EuroBasket prediction 2017

[Obina]

First we must see final rosters. Spain is still No1 favorite with brothers, without them they are not.

About my team, key players are Teo, Jokic, Bjelica and Bogdanovic. I hope to see Marjanovic or Kuzmic instead of Stimac.

[Italian Pride]

@Shawswhank:Italy for medal?with this team of losers?Lol

I hope to see Pascolo,Melli,Abass,Fontecchio and Cervi in the next eurobasket for many minutes!

target 1/8 final

[Shawshank]

For Italy it was one shot from semifinal in eurobasket2015,one shot from Olympic games.There can come time when that belinelis nonsense shot gonna fall in You were really close in 2015 and now not to try to learn from it,but destroy entire team would be stupid desicion.You will never win a medal,if after dissapointing tournament gonna change half of the team.Either way Messina wont do that.Those playoofs looses makes your players stronger and wiser.This eurobasket2017 is last chance for Bellineli's generation to win a medal.

[Straight forward]

I think most talented player of Italy is clearly Gallinari and he's at the prime of his BB career. Belinelli is not that old yet as well 30yo. Bargnani 31. The question is - does Italy have mental strength to gather together and to play coherent basketball. They had one of the best teams on on the paper in 2015, but they played a little too primitive BB. Too much ISO, hero ball. Yet they still were close of getting to the semis. I think Messina should try to build around Gallinari, to make some priorities and to cut some of big stars. To me it would be Bargnani and I would keep Belinelli under short leash. And Italy has to actually play defence. The team has the same problems as some Balkan teams, plenty of talent, but no coherence, correct state of mind.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

If I were coaching Italy, I'd leave Bargnani and Belinelli home, in case they were having the same effect as in the past, in my opinion that improves Italian chances by a lot. Not that they're bad players, but in the past they didn't fit one bit and hurted their team.

It will be interesting to see how Antetekoumpo can mold in with the Greek team.

When Serbs are not hungry and are considered as a favourites, that didn't work out on some occasions in the past.

Croatia has all the talent and all the psychos possible, together in the same team. Have no idea how to fix that and I don't think their coach does either.

Slovenia hasn't produced a noticable big man since Erazem Lorbek, he didn't pass the medical for some really average teams this year, however might still be the best PF/C we've got and play for NT - that says it all

Spain is great individualy yet getting old.

Turkey has the ussual issue with lacking some better guards for my taste.

Russia will probably put up a defensively very strong team and overachieve compared to general expectations

Lithuanian backcourt is getting old, yet in the past that prooved to be to their advantage, wouldn't count them out for some good result.

imo France is the favourite with or without Parker, they're probably the strongest team in europe as far as individual quality goes and stacked at every position.

[usagre]

It will be interesting to see how Antetekoumpo can mold in with the Greek team.

I think the Greek team has to be molded in to his style of play and capabilities not the other way around. When one player is a transformative talent and the rest of the team are pretty much marginal players if you don't build it and coach it that way you are really doing a disservice to the team and their chance of success.

[CoachZ]

It will be interesting to see how Antetekoumpo can mold in with the Greek team.


I think the Greek team has to be molded in to his style of play and capabilities not the other way around. When one player is a transformative talent and the rest of the team are pretty much marginal players if you don't build it and coach it that way you are really doing a disservice to the team and their chance of success.

That is true. The problem is that coaching egos of Europe are way too big and they will try to make a system and then make Giannis a part of it. He was terribly misused in the past and he didn't play that well. I think that in general he seems to need a lot of mental improvement as a player since we can see in the NBA also that he doesn't respond well to being out of his comfort zone. I think that Greeks need to go for a team with defensive upside and surround Giannis with length and athleticism/transition.

Lineup like:

Calathes
Sloukas
Giannis
Printezis
Koufos

Should be able to move very well and put a lot of pressure on the ball and the passing lanes. From there a lot can be generated in transition. Then just run the second unit with Mantzaris/Papas/Perperoglou/K-Pap/Bourousis. I think that could work out well, and they could adapt to many challenges. They would be a bit limited shooting wise but still, other aspects should not be that bad.

[usagre]

@Coach Z . Yeah I definitely agree they need to play fast and I think Printezis can also benefit from Giannis' play making. It's just unfortunate that they have not produced any shooters recently.

[Andy Capé]

@Coach Z . Yeah I definitely agree they need to play fast and I think Printezis can also benefit from Giannis' play making. It's just unfortunate that they have not produced any shooters recently.

Sloukas is a good shooter, Pappas is not bad either if he comes.
Perperoglou and Papanikolaou have a rather good shot, but it is true that there are no exceptional shooters in the team.

But I would like Greece to start again, not many good results since the departure of the trio Papaloukas-Diamantidis-Spanoulis.

[G&B]

I think if Latvia will gather all of its best players (Porzingis, brothers Bertrans, Strelniks, Tima, ....), it will surprise a lot of teams, they should be able to dig in even Serbia, but in reality I think the group second place guaranteed.

[Victorious]

Sloukas is a good shooter, Pappas is not bad either if he comes.
Perperoglou and Papanikolaou have a rather good shot, but it is true that there are no exceptional shooters in the team.

But I would like Greece to start again, not many good results since the departure of the trio Papaloukas-Diamantidis-Spanoulis.

Perhaps Greece does not have an excellent shooter, but almost anyone can shoot. Including Printezis, Papapetrou and Bouroussis. Imo Greece's result will largely depend on the coach and whether he can glue them together.

[usagre]

That is true. The problem is that coaching egos of Europe are way too big

Yeah I definitely agree. I liken it to big name NCAA coaches. It was said that Dean Smith was the only one who could stop Jordan offensively while he coached him at a North Carolina.

[CoachZ]

Yeah I definitely agree. I liken it to big name NCAA coaches. It was said that Dean Smith was the only one who could stop Jordan offensively while he coached him at a North Carolina.

It's become a very big issue. During the basketball golden years of Yugoslavia (late 80s), coaches did a great job of managing players, creating a unique style of play and then letting the talent flourish. Those teams were stacked with talent, roles were fluid and not everything was micromanaged to the last single detail, players were no super-specialists in their roles and not everything had to be scripted and run a certain way. Those teams just ran over people, because talent was given room to be great. Much has changed since then. Since the mid-90s systems became more intricate, players lost a lot of freedom, micromanagement to a fault is present everywhere. This is I believe a wrong approach for a national team.

Club basketball can benefit from this a lot, due to long seasons and pressure to perform every single game and play against top teams in Euroleague etc. National teams usually flourish when they are given freedom and fluidity within the system. Like I mentioned, Yugo/Serbia teams of the 80s and 90s, Spain of 2000s, they all enjoyed prolonged success because talent was given room to play to it's potential. That is something that will rarely be seen today.

Regarding Dean Smith, I always thought he is the most overrated NCAA coach. With the level of talent he has enjoyed over his coaching career, two national championships (one with possibly the best team ever in NCAA in 82, with Jordan, Worthy and Perkins and the second one vs Fab Five of Michigan, who were so full of themselves and basically shit their pants in that game). I never understood the hype about him. He is a coach who's biggest contribution to modern college basketball is running the Four Corners into oblivion to stall the games when he had even a slim lead. Fucking NCAA had to introduce a shot clock because of this.

[CoachZ]

On another topic, a bit of a scary few days for Serbia.

Bjelica left a game yesterday in crutches and his foot injury is deemed serious. He was shut down by the Wolves for the rest of the season. If it is a broken foot/ligaments etc. This might even jeopardize his participation in the next Eurobasket.

Tonight also Bogdanovic went down again in pain, with an ankle injury to the same ankle that he has injured earlier this year and missed a lot of time. That is never good. But we will know more about that in a few days. Let's hope it's not a serious injury but rather a sprain...

[usagre]

@ Coach Z. I absolutely agree. As we both argued in the past club basketball as opposed to national team play is a whole different ball game due to the limited preparation and actual game play time. It is so easy to over coach when you have limited time and get too intricate. And as for Dean Smith I couldn't agree more.
He had the incredible talent for 25 years and as you stated won only 2 titles. And if you look even closer you could argue he was lucky to even win those two. Chris Webber non existent time out call that cost them that game and although much attention us giving to the Jordan jump shot that won him his first title, Ewing actually dominated that game and a Georgetown had the ball with a chance to win in the closing seconds but committed a famous unbelievable turn over by literally handing the ball to the opposing team.
Bobby Knight in my opinion was and always will be the standard by which college coaches are judged on.
He never had grade A talent but coached them up and won at an incredible rate.