You could give Lebron and Wade one-step and they would be better than anyone over there. They aren't great because of this fact alone.
Thanks for the article, hadn't seen it yet. As a German it's really nice to see Kaman and Dirk playing for our country and vs. other great European guys. Like Bauermann said, Kaman really shows improvements on defense. Opponents getting offensive boards is still a problem with Kaman and Dirk sharing the court. :grin: Glad that German Eurosport shows two games live per day, all German games and every game from the 1/8 finals. Hope you guys find decent streams, it will be very entertaining and a high level of competition.
They could not even handle a half zone. Not even a half zone plus a no defense 3 second rule. Not even with hand checking blocked. The Mavs with the half zone the NBA allows, plus you can't stay in the lane on D, plus you cannot hand check shut them down. Especially totally eliminated LeBron, with essentially like a 1/4 zone as to what you can play in Euroleague. Did id with out of this world athletes and defenders like Cardinal, Dirk, Peja, Barea, Kidd, Terry, etc.............guys that would be below average athletically for Euroleague standards and way, way below Euroleague standards for defense. Wade and LeBron would never have a clue how to handle any good Euroleague team's zone and defense schemes, as they would be far better and far beyond anything the Mavs threw at them.
In what country? Cause German Eurosport shows all German games, two per day and all 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, finals.
Dominican Republic just destroyed Cuba in the 1st half. It's not a fair fight because Cuba has one player that's decent while DR has Al Horford, Charlie Villanueva, Francisco Garcia, Coach Cal and two other guys that are pretty good. I don't know the rankings of the FIBA Americas teams but I think DR could be the 3rd best team behind Brazil and Argentina. In fact, I bet they can beat Brazil.
Yeah, we played pretty damn good basketball. People need to realize we didn't have our 3 best players (Gortat, Ignerski and Lampe) and yet it was still a close game.
Great game, amazing shootuout between Parker and Blums. Both shooting well and handling the ball with very few mistakes. Bertans lookin like a great prospect, nice shooting and athleticsm.
ESPN3 doesn't work for me. This is dumb. I hope it comes back in time for me watch Scola do his tango against Uruguay today.
Germany with a solid performance, nice shooting and hustle. Think we have an advantage over Italy with Bargnani havin to defend Dirk and Kaman.
Rubio was absolutely awful, just as he usually is. Llull once again played awful when he is with the national team. Same with Claver. Spain has taken a huge step back in recent years in terms of the level of their role players.
Yes, Rubio seems to have completely lost it the last two years. Gasol brothers and Navarro seem to be the only reliable guys.
That old Spanish team of Calderon, Jimenez, Berni Rodriguez, Mumbru, Garbajosa, Lopez, Cabezas, Reyes all of those guys when they were in their prime was a lot more balanced and they got production and help from the whole team. They have gone from that to guys like Rubio (who sucks), Llull (can only be effective as a lead player and not a help player), Claver (never shows up so far at the senior level), current Calderon (about half the player he used to be, or even less), Rudy (who is way too inconsistent and limited in offense)....... the one guy that could really help them is San Emeterrio but he does not fit with Navarro and Pau. He is a a guy that needs to play in a fast and open court team, which is the opposite of Pau and Navarro, so essentially he is not much of any use in their system. Ibaka or Vazquez, either way is basically the same player. They are a nice complimentary player, but not a difference maker, especially because they won't play that big of a role in the team with the Gasol brothers. And Reyes, in his current level is a shell of his former self. They used to have such great role players and now their role players are looking very average and mediocre. Each summer they have to retool the team more and the role players get worse. Now, basically they have something like Rudy, Ibaka, Rubio, Calderon, Reyes that they rely on as their role players. That's a far cry from the level of the role players they had on their 2006-2007-2008 teams.
Italy defendin really well for the first few minutes, some great blocks, good anticipation leadin to easy points and hustle. Entertaining game, hope Germany can win this.
