2024 Olympics (Paris) - Men's Competition

[christodoulou76]

Is there a chance Sloukas plays in Olympics?

[Darrell Armstrong]

Spain clearly lacks more individual talent, but I still wouldn't bet against them. Lorenzo Brown's p&r mastery is like 90% of their offense. They are smart, very well coached, have great veterans and they know what to do on the court. Brown-Hernangomez p&r connection with Aldama's shooting touch is the major part of their offense.

I believe Spain's best asset coming into this tournament is the psychological advantage we enjoy against both Australia and Greece. Like, they haven't been able to beat us in a meaningful game for a long time and, even though they are favoured this year, that burden they're carrying may give us an edge. The one thing we have going for us is the hustle. We never quit, and even the recent losses have been hard fought battles, never blowouts. If we can get one win against Australia or Greece, that may be all we need to get through the group phase.

Going past that (a top-8 finish) is delusional. But I don't really see any team from group A advancing to semis save maybe Canada if they don't have any misstep like last year's against Brazil.

[Darrell Armstrong]

Only the best two teams at the third sport will advance and having in mind that the other groups have South Soudan and Japan it is very likely that the two best third ranked teams will be also from these weaker groups.

I disagree. Serbia and Team USA can beat Puerto Rico so thoroughly that even a blowout against South Sudan won't be enough to match the other squads with just one win. This is exactly what happened last Olympics with Czech Republic. Found themselves behind by a combined 55 points from France and USA. The other teams which placed third were Germany with -16 and Argentina with -8. No matter how well the Czechs fared against weak Iran (they didn't do very well, anyway), they weren't going to win by the 40+ points margin they needed to advance.

[Serbian_Layup]

Group of Death confirmed

Australia, Greece, Spain, Canada

That is nuts.

Australia has many washed up veterans in their roster and a fair amount of players who never proved themselves outside of Australian league. On top of that, Giddey hasn't really developed since last year.

Greece has some new energy, they won OQT comfortably, still issues with shooting and questions how to maximize Giannis' potential, but I think they will be competitive.

Spain clearly lacks more individual talent, but I still wouldn't bet against them. Lorenzo Brown's p&r mastery is like 90% of their offense. They are smart, very well coached, have great veterans and they know what to do on the court. Brown-Hernangomez p&r connection with Aldama's shooting touch is the major part of their offense.

Canada is coming with experience from last year with basically the same team (plus Jamal Murray) and even better SGA. They will be good.

[fasoulaki]

It isn't that bad, considering three of those are very likely to advance. So you have a 75% chance of making it to the QFs and after that it was going to be a crapshoot anyway.

Only the best two teams at the third sport will advance and having in mind that the other groups have South Soudan and Japan it is very likely that the two best third ranked teams will be also from these weaker groups.

[Serbian_Layup]

I will be very curious to see how teams deal with France and their brutal size. They have destroyed Germany in a prep game (without Wagner and Theis though) with Wembanyama putting absurd numbers in limited minutes. I mean, how do you counter them? Access to the paint is absolutely denied with Gobert and Wembanyiama, so teams will have to try and beat them from the three point line. That's the tricky part too, because their perimeter defense with Coulibaly, Batum, Ntilikina is also very good. However, the first priority would be to cut down on turnovers, because they will murder teams in transition of off turnovers. Then, the way I see it, forcing France to play slow half court basketball is a good tactical approach. They lack true playmakers. And another thing, Wemby is all what people say he is, but I really don't think that serious and tough teams will allow him to dunk on their heads. Also, still to be seen how he reacts with brutal physicality in do or die games. NBA regular season is indication of nothing when it comes to physical intensity. The problem with Wemby is that he has zero post game, back to the basket game, which is very strange considering his enormous size and soft touch. So, if Collet thinks his go-to-move will be Wemby shooting step back threes in crunch time, I'm all for it as their opponent. To sum it up, with all that defensive potential on mind, I don't think France is flawless, they lack on ball creators, De Colo and Fournier are not what they used to be and Collet refused to give a proper chance to some younger guards in the past years. This might hurt them. On the other hand, they can limit their opponents to a really low offensive production. I can see Jokic having really hard time doing his stuff against French frontcourt, especially since the court is smaller and help defense is very quick. It will be interesting to see how teams adjust to French physicality and how they can expose their weaknesses on offense, primarily playmakining and on ball creation from their guards. Unless Collet decides to play Wemby 1-5 LOL.

[Darrell Armstrong]

Group of Death confirmed

Australia, Greece, Spain, Canada

That is nuts.

It isn't that bad, considering three of those are very likely to advance. So you have a 75% chance of making it to the QFs and after that it was going to be a crapshoot anyway.

[Toruko]

I predict a greek tragedy! All the money invested for the organization of the preolympic qualification tournament for nothing!

Its never for nothing if you can participate for the Olympics even if you lose all games.

[fasoulaki]

Group of Death confirmed
Australia, Greece, Spain, Canada
That is nuts.

I predict a greek tragedy! All the money invested for the organization of the preolympic qualification tournament for nothing!

[Dtown]

Group of Death confirmed

Australia, Greece, Spain, Canada

That is nuts.

[DenverJokic]

This really can’t be the best roster the USA can put together.
It seems like USA basketball let LeBron build the roster and all he did was bring in his over the hill 35 year old friends.

PG - J. Holiday - T. Haliburton
SG - S. Curry - D. Booker - A. Edwards
SF - K. Durant - K. Leonard
PF - L. James - J. Tatum
C - J. Embiid - B. Adebayo - A. Davis

[FilWelsh]

A player with a good handle will most likely thrive in 3x3 setting. I believe Kyrie has the best handle in the NBA he could have been a perfect fit with 3x3…

[Serbian_Layup]

Kerr...I could have coached USA team last year and it wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever. That's how impactful Kerr's coaching was last year. But with this Olympic team, I can pretend to be their coach and win it all. LOL

It's a little shame that a country like USA with that kind of national pool of ridiculous basketball players have to seek for naturalization of Embiid to claim Olympics. It's really killing the game. But I guess they feel a little bit insecure.

[FilWelsh]

USA Basketball managing director finalised his line-up for Paris… LBJ, Steph, KD, Tatum, Embiid, JRue, Booker, A. Davis, Bam, A. Edwards, Haliburton, Kawhi… I got 9 rights from my previous predicted picks… Kerr opted for a steady recipe by calling in more shooters…

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2024/04/17/olympics-2024-team-usa-mens-basketball-paris-games/73357015007/

[Straight forward]

So no Kawhi, no Kyrie, no Dame. But Curry, Lebron, Durant in. Do these old superstars can still carry USA NT impressively in FIBA? I kinda not super stunned by this roster. In the MVP race you have Tatum and Ant as best players. They are both nice, but nowhere near prime Lebron, Kobe, Durant, Curry. No-where near. I never liked Tatum. To me he seemed like soft, non reliable version of Durant or whatever.

Still one spot left. It's still on Lebron and KD to make total difference, IMO. Such guys as Tatum and Ant are not exactly there, IMO. I like Ant though, and I think he might get there. Nor Booker can do it. I would be more impressed if they also had Kyrie and Liilard. Now then it would be crazy offensively talented roster.

Now...what if Lebron and KD looking kinda old physically in FIBA and Ant, Booker, Tatum are chucking...Scoring in non efficient way...I could see that scenario. What if France locking them defensively...

They did a smart move at least to have Bam and Holiday. To have defence.

I kinda expect Embiid to be more of a contra productive. In tighter FIBA court he won't feel nearly as comfortable as in NBA. I see a lot of offensive fouls coming.

Greta roster, but I expected even bigger punch.

Embiid is meh though...never liked him, never respected him and now he's just an object of pity to me.

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