Future forecasts for WC participants

[JGX]

How does everyone look for 2012 and beyond?

Time to revisit this.

USA--you never know who is going to play, but there was clearly a sensational generation born between 84 and 88. Potentially on the rise.

Injuries prevented the assembly of a real second "Dream Team" this year. Still a strong team of course.

Turkey--Mix of talented young players and veterans, will probably maintain a decent level of performance. They have benefited from home advantage here but maybe the success will propel them forward.

Won the close games at home in 2010, couldn't win them in Lithuania last summer.

Serbia--Clearly on the rise with a young team.

Disappointing collapse against Greece in the Eurobasket.

Lithuania--encouraging performance with a young team here but of course they are losing talented veterans as well. Should maintain their status as semifinal contenders.

Bad Eurobasket at home but never count them out. U20 generation looks promising.

Spain--Disappointing tournament for them IMO as they proved to be ordinary without Pau Gasol. Pau/Navarro/Reyes will be 32 in 2012 and Garbajosa is older, probably their last run with this team. They have some young talent but I would expect a slight decline after London.

No change, a gold medal contender this year but have to replace aging stars in the future. Didn't know they would be recruiting Ibaka at the time.

Russia--Blatt has gotten a lot out of them, how will they do once he leaves? As robbe noted they lack individual talent. I say decline.

Blatt is still getting a lot out of them.

Argentina--Everyone knows they are old. Still an okay team in the future but on the way down.

Yup.

Slovenia--Quarterfinals was probably their limit. Slight decline as Lakovic/Nachbar/Becirovic/Brezec age.

Did well at Eurobasket without most of the older guys.

Greece--Downward trend from 2006 to 08 to 10 is unmistakable. But you could also say there was some luck in their 2005-06 run and they've been mainly been a quarterfinal-level team. They have good young talent and should maintain a similar level.

rofl

Croatia--On the rise if their young bigs continue to develop.

No step forward last year.

Brazil--Mangnano is a big help but this is quietly becoming an old team. 2012 is their best shot. 8 of the 12 in Turkey (plus Nene) were born between 80 and 83 and they'll have to start replacing those players after London.

Looking good this year but still 8 guys born 1983 or earlier. Same forecast.

China--No idea if Yao will come back or how strong he will be but will probably continue to sneak into the second round and lose.

Yao didn't come back, last 16 is still the best they can hope for at the WC.

New Zealand--Penney has a few tournaments left in him and Abercrombie was one of the revelations of the tournament but they probably will continue to top out as a second round team.

Same.

Angola--At some point they'll need to replace Lutonda, Mingas, Cipriano. I don't see any indication that the newer talent is as good. Always the steadiest of the African teams, but their performance at the WC should decline while they remain dependably awful at the Olympics.

Had their catastrophe a year too early...came back stronger this year but still depending on older players.

Australia--Despite the second-round elimination there were encouraging elements to their performance. If Mills develops in the next couple years and Bogut participates, they'll be better in London.

Even without Bogut they may be better in London.

France--With their youth team performances and NBA players in their primes, they should be better on paper, but again you don't know who will play, and the offense is still a big problem.

Good Eurobasket but back to uneven performances in friendlies so far.

Iran--They look to be on an upward trend and Haddadi is only 25, but they're still a long way from challenging good teams.

Blew it at the FIBA-Asia last year when they looked to be the best team.

Tunisia--Ben Slimane will be a little bit balder in the future.

He shaved his head!

Puerto Rico--The curse is still in effect. Arroyo is getting old but they didn't seem to play any worse without him.

Still cursed.

Ivory Coast--The experience from this year should help them. Keep in mind that their starting PG and top european pro (Amagou) barely played. Not impossible for them to knock off Angola next year, but OTOH they'll have to deal with Nigeria and the others as well.

Okay at Afrobasket last year.

Germany--Down from where they were with Dirk, but with a young team they'll presumably improve on this year's showing.

Tough draw at the Euros last year.

Jordan--Probably downhill with an old team but maybe they'll bring in a good naturalized player.

Finished, apparently.

Lebanon--See Jordan.

Same.

Canada--Carl English would have helped (he's been healthy enough to play preseason games in Spain...), but they aren't going anywhere with this group of players. Strong youth results might indicate future improvements, or it might just mean they're taking youth tournaments more seriously. They need a real coach.

Still the same situation.

[Petran]

Everyone thinks their NT is on the rise. I mean if you feel your NT is becoming worse and worse you'd stop supporting your team, that's obvious IMO.

Not exactly, I fully support my NT. But I see us on the fall, due to the problem that we have in the Guard position. So if Kalathes doesn't have a breakthrough season (learning how to shoot in Europe by the way) and Verginis or Pappas the same we will have a problem in the near future.

Otherwise, my moto is "Join the campaign to bring back Teo and DD in the Greek NT for London 2012". I will also open a facebook group for this purpose

[schweinstylin]

That's about as educated as American schoolchildren - it's just a listing of the best American players.

Besides the fact that most of those players have said they want to be on the 2012 team, right?

Don't talk about what you don't know

[asdzas]

Well for Brazil you will see a lot of changes, but only after 2012-2014. I think we improved under Magnano but there are a lot of stuff we can improve also. Nene, Varejão, Splitter, Barbosa, Huertas, Garcia, M.Vinicius still have the age to play for the next 6 years.

Players from the brazilian U-19 team that reached the semifinals in the WC few years ago like Paulão Prestes(2,10 C), Rafael Ferreira(2,09 SF-PF), Betinho Nardi(1,95 SG) will have their chances. And new generation who almost beat US(lost by 2 points) early this year in the Americas Cup U-18 like Raul Togni(1,84 PG), Felipe Vezzaro(1,92 SG), Gabriel Aguirre(2,05 PF) and Lucas Nogueira (2,13 C) will improve and be very helpful to our team. Fab Melo(2,13 C Syracuse- NCAA) seems also to be a very very interesting prospect.

You still have others players abroad who are improving and are still young U-23 like Rafael Hetscheimmer(2,08 PF-C Estudiantes-ACB) who last year was the MVP of the week(forgot the week) in the ACB, Vitor Faverani(2,12 PF Murcia-ACB), Caio Torres(2,11 C -Menorca - ACB), Rafael Freire(1,88 PG Unicaja Málaga-ACB), Augusto Lima(2,07 PF - Unicaja Malaga), Jonathan Tavernari (1,96 SF-SG - Biella - Lega)

Magnano asket the brazilian basketball federation to control our youth categories and they said yes. Let's see how he will do.

[Dtown]

That's about as educated as American schoolchildren - it's just a listing of the best American players.

To be fair it's also a list of players who are committed members of the team USA's talent pool, and either played on the current squad, were part of those who were in training camp this summer, or members of the redeem team that expressed interest in playing in the Olympics again.

It doesn't mean that this will be the team, or even close to it, but it's not some random guess, there's some logic behind it.

[DarkoMVP]

That's about as educated as American schoolchildren - it's just a listing of the best American players.

[schweinstylin]

A good educated guess from ESPN for team USA is
Guards

Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook.

Forwards

Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Andre Iguodala, Carmelo Anthony.

Centers

Dwight Howard, Brook Lopez.

[pablonis]

France is on the rise. Noah will be in his prime, Beaubois can be that special, Turiaf will be more experience, Batum is improving and Tony Parker may want to lead this team together with Diaw. Then they have Pietrus brothers, veteran guys like Petro and Mahinmi, De Colo and young guys like Seraphin and Ajinca. I think if these guys can play more together and get experience, they have a good chance to medal in 2012 Olympics. They need a commitment though from those aforementioned NBA players.

They certainly have potential, but not an Olympic medal one. They can't shoot the ball and that will always be their downfall.

[Southpaw]

I don"t believe in France they always have players with the great physical atributes and talent but they always lack in discipline, I don"t see them as the top tier NT team any time soon.

Give them a break. They haven't been playing together like most teams do beside the USA. They still need to familiarize themselves from one another and get experience together by playing together.

The keyword here is potential. And France have that.

[sinobball]

Everyone thinks their NT is on the rise. I mean if you feel your NT is becoming worse and worse you'd stop supporting your team, that's obvious IMO.

[Srle]

I don"t believe in France they always have players with the great physical atributes and talent but they always lack in discipline, I don"t see them as the top tier NT team any time soon.

[Southpaw]

France is on the rise. Noah will be in his prime, Beaubois can be that special, Turiaf will be more experience, Batum is improving and Tony Parker may want to lead this team together with Diaw. Then they have Pietrus brothers, veteran guys like Petro and Mahinmi, De Colo and young guys like Seraphin and Ajinca. I think if these guys can play more together and get experience, they have a good chance to medal in 2012 Olympics. They need a commitment though from those aforementioned NBA players.

[guilherme.rcf]

Brazil: I see a better scenario for us in the near future. Not just because of the players and the new coach, but because our confederation will have to work hard on the basketball organization in the country to be able to put the best possible team to play in Rio 2016.

And the work has already began.

We already have a new and decent league.
We have one of the best coaches in the world.
We have a solid base of players that will last until 2016.
We have some very good prospects.

So I can see Brazil fighting for medals in the next 3 most important championships.

[Straight forward]

France needs a decent point guard. like many European teams. Lithuania desperately looking for a Saras successor. With the DD, Saras, Papaloukas generation out, Serbia and Spain have a big plus here over the rest of Europe.

You don't think Lithuania will be able to repeat their success in the nearest future (two upcoming years let's say)?

[TurkishSuperiorBasket]

Turkish NT will be better than this in a couple of years. I hope Hido Turkoglu stays another 3 max 4 years. Enes Kanter will be a legendary player, I hope he plays at 2011 Eurobasket. Kenan Sipahi, only 15 years old, is already getting million dollar contracts! Hope to see him at WC2014