NBA 2019-2020

Team USA have won 89-73 against Brazil in their last group stage game of the 2nd round.
Highlight of their game was another tussle.

Spain (Ranking 2) have a easy route to the final (Sorry @Sarni ;) )....in the quarter-final against Poland (25) and then they will face Australia (11) or Czech Republic (24).
The other quarter-finals are USA (1) vs France (3) and Serbia (4) vs Argentina (5).
 
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Sean_RedDevil said:
Team USA have won 89-73 against Brazil in their last group stage game of the 2nd round.
Highlight of their game was another tussle.

Spain have a easy route to the final (Sorry @Sarni ;) )....in the quarter-final against Poland (Ranking 25) and then they will face Australia (11) or Czech Republic (24).
The other quarter-finals are USA (1) vs France (3) and Serbia (4) vs Argentina (5).
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Yeah Spain will annihilate us today. I think Australia will be a tough opposition for any team out there though.
 
Kevin Durant is one of the weirdest athletes in the world I genuinely believe he could benefit from some counseling. His latest quotes are very sad and I hope he can find some happiness.
 
ZDwyr said:
Kevin Durant is one of the weirdest athletes in the world I genuinely believe he could benefit from some counseling. His latest quotes are very sad and I hope he can find some happiness.
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Feels like he just wants to play some ball without all the (business side of) things that come with being a superstar in the NBA. He's also very right that it was always "KD and the Warriors" so he'd never get accepted there.
 
ZDwyr said:
Kevin Durant is one of the weirdest athletes in the world I genuinely believe he could benefit from some counseling. His latest quotes are very sad and I hope he can find some happiness.
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KD v AB
 
RobinLFC said:
Feels like he just wants to play some ball without all the (business side of) things that come with being a superstar in the NBA. He's also very right that it was always "KD and the Warriors" so he'd never get accepted there.
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No I think he just has issues, and can’t live with the fact that he has never really been recognized as the best player in basketball. Just about when he was set to be widely accepted as one he got injured.
 
Gobert had a monster game. Not really that surprising, France have a lot of quality and have played as a team for a long time. This USA team barely had a couple of weeks training together while players kept turning the invitations down. This was basically their C team, even though they still had big names on the floor. Huge win for France though, beating US is always a big deal.
 
Sarni said:
Gobert had a monster game. Not really that surprising, France have a lot of quality and have played as a team for a long time. This USA team barely had a couple of weeks training together while players kept turning the invitations down. This was basically their C team, even though they still had big names on the floor. Huge win for France though, beating US is always a big deal.
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Think the France win is good for the health of the game long-term. Easy to criticize the stars who sat out but in fairness, many of them have delivered great moments in the past on the international stage. Likely will see a super charged A team for next years Olympics.
 
sport2793 said:
Think the France win is good for the health of the game long-term. Easy to criticize the stars who sat out but in fairness, many of them have delivered great moments in the past on the international stage. Likely will see a super charged A team for next years Olympics.
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Yeah Olympics are top priority and it’s like that for all teams sport apart from football really. Fully expect a lot of top talent to commit next year.

While I understand players who went deep in the playoffs backing out to prepare for the season ahead, I am fully behind Bill Simmons on Devin Booker and such take. That boy has not played a serious basketball in 4 years, his team have lost almost every game since he is in the league and it’s almost a given they will win no more than 30 games next season as well with that roster. Now he has opportunity to play in an international tournament and potentially win a trophy, maybe even get a ticket to Tokyo as a reward. He turns it down to do scrimmages all Summer long. It’s just dumb. He’s finished his every season in early April, he had enough time to rest.
 
Sean_RedDevil said:
Totally deserved win for France.....the players weren't good enough and terrible coaching by Pop.

Australia won 82-70 against Czech Republic in the other game.
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Don't forget that the LeBron Miami Heat had a 500 record for the first half of their first season together. Familiarity is the great untracked statistic, the US team has never played together. Pop can only do so much. The man is possibly the greatest BB coach ever.
 
Beans said:
Don't forget that the LeBron Miami Heat had a 500 record for the first half of their first season together. Familiarity is the great untracked statistic, the US team has never played together. Pop can only do so much. The man is possibly the greatest BB coach ever.
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The greatest coaches are making mistakes and in my opinion he didn't have a clue how his players could stop Gobert.
 
Sean_RedDevil said:
The greatest coaches are making mistakes and in my opinion he didn't have a clue how his players could stop Gobert.
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I'm sure he did, but then he's got Myles Turner and Brook Lopez to match up against him, not among the stronger defenders.

I admire Pop just for taking the job.
 
Casanova85 said:
Shameful chapter for American Basketball. Send in the best NBA players, ffs.
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NBA season is long enough and excruciating for the top players. There is no need to prolong that state from the players point of view. I can understand players participating who did not made the playoffs.
 
Sarni said:
Yeah Olympics are top priority and it’s like that for all teams sport apart from football really. Fully expect a lot of top talent to commit next year.

While I understand players who went deep in the playoffs backing out to prepare for the season ahead, I am fully behind Bill Simmons on Devin Booker and such take. That boy has not played a serious basketball in 4 years, his team have lost almost every game since he is in the league and it’s almost a given they will win no more than 30 games next season as well with that roster. Now he has opportunity to play in an international tournament and potentially win a trophy, maybe even get a ticket to Tokyo as a reward. He turns it down to do scrimmages all Summer long. It’s just dumb. He’s finished his every season in early April, he had enough time to rest.
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Yeah, I'm sure it has nothing to do with him being injured ever since his rookie year and this is his first summer that he can actually work on being ready for the season for the team that pays him. :wenger:

Simmons is a tool and he's just saying shit because his Celtics players are playing on the team. He'll be the first to advocate for Celtics > Team USA if his players declined the call up.

Real feck up is by FIBA who changed the World cup to this year and it caused all the withdrawal because players could potentially play nearly 3 years straight without a proper summer rest.
 
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UweBein said:
NBA season is long enough and excruciating for the top players. There is no need to prolong that state from the players point of view. I can understand players participating who did not made the playoffs.
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Blame FIBA, the world cup was supposed to be held last year. They changed the year because they wanted to avoid it getting overshadowed by FIFA world cup.
 
elmo said:
Yeah, I'm sure it has nothing to do with him being injured ever since his rookie year and this is his first summer that he can actually work on being ready for the season for the team that pays him. :wenger:

Simmons is a tool and he's just saying shit because his Celtics players are playing on the team. He'll be the first to advocate for Celtics > Team USA if his players declined the call up.

Real feck up is by FIBA who changed the World cup to this year and it caused all the withdrawal because players could potentially play nearly 3 years straight without a proper summer rest.
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The point is still valid - Booker hasn’t played a truly competitive game for 4 years and will not play one for minimum 3 more years while he’s at Phoenix as their core is awful and will not be close to the playoffs, possibly even for full length of his new deal. He also probably won’t really be coveted by too many winning teams either, considering the price and how much of a liability he’s one defense. Going to World Cup could even get him an Olympics spot, which he probably has no chance to get normally. It would have been good experience. World Cup wasn’t beneath Walker, Mitchell, Middleton who have really proven a lot more in the league than Booker has.
 
Sarni said:
The point is still valid - Booker hasn’t played a truly competitive game for 4 years and will not play one for minimum 3 more years while he’s at Phoenix as their core is awful and will not be close to the playoffs, possibly even for full length of his new deal. He also probably won’t really be coveted by too many winning teams either, considering the price and how much of a liability he’s one defense. Going to World Cup could even get him an Olympics spot, which he probably has no chance to get normally. It would have been good experience. World Cup wasn’t beneath Walker, Mitchell, Middleton who have really proven a lot more in the league than Booker has.
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So he should get the flak and play injured just because he's playing for the Suns?

There's a massive difference between playing pickup games and playing competitive at the world cup.
 
Beans said:
I'm sure he did, but then he's got Myles Turner and Brook Lopez to match up against him, not among the stronger defenders.

I admire Pop just for taking the job.
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They're both very good defensively.
 
elmo said:
So he should get the flak and play injured just because he's playing for the Suns?

There's a massive difference between playing pickup games and playing competitive at the world cup.
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I didn’t know he was injured. Thought he just pulled himself out of the team.
 
Scarecrow said:
They're both very good defensively.
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I'm being a bit harsh, I suppose. Turner really struggles to guard the 3 point line, but he's pretty good in the post. Lopez is a bit slow, at least last season for the Lakers I thought he was just average.

They're in the top 15 of defensive plus/minus, though that stat is dominated by centers in general. Lopez is 10th and Turner is 13th, 9th and 10th among centers, respectively.

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/DRPM
 
Beans said:
I'm being a bit harsh, I suppose. Turner really struggles to guard the 3 point line, but he's pretty good in the post. Lopez is a bit slow, at least last season for the Lakers I thought he was just average.

They're in the top 15 of defensive plus/minus, though that stat is dominated by centers in general. Lopez is 10th and Turner is 13th, 9th and 10th among centers, respectively.

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/DRPM
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Turner is one of the best defenders in the league.

Lopez was on Bucks last season and was great defensively.
 
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