Levels of Teams in the WC '10

[durden_tyler]

Disclaimer: i know the ball is round in basketball and anything can happen, but after the qualifiers here's how i see the teams rank and their tiers in the upcoming World Championships. The list of course can still change as teams will look to add/subtract players from their roster.

Tier 1 - USA, Spain

Talent, system and team play. USA of course are the clear favorites but Spain with the experience and skill of their NBA players and bunch of role players could give the Americans a run for their money.

Tier 2 - Brazil, Serbia, Slovenia, Argentina

Brazil has good players inside and out but it's really on defense that they will be tested; Serbia is young but with what they showed in the Eurobasket they have a chance to make some noise in the WC if they mature even further. Slovenia has also good mix of offense and defense, and like Brazil their defense is what is taking them to take it to the next level.

And other levels: (From this point, it's easier to put one team put the team on another tier and such)

Tier 3 - Greece, France, Turkey, Puerto Rico

Tier 4 - Canada, Angola, Iran, Australia, Croatia, China

Tier 5 - Jordan, New Zealand, Tunisia, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire

Again, chances will of course depend on the draw for most of these teams.

[durden_tyler]

Greece beat Slovenia minutes ago and you rank them higher? OK, whatever you say.

i guess i was evaluating on their performance at the Eurobasket as a whole and not that game alone. Of course, you can disagree with me.

In my book, the losses against subpar teams as Russia did not help. Even that lost to France was quite disappointing too. Slovenia meanwhile battled the two finalists to a couple of overtimes, that's why i gave them credit.

[PRSURF]

Disclaimer: i know the ball is round in basketball and anything can happen, but after the qualifiers here's how i see the teams rank and their tiers in the upcoming World Championships. The list of course can still change as teams will look to add/subtract players from their roster.

Tier 1 - USA, Spain

Talent, system and team play. USA of course are the clear favorites but Spain with the experience and skill of their NBA players and bunch of role players could give the Americans a run for their money.

Tier 2 - Brazil, Serbia, Slovenia

Brazil has good players inside and out but it's really on defense that they will be tested; Serbia is young but with what they showed in the Eurobasket they have a chance to make some noise in the WC if they mature even further. Slovenia has also good mix of offense and defense, and like Brazil their defense is what is taking them to take it to the next level.

And other levels: (From this point, it's easier to put one team put the team on another tier and such)

Tier 3 - Greece, France, Turkey, Puerto Rico

Tier 4 - Canada, Angola, Iran, Australia, Croatia

Tier 5 - Jordan, New Zealand, Tunisia, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire

Again, chances will of course depend on the draw for most of these teams.

Hey, where is Argentina??....and Lithuania?....is ok the other things...

Tier 1 USA....Argentina and Spain

Teir 2 Lithuania, Greece and Serbia

Teir 3 Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Brasil, France, Turkey, Croatia and Russia

Teir 4 Australia, Canada, Iran, Germany, Italy, Dominican Rep., Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Jordania, Angola, New Zealand

Tier 5 China(without Yao), Great Britain, Lebanon, Poland, Israel, Uruguay

[durden_tyler]

Hey, where is Argentina??

Ooops. Edited.

i still respect Argentina and their system, i believe they belong with the Tier 2 group. Especially if they can get Nocionio and/or Ginobili back in the fold. Then again, they are a weird team to evaluate at this point. Competitive against Brazil too. But really they are a difficult team to read i could have easily put them in Tier 3.

[Dtown]

lol I was gonna do this topic the second Spain/Slovenia was over

Note: Excluding all potential wild card teams, even the ones that should be locks.

Tier 1 (Favorites for the Gold Medal)
USA
Spain

Tier 2 (Medal Contenders)
Argentina
Greece
Serbia

Tier 3 (Dark Horse medal contenders)
Brazil
Slovenia
France
Turkey
Australia
Puerto Rico

Tier 4 (Knock out stage potential)
Croatia
China
Angola
Iran
Canada
New Zealand

Tier 5 (Happy to be there)
Jordan
Tunisia
Cote d'Ivoire

[durden_tyler]

lol I was gonna do this topic the second Spain/Slovenia was over

Note: Excluding all potential wild card teams, even the ones that should be locks.

Tier 1 (Favorites for the Gold Medal)
USA
Spain

Tier 2 (Medal Contenders)
Argentina
Greece
Serbia

Tier 3 (Dark Horse medal contenders)
Brazil
Slovenia
France
Turkey
Australia
Puerto Rico

Tier 4 (Knock out stage potential)
Croatia
China
Angola
Iran
Canada
New Zealand

Tier 5 (Happy to be there)
Jordan
Tunisia
Cote d'Ivoire

Sorry DTOWN, i was on a rush to make this one (to be the first and beat you!) i actually forgot to write couple of teams.. Anyway...

Sure, why not take the final ranking into consideration or immediate results between the two teams when you can judge their performance as a 'whole' and results in meaningless games.

Fly fly west from LA to Tokyo when you can do it via east?

Yes sir we just have to agree to disagree on this one. i just thought overall Slovenia has the better team despite that CLOSE loss to Greece. Of course, i might be wrong come WC time. Anyway, i do think some teams from one tier to another (except Tier 1) can improve in the next few months.

[Franz]

I'm going to wait until the rosters are made official.

[durden_tyler]

I'm going to wait until the rosters are made official.

But where's the fun in that?

As mentioned, some teams will probably make their adjustments. The current tier ranking is just an evaluation after the qualifiers. Of course, we'll have a clearer picture when the rosters are announced...

[lebanese phoenix]

i think lebanon has the potential of being somewhere between tier 3 and tier 4
with the world class players we have, Fadi el khatib, along with Freije and vroman and daniel faris and maybe antwain barbour.
with those players, and some serious preparations, we can give most european teams a run for their money.
remmember in 2006 we only had khatib and we managed upsets against france and venezuela.
i have a feeling that if we do get invited we're gona make alot of noise, and team lebanon is gona show its full potential.

[Victorious]

How can you tier teams so soon? This is a joke.

I'm hearing rumors that Spain will play without Gasol and Navarro. Greece and some other teams played this tournament without some of its best players. And many countries have prospects which can become great players through the year. I want to see how Calathes, Llull, Rubio, Tepic, Teodosic, Velickovic, Koufos, Papanikolaou, Asik, Sofo etc. will evolve through the season.

Then see the final rosters, then make predictions.

[PRSURF]

How can you tier teams so soon? This is a joke.

I'm hearing rumors that Spain will play without Gasol and Navarro. Greece and some other teams played this tournament without some of its best players. And many countries have prospects which can become great players through the year. I want to see how Calathes, Llull, Rubio, Tepic, Teodosic, Velickovic, Koufos, Papanikolaou, Asik, Sofo etc. will evolve through the season.

Then see the final rosters, then make predictions.

I want to see how Peter John, A.D. Vassallo, Guillermo Diaz, Denis Clemente, Mike Rosario, Angel Garcia, Jose Juan Barea, Ricky Sanchez, Splitter, Tavernari, Freire, Nocedal, JM Fernandez, Tristan Thompson etc will evolve through the season....

[Dtown]

Then see the final rosters, then make predictions.

I don't see what's wrong about debating how teams stack up right now. It beats eight topics on the wild card at any rate. Like he said in the the op it's just how we feel every team stands at this moment post regional tournaments. When something significant changes in a roster you're one post away from being right on track again.

Swear people can't even have a topic for fun anymore.

[mohsena2631]

Tier 1
USA

Tier 1.5
Spain

Tier 2
Argentina, Greece, Serbia ,Slovenia, Turkey

Tier 3
Brazil, France, Australia, Puerto Rico, Croatia

Tier 4
China, Angola, Iran ,Canada, New Zealand

Tier 5
Jordan, Tunisia, Cote d'Ivoire

[planaria]

Tier 2 - Brazil, Serbia, Slovenia, Argentina [/B]

Brazil has good players inside and out but it's really on defense that they will be tested; Serbia is young but with what they showed in the Eurobasket they have a chance to make some noise in the WC if they mature even further. Slovenia has also good mix of offense and defense, and like Brazil their defense is what is taking them to take it to the next level.

Disagree about our defense. Right now, with Moncho Monsalve, I think we play a great defense.

We have too much defensive players specialists (Splitter, Varejão, Alex Garcia, Nenê) and finally a defense minded coach.

In the other hand, I think that our offense is what really take us away from be Tier 1 and alsto Tier 2 (I think you´re overrating us a bit).

Offense worrie me much more than defense, right now.

[alermac]

Tier 1 (gold medal favorites)
USA, Spain

Tier 2 (medal contenders)
Argentina, Greece, Lithuania, Brazil, France, Slovenia

Tier 3 (likely second-rounders, possible quarterfinalists, longshot semifinalists)
Australia, Puerto Rico, Serbia, Turkey, Canada

Tier 4 (will depend on the draw to reach second round)
China, Angola, New Zealand

Tier 5 (not likely to win any game)
Jordan, Tunisia, Cote d'Ivoire, Iran