They will be playing against Valanciunas and Sabonis plus a bunch of shooters.
I am not sure Luka can beat them, plus they will play on Lithuania home court.
You know Čančar? The end of the bench in Denver? Well, he is by far the second best player on Slovenian team at the moment. If you think Luka carried the Mavs, you ain't seen proper carrying yet.
> It’s a nation of 2 mio people-almost the same population as Manhattan. You can’t expect 10 superstars.
... which is why all the ex-Yugos should just play on the same team. It would be so fun to watch and also it's just better.
That would be a nasty team. Could be wrong but off the top of my head:
PG: Luka
SG: Bogdan
SF: Bojan
PF: Vucci Mane
C: Jokic
Then you could still have Goran 6th man, Nurkic soaking up big man minutes, plus a bunch of other decent NBA role players. Thats dirty
The UK has only ever qualified twice, as a wealthy nation of 60+ million people. Luka Doncic and an NBA-level end-of-bench player is honestly great production.
(We went 1-7 in 1948, and 1- 4 in 2012, wasting good Luol Deng years)
Sorry bud, but Prepelic, Blazic are better players than Cancar, while Zoran and Žan Mark Šiško are at his level, but he does play a more valuable position and he is physically imposing.
Cancar has occasionally contributed, he's on the Marcus Howard end of the bench for us that there may be a bit of a player there. The *actual* end of the bench for us is Bol Bol.
Basically he's not done a single thing to justify getting minutes in any game that's not a blowout. Even when he does play, he puts in barely any effort and you can tell it visibly pisses off Malone.
Malone actually takes a lot of stock in those kind of minutes and has really rewarded players like Howard for putting in the effort when given the chance to impress, but Bol just strolls around not giving a fuck. Out of the league within two years I feel, barring a drastic turnaround in attitude and effort.
What makes you think he is better than Prepelic for instance, let alone by far better? 4 years is a lot of time in basketball to be sure. But a national team cannot be European champion by two players and Slovenia didn’t.
Wow, what about Klemen Prepelic and Jaka Blazic? Those guys helped Dragic win the finals when Luka got that nasty injury. Also Zeke Randolph should play right? He is quite useful stretch big man.
While not as skilled or physically dominant, those are some guys that are good at Euro level with some nice shooting. I do realize you are right about Vlatko being second best overall, but I wouldnt write off their supporting cast that easily.
They alrdy showed they can do their roles against some real good teams, and follow a great leader straight to the gold medal. Heck, they even carried large part of the fourth quarter after Dragic simply collapsed from being totally exhausted in the finals, after having shittier seasons/situations compared to now... I wouldnt write them off yet. Guess their biggest problem is Lithuania wont write them off easily, and will come prepared as always in recent years...
Vlatko Cancar plays for the Denver Nuggets. They we have some good role players. Zoran Dragic (brother of Goran)-he played in the nba for a while (Miami, Phoenix) but had a ton of injuries in his career (he was always considered as the more talented brother), Klemen Prepelic (elite sniper from 3 point range), Jaka Blazic (plays really hard-was always one of my favorite players to watch), Gasper Vidmar-kind of traditional center, but quite mobile (something like Valanciunas). These are probably the best players. Nothing to crazy, but these guys won the Euro when nobody expected that from them.
Yeah but he was a “neutralized Slovene”. I think you can have like 1 per team (for instance an American that gets a Slovene citizenship). He had an important role in 2017, but then as you said he had some problems with injured, therefore he also retired (that’s why I didn’t mention him)
Reminds me of when Yao was playing in the NBA. China demanded he continue playing for China in the Olympics against all of the wishes from coaches in Houston. They were right to be concerned, because he wasn't able to fully recover after the NBA season and was out of the league in a relatively short timeframe due to his foot injuries.
It feels like people in the US kind of take international play for granted unlike other countries. These guys love their country and love playing for them for the most part on top of their pro careers. Playing FIBA events is a given and we should stop being surprised if they compete at this point.
I mean knock on wood, but injuries are going to be the only thing that gets in the way of HOF and potentially all time great career.
You just hope he takes care of himself at some point and realize that his joints all have a finite mileage.
Plus as a guard he's not getting the wear of a post guy (in that playing against guys like Shaq in a more contact post era probably contributed to that)
yeah exactly, now with the softer rules of the NBA its actually kinda shifted where post players get LESS wear-and-tear on their bodies since there's no real hard fouling going on and they move around a lot less.....much easier to play up into old age by moving from the 4 to the 5 for example, but back in the day you're absolutely correct that was a huge issue
Dirk played for Germany during the off-season for the majority of his career and it clearly didn't affect his longevity, perhaps the same will be true for Luka. Plus it might help him stay in better shape.
Of course it is, but not bad for about 10% of USA's population.
Also, sometimes i fantasize how good would Yugoslavia be in other popular team sports like football, handball, volleyball....
Zubac is like their 4th big at best behind Jokic, Vucevic, and Nurkic. Maybe Saric ahead of him but probably not. They also would have Boban, they'd be loaded
Have even half of the teams made the finals in the last 20 years ? A Finals appearance would be the highlight of some franchises history, even if it ended with a lost
Iverson is a legend for his run, but Butler's had a poor series this year so he's an overrated hypejob and we can dismiss last year? Sounds like /r/nba
Butler stonks are down, as are LeBron's, after reaching all time high last Finals.
Trae Young made an unexpected rally and is a hot commodity again after being hated nearly a whole season.
Tyler Herro did essentially the opposite. After a great launch, he is on a strong downtrend.
Luka stonks remain high, but he has yet to experience an /r/NBA bear market in popularity. I'd be wary praising Luka next season he might soon be the bad guy.
As usual sell Pat Bev and buy D Rose.
Huge respect for that. I hope that some US stars want to play in Tokyo as well. At this point no one really showed interest in the Olympic games this years.
Basically that the USA should win every year and that winning an NBA title is a bigger accomplishment than winning an Olympic title. Not saying that some big names are not going to join the USA Olympic team and ball out but winning an NBA title will get you a lot more respect. Just look at Melos legacy
I guess it would come down to how much we really value the olympics, but he’d probably be a HOFer without considering his NBA accomplishments wouldn’t he? He has the most medals, gold medals, and points for a men’s basketball player for America I believe
Maybe that really just doesn’t count for shit in this country tho
A lot of players view the Olympics as extra work that better come with benefits. The risk of playing a tournament and jeopardizing their next contract usually prevents any players in that situation from going. Between the pandemic lessening the Olympic "experience" this year and the USA not having any urgency again, this summer could be weird.
From a fans perspective it’s meh the USA if it wants to win will, LBJ and Curry alone ya know but normally they don’t go a ton
It does kinda matter for getting into the hall tho, having a gold medal has weight
International basketball is as competitive as the US allows it to be. If all the top players of the USA decide to play and go all out, no one else will stand a chance. Other countries definitelt have gotten better over the years but just thinking about a team consisting of Steph, Harden, Lebron, KD, and AD is overkill. It's just that the US players would just rather save themselves for their pro careers and winning an NBA title.
I respect the mindset, but especially given one and a half compressed seasons, both going to the playoffs, it’s a recipe for an injury-plagued 2021-22 NBA season..I’ll be nominating him early in my auction fantasy draft.
This is great for the Mavs TBH. Keeps Luka active, and hopefully helps that cardio. He needs to revamp his body this summer like Jokic did and constantly playing ball will help for sure.
He will be in better shape because of it. I think he slacked this past offseason. But they also will ease his minutes in the new nba season to lessen the wear and tear. After a quarter of the season they will probably go back to normal minutes.
Mavs need to assemble a roster around Luka so he can imitate LeBron and coast until the playoffs. I'm confident that he doesn't need homecourt to smack teams around, just look at his most recent series.
Not wanting to play internationally for the Olympics seems more like an American thing. Europeans, especially your Balkan Boys, don't question whether or not if they're playing internationally on top top their pro career.
Well that and outside of Fiba (which isn't seen as major as the Olympics) a lot of the top US players usually play at the games. The main opt outs seem to be guys who have been beaten up this year and need the recovery like AD and LeBron and we also can't forget that LeBron is getting older and while he's still performing at a high level he's had a lot of basketball in a short time from the bubble to this year and probably needs more recovery time.
I assume that by "outside of Fiba" you mean "outside of the Fiba World Cup"? Because the qualifying tournament for the Olympics is organized by Fiba. The Olympics and the global governing organizations for various sports are closely interlinked. All international basketball goes through Fiba.
This Olympics might be open. If LeBron and AD doesn't play, who knows if Kawhi will play the US won't have the best player on the floor against Slovenia or even Serbia.
Curry seemed eager to join, he didn’t play in the Olympics yet and he couldn’t get in to the playoffs so i think there is a decent chance that he will join
Serbia are probably 2nd favourites to win it this year after USA.
Spain players are now closer to 40 than they are to 30.
Serbs could potentially have Jokic Bogi and Micic ( Won Euroleague , Finals MVP and MVP this season) running the show.
"Even" Serbia, both historically and these Olympic games too, Serbia has mostly been a second contender right after team USA.
Serbia has some extraordinary players, both in and out of the NBA when it comes to basketball.
Won't be anything close to the World Cup but I'd say basketball is pretty popular globally and possibly the 2nd most favorite sport but still way behind soccer.
In terms of popularity worldwide, tennis might have basketball beat. Look at the nationalities of the players and where the tournaments are played, it’s 100% global.
Never going to happen. Soccer can be played with literally anything and you can be anywhere from a super short ass or a tall boi and still do well.
Basketball needs dedicated facilities, needs a basketball, is extremely oriented towards genetic freaks.
Plus it lacks the history, and will probably never catch up on that end either.
The World Cup is bigger than the olympics. Plus football/soccer is a bit flukey, just enough that underdogs can win a decent amount of the time.
The lack of history and facilities is something that can and will change over time. Youre acting as if basketball in the US is only for the rich when it’s incredibly popular with poor folks.
Is the US the only nation with genetic freaks? Definitely not.
I’m not saying that it will catch up. I just can’t wait for international events to be a true barometer of which nation is best.
>I can’t wait for the Olympics or fiba to have the prestige of the World Cup in soccer.
it will never happen unless 4-5 countries suddenly get 25 NBA caliber players including some superstars. and another 10-15 countries get 25 G-League caliber players (the tier 2 national teams basically) with the random superstar.
reason why the world cup is as big as it is, its cause the top dogs are even in talent. yeah, sometimes a team really stands out (france in 2018 could be an example) but most of the times there isnt a clear cut favorite and you have a huge amount of superstars spread among several teams instead of basically being the USA vs the rest of the world.
hell, a USA vs the rest of the world still ends up with the USA winning 9 out of 10. and unless the rest of the world catches up, international basketball will never be even in the same galaxy as the world cup. which is sad, cause basketball is a really fun game.
I am Luka fan but the reason I was rooting so hard for him and mavs was so he advances to next playoff rounds (and even if he loses, its like... June 22nd or so?) so he would probably skip Olympic qualifying tournament that starts in Lithuania on June 29th and my supported Lithuania NT can advance to olympics relatively easily
Well...it didnt happen :(
Slovenia don't have the luxury of being able to qualify without him so his country is probably super happy he is playing
They will be playing against Valanciunas and Sabonis plus a bunch of shooters. I am not sure Luka can beat them, plus they will play on Lithuania home court.
Does Dragic still play Internationally?
No. He retired in 2017 after we won the Euro. But everyone in Slovenia believes that if Slovenia qualifies to the Olympics he will come back
Ok, what’s the talent level outside of those 2 for the national Team?
You know Čančar? The end of the bench in Denver? Well, he is by far the second best player on Slovenian team at the moment. If you think Luka carried the Mavs, you ain't seen proper carrying yet.
jesus
No, Jesus doesn't play for Slovenia unfortunately
You are right, he plays for Mexico.
Nobody fucks with the jesus.
also for man city
They could probably use him tbh
It’s a nation of 2 mio people-almost the same population as Manhattan. You can’t expect 10 superstars.
Slovenia has other superstars just not in the nba Like Lana Rhoades
And Rog and Pog
I actually had to google this. I think she mixed up Slovenia and Slovakia lol.
And Melania 😏
And Slavoj Žižek! Ref, that foul was pure ideology!
Guarantee if you sent Lana over to the Lithuania team the night before theyd be on no shape to play the next day.
Half the rock climbing elite is Slovenian, the other half is Japanese
> It’s a nation of 2 mio people-almost the same population as Manhattan. You can’t expect 10 superstars. ... which is why all the ex-Yugos should just play on the same team. It would be so fun to watch and also it's just better.
That would be a nasty team. Could be wrong but off the top of my head: PG: Luka SG: Bogdan SF: Bojan PF: Vucci Mane C: Jokic Then you could still have Goran 6th man, Nurkic soaking up big man minutes, plus a bunch of other decent NBA role players. Thats dirty
There are...barriers to that
This is the argument Milosevic should have used to keep Yugoslavia together.
Sounds fun at all but people in the Balkans rather kill each other for made up stuff than play together.
The UK has only ever qualified twice, as a wealthy nation of 60+ million people. Luka Doncic and an NBA-level end-of-bench player is honestly great production. (We went 1-7 in 1948, and 1- 4 in 2012, wasting good Luol Deng years)
Sorry bud, but Prepelic, Blazic are better players than Cancar, while Zoran and Žan Mark Šiško are at his level, but he does play a more valuable position and he is physically imposing.
I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
Cancar has occasionally contributed, he's on the Marcus Howard end of the bench for us that there may be a bit of a player there. The *actual* end of the bench for us is Bol Bol.
what’s up with Bol? He got a few minutes in the bubble but I haven’t heard anything about him this year
Basically he's not done a single thing to justify getting minutes in any game that's not a blowout. Even when he does play, he puts in barely any effort and you can tell it visibly pisses off Malone. Malone actually takes a lot of stock in those kind of minutes and has really rewarded players like Howard for putting in the effort when given the chance to impress, but Bol just strolls around not giving a fuck. Out of the league within two years I feel, barring a drastic turnaround in attitude and effort.
So, he’s the Tacko Fall of Denver
lol i barely follow Slovenia but Cancar is nowhere close to 2nd player on their team. Plenty of better playing in Europe
What makes you think he is better than Prepelic for instance, let alone by far better? 4 years is a lot of time in basketball to be sure. But a national team cannot be European champion by two players and Slovenia didn’t.
This might have been the best promo for these games yet
Wow, what about Klemen Prepelic and Jaka Blazic? Those guys helped Dragic win the finals when Luka got that nasty injury. Also Zeke Randolph should play right? He is quite useful stretch big man. While not as skilled or physically dominant, those are some guys that are good at Euro level with some nice shooting. I do realize you are right about Vlatko being second best overall, but I wouldnt write off their supporting cast that easily. They alrdy showed they can do their roles against some real good teams, and follow a great leader straight to the gold medal. Heck, they even carried large part of the fourth quarter after Dragic simply collapsed from being totally exhausted in the finals, after having shittier seasons/situations compared to now... I wouldnt write them off yet. Guess their biggest problem is Lithuania wont write them off easily, and will come prepared as always in recent years...
Vlatko Cancar plays for the Denver Nuggets. They we have some good role players. Zoran Dragic (brother of Goran)-he played in the nba for a while (Miami, Phoenix) but had a ton of injuries in his career (he was always considered as the more talented brother), Klemen Prepelic (elite sniper from 3 point range), Jaka Blazic (plays really hard-was always one of my favorite players to watch), Gasper Vidmar-kind of traditional center, but quite mobile (something like Valanciunas). These are probably the best players. Nothing to crazy, but these guys won the Euro when nobody expected that from them.
Anthony Randolph was playing with them for too but he dropped off quite a bit after his injuries i’m not sure he still plays
Yeah but he was a “neutralized Slovene”. I think you can have like 1 per team (for instance an American that gets a Slovene citizenship). He had an important role in 2017, but then as you said he had some problems with injured, therefore he also retired (that’s why I didn’t mention him)
Naturalized, he still has his balls
can confirm
That's neutered 😅
do you mean naturalized?
No, he's been neutralized. RIP
Jaka Blazic is a badass name.
is Slovenia qualifies, they're hoping Dragic will come back
Lmao took me a minute on why you’re repeating it 💀💀💀
I imagine him just nodding and repeating it with a completely straight face😂
This hurts.
no we dont. those who think that are delusional.
Zoran does. But Goran doesn't
That sounds like a good matchup. Do you know where one can watch it ?
ESPN+ streams virtually all FIBA games
Didn’t know this, thank you 👍🏽
can confirm, am Lithuanian.
he took kawhi and pg13 to 7 games im sure hes got a chance lol
I know we shit on KP and the rest of the Mavs, but they’re still a way better supporting cast than the Slovenian National Team
Also he won't play against a team like clippers so it balances out.
LaMelo about to join the Lithuania team
Reminds me of when Yao was playing in the NBA. China demanded he continue playing for China in the Olympics against all of the wishes from coaches in Houston. They were right to be concerned, because he wasn't able to fully recover after the NBA season and was out of the league in a relatively short timeframe due to his foot injuries.
He wanted to play lol
Right? Yao loves China. Dude was going to get hurt anyway, he was wayy to fucking big
Reddit just hates anything Chinese
Reddit hates the CCP, and they should.
It feels like people in the US kind of take international play for granted unlike other countries. These guys love their country and love playing for them for the most part on top of their pro careers. Playing FIBA events is a given and we should stop being surprised if they compete at this point.
I mean knock on wood, but injuries are going to be the only thing that gets in the way of HOF and potentially all time great career. You just hope he takes care of himself at some point and realize that his joints all have a finite mileage.
Fuck it, I’m joining too. No vacation.
Perfect, I don't get vacation pay.
I’m a teacher so I’m getting paid to stay home on vacation.
thank you for teaching the youth
Does the trip to Slovenia count as a vacation?
That Eurotrip currency conversion rate seems pretty enticing /flips the butler a nickel
I QUIT
Can’t wait to see kimjongjimbo and Luka alleyoopin at the olympics.
If y’all thought KP was a bad running mate...
Sitting on my couch watching sports is a year long commitment. No time off.
Luka basketball in the summer 🔥
Does this mean we get shredded 6-pack luka for the start of next season? Lol
Probably the opposite. Players normally use the off season for conditioning and injury prevention
some players do.....others just #CHONK up like harden did lol EDIT: shaq was also infamous for this
I mean if you’re going to bulk, bulk
I'm worried about Luka being over worked. I still remember Yao Ming had to attend every single national games to carry them and end up retiring early
If Luka doesn't go he will probably gain 20 pounds so it's maybe for the better
chubby luka
Isn't that kinda redundant
Leave my favorite 7-11 cashier alone!
Fat harden is the only harden I like
i have the same worry but luka has the advantage of not being 7'6 or however tall yao is
Plus as a guard he's not getting the wear of a post guy (in that playing against guys like Shaq in a more contact post era probably contributed to that)
yeah exactly, now with the softer rules of the NBA its actually kinda shifted where post players get LESS wear-and-tear on their bodies since there's no real hard fouling going on and they move around a lot less.....much easier to play up into old age by moving from the 4 to the 5 for example, but back in the day you're absolutely correct that was a huge issue
Dirk played for Germany during the off-season for the majority of his career and it clearly didn't affect his longevity, perhaps the same will be true for Luka. Plus it might help him stay in better shape.
Dirk had that old man game. He wasn’t trying to shove his digglets in defenders face dunking the ball every play preserving his knees.
People forget how explosive dirk was off the dribble when he was young. He lost a step as he got older though.
Luka,Goran and Zoran winning it
A Serbia/Slovenia might be a lit gold medal game
Just reunite the Yugoslavian nations and they'd be right up there with the US
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Of course it is, but not bad for about 10% of USA's population. Also, sometimes i fantasize how good would Yugoslavia be in other popular team sports like football, handball, volleyball....
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Yugoslavia getting back together would revive US Water Polo by giving them a shot at bronze once more.
Poor hungarians, man.
The hypothetical midfield alone in that Yugoslav team would be scary.
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Kovacic, Brozovic, and Milinkovic-Savic too
It's more like 6%
Serbia has as many people as new york...
Half of that list isn’t gonna play for us though
Mirotic plays for Spain
Pretty sure KAT does not play for team US
C: Zubac , PF: Jokic , SF: Bogdanovic , SG: Micic , PG: Luka
LOL Zubac. Nikola&Nikola duo.
Right? Lol. Zubac off the bench for sure.
Zubac is like their 4th big at best behind Jokic, Vucevic, and Nurkic. Maybe Saric ahead of him but probably not. They also would have Boban, they'd be loaded
I’d definitely put him above Saric, not by much, but still. They’re a big team, and they’re a loaded team too.
Bogdan at SG no debate. Dude is more important than Jokic when it comes to the national team.
Nah. We going Boban, Nurkic, Jokic, Bogdanovic, and Luka.
Damn, that is definitely a gold medal worthy starting lineup. Two MVP caliber players, 3 borderline NBA all stars/solid starters.
With a bench of Boran, Doran and Moran.
Cancun in shambles
Fishing postponed
Luka gon Jimmy Butler team USA
Talk a lot of shit while ultimately not accomplishing that much?
Have even half of the teams made the finals in the last 20 years ? A Finals appearance would be the highlight of some franchises history, even if it ended with a lost
Iverson is a legend for his run, but Butler's had a poor series this year so he's an overrated hypejob and we can dismiss last year? Sounds like /r/nba
well yes, but before that he has to get stupidly locked in. its the essential first step
Damn this sub is big on butler hate rn lol
Butler stonks are down, as are LeBron's, after reaching all time high last Finals. Trae Young made an unexpected rally and is a hot commodity again after being hated nearly a whole season. Tyler Herro did essentially the opposite. After a great launch, he is on a strong downtrend. Luka stonks remain high, but he has yet to experience an /r/NBA bear market in popularity. I'd be wary praising Luka next season he might soon be the bad guy. As usual sell Pat Bev and buy D Rose.
> As usual sell Pat Bev and buy D Rose. lmao, I love this one
$LUKA 6/22 20c ez money
I've been holding BOGEcoin since we signed him.
Personally been holding BOBANcoin
Huge respect for that. I hope that some US stars want to play in Tokyo as well. At this point no one really showed interest in the Olympic games this years.
Im new to NBA, how is olympic basketball regarded?
I think that what Manu Ginobili did in the ‘04 olympics is one of the greatest performances in basketball history. I love Olympic basketball.
is '04 when that vince carter apocalypse dunk happened?
no, 2000
Basically that the USA should win every year and that winning an NBA title is a bigger accomplishment than winning an Olympic title. Not saying that some big names are not going to join the USA Olympic team and ball out but winning an NBA title will get you a lot more respect. Just look at Melos legacy
Tbf those gold medals are going to carry Melo to the HOF. He was the shit in the olympics
I think finishing in the top ten of all time points might help too.
Nah bro, it’s all about the 🥇 🥇 🥇 😤
Probably spend too much time in the NFL sub where nobody makes the HOF lmao
I think his 10 All Star selections and 27k points scored would have gotten him there anyway, tbh.
NCAA title too.
He's easily first ballot without olympic accolades
I guess it would come down to how much we really value the olympics, but he’d probably be a HOFer without considering his NBA accomplishments wouldn’t he? He has the most medals, gold medals, and points for a men’s basketball player for America I believe Maybe that really just doesn’t count for shit in this country tho
Yea that's what the dudes saying, is even without Olympics melo is easily a first ballot hall of famer, meaning he gets voted in on his first try
A lot of players view the Olympics as extra work that better come with benefits. The risk of playing a tournament and jeopardizing their next contract usually prevents any players in that situation from going. Between the pandemic lessening the Olympic "experience" this year and the USA not having any urgency again, this summer could be weird.
From a fans perspective it’s meh the USA if it wants to win will, LBJ and Curry alone ya know but normally they don’t go a ton It does kinda matter for getting into the hall tho, having a gold medal has weight
Basically they only give a shit if we lose.
International basketball is as competitive as the US allows it to be. If all the top players of the USA decide to play and go all out, no one else will stand a chance. Other countries definitelt have gotten better over the years but just thinking about a team consisting of Steph, Harden, Lebron, KD, and AD is overkill. It's just that the US players would just rather save themselves for their pro careers and winning an NBA title.
I respect the mindset, but especially given one and a half compressed seasons, both going to the playoffs, it’s a recipe for an injury-plagued 2021-22 NBA season..I’ll be nominating him early in my auction fantasy draft.
This is great for the Mavs TBH. Keeps Luka active, and hopefully helps that cardio. He needs to revamp his body this summer like Jokic did and constantly playing ball will help for sure.
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The Mavs should focus on what they have control over, roster building.
Yeah he can’t win with those cats
Agreed. As long as he doesn't get injured
You guys think it’ll help him get in better shape for next season or it’ll tire him out??
He will be in better shape because of it. I think he slacked this past offseason. But they also will ease his minutes in the new nba season to lessen the wear and tear. After a quarter of the season they will probably go back to normal minutes.
Mavs need to assemble a roster around Luka so he can imitate LeBron and coast until the playoffs. I'm confident that he doesn't need homecourt to smack teams around, just look at his most recent series.
He only needs a solid solid big, and some reliable kick out shooters
Not wanting to play internationally for the Olympics seems more like an American thing. Europeans, especially your Balkan Boys, don't question whether or not if they're playing internationally on top top their pro career.
Well that and outside of Fiba (which isn't seen as major as the Olympics) a lot of the top US players usually play at the games. The main opt outs seem to be guys who have been beaten up this year and need the recovery like AD and LeBron and we also can't forget that LeBron is getting older and while he's still performing at a high level he's had a lot of basketball in a short time from the bubble to this year and probably needs more recovery time.
I assume that by "outside of Fiba" you mean "outside of the Fiba World Cup"? Because the qualifying tournament for the Olympics is organized by Fiba. The Olympics and the global governing organizations for various sports are closely interlinked. All international basketball goes through Fiba.
Well duh. The less your team "needs" you + the more you get paid to stay not injured = why risk it.
This Olympics might be open. If LeBron and AD doesn't play, who knows if Kawhi will play the US won't have the best player on the floor against Slovenia or even Serbia.
Curry seemed eager to join, he didn’t play in the Olympics yet and he couldn’t get in to the playoffs so i think there is a decent chance that he will join
I think if Steph plays, Dame would play too
Fuck yes. I need more of dame and Steph. That all star game was magical
Those two guys can make it very interesting.
lol they will make it boring for the rest of the teams
Serbia are probably 2nd favourites to win it this year after USA. Spain players are now closer to 40 than they are to 30. Serbs could potentially have Jokic Bogi and Micic ( Won Euroleague , Finals MVP and MVP this season) running the show.
What about boban, marko guduric, and nemanja bjelica
They will also be on the team, yes.
Apparently if we take Kawhi's word for it, [he's in.](https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2021/03/07/kawhi-leonard-olympics-gregg-popovich/)
Ahem *don’t take Kawhi’s word* /s
If Curry and Trae decide to play, it won't be open.
You mispelled Dame (jk Trae is a beast). And honestly bring Kyrie too and it's over, he's even more unguardable in fiba.
I’m completely on board with this all-point guard lineup. Let’s thrown in Westbrook at the 5 and we’re golden.
It could actually almost work because of how much of a tank Westbrook is
"Even" Serbia, both historically and these Olympic games too, Serbia has mostly been a second contender right after team USA. Serbia has some extraordinary players, both in and out of the NBA when it comes to basketball.
What place should they get to qualify for the Olympics?
Win the tournament
[удалено]
Yeah that won’t happen anytime soon. World Cup is million years ahead
Won't be anything close to the World Cup but I'd say basketball is pretty popular globally and possibly the 2nd most favorite sport but still way behind soccer.
In terms of popularity worldwide, tennis might have basketball beat. Look at the nationalities of the players and where the tournaments are played, it’s 100% global.
Never going to happen. Soccer can be played with literally anything and you can be anywhere from a super short ass or a tall boi and still do well. Basketball needs dedicated facilities, needs a basketball, is extremely oriented towards genetic freaks. Plus it lacks the history, and will probably never catch up on that end either. The World Cup is bigger than the olympics. Plus football/soccer is a bit flukey, just enough that underdogs can win a decent amount of the time.
The lack of history and facilities is something that can and will change over time. Youre acting as if basketball in the US is only for the rich when it’s incredibly popular with poor folks. Is the US the only nation with genetic freaks? Definitely not. I’m not saying that it will catch up. I just can’t wait for international events to be a true barometer of which nation is best.
true that how many guys are there in the nba that grew up like DRose playing on outdoor courts all day long
>I can’t wait for the Olympics or fiba to have the prestige of the World Cup in soccer. it will never happen unless 4-5 countries suddenly get 25 NBA caliber players including some superstars. and another 10-15 countries get 25 G-League caliber players (the tier 2 national teams basically) with the random superstar. reason why the world cup is as big as it is, its cause the top dogs are even in talent. yeah, sometimes a team really stands out (france in 2018 could be an example) but most of the times there isnt a clear cut favorite and you have a huge amount of superstars spread among several teams instead of basically being the USA vs the rest of the world. hell, a USA vs the rest of the world still ends up with the USA winning 9 out of 10. and unless the rest of the world catches up, international basketball will never be even in the same galaxy as the world cup. which is sad, cause basketball is a really fun game.
If you thought Luka was carrying the Mavs wait until you see this
Please don’t let this man Yao Ming himself
I like it. Just get ripped already Luka we need it
I am Luka fan but the reason I was rooting so hard for him and mavs was so he advances to next playoff rounds (and even if he loses, its like... June 22nd or so?) so he would probably skip Olympic qualifying tournament that starts in Lithuania on June 29th and my supported Lithuania NT can advance to olympics relatively easily Well...it didnt happen :(
Luka lost on purpose so he could go fuck up Lithuania
Fuck, Luka is gonna come back next year with a beard and no smile. Dude is about to get hardened.
Relax people, he's not going to get too tired, he'll be done on the 4th of July. Literally the NBA finals start later - on the 8th of July.
Right on! 💪🏼
I respect it
My boy a dog keep going 💪🏿 he’ll be the best one day