WC 2019 Power Rankings

[usagre]

I am gonna assume that Lowry will not make the team due to his injury and I think the roster will look like this:

Starters

Kemba
Mitchell
Middleton
Tatum
Turner

bench

Fox
Smart
Brown
Barnes
Kuzma
Lopez

Bagley 12th man

[ja.he]

I am gonna assume that Lowry will not make the team due to his injury and I think the roster will look like this:

Starters

Kemba
Mitchell
Middleton
Tatum
Turner

bench

Fox
Smart
Brown
Barnes
Kuzma
Lopez

Bagley 12th man

athletic and still a talented team but will have big chance losing a game. kemba, mitchell, and tatum are the biggest names. the rest are third scoring or fourth scoring option and role players.

[okanial]

athletic and still a talented team but will have big chance losing a game. kemba, mitchell, and tatum are the biggest names. the rest are third scoring or fourth scoring option and role players.

It is still team USA but we managed to lead for 3 quarters in the last tournament against Curry, Harden, Davis and other stars with a weaker Turkish team whose biggest name Aşık was playing on medication. It is still 85% USA win but our chances are not 1% anymore

[mojo13]

I think Fox is under appreciated in this forum. That was a huge add. He is likely the quickest high level b-ball player in the world and it is going to be interesting to watch opposing guards try to stay in front of him. I think Mitchell is fairly under appreciated as well. He’s been under the collective radar playing in no mans land. Even Walker for that matter - who I’d consider an equivalent or maybe even better player than Kyrie Irvine - has been lost on a small market team.

[usagre]

It is still team USA but we managed to lead for 3 quarters in the last tournament against Curry, Harden, Davis and other stars with a weaker Turkish team whose biggest name Aşık was playing on medication. It is still 85% USA win but our chances are not 1% anymore

I think Turkey was down 6 at the end of 3 in that game and then got blown out in the fourth. I wouldn’t put too much stock in close preliminary round games with team USA. They historically have had some lackluster performances due to lack of importance and motivation. 2010 vs Brazil and 2012 vs Lithuania come to mind. But I agree Turkey has a better chance against this team to spring an upset in the preliminary round but like you said not that great at all. I wouldn’t put at 85% more like 95% in my opinion.

[usagre]

I think Fox is under appreciated in this forum. That was a huge add. He is likely the quickest high level b-ball player in the world and it is going to be interesting to watch opposing guards try to stay in front of him. I think Mitchell is fairly under appreciated as well. He’s been under the collective radar playing in no mans land. Even Walker for that matter - who I’d consider an equivalent or maybe even better player than Kyrie Irvine - has been lost on a small market team.

And you haven’t mentioned Middleton and Tatum who are probably as good of long range shooters that this tournament has to offer. They are still strong relative to their competition and I still only see Serbia as their main threat.

[okanial]

FIBA used to do power rankings of their own. Did they stop doing that?

[Mindozas]

FIBA used to do power rankings of their own. Did they stop doing that?

I think it was FIBA Europe that done it, but it's great that they stopped nonetheless

[3.14159]

I think Turkey was down 6 at the end of 3 in that game and then got blown out in the fourth. I wouldn’t put too much stock in close preliminary round games with team USA. They historically have had some lackluster performances due to lack of importance and motivation. 2010 vs Brazil and 2012 vs Lithuania come to mind. But I agree Turkey has a better chance against this team to spring an upset in the preliminary round but like you said not that great at all. I wouldn’t put at 85% more like 95% in my opinion.

True. Given how young this team is, and how they are already being scrutinized for lack of talent, I think they will be more motivated throughout the tournament.

The 2014 team won by an average of 33 pts over 9 games. Yes that team has some huge names today, but that was before guys like Harden and Curry took that next step. AD was just 2 years into his career and Kyrie still didn't know what it was like to be on a winning team.
I don't think this team has as many potential young superstars, but they are incredibly talented. And one silver lining from all the dropouts is that the team got younger and more athletic.

[usagre]

@ Coach Z

Hypothetically 5 minutes to go in a tight game what is Serbia’s closing lineup ?
And if against the US and a lineup of Kemba, Mitchell, Middleton, Tatum, and Turner is it different ?

[CoachZ]

@ Coach Z

Hypothetically 5 minutes to go in a tight game what is Serbia’s closing lineup ?
And if against the US and a lineup of Kemba, Mitchell, Middleton, Tatum, and Turner is it different ?

Whenever a game is close, I would tend to go with Jovic, Bogdanovic, Guduric, Bjelica, Jokic. 5 players who can play with the ball or without it, so it will be difficult to get them keyed up and throw them off the balance. Also for a bad shooter, Jovic has been surprisingly awesome in the clutch over the years. Bogdan and Guduric both can hit key shots, Bjelica as well. Jokic I will not even mention. Now, this is overall what I would use in these situations.

If we are talking against Kemba - Mitchell - Middleton - Tatum and Turner, then I would go a bit different. Kemba - Mitchell duo is incredibly quick but they do have issues with size, so I would tend to go with Jovic - Bogdanovic duo here, put Lucic on Middleton, Bjelica on Tatum and Jokic vs Turner. There are some matchups that are quite favorable for both Serbia and USA here, but I think that quickness of USA guards would lose effectiveness in terms of slashing due to FIBA defensive rules, so Jokic will not be exposed as much, also Turner is not a real post-up threat. The biggest problem will be Bogdan keeping up with Mitchell, that I have no solution for to be honest. Still, I would rather die by him than Kemba, who could torch us. When he gets hot, it's a sight. Bjelica - Tatum would probably be the most interesting matchup to watch. That could go either way, with veteran all-around skillset of Bjelica being quite solid and athletic Tatum and his energy being solid as well.

If I wanted a full on defensive mode, I would probably go with Jovic, Bogdanovic, Milosavljevic, Lucic, Milutinov. That lineup though will have a lot of problems scoring in transition, and shooting outside of Bogdanovic is a huge issue...

[usagre]

Here’s what I think team USA will look like.

Kemba and Mitchell will be the starting guards and get heavy minutes. Fox will be the backup point guard and get a good amount of minutes as well. Marcus Smart will also be in the rotation due to his excellent defensive versatility. He can guard just about any 1, 2 or 3 in this tournament. Middleton and Tatum will be the starting wings. I see Kuzma in the Rudy Gay 2010 and 2014 role as a rotation player backing up both forward positions. Turner will be the starting center and I see him getting probably double the minutes than his backup Lopez. That’s nine players. I think Jaylen Brown is versatile as well and will probably be somewhat in the rotation. I think Harrison Barnes despite his shooting capability will kind of be an odd man out with limited minutes. And the 12th man whoever that is will obviously be in a very limited role.

[christodoulou76]

Oh no, they're at it again

http://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019/news/power-rankings-feels-like-a-repeat-of-madrid-2014-and-rio-2016-is-on-the-cards

[Dtown]

Oh no, they're at it again

http://www.fiba.basketball/basketbal...s-on-the-cards

Don't really have a problem with the top 5.

I really like Nigeria, but I think 8th is high for them (hope they prove me wrong though)

China seems way too high imo.

[okanial]

What is the rule for olypic qualifying tournament actually? How many of the European teams will be there? Imagine Lithuania staying in the first group while Poland advances which is a big possibility. It would be really unfair to not have lithuania just because China wanted an easy route.