Eurobasket 2007

[wardjdim]

More or less, these are my rankings this year.

1 Spain

Homecourt advantage is a major key here. They have never won a game in the clutch, they still choke at the end, Garbajosa isn't here and they are getting more and more overrated. Still, they are amazingly balanced, the most complete team you'll find, Gasol plays great post defense in the international game, Reyes and Jimenez are key guys, while I love Rudy and Sergio dominating the game both sides. Navarro and Calderon are the most up-tempo duo that Europe has seen lately.


2 Lithuania

Surprise, surprise!! If having Saras back wasn't enough, the Liths also got the hot-rod Kaukenas and today's top international SF in Siskauskas. Frontcourt is not reliable, yet extremely skilled, led by Lavrinovic brothers and Songaila, while Kleiza and Jasaitis need to be steadier than in the friendly games. They need some defensive coherence and some back-up PG, but they are deeper and faster than Greece, who looks like their semi-final opponent. Macijauskas' absence will surprisingly be covered.

3 Greece

They remain world-leaders, still holding the best record with only two defeats in the past 2 tournaments. They are defending European champions. They are led by Papaloukas (best player in the clutch and pick n roll leader), Diamantidis (top teammate and all-around guard) and the rest of the gang. Yet, their perimeter game and heroics may not save them this time, without Sofo and Fotsis, their top-2 pick n roll finishers. Waiting from Dikoudis to lead them in the paint, along with Papadopoulos is kind of a risk, while I don't like Spanoulis' growing to a go-to guy for Greece lately.

4 France

Extremely good squad, although Gelabale is a big absence. Imagine that Noah will be there with them next year. Not extemely talented, but know each other really well, just as well as the Spanish and the Greeks know each other. Super athletic for European standards, but well-coached as well, yet they seriously suffer when it comes to bball IQ, without a true leader, until Noah arrives. Their four key guys (Parker, Diaw, F. Pietrus, Weis) remain there and with a decent bench, they belong to the semi-finals, no more no less.

5 Croatia

Mysterious squad, who might be a bit overrated in this ranking, but is so talented, even without their leader and best player (Vujcic) and some key veterans (Giricek, Bazdaric, Bagaric, Zizic) to help them. Still, a splendid perimeter line, with Popovic and Planinic being among the best in the tournament and Kus with Ukic being splendid back-ups and game changers. I don't like Barac and Kasun for finishers in the post, but they know the system well enough, although they are pretty weak in power forward position and Banic isn't my ideal guy for a starting wing either.

6 Germany

Always the underdog, due to lack of potential and huge dependance on Dirk. They were proven limited in 2006, still they were among the top8. They won't stop fighting till the end. I like Hamman a lot at PG, he is smart and creative, although not the steadiest guy and Roller is a key guy. The bigs surrounding Nowitzki aren't the best you will find, but they are capable enough to help him pull out a crucial win and lead them to a knock out upset. Beware of them. This is a long tournament and they were true winners in back to back games in 2005, in a similarly competitive tournament.

7 Serbia

3rd or 4th best team they could send talent-wise, but I love this squad (if it wasn't for Jaric). Aleksandrov and Erceg must be the weakest support to Milicic in the paint, Markovic, Tepic and Teodosic are two young, but they will still go far. Their potential is immense, Gurovic will score 25 ppg in this tournament and Jaric actually will act as a team-player. Science fiction, you may think.. It will still work out for them, even without a SG and without a decent coach. It will work out, because they are playing as a team (an U-20 one, yet still a team) and collapses won't come this summer.

8 Italy

They would be medal contenders if Gallinari, Galanda, Gigli and Rocca weren't injured, but they are weaker than a piece of paper right now. Marconato, Bulleri and Basile are getting too old, Belinelli is on fire, but still not the guy you want to lead you, Bargnani is kinda soft, Mancinelli is a scrappy guy, yet a mediocre scorer, they are a mix of old and young guys, without true chemistry, although they have a top-notch coach. I don't think they would win a knock-out game against Spain or Greece. Not even Croatia.


9 Russia

Poor Blatt. Every summer the same story for Russia, although they have the best coach in recent tournaments. Still, Holden, Monya, Kirilenko, Khryapa and Savrasenko looks like the most boring lineup ever. Same guys, no change, no success. No bench either. I'd like to see Shabalkin and Padius in the lineup, instead of Monya and Khryapa, or maybe a run and guy small ball thing. Ponkrashov will be great off the bench for them though. In my opinion, the Russian NT needs a guy like to create for them in offense and distribute the ball as well, but this guy is still 18 years old. 2010 is gonna be a good year for them.

10 Slovenia

Promises... No Nachbar, no Becirovic, no Vujacic. Forget about Udrih and Brezec. If the rest were there, we could discuss about top4, but now, Smodis is great and Lakovic is a bit crazy and too uptempo, but he isn't a bad combo guard and I also like Jagodnik, but this won't qualify against mentally stronger teams, who also have better talents. When a good coach takes over their team, then they will finally become contenders, but until they learn how teams are built, they will be losing knock out games.

11 Turkey

Turkey has one great tournament and then, what? The old-fellas are back. Okur, Turkoglu, Tunceri. Also, Kutluay is still here. Thankfully not Turkcan as well. Ok, great players, skilled, talented. But, they destroy team chemistry and the rest of the team that managed to finish 6th in the world, in a tournament that 4 teams looked unbeatable, suddenly becomes expandable. So, no more Kuqo and Gonlum hustling in the paint, no more big minutes for Akyol, no more clutch from Erdogan, just some more chances for the NBA fed-up Ilyasova. Naah, this doesn't convince me...

12 Latvia
13 Czech Republic
14 Portugal
15 Poland

[Genjuro]

It's an excellent ranking indeed. Still, I would place Greece higher, actually second. I think they will deliver in the important games.

[wardjdim]

It's an excellent ranking indeed. Still, I would place Greece higher, actually second. I think they will deliver in the important games.
I still think that they will use an orthodox system for some time and Dikoudis is out of shape, Tsartsaris is still injured, Bouroussis hasn't played PF for ages, small ball time will increase, Kakiouzis has had a bad year and Vasilopoulos look like a good solution, but only in small ball.

As for Papaloukas, yeah, he can carry them in the crucial game, but Lithuania will normally beat us with their frontcourt, I think. Indeed it's more of a tie for the 2nd place in my eyes, given the Greek character, still both teams are clearly worse than Spain right now.

[Genjuro]

I still think that they will use an orthodox system for some time and Dikoudis is out of shape, Tsartsaris is still injured, Bouroussis hasn't played PF for ages, small ball time will increase, Kakiouzis has had a bad year and Vasilopoulos look like a good solution, but only in small ball.

As for Papaloukas, yeah, he can carry them in the crucial game, but Lithuania will normally beat us with their frontcourt, I think. Indeed it's more of a tie for the 2nd place in my eyes, given the Greek character, still both teams are clearly worse than Spain right now.
The thing is, I love small ball for Greece. They have way too much talent in the backcourt not to be a good solution.

[wardjdim]

The thing is, I love small ball for Greece. They have way too much talent in the backcourt not to be a good solution.
Indeed, Greece looked scary yesterday versus Italy. I have to admit that this is a great team. Still, I remain unsure about the chances versus a very good team like Lithuania in the semi-final (it's just a team that Greece will be having problems following offensively), unless the French upset them and Greece faces them instead. Chances they won't win against Les Bleus in a knock out game are close to zero.

[mullet is gone]

Just perfect...

Now Gasol is scarred after choking at the line in the final.

Jazz fans will like the sound of the ak47 MVP though.

[wombat6802]

Khrypha is turning out to be a diamond in the rough, but it is yet to be seen whether he can stay out of foul trouble enough to really make a difference in the NBA. He's in the running to get about 10 minutes a game in Chicago, but he's going to have to become more consistent on the offensive end as well as work on staying out of foul trouble on the defensive end.

For a team that already boasts Tyrus Thomas, Thabo Sefolosha, Ben Wallace, Viktor Khrypha makes them even better on the defensive end and could create nightmares for teams with less offensive versatility, teams run by LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, that rely too much on offenses revolving around their superstars. A tough defensive scheme by the Bulls could effectively neuter this trend as these teams realize that one player cannot win championships anymore. One of the keys to this, though, is giving scrappy defensive players like Khrypha more time to get established in the rotation.

Shakes, I'd like to know how you feel about him, especially after the incredible display he had at Eurobasket.

[Hitster]

If Khrypha is to be a bench role player only playing limited minutes then his foul problems would not be as important as if he is a role playing starter. With Sefolosha as well it gives them great defensive cover from the bench. Of course with him being out of contract next season, it will be interesting to see what Chicago do as they have Deng and Gordon to resign which will cost say a combined minimum of $20 minimum along with Hinrich, Wallace and Nocioni already being on a combined salary of say $30 million so along with the guys on their rookie contracts they have about $58 million minimum to salaries they will want to commit to, add on needing to resign Duhon as the back up PG likely to be near MLE and any other veterans like Joe Smith who they may want to keep on would put the team near to the luxury tax level of say $70 million approx next season. Khrypha's qualifying offer would be about $2.7 million for 2008/09 so it will be interssting to see what Chicago do with him. They may make him an offer at that level but could not really go above it especially if Gordon and Deng have to be made larger offers to tie them down. Khrypha would attract interest from teams with less depth given he is still only 24 and could get a bigger role on other teams maybe as a 6th or 7th man bench role playing defensive player and an occasional starter rather than at Chicago where he is a 10th or 11th man just due to say their bench maybe being Nocioni, Noah, Smith, Sefolosha, Duhon for example.

I can see Chicago keeping him this season unless they got a good offer around deadline day maybe a late first round or early second picks as salary space is worth nothing as an expiring Khryppa would give them that automatically. Having had the two nice picks courtesy of Isaiah Thomas the Bulls will most likely be picking late in the first round next year and if a trade could give them more drafting power, they’d look favourably on it as any new additions will be complimentary players to support the main core they have established. Also any rookies can be developed gently from the bench and given their depth they can go for potential or leave them abroad etc for a year.

[lazo]

wardjim lets face it u know nothing about european basketball.u were talking about poor Blatt but he proved u wrong once again.a thing u should know about european basketball is that heart plays a very significant role when the pressure is getting big , this is not NBA my friend ,this is not a showtime there is a war when we are talking about europe.ask so many NBAers that failed here in europe.