HajdukSplit
Registered User
As you all know this summer its the Summer Olympics in Rio and the men's basketball tournament still has to fill out the three remaining teams needed to complete the tournament. The 9 teams who have so far qualified are: Brazil (hosts), USA, Spain, Lithuania, Australia, China, Nigeria, Argentina and Venezuela
A total of 18 teams will compete in July for the final three spots and there are some big names in the field including France, Serbia, Greece along with potential surprise packages like Canada and Latvia
The tournament is separated into 3 mini-qualifying tournaments hosted by three cities (Belgrade, Turin and Manila) and each of these mini-tournaments has two groups of three, with the top two advancing to the semifinals (A1 vs. B2; B1 vs. A2), the winners of these two semifinals play in a final and the winner of that advances to Rio
QQT Belgrade seems the most routine on paper with Serbia getting a very manageable group (plus they are the hosts). The Czechs and Latvians are improving basketball nations but can you really see them winning a game in Belgrade? Latvia will need Porzingis to play to have any hope
QQT Manila is very interesting, firstly its probably not logistically ideal to be playing games in Philippines. Group A looks tough with Canada, Turkey and even Senegal who performed well at the 2014 World Cup beating Croatia and Puerto Rico. If Canada bring their strongest team they can be dangerous as well. In Group B, France should progress and should be favorites to progress to Rio but a full strength Canada could cause problems
QQT Turin, think all the teams in this grouping will be happy with the draw, no Serbia/France and the three Euro teams all have decent potential despite underperforming at recent tournaments. Greece have the easiest group and should win it meaning they will likely face Italy/Croatia in the semis. You fully expect the final to be Greece vs. ITA/CRO, Greece will be slight favorites but Italy are hosts and will have their host of NBA talents. Croatia underperformed massively in EuroBasket but have a great generation coming through, might be a few years too early though
My picks: Serbia, France, Italy
A total of 18 teams will compete in July for the final three spots and there are some big names in the field including France, Serbia, Greece along with potential surprise packages like Canada and Latvia
The tournament is separated into 3 mini-qualifying tournaments hosted by three cities (Belgrade, Turin and Manila) and each of these mini-tournaments has two groups of three, with the top two advancing to the semifinals (A1 vs. B2; B1 vs. A2), the winners of these two semifinals play in a final and the winner of that advances to Rio
QQT Belgrade seems the most routine on paper with Serbia getting a very manageable group (plus they are the hosts). The Czechs and Latvians are improving basketball nations but can you really see them winning a game in Belgrade? Latvia will need Porzingis to play to have any hope
QQT Manila is very interesting, firstly its probably not logistically ideal to be playing games in Philippines. Group A looks tough with Canada, Turkey and even Senegal who performed well at the 2014 World Cup beating Croatia and Puerto Rico. If Canada bring their strongest team they can be dangerous as well. In Group B, France should progress and should be favorites to progress to Rio but a full strength Canada could cause problems
QQT Turin, think all the teams in this grouping will be happy with the draw, no Serbia/France and the three Euro teams all have decent potential despite underperforming at recent tournaments. Greece have the easiest group and should win it meaning they will likely face Italy/Croatia in the semis. You fully expect the final to be Greece vs. ITA/CRO, Greece will be slight favorites but Italy are hosts and will have their host of NBA talents. Croatia underperformed massively in EuroBasket but have a great generation coming through, might be a few years too early though
My picks: Serbia, France, Italy