The biggest disappointment of the WC - NTs?

[Finley]

Serbia obviously, just like Spain in 2014. They had all the circumstances in their favor, being able to bring all the best players (apart from Teodosic and perhaps Kalinic/Nedovic, but it`s up to Djordjevic), USA sending its C/D team, having considerably easy group stage. Maybe things were just too good?

Second - USA, although they were asking for it.

What can be a realistic expectation for Lithuania? 50/50, the biggest disappointment is HOW they got eliminated...

Then there`s also Greece and Germany in a way. Greece were lacking team spirit and desire, most likely their game would`ve been more fluid without Giannis... Because then you can see your limitations much more clearly and build accordingly. How to use Giannis properly in Fiba play, surrounded by the type of players that Greece has to offer at the moment? How to cherish his talent for them? That`s why I think it would be easier for Greece to find their older identity and ways of competing without such enormous talent that flows together only into one player. They never even had a player with such physical abilities and I believe they are not very comfortable and the chemistry is just not there.

Not much to say about Germany. Mysterious team, that can go very low, but can surprise as well. The black horse. Nah.

[Rodrigue Beaubois]

Serbia for sure. This was a great opportunity to win it all after a long time, but something got in the way.

[Victorious]

Serbia was overrated in my opinion. They had five top players, three of which are in the center position (Jokic, Marjanovic, Milutinov). And there is also another center, Raduljica, who is not even a top player, but he got minutes so that means that the other three centers had less minutes to share. Then there was Bogdanovic and Bjelica. Two very good NBA players. But aside from that the rest are average players and not by any means EL stars or top EL caliber players. These players were not even used to playing under immense pressure or carry the responsibility of a top EL team which must win games and titles. Like DeColo for CSKA, or Llull and Rudy for Real. The Serbs were better than Argentina, sure, but they were heavy favorites and they choked. Spain and France have better depth and balance as teams.

[Katastroika]

Marjanovic is no top player. How?! Serbia is surely as deep as France by any means. The problem is the disbalance of positions, the composition of the roster. We seriously struggled with fast pace as this team's composition didn't allow to run. I don't see any major EL player in France except De Colo and if I watch last season Micic played nothing worse than him. If you go to World Championship with 6 bigs, all slow footed, if your players at position three aren't ready to run you will have serious problems. The disbalance between front- and backcourt proved to be cracked by Spain and copied by Argentina. The overhyping is for deeper analysis, too of course. But interesting that it started from abroad, not from Serbia. It shouldn't happen simply. Individually talented but very poorly selected and coached. Maybe another time with another coach. For me the biggest disappointment is Team USA, just a step behind Serbia are Lithuania and Greece. Again this tournament showed that experience, perfect game plans and team basketball are still vital things for success and this makes me happy. And that top teams can beat each other on any given day.

And yeah, Germany underachieved. What I see their media is tearing them apart so in their view it's an underachievement for sure.

[reamily]

The Philippines hehe..

[Nemanja]

If crucial argument is result ,Usa,despite I thought they will not win tournament ,Lithuania is disappointment,but more because bad circumstances ,than low quality ,Serbia is disappointment by play,not much because results .For me,Greece is disappointment in any sense ,I dont know how to explaine ,now they have weak coach,Antetokounpo because European style cannot use all their qualities .But,since 2009,except 2011 Eurobasket like 2017 .They are almost always nearly success ,but no way to reach their level.

[R1ou]

If crucial argument is result ,Usa,despite I thought they will not win tournament ,Lithuania is disappointment,but more because bad circumstances ,than low quality ,Serbia is disappointment by play,not much because results .For me,Greece is disappointment in any sense ,I dont know how to explaine ,now they have weak coach,Antetokounpo because European style cannot use all their qualities .But,since 2009,except 2011 Eurobasket like 2017 .They are almost always nearly success ,but no way to reach their level.

2015 as well.

[Mindozas]

If to pick 3:

Serbia - no comments needed
Montenegro - not only result, but performance overall was simply awful and as result no even OQT spot
Germany - what to say here... maybe it was only one bad game, but still...


Honorable mention:

Nigeria - gaining Olympic berth helped here, but overall expected them to make it even top8, but lacking good PG and coach proved to be too much to accomplish it
Japan - thought they will resist much better with Hachimura, Fazekas, Watanabe, maybe not winning smth, but at least giving a good fight, but they were completely lost or maybe my expectations were just too high

[Dacho88Nk]

Serbia and only Serbia. The best team on the world (with USA), playing today for 5th place. Shame on Serbia. Go home.

[Demi]

Serbia wasn't very good, but lost only to the two finalists!

[Nemanja]

2015 as well.

I didnt understand,you think 2015 Greece have or have not good team ? Eurobasket 2013 with Trinchieri ,Greece also was nearly success ,but strange system of competition make harm .2010 Greece was in complete roster,if I m not wrong, but eight finals with Spain with refrees on their side hinder Greece for something more .2012 big failure against Nigeria,Olympic qualification ,2014 similar story like 2010 or 2015 ,difficult shedule eight finals against Serbia .

About dissapontments,I agree about Montenegro,almost nothing they did ,Nigeria also in certain sense,but with coach from Nigeria who isnt on nearly level of World Cup ,isnt big failure .Turkey missed good occasion ,if would win against Usa,they bring win in second group,if win against Brazil ,they would place in quarter-finals .

[reamily]

Japan is much better than 31st place ranking (although they won almost of their games against world class teams at home), but nick fazekas cant defend at world level and they hoping Chinakara tanaka mature fast to betheir primary ball handler..

[zuma169]

Did not deserve to be at the cup. Performance was karma for the basketbrawl. Ranking should drop at least 20 places

As it should. We accept that this may be Karma for the brawl but that is the past already. Because of that all our main players weren't able to play qualification games.. their rhythm was destroyed because of the suspension.. basically we started all over again, plus our professional league is not cooperative.. YES this is karma and we deserve it..

But that is the past.. we have already paid for what we have done.. now is the time to move on.. and I am telling you, we are not the 32nd team out of 32 teams in the world Cup.. we are miles better.. and you will see come 2023 when we host the World Cup..

[xenoloxy]

As it should. We accept that this may be Karma for the brawl but that is the past already. Because of that all our main players weren't able to play qualification games.. their rhythm was destroyed because of the suspension.. basically we started all over again, plus our professional league is not cooperative.. YES this is karma and we deserve it..

But that is the past.. we have already paid for what we have done.. now is the time to move on.. and I am telling you, we are not the 32nd team out of 32 teams in the world Cup.. we are miles better.. and you will see come 2023 when we host the World Cup..

Let’s hope this ages like wine instead of milk.

[kartog]

If this was karma for Gilas I wonder if this World Cup is an even worse one for Australia. Coming in to the tournament, while they were not the absolute favorites to win it all they were a solid pick having won one against USA in one of the prep tournaments.

Then when Serbia was upset by Argentina and Team USA completely unraveled against France the gold was wide open for everyone. Unfortunately Australia missed its chances to win in regulation and 1st OT against España, and lost the game widely in the 2nd OT. As if it were not enough, they then completely collapsed in the fourth quarter of a close game against France, bowing out of a podium finish yet again.

While Australia is the stronger team without a shadow of a doubt today, the Philippines still has more medals than Australia--bronze in the 1954 World Championships.

I'm saying this not to start anything here or to unnecessarily brag or whatever else, but to put things in perspective.

When that horrible incident in 2018 happened between Australia and the Philippines, the world got to listen to well-known Australians defend their side. People tend to give their ear more to known quantities, and who could be more well-known than guys like Luc Longley and the other basketball world-famous Australians. I'm just saying, hey world, the Philippines has one more FIBA medal than these guys, and if you can listen to them maybe we also deserve your ear. We all know FIBA had already handed down its decision, a terribly one-sided one that has probably given such wrong impressions about Gilas.

As it should. We accept that this may be Karma for the brawl but that is the past already. Because of that all our main players weren't able to play qualification games.. their rhythm was destroyed because of the suspension.. basically we started all over again, plus our professional league is not cooperative.. YES this is karma and we deserve it..

But that is the past.. we have already paid for what we have done.. now is the time to move on.. and I am telling you, we are not the 32nd team out of 32 teams in the world Cup.. we are miles better.. and you will see come 2023 when we host the World Cup..