FIBA World Championship: 1st Round Preview

After the battles and struggles of both the 2002 World champs in Indianapolis and the Olympics in Athens the world will now turn to Japan to witness some of the best Basketball players in the world. With the host country automatically gaining entry to the tournament Japan will make a surprise return to the international basketball stage and will be very tough in front of their home crowd.
Group A

Argentina
France
Lebanon
Nigeria
Serbia and Montenegro
Venezuela

How I see it: With 3 international Powerhouses in this group expect teams like Lebanon and Venezuela to struggle. The experienced Argentinean team is a strong contender to repeat their Olympic success and are going in as one of the favourites. France will also be in medal contention and will be lead by 5 NBA Players who will bring vital experience to the younger French players.

(1) Argentina
(2) France
(3) Serbia and Montenegro
(4) Nigeria
Venezuela
Lebanon

Group B

Angola
Germany
Japan
New Zealand
Panama
Spain

How I see it: Being one of the weaker groups this group should go to either Spain or Germany however as everybody should know teams like New Zealand and Japan and well known for spoiling other people's plans and may even play that roll once again. New Zealand has a good chance of finishing third behind the two favourites but Japan will be tough at home and that Japan/New Zealand match will be crucial. Panama and Angola most likely won't stand a chance but anything can happen in the game of Basketball.

(1) Spain
(2) Germany
(3) New Zealand
(4) Japan
Angola
Panama
Group C

Australia
Brazil
Greece
Lithuania
Qatar
Turkey

How I see it:Another very tough group which will be heavily contested. After Brazil’s solid build-up prior to the Championship I can see them being a tough team to beat especially if Leandro Barbosa can come to life. Turkey have the potential to be great on the international stage but still haven’t gelled well enough just yet, However they should qualify quite comfortably. The 3rd and 4th places of the Group will be closely fought out between Australia and Lithuania meaning both Qatar and Greece will un-luckily be left out.

(1) Brazil
(2) Turkey
(3) Australia
(4) Lithuania
Greece
Qatar
Group D

China
Italy
Puerto Rico
Senegal
Slovenia
United States

How I see it:Possibly the weakest group in the competition is Group D bar the USA, who should win this group with relative ease and go through un-defeated and head into the second round with alot of confidence. China can still be a tough team with Yao entering the stage and despite their poor build up expect them to advance. Teams like Puerto Rico, Slovenia and Italy all have a decent chance of making it through so expect alot of competitive games between those three nations.

(1) USA
(2) China
(3) Puerto Rico
(4) Slovenia
Italy
Senegal

Players to watch out for

Boris Diaw - France


Coming off an amazing season with both the French national team and the Phoenix Suns expect Boris to have a huge tournament and be one of the standout players. His versatility and experience are going to be crucial if France are to succeed and contend for a medal.

Leandro Barbosa - Brazil

Leandro can open up virtually any defence whether he's playing for Phoenix or his home country of Brazil. If things go LB's way and his jumper is going LB and Brazil can go very far in this tournament especially with the likes of Tiago Splitter and Anderson Varejao playing the supportive role to Barbosa.

Carmelo Anthony - USA

Carmelo has been outstanding in the TEAM USA's build up and despite his mingly Ankle injury look for Carmelo to continue his strong play and be one o the true starts in Japan.

Manu Ginobili - Argentina

Coming off a sub-par NBA Season and a poor performance in the NBA Playoffs Manu Ginobili has alot to prove. Expect Manu to bring his A game and prove alot of the doubters wrong. Pearing up with the likes of Andres Nocioni and Carlos Delfino Argentina and Manu Ginobili are going to be hard to stop.

Craig Bradshaw - New Zealand

Coming off a career year with Winthrop University in Wisconsin Craig Bradshaw has been simply superb in New Zealand's pre-championship build up games and even out-shun Andrew Bogut when NZ and Australia meet a month ago. Expect a huge tournament from Craig and expect him to shine and hopefully put himself in contention to be drafted in 07..

LeBron James - USA

LeBron James like Carmelo has been amazing in Team USA's build up games. Hopefully for the USA's sake he can continue his form and help win back that gold for the Americans.

Pau Gasol - Spain

[ul] [li] After a career year with Memphis Pau has chosen not to take a rest in the off-season and has returned home to play for his home country. Pau's skills are un-canny and he can do it all. If Spain are to succeed Pau most lead the way

Took me a while to write this up..Thanks for reading

Good thread, I thought Bradshaw was pretty good against the Boomers but he seems undersized... not sure what height he is but he looked alot smaller than the Aussie bigs which isn't going to help his NBA prospects.

nice thread.. but i thought france had 6 nba players :S

Petro
Turiaf
Pietrus
Parker
Diaw

I didn't count Mickael Gelabale.

Good thread, I thought Bradshaw was pretty good against the Boomers but he seems undersized... not sure what height he is but he looked alot smaller than the Aussie bigs which isn't going to help his NBA prospects.

thinking back to the NCAA Tourney, I think he's 6'10"....maybe that's his college height though, so he might be 6'9"....6'10" is my guess though....you might find he's got a solid wingspan though, but we'll see....I'm hoping for a Sean Marks-like WC's for Bradshaw....anything better will be great....but we'll see....the team's bread & butter is always gonna be Phill Jones & Kirk Penney....but would love to see Bradshaw do well....and can anyone in NZ tell me whether Mark Dickel will be playing....my dad told me he got suspended by NZ Bball for a couple of games due to smoking marijuana....


as for the tourney, anything less than a third place finish in their group, would be a disappointment for NZ....hopefully we can get to top 8....to me, that would be a successful tourney....


I predict the following:

Group A:
S & M (4-1)
Argentina (4-1)
France (4-1)
Venezuela (2-3)
Nigeria (1-4)
Lebanon (0-5)

Group B:
Spain (5-0)
Germany (4-1)
NZ (3-2)
Panama (1-4)
Japan (1-4)
Angola (1-4)

Group C:
Brazil (4-1)
Greece (3-2)
Lithuania (3-2)
Turkey (3-2)
Australia (2-3) - sorry, but they're in a tough group & have looked ordinary
Qatar (0-5)

Group D:
USA (5-0)
Slovenia (4-1)
China (2-3)
Italy (2-3)
Puerto Rico (2-3)
Senegal (0-5)


Gold: USA
Silver: France, Spain or Germany
Bronze: Argentina

Although I hope USA don't win....

I agree with your predictions (of the thread starter), except for Greece and Italy not making the cut. Solid job.

Dickel was only suspended from the Qatar series, so he'll be fine for the actual games.

Why no pic of darko

as a turkish guy ı realy don't think we can make 2nd spot on the group cause we have very talented but also young team that can turn into either great or disaster, the game between turkey and australia will show the last qualifying team from group c ı hope that will be the turkey!!

isnt sparky dickel injured? i heard he was awaiting some results for some sort of injury?

Dickel was only suspended from the Qatar series, so he'll be fine for the actual games.

that's good to hear....we need his speed out there against Spain & Germany....if he's on his game, Dickel is a game changer....if he's not, send him to the bench

as a turkish guy ı realy don't think we can make 2nd spot on the group cause we have very talented but also young team that can turn into either great or disaster, the game between turkey and australia will show the last qualifying team from group c ı hope that will be the turkey!!

that's why I got Turkey as finishing No. 4 from Group C

isnt sparky dickel injured? i heard he was awaiting some results for some sort of injury?

nah, he became one with nature so to speak....he took a leaf out of Stephen Fleming's book (pun intended)

Slovenia won't go 4-1, no chance in hell. 3-2 or 2-3 is the more likely scenario.

who plays for slovenia anyways?

I don't know if they're playing but Nesterovic and Brezec are Slovenian right?

who plays for slovenia anyways?

With the way Fenix carries on you'd have to assume Darko's in the squad somewhere

hahaha... but seriously, i have no idea

slovenia is a team that they never like to play physical that's why ı think italy and maybe puerto rico can beat them it's hard for em to get a record smthng like 4-1 from their group

I agree with The_X for Group A.

I can see Australia going 3-2.

Slovenia will go 2-3 and advance..There are Rasho and Brezec, as well as Nachbar and Udrih from NBA. Don't count out Jaka Lakovic, one of top 5 guards in Euroleauge last 3 seasons. But true, they're too soft and rely on midrange shooting too much.

^^I agree with Marsal and if Ozbolt will be healthy then this team could do something,but the fact is they are unexpirienced.Its our first time at the world cup,so it will be interesting how they will play.They played some games this past weeks against some teams.They played alright with the worser teams,but had a lot of problems with the better teams.If I remember correctly they played with Spain,Argentina and Serbia.They lost with Spain and Argentina,but they played great against Serbia.The other opponents were preety easy to play and dominate.

After a few games under our belts (and looking at the box scores on www.fiba.com),
I predict the following:

Group A:
Argentina [5-0] (Nocioni & Ginobili are dominating)
France [4-1] (even without TP, they're still solid... lol Freddy Weis is still playing??)
Serbia [2-3] (Surprised that Darko had a shitty first game)
Nigeria [2-3] (upset Serbia with help from MAMADOU N'DIAYE haha)
Lebanon [2-3]
Venezuela [0-5]


Group B:
Spain [5-0] (Interested to see Rudy Fernandez play)
Germany [4-1] (Dirk is too good)
NZ [2-3]
Angola [2-3]
Panama [1-4] (is that Ed Cota on that team?)
Japan [1-4] (No Yuta Tabuse! What's up with that?? )


Group C:
Greece [5-0] (pretty good depth on team)
Brazil [3-2] (I thought highly of them when they stayed with the US)
Lithuania [3-2]
Australia [2-3](heh, I was watching USA vs AUS in 1996 on NBA TV last week and they were talking about this great young player named Mackinnon)
Turkey [2-3] (I don't think they'll do much without Okur & Turkoglu)
Qatar [0-5] (How did they get in??)

Group D:
USA [5-0]
Slovenia [4-1] (I didn't think much of them at first, but they got a decent team)
Italy [3-2] (I was also surprised to see them demolish China)
China [2-3] (Wang Zhi-Zhi came back for the first game... I hate how stupid call him Zhoooo-Zhooo )
Puerto Rico [1-4] (I still hate Carlos Arroyo, and Peter John Ramos... Santiago has done pretty well)
Senegal [0-5]


Gold: USA
Silver: Argentina
Bronze: Spain
Germany, France & Greece have a shot at 3rd as well

interesting to see a lot of former NBA players in this

Hey Oballer at the beginng ı wasn't that excited about my Turkey, too but whether you watched our games ı don't know you could, we are doing hell of a good job by battling all around the court man we are coming big ı hope yeahhh!!

Australia [2-3](heh, I was watching USA vs AUS in 1996 on NBA TV last week and they were talking about this great young player named Mackinnon)

He had a horrific run of leg injuries not long after that, it basically eliminated his leaping ability (which was what set him apart from the rest to begin with) now he's pretty much a shadow of his former self, but still on the Australian team. Had a really nice put-back dunk over about 3 guys against Brazil.

Pau Gasol - Spain

[ul] [li] After a career year with Memphis Pau has chosen not to take a rest in the off-season and has returned home to play for his home country. Pau's skills are un-canny and he can do it all. If Spain are to succeed Pau most lead the way

No more Pau and his beard.

I'll be watching every game that's aired on TV. Will be hard though with every game starting at 6:30 AM this week.

I'll be watching every game that's aired on TV. Will be hard though with every game starting at 6:30 AM this week.

yeah man that's 3:30 AM on the west coast

there's no way I'm getting up for that...

NBA TV re-airs the games the next day, so I'll have to catch USA/China tomorrow.