Turkish NT 2023

[Camoka]

Actually, it is a disappointing start from our core players. Alperen looks like his previous seasons. He does not bad. However, by getting experiences and ages, he needs to polish his game. He needs to score easier with less energy and impact games with winning plays. He needs to take one step more to be effective in crucial games. He is still young and has not played since February but we need better him to win games against good interior defence like France in Eurobasket 2022 and Croatia in the last year qualifier.

Adem Bona is still too raw. If he was ready, there are a lot of chances for him in Phila. But, it is okay. He got four year contract and probably next year and 2026 season will be crucial for him. There is still time but he needs to improve also.

And Cedi. Cedi man. He looks slow and he is still not that old. I am not sure what happened to him but I have a guess. I think marriage affects him negatively. I don't like his wife. She is a TV star and she does not look like a wife who fits an athlete and encourage him to get better. Probably she creates more problem. Apart from magazine, Cedi has never been that bad through his career. Indeed he is not super skilled but he is always somehow impactful. He was good enough in Efes. He was always good in national team. He was good in Cleveland and played decent playoff run two years ago. But now, he is just bad and more he looks slow which the speed his one of powers.

When the things are not tough and the game played nicely, then Yurtseven is good. But the things are matters, then he disappears. But he is still good enough to be a back up center for our national team.

Korkmaz is another story. He has also a TV star girlfriend. He looked bad in the beginning of the season but we will see after the injury.

I did not watch Onuralp's game this season but Chicago gave him a really chance in one of the preseason game and he is bad stat wise. Let's see what will be his next station.

After a good start, Tunca is lost confident for last fews games. He did not take much responsibility. Erdem Can also did not help him but he got some chances and did not use them well.

From the positive sides, our other potential national team players have pretty good seasons such as Biberovic, Osmani, Mutaf, Saybir, Hazer. I hope we can use Biberovic as Turk not as a naturalized player. I really liked Hazer, he makes effective plays in the Eurocup level. Also, Sipahi, Arslan, Yılmaz look solid from statwise. I think we should have used more Arslan in the window games and he should be in the large player pool for our national team.

[TurkfromGermany]

I will watch this season senior level bb. Turk Telekom, Bursaspor and some EL-games.

After Melih Tunca, David Mutaf is the most important player(ok the stolen Tarik Biberovic is turkish NT-player) in the league. He had a solid last season and great stats in the preper phase this year and therefore i have watched todays game.

David Mutaf is a EL-talent if he can increase his defense. Great shooting potential, really versatile offense, the potential to be secondary ballhandler. Showed today great decisionmaking.
We can say David Mutaf is not important because of Furkan Korkmaz and Biberovic but you can never have enough good players and David has the potential to play the game at the right way, this is 1 of the 2 big differences in the rise of Onuralp Bitim. You can see that you can put David to a bigger team and he will know how to adapt and he has clearly better shooting and overall more versatility on offense.

[Camoka]

This time, Ataman decided to not leave it to chance. He builds mini Turkish national team in Pao. I wanted Cedi to stay in NBA, he may still take some role there. But anyway, I hope Ataman gives him the main SF role. If Papapetrou or Grigonis will take more minutes than Cedi, I can not watch Pao games. It is better to sit on the bench in NBA than waiting minutes after Papapetrou or Grigonis. I think Ataman also thinks same way with me as he is a nationalist. Back up role for Yurtseven is good. Twin towers do not work. He needs to adapt to be back up after Sengun. Also somehow playing styles of Lessort and Sengun are similar. Both want to be dominant in paint.

In that scenario, Osmani is very important. He needs to step up as a Eurolegue PF. Maybe Bona can play some PF minutes. And then Buyuktuncel and Konan. U20 tournament is a disaster for Konan but last year he played Eurocup Semi final and took serious role. This year, I watched his one preparation game and he looks better than u20.

I was really hopeful about Tunca before prep games but his body might not be ready for senior level. Expecting a serious role from him this season is not fair.

Lasty, the situation of Biberovic will be crucial. If he gets approval from FIBA, we will have another naturalized player. Ataman was really demanding about it. He may even be a NBA guy. VanVleet may be a good option. If I am in TBF, I will contact with him. He is playing with Sengun. They have a good chemistry and he is not in the player pool of USA. Seems like a good guy.

[TurkfromGermany]

I prefer EL leaders

Regarding Onuralp or general, if general then its correct if you meaning Onuralp then it was a good joke, Onuralp is even miles away to take a real role in a EL team.

[janketa]

Onuralp Bitim did it but I am not sure if its good for us or not. I prefer EL leaders than NBA role players tbh. but good for him.

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/st...73883317252507

For him yes, for us no

[Toruko]

Onuralp Bitim did it but I am not sure if its good for us or not. I prefer EL leaders than NBA role players tbh. but good for him.

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1761073883317252507

[fasoulaki]

Out of 5 WC participations Turkey has a Silver medal in 2010, a 6th place in 2006, an 8th place in 2014, a 9th place in 2002.... aaaaand a 22nd place in 2019 where after the great start of the tournament and the hearth braking loss to the US the team was just devastated psychologically.

Damn, I am still getting angry at how we threw away the victory to the US.

Thanks a lot man for your effort. So the record is 4/5. Four times qualified for second round and only one time disqualified in the first group phase, right?

[SaliH]

Out of 5 WC participations Turkey has a Silver medal in 2010, a 6th place in 2006, an 8th place in 2014, a 9th place in 2002.... aaaaand a 22nd place in 2019 where after the great start of the tournament and the hearth braking loss to the US the team was just devastated psychologically.

Damn, I am still getting angry at how we threw away the victory to the US.

[fasoulaki]

Do you now by heart what the ratio of WC participation to qualification to 2nd round is for Turkey?

How many times Turkey qualified for the WC and how many times Turkey qualified for the 2nd WC round?

[tonia]

The Turkish citizenship isnt revoked, they just lost their status but they were punished for 5 games. After those 5 games they will be available again. If they play is another question.

Has there been any similar incident with a Turkish player not participating to the national team? If so, were they also fined? It seems a little excessive..

[Toruko]

I guess this means that they are no longer considered as naturalized Turkish players, so under these circumstances they can't join the Turkish national team, right?

The Turkish citizenship isnt revoked, they just lost their status but they were punished for 5 games. After those 5 games they will be available again. If they play is another question.

[tonia]

No, they just lost their status being a Turkish player.

I guess this means that they are no longer considered as naturalized Turkish players, so under these circumstances they can't join the Turkish national team, right?

[slice me nice]

The need of Bona for this team was obvious. The first couple games you just saw praises about the twin towers OFY and Sengun but the truth is OFY defended horribly. I am fairly disappointed of him and his development, especially on the defensive end. Still a good guy for the bench but to overcome our perimeter weaknesses we need Bona to protect the rim and fill the holes.

The only good thing about this tournament was to see Sengun being able to play 4. The biggest mistake in the last game was to play Hazer beside Sipahi. No matter how we change the perimeter its always a bad trade off. Tuncer and Mahmutoglu blow up the defense and Sipahi and Hazer cant shoot.

I still think we would win 8 of 10 regular games against this Croatian team.

Sengun plays like a sieve in defense, much like Yurtseven. His defensive mistakes are often overlooked by many due to his more spectacular performance on the offensive end. Especially during the times he played as a PF (which was almost throughout the entire tournament), he struggled against mobile players, and he was clearly outclassed by Saric in the final game. It wouldn't be accurate to focus on Sengun's positive aspects and make real projections based on this tournament alone, except for the final game, as we didn't play against serious opponents. In the final game, his performance fell short in the only significant test of the tournament.

I had mentioned that we need to see the results of Ataman's Twin Towers tendency against strong opponents. As you said, people praised the Sengun-Yurtseven duo excessively due to their dominance against weak opponents. However, against weak opponents, even a twin towers or even a triple-towers setup would have been successful. The real skill lies in being able to play effectively against evenly matched opponents with the right system, and we couldn't achieve that. I don't believe Sengun can play at maximum efficiency in a position other than C. While he can be effective on offense at some degree, his offensive potential wouldn't be at maximum level due to the lack of a consistent outside shot, and his continuous struggle to defend a wider area on defense results in negative contributions. Therefore, I am against Sengun playing as a full-time PF in the long run. This is why I was in favor of giving Kabaca more responsibilities in this tournament. They could have formed a good duo. Ataman seemed influenced by Yurtseven's NBA label and thus couldn't make a bold decision.

Regardless of everything, it's a great disappointment that Ataman and the federation didn't feel the need to make a statement to the basketball public. The stakeholders of basketball seem to have internalized the failure to such an extent that they can't find anything to comment on the routine disappointments. It's bad, really bad. They created a nonsensical artificial agenda about naturalized players and are debating the national team spirit through two useless Americans who have no real connection to the country.

[Toruko]

Is it true they've had their citizenships revoked ?

No, they just lost their status being a Turkish player.

[R1ou]

Is it true they've had their citizenships revoked ?