I don't know about that, Roscoe. I suspect it'll be more like Brazil's situation in the World Cup. They always have the most talent and everyone always picks them as the favorite to win, which they still do more often than anyone else, just not every time.
Alright! A matchup with the US. Will be quite a challenge as this Aussie team is but a shell of its former self. We are missing a couple of good players and our crop of veterans are all gone. Andrew Bogut is the only recognisable player outside of Oz pretty much. If only we still had Andrew Gaze... In case you don't know who he is, he won a championship with the Spurs in 99, but didn't get much of a go. He is the all-time olympic scoring leader, and 2nd all-time world championship scorer. He used to carry us in international play. I wish I could find some of those games. His stats from the Aussie league are insane and will never be beaten. You can find more info here. Anyway, thats just me trying to psyche myself up for the game and a small tribute to our main man. I'll be happy with a competitive performance from the Boomers. Basic Summary http://www.interbasket.net/players/gaze.htm In-depth Summary http://users.chariot.net.au/~spcardwd/gaze2.htm Go team!
It is still but a dream but I would like to see the U.S. vs Ser/Mont in the finals. To see like the top six draft picks in '03 on the floor together would be something. In order to make it more fair, though, could we split them up so Darko does not have to take them all on at once?
Without overly hyping the subject (for fear of igniting the Darko-lover haters)... Out of 278 players in the FIBA Championships, our former towel boy is currently 13th in ppg, 5th in rebs, and 1st in blocks. Our former chopped liver point guard is 4th in ppg and 4th in assists. At least Delfino is breaking out... 14th in steals and a decent 9.8 ppg. The Pistons may very well have a systematic talent recognition problem.
is it me or does bosh suck. he looks really bad out there in that 12th man role. but the fact that we all know he's a beast in the nba brings up a funny point to me. darko looked kinda bad in the 12th man role and he's tearing up the world championships and is the man on his team. isn't it funny how oppurtunity or lack of oppurtunity can alter the perception of the quality of a player. right now based only on how they are doing in the world championships who can honestly say they would take bosh over darko??? i don't think anybody would be saying those "man we could have drafted bosh" comments.
not to mention darko started out the tourney with some pretty bad to average games. he has really picked it up as the tourney goes on. lets hope delfino gets some minutes when he comes back home.
He is another surprising statistic. There are only 2 players in the FIBA Championships who have more blocked shots than personal fouls. Darko is leading with a ridiculous 1.6:1.0 ratio. Gasol is 2nd at 1.1:1.0. I always thought that Darko's biggest weakness was that he was foul prone and could be pump faked easily. Maybe he caught on.
Bosh put up 20 points yesterday... He was saying he hardly gets to touch the ball with all of the other talented players... let's just say the talent pool goes much deeper than the Serbian team... Bosh doesn't play near the minutes as Darko... the Serbian coach is using Darko as a primary option right now.... I wish that would have happened last year.
It is an interesting number. Only four NBA players were above 1 all of last season (regular season) - Kirilenko - 1.36 Griffin (Eddie) - 1.18 Camby - 1.16 Wallace (Ben) - 1.10 Then Mourning at 0.98, Brand at 0.89, etc. Gasol was 0.83 in the NBA. Could be a good number to consider when evaluating defense via stats.
darko put up 16 against the hawks once upon a time in a piston jersey. when bosh was given the minutes and shots he produced and showed what he was capable of. darko hardly touched the court with all the talented players on the pistons. let's just say the talent pool on the pistons goes much deeper than the raptors. bosh i'm sure has probably tripled darko's minutes in nba game time. the raptors are using bosh as the primary option. my post wasn't to really bash bosh it was just to point out how similar they look when given similar playing time. even though bosh is playing a little more than darko was playing on the pistons. just think if roles were reversed in the nba some of you would be calling bosh a bust right about now instead of darko.
maybe i'm watching a different world championships. ok maybe he doesn't suck but he sure isn't playing like the guy that had some people wishing we drafted him instead of darko.
This may be why... http://tinyurl.com/hpb5h And before you cry, it's per 48 with Bosh playing with Larry, Curly and Arajuo in Toronto. For $700k less per year (average) Bosh buys you a lot more draft pick.
Getting back to the tourney... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/sports/basketball/25hoops.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin http://cbs.sportsline.com/nba/story/9619524 Btw, Tony Meija is a big hater. Check out his Greece vs. China drivel.
yup. good link it proves my point. do a per 40 minute stat line using the fiba games and the results will be the total opposite. darko would look like the definite better player which in reality isn't true. they are both good players. yeah and the money thing only applies if you think of bosh being drafted later. i was pointing out how people say we should have maybe drafted bosh instead of darko. which means he would have been a # 2 pick and making the same as darko.
Ok, I'm really not into following Darko, but here are the 40 minute stats. Bosh has not been stinking it up on a per minute basis as bad as some would believe. Like I wrote, "it's you".
yes. he has been stinking it up. bosh had one good game. just like in the 2004 season darko had one good game. that game saved bosh on a per minute basis. just from watching though he's looked bad and darko has looked good. he looked like he couldn't get a rythm in limited minutes. statistically they are similar but in reality darko has had a much better world championships by a very big margin. even though we know if bosh were put into darko's position he would have a very good worlds too. it's just difficult for bosh to do it in limited minutes. maybe he has blood flow problems.
A guy stuck to the bench, traded for zip for being crap, is now leading his country, and crushing Bosh in the 40 minute stat (Beats him in almost every category, except percentage, but Darko takes deeper shots). If Detroit drafted Bosh, he'd be an even bigger bust than Darko was portrayed to be. Question, last time a team let a hyped player go (saying he was a bust) and that player proved them wrong? And who's fault would it be? The former team? Or the former player?
