I was going to say Australia should be able to contend in group D until I saw that Patty Mills is injured and so is Bogut. Still, Australia basketball has been on the rise in younger world tournaments. Slovenia might be the best chance to take down Lithuania with Dragic on their squad. Having Serbia, Spain, Brazil, and France in one group is going to be intense. However, to reach the knockout stage, all you have to get is in the top 4, so they should all be safe for that.
Should be a fun tournament. It's always nice to see how the countries match up against each other.
First Griffin drops out and now Love. The U.S. frontcourt numbers are definitely depleted. This will for surely be an opportunity to shine for young guys like Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, and DeMarcus Cousins assuming they all make the roster.
EPJr wrote:Did any notice the absence of Canada; they got knocked out by Mexico!!!
Only technically. They actually beat Mexico at the qualifying FIBA Americas tournament, but they couldn't hack it against anyone else losing to Venezuela?, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic. Mexico actually turned around and won the tournament, though. It was their first time finishing better than 5th!
Paul George now off the roster also. However, I didn't think he was going to be very effective on the team anyways. He's the type of player that thrives when he's needed to be the leader. USA has so much depth at the guard and small forward position that they'll easily have a replacement.
MTfan4life wrote:Paul George now off the roster also. However, I didn't think he was going to be very effective on the team anyways. He's the type of player that thrives when he's needed to be the leader. USA has so much depth at the guard and small forward position that they'll easily have a replacement.
Rumors that Kevin Love will be added after the T-Wolves/Cavs trade is official around August 23/24.
MTfan4life wrote:Paul George now off the roster also. However, I didn't think he was going to be very effective on the team anyways. He's the type of player that thrives when he's needed to be the leader. USA has so much depth at the guard and small forward position that they'll easily have a replacement.
Rumors that Kevin Love will be added after the T-Wolves/Cavs trade is official around August 23/24.
Summer of Love continues............
I know he's Kevin Love, but this whole time that they're trying find the right 12 guys, he isn't in the picture. Once they finalize the 12-man team, they'll start practicing together August 14. I think it'd be pretty tough for Love to miss all those days of training.
Anytime I see the U.S. play, the announcers keep raving about how great James Harden is. All I see is a lot more misses than makes. He leads the team in shots taken in the 4 exhibition games. However, he is sixth in shots made and is a terrible 3-16 from beyond the arc. He seems to do pretty well in the assists category; maybe he needs to do more of that. Sure he goes to the line a lot, but he throws up a lot of junk to get there.