Lebanon National Team - 2017

[Lebasketball]

Julian Khazzouh and Elijah Obade are officially joining the NT.
Good work from the federation.
Concerning the naturalized player, it will be Norvel Pelle (not sure yet but most probably).
As I said it before if Julian is in, it's better to pick a 4 than a pure center but it's still ok if it's Pelle.

[McCalebb2015]

Our media claims that it's Ramunas Butautas, our former NT coach. He had success with our youth NT, won world champ in 2005, but was really bad at coaching our main NT, even tho with him we won bronze in 2007 Eurobasket, were 4th in Beijing Olympics, but it was mostly thnx to players, then our main guys left, in 2009 Eurobasket he failed big time, both in selection of players, in tactics, in everything

Ramunas Butautas is better than Jonas Kazlauskas.I don't know why Guangdong team manager Zhu invite Kazlauskas to be head coach.

[heart21]

My best roster for fiba asia.

1-Fadi El Khatib
2-Julian Khazzouh
3-Ali Haidar
4-Ali Mezher
5-Elie Stephan
6-Elie Rustom
7-Wael Arakji
8-Elijah Obeid
9-Joseph Al Shartouny
10-Amir Saoud
11-Jean Abdelnour
12-Branco (not official yet)

Starting lineup:

1-Joseph Al Shartouny
2-Fadi El Khatib
3-Naturalized
4-Elijah Obeid
5-Julian Khazzouh

[Lebasketball]

Come on man ! Your line up has only 3 players above 2m00 !
If Khazzouh is in foul trouble we will be in big trouble !
By the way Branco played for Serbie before so he can't play for us.
We absolutely need a 4/5 like a Vroman !
Plus, we don't know the level of Joseph Al Shartouny and you put him in the starting five. Same things for Obade.
Where's Ahmad Ibrahim ?
Im more into this line up :

1 Arakji / Mezher
2. Abdelnour / Amir
3. El Khatib / Ahmad Ibrahim
4. Naturalized player / Ali Haidar
5. Khazzouh / Obade (if he's good)

That's my list for sure. Missing two players from this list (E.Stephan, E.Rustom ,Al Shartouny, Elie Chamoun, Jad Khalil).

[reamily]

Come on man ! Your line up has only 3 players above 2m00 !
If Khazzouh is in foul trouble we will be in big trouble !
By the way Branco played for Serbie before so he can't play for us.
We absolutely need a 4/5 like a Vroman !
Plus, we don't know the level of Joseph Al Shartouny and you put him in the starting five. Same things for Obade.
Where's Ahmad Ibrahim ?
Im more into this line up :

1 Arakji / Mezher
2. Abdelnour / Amir
3. El Khatib / Ahmad Ibrahim
4. Naturalized player / Ali Haidar
5. Khazzouh / Obade (if he's good)

That's my list for sure. Missing two players from this list (E.Stephan, E.Rustom ,Al Shartouny, Elie Chamoun, Jad Khalil).

I still put/add Bassel bawj there(insurance 3 just as rosario for us) as, you know, you need a dimension player and tall asian teams will attack this weakness in that position..

[Lebasketball]

Oh yes Bawji I forgot it. He was our main player with Ali Haidar two years ago.
Rustom his level decrease since his injury two years ago.
Elie Estephan is the meaning of bad defense .
Nadim Souaid no ballhandling, no skills.
I would pick Elie Chamoun. He's our sniper and a very good defensive player. I would go with him. The only problem it's his height and we already have Amir. Both of them are not tall for their position and against NZ Australia China etc it can cost us a lot.

[reamily]

i think you need role players in 10, 11 and 12th guys, players would play a role but can be reliable upon called..

[Lebasketball]

Butautas arrived yesterday to Lebanon.
He made his first practice but some of the players are still injured (Fadi, Elie Estephan, Jean will be out for more than 1 month so his participation is still unknown, Ahmad Ibrahim) and others are still not in Lebanon (Charles Tabet, Khazzouh).
Butautas said that Lebanon have very good players and a lot of talented players. He said also that Lebanon is like Lithuania, fans are crazy about basketball.

[reamily]

Butautas arrived yesterday to Lebanon.
He made his first practice but some of the players are still injured (Fadi, Elie Estephan, Jean will be out for more than 1 month so his participation is still unknown, Ahmad Ibrahim) and others are still not in Lebanon (Charles Tabet, Khazzouh).
Butautas said that Lebanon have very good players and a lot of talented players. He said also that Lebanon is like Lithuania, fans are crazy about basketball.

With all the absences, how many players did he meet? 4?

[Lebasketball]

Hehe actually they were a lot of "B" players.

[Mindozas]

Ramunas Butautas is better than Jonas Kazlauskas.I don't know why Guangdong team manager Zhu invite Kazlauskas to be head coach.

If you're a girl and love bald-headed men, then might be true, Butautas is way ahead here In term of basketball Kazlauskas is infront, it's not even close

Butautas arrived yesterday to Lebanon.
He made his first practice but some of the players are still injured (Fadi, Elie Estephan, Jean will be out for more than 1 month so his participation is still unknown, Ahmad Ibrahim) and others are still not in Lebanon (Charles Tabet, Khazzouh).
Butautas said that Lebanon have very good players and a lot of talented players. He said also that Lebanon is like Lithuania, fans are crazy about basketball.

That's true. I guess we both and Philippines are only countries where basketball is no1, atleast as far as I know. That's why it's always nice to support you guys

[Lebasketball]

Unfortunately Ahmad Ibrahim is out of the NT.
The coach don't even invite him in the list of 20 because he didn't play any game this season.
I don't know but it's weird because Khazzouh was injured all season and he invited him so this excuse is not available for me.
It's a big bomb in the social media right now. Some says it was a federation decision some says it's Fadi.
We have to stay away from issue like this !!!
In my opinion the coach had to invite Ahmad and if he's not in shape he can take this decision later but to take the decision without seeing him training...Butautas is crazy hehe he has been in Lebanon for 2 days and there is already 95% of the Lebanese fans who want a new coach !

[Mindozas]

But could Butautas make such decision without anyone's support, I mean opinion from the side (federation, Fadi or someone else)? Cause he is really new there and will need time to get to know all the details. It would be crazy not to call such important player atleast to see how he looks on court. In Lithuania usualy things go like this - coach talks to the player personally, to know how he feels, is he ready to play and then makes a decision. If players says he is atleast ready to try, we always give him a chance, no matter how much time he was out injured. As you could notice I'm not really a fan of Butautas, but I really don't think he could come and make such drastical decision on his own

[reamily]

Unfortunately Ahmad Ibrahim is out of the NT.
The coach don't even invite him in the list of 20 because he didn't play any game this season.
I don't know but it's weird because Khazzouh was injured all season and he invited him so this excuse is not available for me.
It's a big bomb in the social media right now. Some says it was a federation decision some says it's Fadi.
We have to stay away from issue like this !!!
In my opinion the coach had to invite Ahmad and if he's not in shape he can take this decision later but to take the decision without seeing him training...Butautas is crazy hehe he has been in Lebanon for 2 days and there is already 95% of the Lebanese fans who want a new coach !

Ahmad is already a "star" in Lebanon, lol in a basketball country like lebanon, surely a guy who didnt appear this season should be out unless youre a 7 footer like Philippines..

[Mindozas]

Ahmad is already a "star" in Lebanon, lol in a basketball country like lebanon, surely a guy who didnt appear this season should be out unless youre a 7 footer like Philippines..

I don't know the caliber of Ahmad as a star, but I remember him bein' really important in 2015 Asiabasket until he got injured. You may not add him to final roster, if he is out of shape, but it's silly not to give atleast a try in preparations and see how ready he is