QF: Australia - Lithuania

[Mr Chacho]

Bogut wont be there and he cant be replaced.Andersen too even though he's replaceable..It was the perfect storm for Australia,Bogut-Delavedova-Mills never played together before in a major tournament.Of course Mills is the huge difference maker.There is literally NOONE on this tournament that can stop him.And smart decision by Latvian coach Lemanis to use him as a shooting guard.

Bogut will be 35 in 2020, he can still play in a good level.

[Picek]

Bogut will be 35 in 2020, he can still play in a good level.

if he can stay healthy until then.
throughout his career he has had a lot of injury woes.

[CHBB]

if he can stay healthy until then.
throughout his career he has had a lot of injury woes.

That is a HUGE "if".

To me a lot rests on the shoulders of Thon Maker unless the Aussies come up with another legit big man prospect before then, which is very possible.

[greenarcher]

He cant play 100 % defense and offense for 35 minutes... noone can...

Lebron and Kobe can.

[mojo13]

the puzzle of 3 role players(who had major roles ) who were part of nba championship teams will be presented to the remaining teams, as for one spain and france raise their level of play when one of they stars produce, as for the boomers case it comes to threes and greatly compensated their lack of supporting cast..

But interesting fact, Canada team boasts Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson, also players of nba champion teams (Thompson from the recent NBA champs) and somehow Francde beat them and canada supporting cast in Manila is much better than the Australians..

Not a good comparison at all. Canada's team was a mess in the Qualifier. The supporting cast was very poor (most of our NBA players wern't there), a way worse supporting cast than Australia. The starting SF for Canada played in the Finnish league! Many of the starters were below ok role players forced into roles well over their head. Brady Heslip, one of the best 3pt shooters in the world, I think shot in the single digit percentages. Tristan Thompson, a role player in Cleveland, thought he was a reincarnation of Kobe Bryant jacking up fade-away mid-range jumpers. I am not sure he ever hit a shot outside the key in the NBA. With so many guys missing guys get forced out of their normal roles, it can get ugly. Australia has most of their team intact - their guys know their roles and are comfortable in them. Canada was missing at least 8 of their best players, had no prep time, no cohesion, poor coaching and still almost beat France. It is tough to get all your best playing but missing 8 of your best 12?

The guys dissing Canada and Australia are just behind the times. Australia, Canada, Brazil (Croatia and Turkey too) are producing better and better players and we are starting to see the results with the Aussies. Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

Canada in Rio with most of its best players would be a medal contender as well (but they aren't because shit happens sometimes. You should all thank Venezuela for that).

[mojo13]

That is a HUGE "if".

To me a lot rests on the shoulders of Thon Maker unless the Aussies come up with another legit big man prospect before then, which is very possible.

Is is questionable whether Thon Maker will ever play for Australia - he has never committed to them. He could easily declare for the USA or maybe even Canada (I think it is highly doubtful he would ever qualify for citizenship in Canada, but some of my countrymen seem to think so).

[LDK]

Lebron and Kobe can.

Also Sergio Lull can. That's why I like him

[Silent Killer]

Not a good comparison at all. Canada's team was a mess in the Qualifier. The supporting cast was very poor (most of our NBA players wern't there), a way worse supporting cast than Australia. The starting SF for Canada played in the Finnish league! Many of the starters were below ok role players forced into roles well over their head. Brady Heslip, one of the best 3pt shooters in the world, I think shot in the single digit percentages. Tristan Thompson, a role player in Cleveland, thought he was a reincarnation of Kobe Bryant jacking up fade-away mid-range jumpers. I am not sure he ever hit a shot outside the key in the NBA. With so many guys missing guys get forced out of their normal roles, it can get ugly. Australia has most of their team intact - their guys know their roles and are comfortable in them. Canada was missing at least 8 of their best players, had no prep time, no cohesion, poor coaching and still almost beat France. It is tough to get all your best playing but missing 8 of your best 12?

The guys dissing Canada and Australia are just behind the times. Australia, Canada, Brazil (Croatia and Turkey too) are producing better and better players and we are starting to see the results with the Aussies. Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

Canada in Rio with most of its best players would be a medal contender as well (but they aren't because shit happens sometimes. You should all thank Venezuela for that).

If all Canadian NBA players like wiggins, olynyk played in OQT they have a good chance of beating the french team given with good preparation.

[Oly_fan]

Not a good comparison at all. Canada's team was a mess in the Qualifier. The supporting cast was very poor (most of our NBA players wern't there), a way worse supporting cast than Australia. The starting SF for Canada played in the Finnish league! Many of the starters were below ok role players forced into roles well over their head. Brady Heslip, one of the best 3pt shooters in the world, I think shot in the single digit percentages. Tristan Thompson, a role player in Cleveland, thought he was a reincarnation of Kobe Bryant jacking up fade-away mid-range jumpers. I am not sure he ever hit a shot outside the key in the NBA. With so many guys missing guys get forced out of their normal roles, it can get ugly. Australia has most of their team intact - their guys know their roles and are comfortable in them. Canada was missing at least 8 of their best players, had no prep time, no cohesion, poor coaching and still almost beat France. It is tough to get all your best playing but missing 8 of your best 12?

The guys dissing Canada and Australia are just behind the times. Australia, Canada, Brazil (Croatia and Turkey too) are producing better and better players and we are starting to see the results with the Aussies. Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

Canada in Rio with most of its best players would be a medal contender as well (but they aren't because shit happens sometimes. You should all thank Venezuela for that).

Greece was also missing players in the qualifiers and has given the reigns to a 22 year-old but it's 'fading fast'.

I think all of us whose countries failed to even be there should just sit back and watch the games instead of talking about what our national teams would be doing 'if'.

[Ashtrusis_dantis]

Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

How many times I hear that... Let's see - first time it was 1996 when Sabonis generation left and we didn't win anything for 3 years (1997-1999), when these talks appeared (not so loudly) in year 2001 when we played so bad, we didn't qualifie for WC2002... These talks started with new strength again in year 2009 when Jasikevicius generation left and we had such terrible EC that in WC2010 we apeared because of wild card... Now Kalnietis/Kleiza generation is leaving and what do we have now? The same talks... It is obvious such people know nothing about our results in youth competitions, what young players are growing and so on, and so on... And after some time there will be the same questions - "how do they win?"
If EC 2017 means nothing we should rest our veterans and send young players.

[Ashtrusis_dantis]

Wake up people. The way we played last 3 games had nothing to do with talent or lack of it if you prefer. We had even less talent in EC2015 or WC2014, but we were wining. I talked with a lot of people in our basketball community and all confirmed my observations that some serious mistakes were made during preparation period with physical conditioning. We reached our peak too early and a hole we felt after that was too deep. Last two years we were killing everyone with our movement on defense, now it looked like we have a bag full of stones on our shoulders, we were not moving, late on changes, late on shots, late on everything. And every shooter knows why open shots were not falling - when you have tired legs it happens.

[Levenspiel]

I wonder if that is just being nostalgic, in the same way older people always find the youth disappointing. Because I feel not only Lithuania, but also Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Russia, etc etc are also not even close to what they once were. Spain is an exception for now, but when Gasol, Navarro etc retire, i.e. very soon, we will probably feel the same.

Lithuania has showed recently that they will always be medal contenders in Europe, no matter what squad they have. I guess Spain and Serbia are also very similar countries.

[Hepcat]

Wake up people. The way we played last 3 games had nothing to do with talent or lack of it if you prefer. We had even less talent in EC2015 or WC2014, but we were wining. I talked with a lot of people in our basketball community and all confirmed my observations that some serious mistakes were made during preparation period with physical conditioning. We reached our peak too early and a hole we felt after that was too deep. Last two years we were killing everyone with our movement on defense, now it looked like we have a bag full of stones on our shoulders, we were not moving, late on changes, late on shots, late on everything. And every shooter knows why open shots were not falling - when you have tired legs it happens.

But what tired the team out then? Did training camp start too early? Serbia, France and Croatia had even longer training camps.

[Ashtrusis_dantis]

But what tired the team out then? Did training camp start too early? Serbia, France and Croatia had even longer training camps.

Few differences - some players came very late at our camp, so had no time for full preparation. Maciulis for example had only 10 days rest after finals in ACB, Kuzminskas almost the same, we played biggest number of friendlies if I remember correct.
It is not the length of training camp, but how do you organise it. Sometimes it is better to have longer, but not so intense camp.

[Victorious]

The guys dissing Canada and Australia are just behind the times. Australia, Canada, Brazil (Croatia and Turkey too) are producing better and better players and we are starting to see the results with the Aussies. Countries like Spain, Lithuania, Argentina and Greece are fading fast.

Greece is already playing with a new young squad (Antetokoumpo, Papapetrou, Charalampopoulos, Calathes, Koufos. And even though they had some absentees (Papanikolaou, Printezis, Sloukas, Papagiannis, Pappas), they looked pretty good and they will only get better. To claim they are fading is quite ignorant.

Spain is not fading any time soon either. It just looks that way. They keep producing many players and Marc Gasol has some years in him. They actually made a transition in recent years. Calderon is not a key player, Garbajosa is gone. So is Cabezas. Navarro is not a key player either. They are making a slow transition. Claver, Hernangomez, Abrinez are excellent players. In a few words, Spain can largely replace Pau Gasol, Navarro, Reyes and Calderon and remain a top team.

Canada will not be better than the above two teams. Not any time soon.

Lithuania is somewhat down compared to what they used to be, and they will not be at the same level any time soon, but they will always remain a team to count on. Only Argentina is fading.