Preliminary Olympics Rosters

[giberish]

Can the Spurs and NBA risk Wemby playing in this?

Why wouldn't Wemby represent his country at Olympics taking place in his country? It's his time to shine!

Not to mention that the Olympics and prep will take less time than a long playoff run. For a young guy with no health issues who's season ended mid-April playing in the Olympics isn't an issue.

The issue comes with guys who play into June and then also do high-stress international play. No downtime.

[SK21209]

Can the Spurs and NBA risk Wemby playing in this?

Spurs would risk a lot more by preventing Wemby from playing. It's the Olympics, at home, an opportunity most athletes dont even have in their career, even the longest tenured ones like Lebron. And the NBA is going to be the biggest beneficiary of the olympics tournament.

If France does this right they can elevate Wembanyama to global superstardom overnight, similar to Yao Ming. The marketing is almost more important than his actual play this summer.

We're also talking about a 20 year old kid that's going to get better and better with more and more reps. I think its going to be great for his on-court development as well.

[Chuck Everett]

Can the Spurs and NBA risk Wemby playing in this?

His Hometown. They didn't make the playoffs, so they've been off for months and he gets to use the Olympics to ramp up for the season. You couldn't ask for a better summer for Victor after the rookie season he had. He's primed to have a monster second season.

[Chuck Everett]

Fournier is also a pretty darn good FIBA player. I expect he'll ball out again.

[Pachinko_]

Y’all are going to learn the name Nadir Hifi this summer. And when they beat the US, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

One of the best shot makers in Europe IMO. Dude really has those contested threes down. We'll see how that translates to elite FIBA ball though.

I love how the french announcers say his name nadir ee-fee
I wonder whats the right way of saying it in Arabic (I'm guessing it's originally Arabic?)

If he ever makes it to the NBA I'm gonna call him "Technics" or "MK2"
Best HiFi turntables ever

[Mirotic12]

France is stupid for keeping Thomas Heurtel banned from the team. They have no actual point guard without him. Even though he's bad on defense, and he's ball dominant on offense, he's the only actual point guard they have, and without him, they were a complete disaster at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Stupid move by their federation.

Another stupid move also by their head coach Vincent Collet, to not select Sylvain Francisco for the point guard position. He's a scoring point guard, and not a real creator, organizer, and pick and roll guy like Huertel is, but he's a way more talented and skilled offensive player than any of the guards they selected. He's clearly better than guys like Albicy, Hayes, Maledon, Strazel, Okobo, and Ntilikina are.

Just stupid all around to not have Heurtel and Francisco as the point guard selections.

Ntlikina and to some degree, Hayes, were hyped up, but not by much. I wouldn't call Okobo or Maledon overhyped, they just didn't work out in the NBA, nothing to see here.

Okobo is pretty good Euroleague player, but he is 6'4 and he is just not very athletic at all, and is a guy who kind off decent at many things offensively, but not great at anything, so at NBA level, he is just nothing. He is probably more complete player than someone like Sam Houser, but Sam Houser can catch and shoot any 3 at 46% clip, so he is just much better suited to be a 10th. man in the NBA.

Okobo isn't a good EuroLeague player. He's just a stat padder and not very good at anything at all.

[Mirotic12]

Damn, I missed Fall is not here, I just assumed that he would. Why isn't he there, injury? France is absolutely stacked at center, I think Louvergne is very good, and he wouldn't even make France's center top 5, like no chance. But Fall is still third best center of theirs behind Wembanyama and Gobert IMO.

Just too much competition at the center spot. Wemby and Gobert are no brainers and it's hard to pass on Lessort after his last 2 seasons. There are only 12 spots and they dont really need a 4th center.

I am big Lessort fan, but I much rather have Fall as third/second center. Lessort is an athletic garbage man finisher, he is kind off overlaps with Gobert. Fall is one of the best post centers/passers right now, he offers completely different dimension of play than what Gobert and Wembanyma will offer. If its not injury but just Collet choice, do not understand this decision.

Especially considering guard rotation is on a weaker side, I would take a big who can create for himself and others in half court. Lessort is good as long as his guards create for him. Weird choice IMO.

We on Lithuanian side have similar conundrum. I think Motiejunas is our third best center hands down, but do we need him as third guy, when SAbonis and Valanciunas already on the team? guys who can score in the post, but cant switch. I imagine guy like Echodas would be a better pick for third center for Lithuanians, just because he is different. Fall isn't even worse than Lessort, if he was actually worse, than I would understand. Fall is main center on a team that has Milutinov, wtf?

Lessort is a hugely overrated player. He's an athletic small ball five that runs the floor well and is a great finisher, but that's about all he has offensively. He's an ok rebounder and off the ball shot blocker, but it's not like he's any good on defense other than that. He's not even good at covering on switches on the perimeter, because he's not that quick laterally.

PIR is a ridiculously overrated, overused, and overvalued stat in Europe, and for whatever reason, it has all of this importance, even though it's a fairly unimportant and meaningless stat. Lessort just happens to be the exact kind of player that benefits the most from the PIR stat, because players like him will have the most perfect fit to what PIR values the most and devalues the least. They put him in the best five team, and he's nowhere remotely close to being the best center in Europe, not even by a huge stretch.

Wemby, Gobert, Fall, Poirier are all better centers than he is.

[ROballer]

I'm really waiting to see how the Bahamas team is shaping up.

They probably will have Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield, Ayton, Kai Jones.

5 star recruit Donnie Freeman(Syracuse) is confirmed to be in as well. VJ Edgecombe(Baylor) will probably soon follow.

Both were in the McDonalds All American game a few months ago.
They are kids but both can be lottery picks next year.


They are also in touch with the Mobley brothers and Naz Reid to potentially play as well. They also talked with Klay Thompson.
I don't know how that works, since he already played for team USA. But his father is Bahamian and his brother Mychel played for the Bahamas as well.


**** Spain, I want the upset.

[DaGawd]

I'm really waiting to see how the Bahamas team is shaping up.

They probably will have Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield, Ayton, Kai Jones.

5 star recruit Donnie Freeman(Syracuse) is confirmed to be in as well. VJ Edgecombe(Baylor) will probably soon follow.

Both were in the McDonalds All American game a few months ago.
They are kids but both can be lottery picks next year.


They are also in touch with the Mobley brothers and Naz Reid to potentially play as well. They also talked with Klay Thompson.
I don't know how that works, since he already played for team USA. But his father is Bahamian and his brother Mychel played for the Bahamas as well.


**** Spain, I want the upset.

brunson>>>>>>>haliburton

[LordCovington33]

Wow, France has a damn smorgasbord of over-hyped guards that have been busts in the NBA: Killian Hayes, Frankie Smokes, Ellie Okobo, Theo Maledon... gd.

The Aussie squad looks pretty good. Looks like they have the potential to be a really good team defensively, but I'm not too sure about their offense. Patty Mills is old and I don't know much about a lot of their non-nba guys like Jack White.

Damn, I miss the Boomers squad from the last Olympics, but there comes a time when the new guard has to replace the old.

[FollowTheSound]

Canada winning it all

[Mirotic12]

I'm really waiting to see how the Bahamas team is shaping up.

They probably will have Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield, Ayton, Kai Jones.

5 star recruit Donnie Freeman(Syracuse) is confirmed to be in as well. VJ Edgecombe(Baylor) will probably soon follow.

Both were in the McDonalds All American game a few months ago.
They are kids but both can be lottery picks next year.


They are also in touch with the Mobley brothers and Naz Reid to potentially play as well. They also talked with Klay Thompson.
I don't know how that works, since he already played for team USA. But his father is Bahamian and his brother Mychel played for the Bahamas as well.


**** Spain, I want the upset.

If they let all of these players play for Bahamas, it's the same kind of ridiculous nonsense that they allowed Nigeria to pull. Other teams are strictly allowed only one naturalized player. It's ridiculous for certain teams to be allowed to skirt that rule, and have as many as they want.

[txusto]

I'm really waiting to see how the Bahamas team is shaping up.

They probably will have Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield, Ayton, Kai Jones.

5 star recruit Donnie Freeman(Syracuse) is confirmed to be in as well. VJ Edgecombe(Baylor) will probably soon follow.

Both were in the McDonalds All American game a few months ago.
They are kids but both can be lottery picks next year.


They are also in touch with the Mobley brothers and Naz Reid to potentially play as well. They also talked with Klay Thompson.
I don't know how that works, since he already played for team USA. But his father is Bahamian and his brother Mychel played for the Bahamas as well.


**** Spain, I want the upset.

If FIBA allows Bahamas to play Klay, Luka, Jokic and a time traveller peak Michael Jordan they have a chance!

[Bornstellar]

Really interested to see the Wemby/Gobert frontcourt

[Bornstellar]

Can the Spurs and NBA risk Wemby playing in this?

Not really up to them. All of us Spurs fans would prefer he didn't play over the summer but you cannot stop international guys from competing (especially in the Olympics) and we're used to it, so it's whatever

[hippesthippo]

I'm really waiting to see how the Bahamas team is shaping up.

They probably will have Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield, Ayton, Kai Jones.

5 star recruit Donnie Freeman(Syracuse) is confirmed to be in as well. VJ Edgecombe(Baylor) will probably soon follow.

Both were in the McDonalds All American game a few months ago.
They are kids but both can be lottery picks next year.


They are also in touch with the Mobley brothers and Naz Reid to potentially play as well. They also talked with Klay Thompson.
I don't know how that works, since he already played for team USA. But his father is Bahamian and his brother Mychel played for the Bahamas as well.


**** Spain, I want the upset.

If FIBA allows Bahamas to play Klay, Luka, Jokic and a time traveller peak Michael Jordan they have a chance!

Wait, whaaaaaaat?

[ankle420breaker]

Y’all are going to learn the name Nadir Hifi this summer. And when they beat the US, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

All-name team nominee there fo sho.

Hifi is himfim

Sent from my SM-S921U using RealGM mobile app

[LuDux1]

Lithuania : C Laurynas Birutis, Jonas Valančiūnas, Donatas Motiejūnas, Domantas Sabonis F: Tadas Sedekerskis, Edgaras Ulanovas, Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Rokas Giedraitis, Arnas Butkevičius; G Deividas Sirvydis, Marius Grigonis, Tomas Dimša,
Lukas Lekavičius, Rokas Jokubaitis.
Iggy Brazdeikis out due to health problems, some doubts about JV (free agency) and Butkevicius (health). Few players will join main camp from 2nd team

[Gusto1903]

Lol, I always thought Mathisse Thybulle was French or something. Never wouldve guessed him to be Aussie

[_jin]

New Zealand, Brazil, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Angola preliminary rosters for the qualifying tournaments.

Read on Twitter