The starting point guard for Slovenia has been for YEARS AND YEARS Jaka Lakovic. This is a fact. He is and has been the starting point guard for years.
Yeah, Becirovic hasn't played national ball in like 5 years, that page seems to not get updated very often.
It is a fact that Jaka Lakovic is the starting point guard of Slovenia's national team. Anyone here can verify that Lakovic is their starting point guard and has been for years. Every FIBA tournament of recent years he was the starter at point guard and it is verifiable at all the official FIBA websites. So stop falsely accusing others of "trolling" please.
You are indeed a troll because you know as well as I do that your statement is irrelevant. Dragic is indeed a starter on the Slovenian national team and you are a poor troll.
Dragic was a starter at SG, not PG. And he was only the starter at SG after Beno Udrih got injured. Beno was their starting SG last summer before he got injured. Regardless, it was implied that since Dragic is a starter that he is Slovenia's starting PG. Not true. He plays SG, which really is more his natural position. Since Beno quit the team, most likely, Dragic will be the starting SG now. But this just shows how much some NBA fans lack basic basketball knowledge about anything basketball that is not NBA related. In the big FIBA national teams of Europe starting is totally irrelevant. It does NOT matter at all if you start or not. The whole "starts" "starter" thing is largely an American thing in basketball. In Europe, the best player on the team will often even come off the bench. So actually it makes absolutely no difference if he starts for Slovenia or not. So bragging about that he started, like it makes him somehow better is totally irrelevant. Since European teams don't think of players as "starters" and "bench". They just think of them as interchangeable pieces of a rotation. Which really is a much more modern and developed style of basketball. And some NBA coaches are just now starting to copy it. Whether Dragic starts or comes off the bench with Slovenia, he will play the SAME EXACT AMOUNT OF MINUTES. European coaches don't play the NBA way of playing "starters" extreme minutes and barely using the "bench". They play 10 guys basically a relatively even amount of minutes, varying from like 15-30 and most of them around 20-25. It's only people that only know NBA and nothing else in the basketball world that rate players based on whether or not they start. In Europe it literally has no bearing at all on how good you are. Papaloukas won Euroleague MVP as a bench player. Was all tournament at the World Championship as a bench player, etc. How Manu is used in the NBA, which is considered "unique" is the normal use for players in European basketball. For example, the worst player and worst point guard on Spain, Rubio, starts. He is also the worst player and worst point guard on his club team, Barca, where he also starts. He rides the bench in the 4th quarter with both his club team and national team, but he starts. According to NBA fans that makes him "one of, or the best player", when he is actually the worst player of the teams. The coaches in Europe want everyone to play so they let even often the worst players start, so they can sit on the bench at the end of the games. In NBA fan's view, the starter is "always the best player". It's not like the NBA and American style.
I could see Dragic getting some big minutes at SG next year if he continues to improve. I didn't realize he could defend that spot so well. I would like to see Scola come off the bench as a 6th man next year.
You had me following you until you made that stupid statement. Team basketball is important. But Dragic and Udrih are not interchangeable with Lebron and Wade. Talent does matter and keeping the best talent on the court for the longest possible minutes that don't diminish his effectiveness is the smartest thing to do. It is why USA wins more worls competitions even thaough they are always at a total disadvantage not having played as long together as most national teams and playing under totally different rules then what they are accustom to. In the end USA has more talent. And talent matters. Now whether he starts or not I will concede to a degree but again it's about putting your best players on the court against their best players. Now defining who is best is different factor because we are not just talking talent we are talking about winning. Which players help you win the most. T-Will is talented but selfish so he doesn't help the team as much as Battier even he is much more talented.
Uhh it was never implied that we were talking about PG because he was being compared to Udrih, you terrible troll. Anyway, the reason they all play 20-25 mins is because they all suck. If any of them were as talented as most NBA starters, then they'd be getting more minutes like great international players have in the past.
I think Beno got injured 2 summers ago, but last summer he quitted from the team because of the discussions with the head coach. He wanted to play a major role but coach had another plans...
About rotations in Europe and use of the rosters... it also depends on the type of coach. For example, Dusko Ivanovic (Caja Laboral) is more conservative and hierarchizes more the rotations. And has been very successful as well. Then, like OMR says, you don't have Lebrons/Wades in Europe, and when one of them appears, the NBA steals them, and every time at a younger age. So there are not a lot of -authentic- differential players in Europe. Also, with the use of different zones you can hide more your worse defensive players than in the NBA, where everything is more oriented on individual matchups. Also, there are differences between clubs with resources to build "all-star teams", like Barcelona, Maccabi, Olympiakos, etc... And more modest teams with budgets that allow signing only 6-8 valid players. These teams complete the roster as best as they can, and of course they don't share the minutes that much. The "all-star teams"... see the USA Team, or the NBA All-star teams.
Good European clubs want 2 good players at each position, and 2 other good role players. NBA clubs want 3 stars, 5 role players, and a bunch of scrubs. So again, it has no relation to anything the NBA does in terms of player rotations.
Slovenia's best player, Erazem Lorbek does not even play in the NBA and never has. You simply know nothing about basketball beyond the Houston Rockets.
