Niels Giffey - 3 time world champion.

[Drame]

Congrats to Niels and to Germany. They thoroughly deserved it. Maybe team USA should come to some Uconn practices and learn about team ball and ball movement.

Giffey is moving up the ranks as an all time role player.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Maybe team USA should come to some Uconn practices and learn about team ball and ball movement.

Congrats to our guy Giffey!

I'll be the old man yelling at the clouds, but as long as the NBA prioritizes stars over teams, its iso-centric style will continue to cause USA to fall behind the more team-oriented and defensively disciplined international teams.

For the same reasons, I don't like watching the NBA anymore. Personally, I find the games boring, even the close ones.

Like a parent/teacher conference, I want to finish this critique with something positive, a positive/negative sandwich, if you will: Gotta love Giffey!

 

[Rocktheworld]

Congrats to our guy Giffey!

I'll be the old man yelling at the clouds, but as long as the NBA prioritizes stars over teams, its iso-centric style will continue to cause USA to fall behind the more team-oriented and defensively disciplined international teams.

For the same reasons, I don't like watching the NBA anymore. Personally, I find the games boring, even the close ones.

Like a parent/teacher conference, I want to finish this critique with something positive, a positive/negative sandwich, if you will: Gotta love Giffey!

I don’t think it’s a style/play thing; it’s simply a roster thing. Our stars don’t care to represent the USA anymore. If we sent Steph, Booker, KD, LeBron, and AD to FIBA we would destroy everyone.

 

[RichCTBB]

I don’t think it’s a style/play thing; it’s simply a roster thing. Our stars don’t care to represent the USA anymore. If we sent Steph, Booker, KD, LeBron, and AD to FIBA we would destroy everyone.

I don’t know that we would. There didn’t seem to be any sophistication to our offense whereas we were chasing the ball all over and falling for pump fakes like an undisciplined college team.

 

[superjohn]

I don’t think it’s a style/play thing; it’s simply a roster thing. Our stars don’t care to represent the USA anymore. If we sent Steph, Booker, KD, LeBron, and AD to FIBA we would destroy everyone.

If Yugoslavia was still a country I would take them but they're not. US wouldn't have any trouble if they could get all the top players to play.

 

[Waquoit]

Giffey is moving up the ranks as an all time role player.

This is where I remind everyone that Giffey played 24 minutes in an NCAA final victory. As a freshman. The guy seems to win often.

 

[Drame]

If Yugoslavia was still a country I would take them but they're not. US wouldn't have any trouble if they could get all the top players to play.

Dont agree necessarily. Our talent is good enough, mainly through our depth. We had one of our best teams ever in 2012 with Kobe, Lebron, CP3, Durant and we barely beat Spain. Whenever things get tight with this team, they stopped moving the ball. For this roster, we did need some more size. We got crushed on the boards.

 

[WrenchFan69]

My favorite UConn player ever. Congrats Niels

 

[REB1094]

First off - congrats to Niels and the German team! They played very mature basketball, never getting too high or too low. Runs will happen, but they always responded well (at least in the 3 games of theirs I watched). A very consistent team with a gold medal to show for it

That said - if the USA sent their A team then we would roll everybody by double digits. But with the size of these NBA contracts, you can hardly blame the stars for not wanting to risk injury or fatigue and leave tens or maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars on the table. Remember when Paul George snapped his leg in a USA scrimmage? He missed pretty much a whole season. Luckily he bounced back really well, but a chunk of the best American superstars nowadays are older and their bodies won't recover like his did

And in conclusion - congratulations again Niels!!!!!!!!

 

[Kenny11]

Congrats to our guy Giffey!

I'll be the old man yelling at the clouds, but as long as the NBA prioritizes stars over teams, its iso-centric style will continue to cause USA to fall behind the more team-oriented and defensively disciplined international teams.

For the same reasons, I don't like watching the NBA anymore. Personally, I find the games boring, even the close ones.

Like a parent/teacher conference, I want to finish this critique with something positive, a positive/negative sandwich, if you will: Gotta love Giffey!

The nba has gone away from the iso style for the most part yet the team they fielded for this tournament had a bunch of iso guys like Ingram, Edwards, and Brunson. The problem ended up being team defense though.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I don’t think it’s a style/play thing; it’s simply a roster thing. Our stars don’t care to represent the USA anymore. If we sent Steph, Booker, KD, LeBron, and AD to FIBA we would destroy everyone.

A good example of 'both/and' rather than 'either/or.'

ALSO NOTED: In case Jim Boeheim tweets "2>1" toward Niels, remember that the former Syracuse coach - whose name is pronounced in accordance with his family's German background - was a USA FIBA Championship team Assistant Coach in 2010 and 2014.

An aside: 2010 & 2014 Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski's name is pronounced in accordance with how it is spoken on his planet of origin.

 

[Drame]

The nba has gone away from the iso style for the most part yet the team they fielded for this tournament had a bunch of iso guys like Ingram, Edwards, and Brunson. The problem ended up being team defense though.

Its true.. team defense was a major problem. Ingram was horrible as well.

 

[nickp91]

Germany is now really good at basketball but terrible at football

 

[Mazhude]

Germany is now really good at basketball but terrible at football

Which kind of football?

 

[Rocktheworld]

A good example of 'both/and' rather than 'either/or.'

No. If we sent our All-NBA team of Americans to these tournaments, style of play would not matter. It would be varsity against JV. It’s that simple.

 

[Jaydumo20]

First off - congrats to Niels and the German team! They played very mature basketball, never getting too high or too low. Runs will happen, but they always responded well (at least in the 3 games of theirs I watched). A very consistent team with a gold medal to show for it

That said - if the USA sent their A team then we would roll everybody by double digits. But with the size of these NBA contracts, you can hardly blame the stars for not wanting to risk injury or fatigue and leave tens or maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars on the table. Remember when Paul George snapped his leg in a USA scrimmage? He missed pretty much a whole season. Luckily he bounced back really well, but a chunk of the best American superstars nowadays are older and their bodies won't recover like his did

And in conclusion - congratulations again Niels!!!!!!!!

@Hey Adrien! This is a meaty positive/negative sandwich.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

No. If we sent our All-NBA team of Americans to these tournaments, style of play would not matter. It would be varsity against JV. It’s that simple.

Yep, what you've written is indeed one way the USA could win.
To my way of thinking, it's not the only way.

I doubt that you're arguing that no USA roster that lacked the NBA's very finest US players could win. Are you?

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Germany is now really good at basketball but terrible at football

In Germany that’s not even a question .

 

[willie99]

Congrats to our guy Giffey!

I'll be the old man yelling at the clouds, but as long as the NBA prioritizes stars over teams, its iso-centric style will continue to cause USA to fall behind the more team-oriented and defensively disciplined international teams.

For the same reasons, I don't like watching the NBA anymore. Personally, I find the games boring, even the close ones.

Like a parent/teacher conference, I want to finish this critique with something positive, a positive/negative sandwich, if you will: Gotta love Giffey!

I watch the C's in the playoffs, nothing else matters

 

[Rocktheworld]

Yep, what you've written is indeed one way the USA could win.
To my way of thinking, it's not the only way.

I doubt that you're arguing that no USA roster that lacked the NBA's very finest US players could win. Are you?

I just think the most glaring thing that could change, and which change could most easily lead to a cake walk, would be the roster. It’s the only point I’m making. I think that solution would make argument about style of play moot.

 

[businesslawyer]

I don’t think it’s a style/play thing; it’s simply a roster thing. Our stars don’t care to represent the USA anymore. If we sent Steph, Booker, KD, LeBron, and AD to FIBA we would destroy everyone.

I don't disagree but it doesn't answer the question. If I concede your point, it doesn't explain why a roster that would beat all these other rosters over the course of a month in the NBA has such trouble beating them in international tournaments.

 

[RichCTBB]

I don’t think bringing our best players guarantees gold in Paris. The lack of continuity throughout the cycle works against us and it’s evident by the iso centric offense we run.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Its too bad no one ever embraced my theory (back in days when it was college players on Team USA) that the current national championship TEAM should represent the USA in the Olympics. That would have been great.

Nowadays it should be the current NBA champion gets to represent, if players are foreign or opt out the team can replace with whomever they want. So it would have been the Nuggets with JJjr instead of Yokic & Antman and Brunson still on team in place of Murray. Would make the FIBA more fun for fans and that year's NBA title all the more meaningful. Would have been way more interesting finals with everyone but Denver really rooting against Yokic!

 

[Rocktheworld]

why a roster that would beat all these other rosters over the course of a month in the NBA has such trouble beating them in international tournaments.

Gotta imagine not playing 7-game series contributes

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I just think the most glaring thing that could change, and which change could most easily lead to a cake walk, would be the roster. It’s the only point I’m making. I think that solution would make argument about style of play moot.

Again (and still), I don't disagree with the validity of your singly argued and clearly preferred means by which the US would win the FIBA World Cup.

I'm not even claiming that a different style of play would be more successful than a different reconstruction. I might shade toward arguing that it's more plausible that that the flaws that led to 2023’s result could be corrected more quickly than another Dream Team could be assembled, but that's not my lead interest.

I only contend that both paths could work, and I think that you know that it's a more true than not supposition.