I agree with this. Just watched their first game....Puerto Rico hung for far too long. Not sure they will win gold next summer if they run this talent level out.
The whole, "can't wait to watch true team players, not stars play" crowd better come correct. The world is catching up and we can't put 2nd stringers out there anymore.
Former Trail Blazer Wenyen Gabriel played for South Sudan against Brazil yesterday in Melbourne. Current Blazer Matisse Thybulle, former Blazers Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, and summer league Blazer Duop Reath all played in Australia’s 97-41 victory over Venezuela. Josh Giddey (and Venezuela’s ineptitude) made Reath look like the second coming of Hakeem Olajuwon, top scoring with 26 (86%). Giddey almost had a triple double in only 24 minutes with 14 (71%)/8/9.
I'm annoyed at Josh Giddey being good because it means that OKC won't trade for Dame and give us a pile of those sweet sweet draft picks. But I'm still not sure that SGA and Giddey are a good combination.
Nice up and under layup by Tisse at 4:21 Australia very slow out of the blocks, and kept bricking wide open threes, whilst Brazil hit contested threes. I’m not worried about that stuff, we’ll work it out before the real games start. I am concerned about our pick and roll defence however. We were showing hard, and when the corner defenders helped Brazil had wide open threes. We’ll be destroyed if we defend like that at the World Cup.
Watching that I kept hearing Bruno Caboclo mentioned. Remember when he was supposed to be the Next Giannis? Well, apparently he played well in (checks notes) Germany last year...
Much better performance against South Sudan. Tisse top scored with 17 @ 75% including 5/6 from three (he was 5/5 at one point), in only 15 minutes. Reath scored 15 @ 75% in 16 minutes. Having Tisse, Green, and Exum on court at the same time was great defensively, and very fun watching them run and gun. About a third of the South Sudanese players grew up in Australia, but chose to represent their birth country (about half if you include injured players not on the roster). The 16 year old Khaman Maluach looks exciting. Unfortunately the one thing you don't want happening in a warm up game happened, with Jock Landale going down with a bad ankle roll. Looks like he'll at least miss the World Cup, waiting on scans to see just how bad it is. Don't look if you're squeamish. Spoiler
The US team is fun to watch. Steve Kerr proves he can coach fun basketball even when he does not have 3 hall of famers on the roster. (* and yes, there is Blazers content, Blazers legends Hart and Georgios Papagiannis were both on the court in the last game)
The refs called this game extremely tightly, breathing on someone warranted a foul. Mills and Ingles shooting woes continue, neither of them could throw it into the ocean right now. Defence looked better, still showing hard, but rotating better. Tisse was immense on defence, his anticipation was next level, he was everywhere! France would think they were safe to make a pass, or get a shot off, and Tisse would come flying in from nowhere to get a steal/tip the ball to a teammate/block the shot. Ingles with some great trolling. He shoved Gobert in the back, sending him sprawling, Gobert got up looking like he was going to punch someone, saw that it was Ingles, and did nothing. Later in the game, Ingles was constantly trash talking Yabusele, probably for suplexing Exum in Euroleague. Ingles just kept at it, to the point that even Gobert and Fournier were laughing.
The USA has such an easy draw at this World Cup. They won't face any of Australia, Canada, France, or Spain until the semi's at the earliest. So all the US has to do to win the World Cup, is win the easy ones, and win two games against tougher teams. What a joke of a draw. No excuses for the the US coming home with anything less than the World Cup trophy.
Alright, cards on the table, I don't think Australia will do very well at this World Cup. We're in a transition phase, trying to integrate the old guard with new blood, and they're not gelling. I'm really worried that Patty's shot has gone, he's 35 almost 36, and his shot keeps coming up short. It looks like his legs have gone, and once a smaller shooters legs go, they can be out of the game very quickly. We might stand a chance if coach Goorjan goes more with the new blood, with limited minutes of the vets in short bursts; but he hasn't done that in practice games, he's leaned heavily on the vets. I think we'll be out in the quarters. Obviously I'd love to be proven wrong.
Philippines v Dominican Republic was more competitive rgan I expected. Kat played well but he should have dominated. Clarkson was the only reason Philippines was in the game but he had costly turnovers and fouled out
