2019 FIBA World Cup

ifmanis5

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Tournament link: http://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019
Groups: http://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019/groups
Schedule: http://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019/games

38 days until it starts (Aug 31st) with Team USA training camp starting on Aug 5th and the Final on Sept 15th.
Team USA's Group also includes Japan, Turkey and Czech Republic.

Most of the notable players have already dropped out but the Celtics will be repped by Kemba, Tatum, Jaylen and Smart depending on who makes the final cut.

Original 20 Team USA invited players below with the bolded as the drop outs:

Harrison Barnes, Bradley Beal, Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, James Harden, Tobias Harris, Kyle Kuzma, Damian Lillard, Brook Lopez, Kevin Love, Kyle Lowry, CJ McCollum, Khris Middleton, Paul Millsap, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, P.J. Tucker, Myles Turner, Kemba Walker.

Betting odds (USA -500, Serbia +800): https://www.oddsshark.com/nba/fiba-world-cup-betting-odds
 
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lovegtm

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Hell, they should just play a lineup of 4 Celtics + future dream Celtic Myles Turner, and let them all get used to each other.
 

InstaFace

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Original 20 Team USA invited players below with the bolded as the drop outs:

Harrison Barnes, Bradley Beal, Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, James Harden, Tobias Harris, Kyle Kuzma, Damian Lillard, Brook Lopez, Kevin Love, Kyle Lowry, CJ McCollum, Khris Middleton, Paul Millsap, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, P.J. Tucker, Myles Turner, Kemba Walker.
I'm not sure if that team would even win the NBA title. What's the starting lineup? Walker, Lowry, Middleton, Millsap, Drummond?

I guess you've still got Gregg Popovich coaching (after 15 years of Coach K), so -500 seems right, but we still have 0 of the country and league's top-7 players on the roster. Would anyone be surprised if a Giannis-led Greece team was able to upset us? They've got 3 Antetokounmpos on their roster, talk about sowing the seeds of chaos. Or, for that matter, a Jokic-led Serbia. The Canadian team is coached by Raptors HC Nick Nurse.

Looking at the squads, the teams with 3+ current NBA players are:

- Canada, 16 holy shit (notables: Kelly Olynyk, Jamal Murray, SGA, RJ Barrett, old friend Dwight Powell, Trey Lyles, and captain Cory Joseph)
- Australia, 7 (BaynesHogan, Bogut, Dellavedova, Joe Ingles, Patty Mills, and two benchers)
- Serbia, 5 (Bogdanovic, Marko Guduric, Bjelica, Jokic, and Boban - they have 4 players over 7 feet, holy shit)
- France, 5 (Gobert, Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier, Frankie Nicotine, and Bulls backup guard TLC)
- Greece, 4 (the Antetokounmpo Trio, plus Tyler Dorsey who fought his way up to the Grizzlies from the G-league last year)
- Spain, 3 (2x Hernangomez, Rubio)
- Argentina, 3 (Gallinari, Bellinelli, Nicolo Melli)
(Brazil has 3 if you count Anderson Varejao, who now plays for Flamengo; basketball-crazed Lithuania has Sabonis and Valanciunas up front, but not much behind)

Fun facts
- Jordan Clarkson of the Cavs is Filipino-American
- the New Zealand squad is basically Steven Adams And Friends

Less-fun fact: Luka Doncic and Slovenia, as well as some other big names will not be there, because FIBA's qualification system is stupider than nearly anything FIFA has ever come up with (which is of course saying a LOT). For example, the USA almost didn't qualify for this world cup. Anyway, sure enough, Slovenia didn't qualify.
 

InstaFace

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Hell, they should just play a lineup of 4 Celtics + future dream Celtic Myles Turner, and let them all get used to each other.
I guess it's not good, then, that Hayward withdrew.

Anyway, it's clear that NBA players take the Olympics seriously and view it as an honor, but don't think of the FIBA World Cup the same way. Which is a shame, because one of the funniest things I've ever seen on a basketball court was Kevin Durant playing in the 2010 cup. "Bossing the tournament" is far too timid a phrase. He was pretty much the Terminator, whimsically doing whatever he felt like on the court, unimpeded by mere mortals if he even noticed them. Watching fuckin' Iran try to cover him had me in stitches.

edit: There are some great highlights of the Serbia-Turkey semifinal, which was a classic, given that the game and tournament was hosted by Turkey. Check out the last few minutes of play, it's mayhem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrRhQgOIAik
 
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Kliq

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I kind of like the idea of the US playing the world on a team with a few All-Star shot creators (Kemba, Mitchell, Lowry) and fill it out with a bunch of role players and shooters and see if they can beat the other teams. Yeah they won't win every game by 50 points, but the games will be more competitive and look more like actual basketball than an All-Star game.

This isn't a surprise if you've noticed the number of international players in the NBA, but the world really is catching up to the US. This will have to be the first tournament in forever when Team USA didn't have the best or second best player in the tournament (Giannis and Jokic). Hell, you could argue Gobert is better than anyone USA has.
 

DJnVa

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Kemba potentially getting some early run with Tatum, Smart, Brown can't hurt either.
 

Big John

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You balance the injury risk against the opportunity to learn from Popovich and his staff (Steve Kerr, Lloyd Pierce, Jay Wright), and for the young Celtics to play together against good competition.
 

NomarsFool

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This doesn't impact their own training camp I hope?

Overall, I think it's fun as it'll be fun to see some Celtics players play basketball against some reasonable teams. I hope it doesn't take away too much from whatever they were doing in the off-season to get ready for the regular season, though.
 

Eddie Jurak

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I'm a little nervous about Marcus being there, because if anyone is going to pick up a season ending injury it is probably him.
 

benhogan

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Hell, they should just play a lineup of 4 Celtics + future dream Celtic Myles Turner, and let them all get used to each other.
I've resigned myself to the fact that the Pacers just won't dig us out of our 5 hole

our roster is just jammed packed with very good to excellent 2/3s again
 

ifmanis5

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Training and scrimmaging alongside the main squad is a select team of younger players. They are:

Atlanta's Trae Young and John Collins; Brooklyn's Jarrett Allen and Joe Harris; Sacramento's Marvin Bagley III and De'Aaron Fox; Phoenix's Mikal Bridges; Dallas' Jalen Brunson; Milwaukee's Pat Connaughton; Orlando's Jonathan Isaac; New York's Mitchell Robinson; the Clippers' Landry Shamet; and San Antonio's Derrick White.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Drummond dropped out too.

I placed a futures bet on Serbia at +375. This USA is ridiculously overvalued at -550 imo.
 

lovegtm

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Tatum.. Donovan Mitchell. Lowry. Who is going to initiate offense for Serbia and France against the kind of athleticislm the U.S. has?
Tatum and Mitchell are nice, and maybe they've improved this summer, but they're not close to elite yet in that regard.

Agree that the US's best chance is to play smothering defense and out-athlete everyone on that end. I'm actually looking forward to watching some of this.
 

Kliq

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Tatum and Mitchell are nice, and maybe they've improved this summer, but they're not close to elite yet in that regard.

Agree that the US's best chance is to play smothering defense and out-athlete everyone on that end. I'm actually looking forward to watching some of this.
How many guys in the competition would you rather have, down by 1 with 15 seconds left and the ball, than Mitchell? Kemba, Giannis, Jokic, Doncic?
 

HomeRunBaker

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Tatum.. Donovan Mitchell. Lowry. Who is going to initiate offense for Serbia and France against the kind of athleticislm the U.S. has?
I doubt Lowry is going to play coming off thumb surgery. Shamet just withdrawn today as well.

Serbia's offense is going to run through Jokic and Bagdanovic.


How many guys in the competition would you rather have, down by 1 with 15 seconds left and the ball, than Mitchell? Kemba, Giannis, Jokic, Doncic?
If the USA is down 1 with 15 seconds left than I'm happy that I made the correct play in wagering against them at that price.
 

HomeRunBaker

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USA Starting Five:

Isaiah Thomas
JR Smith
Carmelo Anthony
Vince Carter
Markelle Fultz
 

Big John

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Well, Serbia is going to be big-- they also have Boban--and France will be big too with Gobert, Poirier and and bunch of other 7 footers. Lopez, Turner and Plumlee will have their hands full in the glass. But are we in the sprawl ball era or not? The U.S. team should dominate on the perimeter, and if they can generate offense with defense the U.S. should be able to run.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Well, Serbia is going to be big-- they also have Boban--and France will be big too with Gobert, Poirier and and bunch of other 7 footers. Lopez, Turner and Plumlee will have their hands full in the glass. But are we in the sprawl ball era or not? The U.S. team should dominate on the perimeter, and if they can generate offense with defense the U.S. should be able to run.
FIBA rules make the game very different from the NBA so it limits some of the advantages we’d nirmally have under NBA rules. USA Offenses aren’t accustomed to running a zone offense either and especially against a 24-second shot clock. There is much less iso-ball where we would normally have a huge advantage.
 

Big John

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Well that's right. But I expect Popovich has a few zone offenses (and defenses) in his bag of tricks. Isn't Jay Wright also on the coaching staff? I'm sure the guys on the team played plenty of zone at the AAU, high school and college level.

On the plus side, the wider international lane makes it a little more difficult for bigs who don't often shoot from deep, like Gobert. The shorter 3-point line may also help guys like Tatum, who may be happier shooting from 22 ft. instead of 23.7 ft.
 

InstaFace

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How many guys in the competition would you rather have, down by 1 with 15 seconds left and the ball, than Mitchell? Kemba, Giannis, Jokic, Doncic?
It's always good to learn who has you pinked.

Anyway I think the USA should still be favored over the field just because the players who are better than anyone we're running out there (Jokic, Gobert and of course Giannis) are all on different teams. But I agree with HRB that we shouldn't be anywhere near -550. The betting markets agree, with USA at 2/7 right now, and if you're getting Serbia at +375 you're a sucker because there's 7/1 odds out there.
 

Nick Kaufman

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The issue here is that it's a knockout competition. If you aren't heads and shoulders better than everyone else, one night off might have you playing for the fifth place game.
 

InstaFace

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The issue here is that it's a knockout competition. If you aren't heads and shoulders better than everyone else, one night off might have you playing for the fifth place game.
Just depend on how those individual-game odds look. If we have a 90% chance to win our R16 and QF games and an 80% chance to win our SF and the Final, that's still a 52% chance to win the whole thing. Yeah there can be a lot of variance but most of the bell curve is still over a USA victory.
 

HomeRunBaker

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It's always good to learn who has you pinked.

Anyway I think the USA should still be favored over the field just because the players who are better than anyone we're running out there (Jokic, Gobert and of course Giannis) are all on different teams. But I agree with HRB that we shouldn't be anywhere near -550. The betting markets agree, with USA at 2/7 right now, and if you're getting Serbia at +375 you're a sucker because there's 7/1 odds out there.
I don't see anything close to 7-1 anymore since all of the USA player dropouts. My two easily accessible outs have Serbia at +350 and +375. MyBookie, FanDuel, and Draft Kings are all in the mid +400's as of this morning.
 

InstaFace

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I don't see anything close to 7-1 anymore since all of the USA player dropouts. My two easily accessible outs have Serbia at +350 and +375. MyBookie, FanDuel, and Draft Kings are all in the mid +400's as of this morning.
Here you go, Serbia paying 7:1 at BetVictor. I make no representations about the quality of their operation.

You can get Greece or France at 33:1 a lot of places.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Here you go, Serbia paying 7:1 at BetVictor. I make no representations about the quality of their operation.

You can get Greece or France at 33:1 a lot of places.
Yeah that isn't worth the risk of trusting a shop I have never heard of before. Even Bovada is +450 which seems to be the solid price range.
 

Gash Prex

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I personally think this is could be huge benefit to the celtics given that 4 key players may get to play significant time together ahead of training camp. I think it will greatly accelerate Kemba's ability to mesh with the team and get comfortable quickly.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Ugh. And Kerr just said Smart had looked like one of the team's best players the first few days.