FIBA Tournament Play

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

A comment on AB:

He has been playing very solid basketball. He's been very efficient and an absolute beast on the defensive glass. Defensively, he has been getting to his spot and walling up nicely.

One thing I have noticed about him in this tournament is that he's getting a lot more inside looks, either as a roll man or posting up. The result has been far more high percentage shots than what we would typically see with the Wolves, where nearly half of his shots were 20 foot jumpers.

If he's going to carve out a role for himself in the NBA, it has to be as a guy that plays down hill. The pick and drift B.S. is a horrible way to use him, but we all know Flip loves that action.

[Monster]

A comment on AB:

He has been playing very solid basketball. He's been very efficient and an absolute beast on the defensive glass. Defensively, he has been getting to his spot and walling up nicely.

One thing I have noticed about him in this tournament is that he's getting a lot more inside looks, either as a roll man or posting up. The result has been far more high percentage shots than what we would typically see with the Wolves, where nearly half of his shots were 20 foot jumpers.

If he's going to carve out a role for himself in the NBA, it has to be as a guy that plays down hill. The pick and drift B.S. is a horrible way to use him, but we all know Flip loves that action.

Agreed with this take Q. It sure may help if he had some good passing PGs also which he hopefully will this year with Rubio and Miller.

Would you be willing to post AB's per 36 numbers like you did for Wiggins?

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Bennett's per 36 numbers:

Pts - 14.7
Rebs - 12
Assts - 2.2
Stls - .5
Blks - .8
To's - 2.0
FG% - 53.2%
2-Pt % - 61.7%
3-Pt % - 23.5%

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

As for over-hyping Bjelica, I agree that cautious optimism is probably the way to look at things. He will undoubtedly struggle at first getting adjusted to the speed of the NBA and his new team mates. My excitement is due to the fact that he seems like a player that knows how to play the game intelligently and with very few weaknesses. In other words, he won't hurt you with boneheaded plays, dumb shots, and mental errors. Add to that the fact he can put the ball on the floor and make plays as a 4 and it gives us a different look to throw at teams. But he's a part of the solution, not THE solution.

Now you're talking, Q! Competence and basketball IQ are something to be excited about at the PF position. KG and Bejlica getting the majority the PF minutes will be a nice change from last year.

Tim, I really like the potential of Bjelica and Shabazz off the bench. Shabazz is elite at making timely basket cuts, something that fits perfectly with Bjelica's drive and dish game.

Q as much as you like smart high IQ players I don't know why you aren't a little more happy with having Miller on the team considering what he can bring with players that fit with him offensively. Bjelica seems to fit well to he looks to find good spots to be both inside the paint and behind the 3 point line.

I would if we had better defensive balance and floor spacing in other parts of the roster. As it stands right now, we have two proven above average defenders in Rubio and KG and one proven average defender in Wiggins (who should get better). Every single other player on the team is below average defensively, including Prince, whose age has worn away at was once great defensive chops. Bjelica is an unknown at this point as is Towns, but I think it's fair to say that both will not be big difference makers defensively this year and Towns will probably be a big liability given his age and learning curve at Center.

As a result, I felt backup PG was one spot where Flip had an opportunity to shore things up defensively. Miller is not that guy.

[Coolbreeze44]

I disagree on Towns being a liability defensively this year. He is going to commit too many fouls early in the year, but that should easily be offset by the number of shots he either blocks or alters in the paint. In fact I think he is going to help our team defense improve this year.

[Monster]

As for over-hyping Bjelica, I agree that cautious optimism is probably the way to look at things. He will undoubtedly struggle at first getting adjusted to the speed of the NBA and his new team mates. My excitement is due to the fact that he seems like a player that knows how to play the game intelligently and with very few weaknesses. In other words, he won't hurt you with boneheaded plays, dumb shots, and mental errors. Add to that the fact he can put the ball on the floor and make plays as a 4 and it gives us a different look to throw at teams. But he's a part of the solution, not THE solution.

Now you're talking, Q! Competence and basketball IQ are something to be excited about at the PF position. KG and Bejlica getting the majority the PF minutes will be a nice change from last year.

Tim, I really like the potential of Bjelica and Shabazz off the bench. Shabazz is elite at making timely basket cuts, something that fits perfectly with Bjelica's drive and dish game.

Q as much as you like smart high IQ players I don't know why you aren't a little more happy with having Miller on the team considering what he can bring with players that fit with him offensively. Bjelica seems to fit well to he looks to find good spots to be both inside the paint and behind the 3 point line.

I would if we had better defensive balance and floor spacing in other parts of the roster. As it stands right now, we have two proven above average defenders in Rubio and KG and one proven average defender in Wiggins (who should get better). Every single other player on the team is below average defensively, including Prince, whose age has worn away at was once great defensive chops. Bjelica is an unknown at this point as is Towns, but I think it's fair to say that both will not be big difference makers defensively this year and Towns will probably be a big liability given his age and learning curve at Center.

As a result, I felt backup PG was one spot where Flip had an opportunity to shore things up defensively. Miller is not that guy.

But you can appreciate what he can bring otherwise right? It seems like you just can't get past what you want and enjoy traits he brings that quite frankly you generally like in players. I hope this doesn't sound argumentative it's just funny when you talk about a lot of the same traits in other players and leave miller outbid the party. :)

Let's be honest the system (or lack thereof) defensively is a bigger issue than whether or not the backup PG can defend or not. Of course if we end up with lengthy bigs that protect the rim (unlikely to have them be effective enough this year except KG) that could change things.

[Monster]

Bennett's per 36 numbers:

Pts - 14.7
Rebs - 12
Assts - 2.2
Stls - .5
Blks - .8
To's - 2.0
FG% - 53.2%
2-Pt % - 61.7%
3-Pt % - 23.5%

Thanks Q those are some pretty solid numbers. I have liked what I have seen out of AB this summer I just don't see the bigtime scorer he was supposed to be when he came out of college. That doesn't mean he can't be useful though.

[MikkeMan]

Yeah, Croatia looks pretty good, but I also think Rudez probably is not. Croatia was a fashionable pick to win it coming in, but they just lost to Greece. France looks really good to me. Fun tournament to follow, especially with Bjelica breaking out.

LST, I agree that France looks really good on paper. They have really strong starting five with Parker, De Colo, Batum, Diaw and Gobert and still have two NBA players Fournier and Lauvergne in their bench. But so far France has not looked that good in tournament. They needed overtime to beat my home country Finland that has only one ex-NBA player Eric Murphy in team. (IMHO Petteri Koponen that was drafted in 1st round something like 7 years ago would be good enough to play in NBA tough.) They also barely beat Poland that has only one NBA player Gortat in their team.

I think that Spain might be still favorite to win the tournament even though they don't have Navarro, Marc Gasol and Rubio in their team. Gasol, Mirotic, Fernandez, Rodriguez and Llull is still pretty strong starting five. After Serbia loss they recovered nicely and beat badly Turkey. Spain will have also most probably easier quarter final opponent than France since France have to play most probably either Italy, Turkey or Germany and Spain will get to play against Israel, Poland, Finland or Bosnia.

Greece has also pretty strong team but it looks like Greek Freak is not as good in international game than in NBA. Serbia, Croatia, Greece and Lithuania will also most probably get benefit to play against weaker opponents in quarter finals.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Yeah, I saw that France struggled to beat your guys, Mikkeman. I think my problem in evaluating these teams is that I think the teams with the most NBA players are going to destroy teams with players I don't know...but it doesn't always work that way. Basketball is very much a team game, and some countries' teams have clearly played together more than others...and that makes a big difference. Another thing I have learned is that basketball has become so international that every country seems to have a few guys who astonish me with their talent, even though I have never heard of them. I've noticed this especially in the Americas tournament. I tend to dismiss most of the teams that Canada is playing because I don't know anyone, and then I watch them and realize they can play. I think there is a lot of "country prejudice " with NBA scouts...Eastern Europeans can play, Finns can't, for instance. But the fact of the matter is that the talent difference isn't that extreme, and sometimes team play will trump small talent differences.

Anyway, I'm having fun watching some of the games now that I have discovered ESPN3. I was hoping to watch Serbia/Iceland this morning at 7:20 CDT, but I have a breakfast meeting and will miss at least the first half. Hopefully someone will watch and give some Bjelica reviews.

[MikkeMan]

I am pulling for Bjelica. Has any other reigning Euro MVP's made the move?

Yep and he made the jump to the Wolves! AK lol

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euroleague_MVP

Also Anthony Parker played in NBA after winning back to back Euroleague MVP-awards. He played six years in NBA as starting shooting guard and was mainly getting credit about his good defense. Juan Carlos Navarro had played in NBA in previous season before winning Euroleague MVP. He started 30 games for Memphis team as shooting guard. Sergio Rodriguez and Vassilis Spanoulis did win Euroleague MVP award several years after their NBA visit. Before current Euroleague was established, there was European championship league which Final four MVPs for example Kukoc, Radja and Danilovic were before they got to NBA.

I think that generally Euroleague stars have been quite successful in NBA too. Only real Euroleague stars that did not have any success in NBA that I know are: Spanoulis, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Alexander Djordjevic and David Andersen. All four had already had plenty of success in Euroleague before coming to NBA and in NBA they really struggled to get even any playtime. It seems that transition from Euroleague to NBA has been easier for big men than for guards.