2019 U20 European Championship

[Dreamcatcher]

My fault,I lose myself between too lengthy response .But also if we exclude Valinskas ,doesnt change a lot .

It changes a lot, Valinskas who is playing here is a crappy one like half of the roster. The game against Slovenia showed it. Without a main pg Velicka it would be a B div.team. At leat it looks like that.

[thiago94]

Germans are like headless chickens. Its just and one vs one fast break team.

You hit the nail on the head with this comparison. The only player who is able to structure is Hassfurther (+17) who isn´t blessed with any necessary physical attributes, but he understands the game and has a tremendous basketball IQ. Mattiseck (-27) and Obiesi (-14) are good talents, especially the last one, but they are both Shooting Guards and aren't even a little able to run an offense as a Point Guard.

In addition we missed Herkenhoff. It´s no excuse for this harmful performance, but one part of the big picture.

[saritasbora]

I think this Turkey team works much better without Bitim. Yes he is the leading scorer of this game but he also kills the ball movement, makes selfish decisions and mistakes. I love Mustafa's game so far in this one. He was quite useful on the both sides of the floor.

On the other hand, Montenegro guard play is just plain awful. Extremely difficult to watch. Still, a close game although of low quality

Onuralp Bitim single handedly beat Montenegro.He is insanely athletic and talented. He just needs to stop trying to be fancy.That's all he has to do.

[CoachZ]

Onuralp Bitim single handedly beat Montenegro.He is insanely athletic and talented. He just needs to stop trying to be fancy.That's all he has to do.

He did that against a team with probably the worst guard rotation in the tournament. He was able to do whatever he wanted basically. And he did it all outside of the team's offense. That is something that doesn't translate well against more competitive teams, and especially not in the senior level of competition.

Something similar was done by Sannon today vs Serbia. He just molested the guards of Serbia, who are miles below him in terms of talent. Yet, we have seen him in more competitive matches and senior level, and that just doesn't translate...

[christodoulou76]

The favorites are less clear now than before the tournament started.

[CoachZ]

The favorites are less clear now than before the tournament started.

I think that Spain and Greece have shown the most so far. I like Spain better at this point. Excellent hustle across the board, solid guard play, solid shot selection. They look like a team. They might not be explosive like some past Spain squads, but those kids can play. Greeks are solid behind Moraitis and the Kalaitzakis twins. Clear roles on the team, but lack consistent shooting in my opinion.

[Toruko]

Greece just looks good because they faced clear div b potential opponents until now. Kalaitzakis Bros are still too inconsistent and and force too much and Moraitis alone cant do much by himself. The tournament is fairly weak so that they really can reach semi with luck. Greek youth teams biggest problem is that they have no proper bigs. In the Turgut Atakol tournament they were beaten easily with 20+ by turkey and also by serbia if i am not mistaken.

[christodoulou76]

Greece just looks good because they faced clear div b potential opponents until now. Kalaitzakis Bros are still too inconsistent and and force too much and Moraitis alone cant do much by himself. The tournament is fairly weak so that they really can reach semi with luck. Greek youth teams biggest problem is that they have no proper bigs. In the Turgut Atakol tournament they were beaten easily with 20+ by turkey and also by serbia if i am not mistaken.

I agree - Greece's front line is suspect and their 3 pt shooting is not great. Their guards are getting a lot of points off drives, but I wonder if that will continue against teams with better post players. They have 14 steals per game so far which is a ridiculous number, suggesting they have faced weak opponents.

Friendly results would be helpful to know in order to determine the favorites in the tournament but no one posted anything on this thread before the tournament started.

It seems to me

Tier 1
Spain
Turkey
Israel
France

Tier 2
Greece
Croatia
Serbia
Germany

Tier 3
Italy
Slovenia
Lithuania

Tier 4
Everyone else

[christodoulou76]

Likely final group standings

Group A
Turkey 3-0
France 2-1
Montenegro 1-2
GB 0-3

Group B
Serbia 2-1
Israel 2-1
Italy 1-2
Ukraine 1-2

Group C
Spain 3-0
Croatia 2-1
Germany 1-2
Latvia 0-3

Group D
Greece 3-0
Slovenia 2-1
Lithuania 1-2
Poland 0-3

Elimination Phase
Turkey beats Ukraine
Croatia beats Lithuania
Israel beats Montenegro
Greece beats Latvia
France beats Italy
Spain annihilates Poland
Serbia beats GB
Germany beats Slovenia

Quarterfinals
Turkey beats Croatia
Israel beats Greece
Spain beats France
Serbia beats Germany

[Toruko]

I agree - Greece's front line is suspect and their 3 pt shooting is not great. Their guards are getting a lot of points off drives, but I wonder if that will continue against teams with better post players. They have 14 steals per game so far which is a ridiculous number, suggesting they have faced weak opponents.

Friendly results would be helpful to know in order to determine the favorites in the tournament but no one posted anything on this thread before the tournament started.

It seems to me

Tier 1
Spain
Turkey
Israel
France

Tier 2
Greece
Croatia
Serbia
Germany

Tier 3
Italy
Slovenia
Lithuania

Tier 4
Everyone else

Well I was also very confident referring to Germany since 3 player especially took serious roles in the german bundesliga. Herkenhoff a really versatile big, Jonas Mattiseck from Alba Berlin, actually a very good shooter and a genuine allrounder and Obiesie who was in the last drafts (wasnt drafted). A guy who can create shots and showed offensive versatility but rest of the guys didnt play much and there is a huge play making problem. For me Germany dropped from tier one even though they had good results in the friendlys.

France is by far not that strong. Too few ball handler especially the wings have a huge problem. Bigs are strong and tall but not very skilled around the rim. I would even put Greece over France, Serbia too but everything else looks ok.

[Levenspiel]

Likely final group standings
Group B
Serbia 2-1
Israel 2-1
Italy 1-2
Ukraine 1-2

from what I've seen today, Italy is actually a pretty solid team, and Israel is relying too heavily only on 3-pointers. the group may end up with Italy on top.

[Magic Stavros]

Greece is by far the best team in this tournament

[slice me nice]

Greece is by far the best team in this tournament

Please don't forget to show some mercy to other teams.

[Straight forward]

It changes a lot, Valinskas who is playing here is a crappy one like half of the roster. The game against Slovenia showed it. Without a main pg Velicka it would be a B div.team. At leat it looks like that.

Not sure if serious. I mean now that Sargiuas likely out with the sprained ankle the team is rather short, but B division? You have to kidding. Plenty of solid players for such competition as Vasiliauskas, Kozys, the same Valinskas, Lavrinovicius, not mentioning 2 stars in Velicka and Uleckas. If Uleckas coming back this team will have a shot of being among top 4. Slovenia was just tougher and much more chubby and Lithuania obviously still hasn't figured it out. The team is playing extremely fast, trying to move the ball very quickly, but so far they can't really play this type of basketball, too many turnovers. Aside very raw and a bit soft frontline, this team should be ready for the knock out stage, again, specially if Sargiunas coming back.

It's not a talented team overall, but solid. They can really play better than they did against Slovenia.

[Dreamcatcher]

Not sure if serious. I mean now that Sargiuas likely out with the sprained ankle the team is rather short, but B division? You have to kidding. Plenty of solid players for such competition as Vasiliauskas, Kozys, the same Valinskas, Lavrinovicius, not mentioning 2 stars in Velicka and Uleckas. If Uleckas coming back this team will have a shot of being among top 4. Slovenia was just tougher and much more chubby and Lithuania obviously still hasn't figured it out. The team is playing extremely fast, trying to move the ball very quickly, but so far they can't really play this type of basketball, too many turnovers. Aside very raw and a bit soft frontline, this team should be ready for the knock out stage, again, specially if Sargiunas coming back.

It's not a talented team overall, but solid. They can really play better than they did against Slovenia.

There isn's a second pg and the only one not bad big is Lavrinovicius. The players you mentioned: Kozys, Vasiliauskas, Valinskas are not solid. How you see the last one being solid? He's a small one who shoots the ball slowly. They are NKL players potentially and the game is so crappy mainly because of that. How would this team play without Velicka? It would be too bad. You can find a solid starting five here, but the bench is too bad with the players like Jonkus, Leganovic, Vaiciunas, Sakalauskas, Poska. You need badly Velicka and Uleckas having a good game. Still i can see this team going to some semifinals because the competitions don't look strong. But also i can see them fighting for relegation.