2019 FIBA World Cup

reggiecleveland

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The summers are hard for these guys. I coached in the CeBL https://www.cebl.ca/ It is Canadian pro league trying to copy the model of other pro leagues around the world (3 import limit). the hope is to transition to the winter, but they ran a summer league this year. The quality of the Canadian players is quite high and our team https://www.therattlers.ca/ ended up winning dressing only one American player for the final game. But the summer is a demanding time, and a lot of the best players in the league left because they did not want to play into August, since they step right in into camp in September, and the grind is too much.

Not sure what the answer is for Canada. They breezed through the tournament of the Americas before the last Olympics only to choke in the finla and miss the Olympics. The "Wiggins is soft" whispers started then. It is hard for guys to play, then deal with unfair criticism id they lose.

Even a younger ages this happens. My kids team from Saskatchewan was in the medal round of the nationals for u17 this summer, but probably only 2 or 3 of the top 20 kids in Canada played since their US prep schools or their elite AAU teams demand their summers.
 

InstaFace

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Sep 27, 2016
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So now we're into the Second Round, starting this morning, where the top 2 of each first-round group play each other (but not the team they've already played). Your first-round record also counts in tiebreakers, particularly the game against the other team in the group. Top 2 teams in each of those 4 groups go to the QFs. So if you won your first round group, you only need to win 1 of the 2 second-round games to qualify for the QFs; winning the other just gets you a better bracket seed. If you advanced with a 2-1 record, you'll probably need to win both to qualify.

We've got second-round Groups I, J, K and L for teams that are still in contention:
- Group I is easy: Poland and Argentina beat Russia (by 5) and Venezuela (by 20) so they're advancing, the losers are going to classification, and their game against each other will determine seeding. None of them look all that dominating.
- Group J has Serbia and Spain; Serbia already laid waste to Puerto Rico this morning, guaranteeing their advancement. Spain is in a relatively close match against Italy (62-56 last I saw) and will eliminate them if they close it out; then their matchup against each other on Monday will be very interesting (go for seeding vs rest).
- Group K is us. We're playing Greece tomorrow 8:30am, and Brazil on Monday 8:30am, and there's also Czech Republic. We can advance with one loss but then we'd end up against (probably) France in the QFs, instead of (probably) Australia.
- Group L has France and Australia (at 3-0) and Lithuania and Dom. Republic (at 2-1). Lithuania (+74) is probably a better team than Australia (+34) but took the loss to them yesterday, so despite being ranked #6, they'll need to clean up against France tomorrow (#3 in the world) and then the DR (#18) on Monday to advance.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Aug 1, 2001
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The summers are hard for these guys. I coached in the CeBL https://www.cebl.ca/ It is Canadian pro league trying to copy the model of other pro leagues around the world (3 import limit). the hope is to transition to the winter, but they ran a summer league this year. The quality of the Canadian players is quite high and our team https://www.therattlers.ca/ ended up winning dressing only one American player for the final game. But the summer is a demanding time, and a lot of the best players in the league left because they did not want to play into August, since they step right in into camp in September, and the grind is too much.

Not sure what the answer is for Canada. They breezed through the tournament of the Americas before the last Olympics only to choke in the finla and miss the Olympics. The "Wiggins is soft" whispers started then. It is hard for guys to play, then deal with unfair criticism id they lose.

Even a younger ages this happens. My kids team from Saskatchewan was in the medal round of the nationals for u17 this summer, but probably only 2 or 3 of the top 20 kids in Canada played since their US prep schools or their elite AAU teams demand their summers.
Wow, congrats on winning that championship! Impressive.
 

Awesome Fossum

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Jul 20, 2005
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Another huge factor is holding this tournament the year prior to the Olympics. Wasn’t it the norm in the past to hold it two years prior?
Yes. I think they moved it to get away from the FIFA World Cup? It's definitely been a bad move from a player participation standpoint. I wonder how the business metrics are doing.
 

InstaFace

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Sep 27, 2016
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I think I agree with reggiecleveland that the month switch matters more than the year switch. Hold it in July, rather than so close to NBA preseasons, and you'll get greater NBA interest because there's time to recover after that. No, you don't really want it directly opposite the FIFA World Cup, but that ends mid-July. Start on July 5th or 10th and by the time you want people tuning in, it'll be the only thing on.
 

Nick Kaufman

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Look, it speaks volumes that after all these years that we have managed to get on our screens every conceivable sporting event, the only way to watch the damn Basketball World Cup is on a streaming service. I can somewhat understand why american basketball fans don't care about the world cup, but really it's a feedback loop. People don't care, so players don't care, players don't care so people don't care.
 

DJnVa

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Dec 16, 2010
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Look, it speaks volumes that after all these years that we have managed to get on our screens every conceivable sporting event, the only way to watch the damn Basketball World Cup is on a streaming service. I can somewhat understand why american basketball fans don't care about the world cup, but really it's a feedback loop. People don't care, so players don't care, players don't care so people don't care.
Not sure why ESPN2 couldn't stop showing SportsCenter replays.
 

InstaFace

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Yeah it's bizarre. You paid money for this property, it features top stars, hugely marketable ones. I get that you want to promote ESPN+, but at some point you've got to cash in the assets. Maybe the ad time has already been sold, so the early morning assets aren't increasing in value, but still.
 

InstaFace

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Australia up 2 over France with about a minute left. Gorbert fouls out. Mills has at least 30. Apparently Baynes has taken three charges and hit five threes (all from Twitter so no guaranty on accuracy).
Australia pulls it out, 100-98, over the world #3 team, and because of how our own group shook out, they'll get Czech Republic in the QFs. Their self-belief, partly from (or illustrated by) beating USA in that monster arena in Melbourne, may well propel them to a medal.

Speaking of the Czechs, hard to believe that a Tomas Satoransky-led team is advancing, while a Giannis-led Greece and a savvy-veteran Brazil team are going home. I'm still processing how they beat (And thus eliminated) Turkey by 15, too.

We're about to get Gobert and France for the QFs, and then Serbia in the SFs if we win. Then probably the winner of Spain-Australia.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Mar 26, 2005
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Poland in the QFs for the first time in 52 or so years.

If anyone cares, Poland has this kid named Aleksander Balcerowski, who is 7'1" and can shoot a bit and is apparently the youngest person left in the tournament (18).

We're about to get Gobert and France for the QFs, and then Serbia in the SFs if we win. Then probably the winner of Spain-Australia.
If USA wins, they will have earned it.
 

128

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May 4, 2019
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It would be great if USA could get past France without playing Tatum, but I'd love to have him for the final two games (assuming Team Pop advances to the final).
 

InstaFace

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I think playing Tatum, even for limited minutes, would meaningfully improve our chances of avoiding being upset by France. Unlike all the first 5 games, where 1 loss does not eliminate you, we can no longer afford even one loss now.

According to twitter, USA extended its league going with a lineup with Harrison Barnes at the 4 and JB at the 5. JB was tasked with guarding Varejao.

Here's an article describing what happened: https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2019/09/boston-celtics-jaylen-brown-plays-center-helps-team-usa-pull-away-from-brazil-89-73.html. Also points out that JB made some nice passes in transition.
Yeah, for a few minutes in the 4th quarter, having Jaylen in there to run fast breaks while being able to body up Varejao makes some sense.

Dunno if that's going to work out the same against Rudy Gobert, though... maybe Mason Plumlee will get out of the doghouse long enough to work him a bit.
 
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lovegtm

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Apr 30, 2013
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I think playing Tatum, even for limited minutes, would meaningfully improve our chances of avoiding being upset by France. Unlike all the first 5 games, where 1 loss does not eliminate you, we can no longer afford even one loss now.


Yeah, for a few minutes in the 4th quarter, having Jaylen in there to run fast breaks while being able to body up Varejao makes some sense.

Dunno if that's going to work out the same against Rudy Gobert, though... maybe Mason Plumlee will get out of the doghouse long enough to work him a bit.
Gobert's actually a guy where you might be able to get away with going small against him, especially in FIBA, where you can body the shit out of guys to break up lobs. The kind of guys who would eat Jaylen alive are the elite post center/PFs (Embiid etc).
 

benhogan

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Nov 2, 2007
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I think playing Tatum, even for limited minutes, would meaningfully improve our chances of avoiding being upset by France. Unlike all the first 5 games, where 1 loss does not eliminate you, we can no longer afford even one loss now.


Yeah, for a few minutes in the 4th quarter, having Jaylen in there to run fast breaks while being able to body up Varejao makes some sense.

Dunno if that's going to work out the same against Rudy Gobert, though... maybe Mason Plumlee will get out of the doghouse long enough to work him a bit.
yea 36yr old Anderson Varejao, who hasn't sniffed the NBA for a few seasons is a lot different than Rudy Gobert. Doubt Jaylen easily drives by Gobert in the halfcourt as he did versus Varejao
 

InstaFace

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It seems as though the other two QF games have been swapped in time, and the USA now plays France at 7am ET tomorrow, while Australia-Czech Republic play at 9am ET. Times for the semifinals on Friday have gone from confirmed to TBD, and times for the 3rd-place and Final have been moved back to 4am ET and 8am ET respectively (the Final was originally supposed to be 9am ET).

Nobody is reporting on the change so I have no idea why it was the case. Even the basic reports that are available are thoroughly confused, e.g. claiming that both QFs tomorrow are played at the same time.

The good news is that ESPN / ESPN2 will carry both the semifinals and the final. In fact, maybe that's the reason for the slight shuffle, as it now appears that ESPNews will carry the USA's QF against France. You'd think that if the USA beat France, their semifinal vs Argentina would end up in the 8am slot.
 

ElUno20

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Jul 19, 2005
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Pop's quote today is insanity. I love pop but pull your head out your ass. We finish 7th, you arent above criticism.

"Some people want to play the blame game. There's no blame to be placed anywhere," Popovich said. "They want to play the shame game, like we should be ashamed because we didn't win a gold medal? That's a ridiculous attitude. It's immature, it's arrogant, and it shows that whoever thinks that doesn't respect all the other teams in the world and doesn't respect that these guys did the best they could."