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And now onto the "poor Latvia robbed by FIBA bastards" example everyone likes to talk about. Even in its optimal roster, it's not one of the very best European teams by any stretch of imagination. In the same Euro 2017 when Latvia gave a good run, Russia gave an even better run, but somehow I'm certain that if Russia is to miss some big tournament (which it does from time to time with WCs and Olys), nobody would make a fuzz about it.
Heavily injury-prone Porzingis is their only true "next level" star and even he is an extremely egoistical player with laughable defense, who can massively spoil team chemistry and organization. Check out how many assists he dishes and how many steals he gets - these are very telling stats. Bertans bros are completely mediocre role players of which non-NBAer Dairis is a better one, since he at least can put the ball on the floor and even dish an assist once in a blue moon, while "Davis the NBAer" can be ultimately defined as "a pitch-perfect example of retarded 2.08 guy who can only play as a catch-and-shoot three-pointers specialist". I mean, cmon, younger Bertans' NBA contract looks ridiculous and it only signifies how much of an idiotic circus this "association" has become. He's an 2.08 SF/PF who grabs what? two rebounds per game or something? who gets hammered by athletic fours because of the lack of strength and defensive effort and who, at the same time, gets owned by almost any regular SF since he's too slow and hence gets beaten badly off the dribble. I've just checked his shooting stats this season - he shot 281 three-pointers and 35 two-opinters (with "brilliant" 45% accuracy). A dream player, for sure.
Who's else? Pasecniks? Lanky giant who becomes slower and slower as years go by (and he's still reasonably young) and who completely failed to establish himself as a post presence. I mean, we are talking about the same guy who averaged something like 5-6 points per game for GranCa and failed to become their starting center. And nope, he wasn't a teenager back then. I'm not sure that he belongs to Latvian NT quality-wise. Kurucs the elder is another example of a player who was hailed by fake experts as the next big Latvian thing but who plays worse and worse (and less and less also) as time goes by, already looking like a shadow of his teenage self (not that Kurucs' teenage self was something really impressive to begin with).
Ok, we're done with numerous Latvian NBAers, so what's left? Timma is very talented but he's a nutcase and I don't see him very much motivated by participation in the national teams tournaments. Janis Strelnieks? Well, he was a solid European style player, a no-nonsense all-around combo guard, but he's getting old and, unlike wine, he didn't age quite well, especially having all his injuries in mind. Rolands Smits is someone whom I like very much as he's such a hard worker and also he's agile, reasonably athletic and, while he also can shoot from the distance when left open, he likes to grind and hustle near the basket. Ok, Smits is good but offensively he is a very PG-dependent type of player and, either way, not a game changer by any means. Give him a great system suited to his strengths and he will thrive in a moderate role, bench him under "Latvian bigs from NBA" - and most probably he will be useless in his limited playing time. That's all for JordiLeague/7Days Latvian players and it's not that, aside from VEF, BCL has many other options.
I mean, I like very much some lesser known Latvians playing for some lesser known teams, especially that bulky&gritty undersized forward type Latvian soil seems so rich of - all those Grazulis/Strautins/Silins lads. I even like Lomazs as a medium-level scoring option and, yes, it's interesting to see how Kristers Zoriks will progress after his NCAA debacle. But most probably that's not something all those "how could there be a EuroBasket without Latvian splendid golden generation" mantra repeaters meant when talking about Latvian stars who were robbed of the chance to shine bright in the international competitions by "greedy FIBA bastards". And also it is worthy of note that the same Lomazs, Zoriks and Silins were in the Latvian squad which lost to Bulgaria in a do-or-die game this February. Alongside with Janis Timma, Dairis Bertans and also full-squad national team mainstays like Mejeris, Meiers, Freimanis and Skele.
And, to add insult to injury, they lost to Bulgaria without Vezenkov. Well, actually Bulgarian squad's only foreign league players were Dee Bost and Aleksandar Yanev-Georgiev from Czech team Brno (not something of Nymburk caliber, mind it). So, I guess, Latvians should blame themselves first and foremost, even this B version of Latvian squad (well, not exactly a B squad, since Timma, Dairis Bertans, Meiers and Skele were in the last Latvia-graced Eurobasket squad and Mejeris and Freimanis were in the squad for all of Eurobasket 2011, 2013 and 2015 editions) was naturally heavily favorited against Bulgarians.
P.S. And, by the way, Netherlands is a completely solid, well-oiled team which main strength lies in its backcourt with their main stars Charlon Kloof and Yannick Franke nicely rounded up by athletic NT veterans Worthy de Jong (who defintely should have a good career outside Dutch Lowlands but somehow never got a good chance at it) and Leon Williams, plus extremely promising up-and-coming youngster Keye van der Wuurst. Their forwards and bigs are worse (1988 YOB Roeland Schaftenaar still being the best of them - as Henk Norel's and Nico de Jong's days in NT jerseys are long gone, Kherrazi quite content with his role of a traditional Benilux defensive pillar while Jito Kok and Shane Hammink failed to make a transition to the next level - and good ole Roeland is heavy-footed these days). By the way, it's interesting if Matt Haarms goes "Karnowski way" or will he find his niche in European basketball. But fundamentally it's a solid team. It is not as well-rounded as their southern neighbours but solid nevertheless.
Heavily injury-prone Porzingis is their only true "next level" star and even he is an extremely egoistical player with laughable defense, who can massively spoil team chemistry and organization. Check out how many assists he dishes and how many steals he gets - these are very telling stats. Bertans bros are completely mediocre role players of which non-NBAer Dairis is a better one, since he at least can put the ball on the floor and even dish an assist once in a blue moon, while "Davis the NBAer" can be ultimately defined as "a pitch-perfect example of retarded 2.08 guy who can only play as a catch-and-shoot three-pointers specialist". I mean, cmon, younger Bertans' NBA contract looks ridiculous and it only signifies how much of an idiotic circus this "association" has become. He's an 2.08 SF/PF who grabs what? two rebounds per game or something? who gets hammered by athletic fours because of the lack of strength and defensive effort and who, at the same time, gets owned by almost any regular SF since he's too slow and hence gets beaten badly off the dribble. I've just checked his shooting stats this season - he shot 281 three-pointers and 35 two-opinters (with "brilliant" 45% accuracy). A dream player, for sure.
Who's else? Pasecniks? Lanky giant who becomes slower and slower as years go by (and he's still reasonably young) and who completely failed to establish himself as a post presence. I mean, we are talking about the same guy who averaged something like 5-6 points per game for GranCa and failed to become their starting center. And nope, he wasn't a teenager back then. I'm not sure that he belongs to Latvian NT quality-wise. Kurucs the elder is another example of a player who was hailed by fake experts as the next big Latvian thing but who plays worse and worse (and less and less also) as time goes by, already looking like a shadow of his teenage self (not that Kurucs' teenage self was something really impressive to begin with).
Ok, we're done with numerous Latvian NBAers, so what's left? Timma is very talented but he's a nutcase and I don't see him very much motivated by participation in the national teams tournaments. Janis Strelnieks? Well, he was a solid European style player, a no-nonsense all-around combo guard, but he's getting old and, unlike wine, he didn't age quite well, especially having all his injuries in mind. Rolands Smits is someone whom I like very much as he's such a hard worker and also he's agile, reasonably athletic and, while he also can shoot from the distance when left open, he likes to grind and hustle near the basket. Ok, Smits is good but offensively he is a very PG-dependent type of player and, either way, not a game changer by any means. Give him a great system suited to his strengths and he will thrive in a moderate role, bench him under "Latvian bigs from NBA" - and most probably he will be useless in his limited playing time. That's all for JordiLeague/7Days Latvian players and it's not that, aside from VEF, BCL has many other options.
I mean, I like very much some lesser known Latvians playing for some lesser known teams, especially that bulky&gritty undersized forward type Latvian soil seems so rich of - all those Grazulis/Strautins/Silins lads. I even like Lomazs as a medium-level scoring option and, yes, it's interesting to see how Kristers Zoriks will progress after his NCAA debacle. But most probably that's not something all those "how could there be a EuroBasket without Latvian splendid golden generation" mantra repeaters meant when talking about Latvian stars who were robbed of the chance to shine bright in the international competitions by "greedy FIBA bastards". And also it is worthy of note that the same Lomazs, Zoriks and Silins were in the Latvian squad which lost to Bulgaria in a do-or-die game this February. Alongside with Janis Timma, Dairis Bertans and also full-squad national team mainstays like Mejeris, Meiers, Freimanis and Skele.
And, to add insult to injury, they lost to Bulgaria without Vezenkov. Well, actually Bulgarian squad's only foreign league players were Dee Bost and Aleksandar Yanev-Georgiev from Czech team Brno (not something of Nymburk caliber, mind it). So, I guess, Latvians should blame themselves first and foremost, even this B version of Latvian squad (well, not exactly a B squad, since Timma, Dairis Bertans, Meiers and Skele were in the last Latvia-graced Eurobasket squad and Mejeris and Freimanis were in the squad for all of Eurobasket 2011, 2013 and 2015 editions) was naturally heavily favorited against Bulgarians.
P.S. And, by the way, Netherlands is a completely solid, well-oiled team which main strength lies in its backcourt with their main stars Charlon Kloof and Yannick Franke nicely rounded up by athletic NT veterans Worthy de Jong (who defintely should have a good career outside Dutch Lowlands but somehow never got a good chance at it) and Leon Williams, plus extremely promising up-and-coming youngster Keye van der Wuurst. Their forwards and bigs are worse (1988 YOB Roeland Schaftenaar still being the best of them - as Henk Norel's and Nico de Jong's days in NT jerseys are long gone, Kherrazi quite content with his role of a traditional Benilux defensive pillar while Jito Kok and Shane Hammink failed to make a transition to the next level - and good ole Roeland is heavy-footed these days). By the way, it's interesting if Matt Haarms goes "Karnowski way" or will he find his niche in European basketball. But fundamentally it's a solid team. It is not as well-rounded as their southern neighbours but solid nevertheless.
Not only it reflects negatively on euro basketball in general, it just further reaffirms everybody that our hoops is a joke and always has been a joke to begin with. But as the saying goes in this world - money talks and the Average Joe walks along with it, just like in any other aspect of our mundane lives...
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