Eurobasket 2015

[GermanStandard]

So i guess most of you guys in America wont be watching the Euro Championship and probably Dirks last big tournament (if they fail to reach qualification for Olympia next year).

There are a lot of NBA Players now who will play for their respective Countries. Probably most ever. Also some promising young european Talent whom some will make the NBA.

4 Groups with 6 Teams each will play the Groupstage in 4 Countries.

4 Teams of each Group qualify for the 2nd Group Stage.

After that its QF, SF, F

Here are the Groups and notable players:

Group A

Russia (Monya, Zubkov, Baburin)
Bosnia&Herzegovina (Renfroe, Kikanovic, Gordic)
France (Parker, Diaw, Gobert, Batum, De Colo, Fournier)
Finland (Wilson, Huff, Murphy)
Poland (Gortat, Cel, Slaughter, Kulig)
Israel (Casspi, Fischer, Dawson, Mekel)

France should steamroll this group. Russia lost almost every good player and will have a hard time getting the 2nd place in that group. Poland and Israel should qualify as well.

Group B

Iceland (Vilhjálmsson, Sigurdarson, Stefansson)
Turkey (Ilyasova, Dixon, Erden, Savas, Mahmutoglu)
Spain (P.Gasol, Mirotic, Llull, Fernandez)
Serbia (Teodosic, Bogdanovic, Raduljica, Milutinov, Kuzmic)
Italy (Bargnani, Belinelli, Gallinari, Datome)
Germany (Nowitzki, Schröder, Pleiss, Gavel)

Thats the group of death. Insane that this could happen.
Spain and Serbia should battle for the 1st place in that group. Italy for the first time plays with all NBA Players. They should battle for 3rd and Germany and Turkey (who miss a lot of talent with Asik and Kanter f.ex) should battle for 4th. Iceland wont have a shot.

Group C

Netherlands (Williams, Smeulders, de Jong)
Greece (Antetokounmpo, Calathes, Spanoulis, Zisis, Koufos)
Croatia (Bogdanovic, Hezonja, Planinic, Rudez, Saric, Tomic)
Slovenia (Dragic, Klobucar, Slokar, Zupan, Nikolic)
Macedonia (Hendriks, Antic, Stojanovski)
Georgia (Pullen, Pachulia, Sanadze)

Pretty weak group. Croatia is an underdog for winning it all after a strong summer and having that much young (NBA) Talent. Greece should be the favourite though to win the group. Slovenia should come 3rd while Macedonia and Georgia will battle for 4th. Netherlands wont win a game here.

Group D

Estonia (Dorbek, Veideman, Raadik)
Latvia (Bertans, Strelnieks, Blums, Berzins)
Lithuania (Gudaitis, Motiejunas, Seibutis, Pocius, Valanciunas)
Ukraine (Randle, Zaytsev, Fesenko)
Belgium (Hervelle, Tabu, Mwema, De Zeeuw)
Czech Republic (Barton, Vesely, Palyza)

Probably the weakest group or the baltic group.

Lithuania should steamroll the group while the rest is pretty much open. Latvia should make it but otherwise i have no clue who will qualify.

The funny thing is that "small" teams like Ukraine, Poland, Finland, MKD etc have some Americans in their teams that got the citizenship (well not sure if everything went right but who cares ).


Favourites should be defending Champs France, Spain, Greece and Croatia.