Team USA Basketball 2024 (Men's)
- Thread starter Capt. Factorial
- Start date
Curious to see what the French team looks like in Los Angeles. Wembanyama, Strazel and Coulibaly are all 21 or younger, and I'm sure that Yabusele will be there, even though he'll be 32 by then. Ntilikina will only be 29, but it'll be a fairly "old" 29. Aside from him and Cordinier (and maybe Lessort), the rest of the team looks like a tossup. Five of the players on France's roster will be 35 or older in 2028. And, while USA is known to send some oldheads to the Olympics, with all due respect to Nic "Why the **** he in?" Batum, he's not exactly the LeBron James of France... Is anybody tapped into French basketball to know what their youth program is hitting on?
good performance from France, didn't expect it
they're a team with good talent pool, but usually lack discipline, with average coach... They can beat anyone, and lose to everyone... Example: they can beat Greg's US team in 2019 and lose to Bosnia three years later (nurkić and bunch of scrubs) at the group stage.
last year they didn't passed the group stage
@Mr. S£im Citrus , if you're interested in french talents, look for the INSEP... Those are their youth NT's in multiple sports. For example french U20 NT plays french second division one season as a team... That probably means that those young players are leaving their respective clubs to join INSEP. Not sure if that's the case anymore.
they're a team with good talent pool, but usually lack discipline, with average coach... They can beat anyone, and lose to everyone... Example: they can beat Greg's US team in 2019 and lose to Bosnia three years later (nurkić and bunch of scrubs) at the group stage.
last year they didn't passed the group stage
@Mr. S£im Citrus , if you're interested in french talents, look for the INSEP... Those are their youth NT's in multiple sports. For example french U20 NT plays french second division one season as a team... That probably means that those young players are leaving their respective clubs to join INSEP. Not sure if that's the case anymore.
This is really for @krylia sovetov but I'm going to piggyback on some of this:
I think that if the USA only won every 3 or 4 cycles we might care again, but in order for winning to mean something again winning has to be anything but a foregone conclusion. I think there needs to be a notion that 4 or 5 teams can win any given tournament for winning to feel special. I think that is why World Cup soccer is special, but I actually think your average Liverpool (just to pick a team I loosely follow that can actually win) fan probably wants to win the Premiere League and the Champions League and if they lost either because a player got hurt in international duty they'd lose their marbles even if England won that tournament. "Club before Country" is a thing that you will hear in footie culture. Even in MLS circles where USMNT winning would be a dream, a lot of fans do not like their players doing NT duty, especially when MLS plays during international breaks as they are known to do given MLS is one of the few leagues in the northern hemisphere to play during the summer.
But back to Slim's point 2 - You're spot on. And there's 12 players on the roster, so at minimum there's 18 teams in the Association that don't have a player on the team. And at least 5-10 of those teams are going to have players that their fans felt slighted over having been excluded over player from their rival team. You've also got players that made the team like Jayson Tatum who's fans are feeling slighted right now (I haven't really seen/noticed Tyrese playing much either). So there's definitely going to be some schadenfreude going on in the event that a few players on the rival team that you hate lose the gold medal. The 2004 team has a lot of great players on it who redeemed themselves but there's a few players who forever have that stench attached to their legacy and their haters aren't afraid to remind them.
I think that if the USA only won every 3 or 4 cycles we might care again, but in order for winning to mean something again winning has to be anything but a foregone conclusion. I think there needs to be a notion that 4 or 5 teams can win any given tournament for winning to feel special. I think that is why World Cup soccer is special, but I actually think your average Liverpool (just to pick a team I loosely follow that can actually win) fan probably wants to win the Premiere League and the Champions League and if they lost either because a player got hurt in international duty they'd lose their marbles even if England won that tournament. "Club before Country" is a thing that you will hear in footie culture. Even in MLS circles where USMNT winning would be a dream, a lot of fans do not like their players doing NT duty, especially when MLS plays during international breaks as they are known to do given MLS is one of the few leagues in the northern hemisphere to play during the summer.
But back to Slim's point 2 - You're spot on. And there's 12 players on the roster, so at minimum there's 18 teams in the Association that don't have a player on the team. And at least 5-10 of those teams are going to have players that their fans felt slighted over having been excluded over player from their rival team. You've also got players that made the team like Jayson Tatum who's fans are feeling slighted right now (I haven't really seen/noticed Tyrese playing much either). So there's definitely going to be some schadenfreude going on in the event that a few players on the rival team that you hate lose the gold medal. The 2004 team has a lot of great players on it who redeemed themselves but there's a few players who forever have that stench attached to their legacy and their haters aren't afraid to remind them.
don't follow much french league...
well this INSEP thing speaks volumes, imagine a selection of best US talents playing one ncaa season together in a same team.
in europe they have the biggest pool of talents, and historically speaking, they have the largest number of foreign players in the NBA, after canadians (who, by european standards, shouldn't even be considered foreigners - one team is in canada, right?). so they will gather some interesting bunch around wemby, one way or another.
for everything else, you need to ask NBA scouts. don't follow much french league...
well this INSEP thing speaks volumes, imagine a selection of best US talents playing one ncaa season together in a same team.
in europe they have the biggest pool of talents, and historically speaking, they have the largest number of foreign players in the NBA, after canadians (who, by european standards, shouldn't even be considered foreigners - one team is in canada, right?). so they will gather some interesting bunch around wemby, one way or another.
for everything else, you need to ask NBA scouts. don't follow much french league...