Tomorrow the 2011 FIBA Eurobasket or the European Basketball Championships will begin in Lithuania pitting 24 of Europe’s best basketball nations against each other in 4 pools of 6 with 3 nations advancing out of each pool (or group) into the second round. Because the NFL is still in preseason, the MLB playoffs haven’t started yet and the NBA season is never going to start, this tournament will be the main sporting focus in my life for the next two weeks. It doesn’t hurt that mine and Daki’s national team (Serbia) is coming off an improbable silver medal run in 2009 and a 4th place finish (should have been 2nd but that’s what happens when you play Turkey in Turkey, honestly felt like the players who didn’t make the Turkish national team just became the referees instead) at the World Championships in 2010. So with a vested rooting interest for the entire tournament, a lull in the rest of the sporting world, and the fact that this might be the last time in a little while that we will get a chance to see NBA players face off against each other (seriously who doesn’t want to watch Dirk Nowitzki again? Or make fun of Jose Calderon again?) for some time I encourage everyone to watch what is sure to be an exciting tournament. Now on to our picks/preview:
DakiChampion: Spain. Just too talented across the board, stacked at every position and the emergence of Marc Gasol as a legitimate beast will be too much for other teams. They can trot out a crunch-time line-up of Rubio/Calderon Navarro, Fernandez, Gasol brothers/Garbajosa, they have the depth to go with their talent and experience and should be the heavy favortes.
Sleeper: A tie between Germany and Italy. The Italians are bringing a strong team featuring the likes of Bellinelli, Bargnani, and Gallinari, if those three are clicking they could give teams legitimate problems. Germany on the other hand features the hottest player in the world at the moment in Dirk Nowitzki. If he catches fire in a game I can't see Germany losing said game, even if they have no one after Chris Kaman. Both of these squads are in group B (the hardest group in the tournament) and it is hard to believe that they may not even get out of their group. The fact that teams from groups C and D have a free ride to the knock-out round is a disgrace.
Team likely to dissapoint: France. They always have plenty of talent (6 players in the NBA or who have played there) but it never seems to translate, I pick them.
Player to watch: Again I'm going to pick 2, Dirk Nowitzki and Milos Teodosic. We already talked about Dirk and he is the best player in the tournament; but in any given game Teodosic is capable of amazing things, if he is at his best Serbia will be tough to beat
Match-up I would like to see the most: Serbia-Turkey, they owe it to the Serbs after the officiating disgrace last year.
Luka
Champion: Spain. Although I want to pick Serbia as they are my country and I will be cheering for them throughout, the talent of the Spanish team is simply too great in my opinion for any other team to match. The defending champions who the last time around beat their opponents by an average score of 18.5 points in the knockout rounds come to Lithuania with pretty much the same team except for the addition of Oklahoma City Thunder Center Serge Ibaka. For the talent disparity and the fact that this Spanish squad has been to big tournaments before and won (they would have even beat the Redeem team in the 08 Olympics if it wasn’t for Kobe’s heroics) I am picking them to win and they remain the favourites to lift the trophy on September 18. Will I root for them? Absolutely not. Not the most likeable team whose players all look like they stay in hotels that have non-functioning showers.
Sleeper: France. This pick could very well look stupid in a week’s time but looking at the French team from a talent level standpoint I don’t see why they can’t compete with any other nation at this tournament. With 4 NBA players on the squad; Tony Parker, Joakim Noah, Nicolas Batum, and Boris Diaw (yes, Boris Diaw still counts, he should probably count as 2) and a decent supporting cast the French team can make some noise. In years past they have been known to disappoint and yet if Tony P and Noah start flying around on the court I would not want to play them in the knockout stages. If nothing else Joakim Noah is so unlikeable that he will start at least 3 wars.
Team likely to disappoint: Italy. Every time I watch the Italian national basketball team I feel that their entire playbook consists of one thing; “shoot the three”. This is no surprise when their three best players are Marco Bellinelli (never seen a shot he didn’t like), Andrea Bargnani (raises Raptors’ fans blood pressures at the mention of his name) and Danilo Gallinari. And when you live by the three, you also die by the three. Not the best strategy to have as a team in my opinon. Also, Italy is probably in the hardest opening group of the 4 where they must take either Serbia’s, France’s, or Germany’s spot in the next round and I just don’t see it happening.
Player to watch: Being a Toronto Raptors fan, the one player I will definitely keep an eye on as the tournament progresses is Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciunas. A player the Raptors drafted fifth overall in this year’s NBA Draft. Jonas is having a fantastic summer, one in which he led the U-19 Lithuania team to a gold medal at the Worlds averaging 23 points, 14 rebounds with 3 blocks per game and winning the MVP in the progress. He then proceeded to score 26 points and get 11 boards in his debut game for the senior national team. Definitely a player to watch, one who might use this tournament as his coming-out party for the world.
Match-up I would like to see most: I will have to agree with Daki on this one and say Serbia vs Turkey. I just want to see how the outcome of this match-up will be affected by fair officiating.
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