them. If parker does not play (which is most likely as he has to negotiate with he spurs during the summer), it would not be such an issue. The lack of Q big men to "intimidate" is really the most worrying burden of our nt imo.

[albiongate]

That's very optimistic, even with both noah and parker. If we could get both noah & moiso to play next summer, i would be hoping for something big but we most likely gonna have to do without both of them. If parker does not play (which is most likely as he has to negotiate with he spurs during the summer), it would not be such an issue. The lack of Q big men to "intimidate" is really the most worrying burden of our nt imo.

Petro is also making an impact in NBA. In the last 6 games, he was in the Denver Nuggets starting five (from March 07 to March 16).

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/johan_petro/game_by_game_stats.html

But unfortunately, he told many times that he isn't willing to play for France anymore because he was so often upset and frustated by in role in french NT. He could have been a perfect back-up for Noah. Or even better, because I think they can to play together.

[samer_1_2]

France NT 2010

Note that Parker is becoming more and more old..
But the same question remains in my head:
Whose gonna probably miss the national team i Turkey? Anyone have an answer?

[damelo]

Parker won't come to the World Championship, unless Spurs think he needs a little competition. But if he has to choose to miss one year's event of the 3 coming, he will miss this one. Next year Euro is qualificative for Olympics, and he wants to play olympics.

Mike reinjured his ankle last night, he will not be there I think, and rest.

Batum would like to come, but his injury status may not help Blazers in their decision. Yet, he would be a great addition, and is still young.

Beaubois is in Dallas, so he will have to battle with Mavs management to comme. Yet, it would be interesting to see him with his former teammate Nando De Colo.

Turiaf is still injured. He will come if he can, and I don't think he will listen too much Golden State's staff.

Diaw might come.

Noah might come too, he wants too. Only injury status will be problematic.

Ajinca and Petro? I'd take one of them for size, but maybe if Noah can't come.

Mahinmi would be interesting to see him again, he is good when given the opportunity to play with the Spurs.

Traore will come. De Colo will come. Flo Pietrus will come. Diot will come. Well, any player away from NBA will come.

[raph]

Touré, moiso do not play in the nba, ona embo as well, sangaré as well (thought for the last two it might be either too early or too late).

For noah, considering that he was injured at the worst time for the bulls - and considering the results of the bulls during that period of time which will leave them out of the play offs most likely - if he had to rest during last summer, i don't see how in hell bull's GM would let him play for us, especially considering they are trying to build the team on him, rose and deng + a projected big FA (wade being from chicago and highly desired but the most probable move would be for a pf)

And for anyone who has watched mahinmi this season with the spurs (well, not that it was such a challenge considering the # of games ), he's crap in defense (always reacting when he is, never anticipating, basically stuck on 'his' guy and unable to provide any toughness), basically only interesting in case as pf considering that we have already two guys above him (diaw & flo, and we could even add issa if collet gives him a chance).
Crazy or not, if we can't get either moiso or noah (both would be awesome..), among all the players already listed i would like to see fofana. It would be a hell of an experience for him against the best teams but he's still more interesting than raw material like mahinmi vaty and alike (petro..), guys that decided that doing every so often good stats was enough to consider themselves as bball player.
We need size, and we need players willing to bring toughness. We don't need more divas besides traoré & de colo.

[albiongate]

Rodrigue Beaubois was amazing yesterday. 40 points (9/11 for three).