The recent loss of the USA Men's National Basketball Team to Lithuania highlighted certain weaknesses in some of its players, revealing how FIBA basketball rules can expose NBA stars.
Nope, this is a narrative that Europeans use to excuse the lack of competitiveness that there's here compared to the nba. In realty they were just athletically superior, and constantly adapt the rules to the new generations of players
@@nailil5722 what makes it real basketball? If we look at the original rules that was Naismith's basketball which ended in the 70s with merge of nbl and aba (an going through some giants like George mikan and wilt chamberlain that forced the game to change it's rules)
American Basketball became too focused on flashy basketball and removed the phisicality which (should) be a trademark of the game. Offensive players have all the advantage: no hand checking, any contact is immediately called as a defensive foul, refs don't call obvious travels and carries, etc. That's why so many players are having ridiculous PPG stats. SGA averaged 31.4 - more than Michael Jordan in some of his MVP seasons. Lebron is clearly much slower than he was back in the day and still his PPG is going up.
People arguing that players in the 90s were just plumbers needs a reality check. The game has changed to commercialize it for the masses. Even if these players have more talent today, they lack so much fundamentals about the game that 90s players understood.
I HATE seeing players posting up at the free throw line and butt bumping their way to the basket. Can NBA players even score in isolation without creating space by throwing their shoulders into the defender? It's no wonder that iso-ball doesn't work in international play. It's STUPID.
@@johnceliz9061dumbest comment ever, the fundamentals of basketball change with evolution… fundamental was keeping your hand on top of the ball and only switching if necessary, should the 90s players have kept that 60s mentality? like what?
Fiba is basketball chess, weird to see on display how few nba coaches and players understand defense... I guess they think it will be fine if they just score more
Cmon NBA is still the absolute best basketball and is full of basketball chess. All the team USA coaches are absolutely elite and we've seen incredible "chess matches" from them. If you put these FIBA coaches in the NBA then theyd also look like idiots since they dont understand NBA defensive principles.
Honestly watching the NBA has become boring. You know every possession is gonna end up with a 3-ball. And whenever we don't get a three, we get a player flailing for a free throw. That's 80% of an NBA game. I only watch because of habit, but honestly the games are not as entertaining as before.
Sometimes I think the amount of basketball talent in the USA actually hurts them. The team chemistry is often not there because they don't play together for as long as european teams do and you end up with some astounding turnovers. This is of course a small part of why I think US is struggling. Just having stars is not enough anymore. Every country has a star player or two at this point.
if you look at the culture of america, and look at the videos of young players. they're all about posturing, acting tough, trying look awesome and being individual. it's a shit culture. it's not a team mentality.
Why do you assume European players get more time to play together? Sure, it might happen on few occasion if some players are on the same club team. But that can also be true for USA team. World champonship happens just as often. Is there no equivalent in Norh america for the European Championship?
@@pintiliecatalinit’s not an assumption it’s fact. It’s a must that you play on your national team in Europe or else they get punished in their domestic leagues. So some guys have been playing with each other for YEARS. In the USA there is so much talent that they don’t force guys to play.
USA strategy of having so much more talent/skill than the other team that it can overcome deficiencies like not rotating effectively on defense or isolation plays is not effective anymore.
))) your brain is not effective anymore if you think that those players sent to the world champ is best what usa can offer. If lbj, curry, durant, davis will play in world cup, 1st place is decided by default.
It not being sustainable to have the best U.S. players in the NBA also play in all international events in the offseason all the time forever when the NBA has an 82-game season is part of why the USA strategy of winning through superior talent and iso ball has limitations. Especially when Team USA doesn't pay much and also the allure of patriotism and patriotic symbols for African Americans hasn't really been supported by the recent behavior of the white Americans way into those symbols, to say the least.
@@fenzelian Where did he say it was the best US players?? USA has a much higher population than every other country reaching the finals - like 5 times more than the next closest in Germany. So really, dipshit, the top 100 US players should really be a lot better than any other country's players. I guess you don't remember the times team USA almost lost in the olympics with most of the players you just mentioned?
Speaking of Lithuania (I'm from Latvia myself). It's insane, how such small *neighboring* countries as Latvia and Lithuania met on the other side of continent to compete for the 5th place among world's top national basketbol teams It's insane! 😆 Today fans will be gathering at the airport to meet and greet our team.
I thought Latvia is all about ice hockey and Lithuania all about basketball. The Soviets always got their best players from Lithuania. If the USSR still existed they would have a really good team bc of a much larger talent pool and better sports system
@@Jose-sy1je No idea if it stil holds, but in 1990s Latvia set a world record for the number of teams in a streetball (2 on 2 basketball with a single basket) competition. I guess Lithuania was always bigger in basketball, but IIRC even in Soviet times competition between Lithuanian "Žalgiris" and Latvian "VEF" was quite tough. Just don't quote me on this! I'm not into sports in general and on statistics of past games in particular. 🤣
I’m curious, what is your background in basketball? You seem to have a far better understanding of game dynamics than most of the “analysts” on RU-vid. Did you play basketball, or coach it?
We are European & learnt to play basketball the fundamental way. I think the style of coaching here just gives many basketball “students” more insight on team ball. So you automatically need to understand whatever is happening on offense & defense, otherwise you’re out.
@@cyber5502watching European coaches completely changed my approach to the game. Elbow in on layups makes more sense fundamentally, for example, or practicing footwork like a futbol player, as opposed to a football player.
WHAT!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA CAN YOU EVEN SEE SUPERSTAR IN THERE . IS JOSH HART A SUPERSTAR ?? HAHAHAHA THATS EVEN A WORST LINE UP OF ALL TIME TEAM USA FORM HAHAHA ARE YOU DUMB ? HAD YOU WATCH 2020 OLYMPICS WHEN ALL OF NBA SUPERSTARS PLAYING TOGETHER. ANY OTHER COUNTRY ARE NOTHING WHEN A LEGIT NBA SUPERSTAR PLAYERS PLAYING TOGETHER IN A USA JERSEY HAHA
@@leonardoyi3183 Lot of all stars cmon now don't play dumb. he never said super stars like you did. regardless they had the most outright talent by far which was his point. do you disagree?
Great point, and for some reasons, the NBA doesn't send their best rooster in Fiba world, and send their best in the Olympics, which is weird because fiba world is the equivalent of the World Cup,
I’m an nba fan since 1995 and the game today really isn’t basketball. It’s more like an exhibition or a globe trotters game. Just all for show and entertainment. No defence, no off ball movement and zero physicality. It’s not worth watching anymore.
The last time I felt the NBA played “basketball” was when Jordan was playing. The game now is positionless, where the 3 point shot is prioritizing over a mid range jump shot. The defense, especially the way the game is officiated, is penalized in favor of offense. Now it has become an inferior product designed to entertain. It is a shell of what it was 30 years ago.
A big reason is because most international teams have been playing together for years, thus having way better chemistry, USA teams are always just an assembly of all stars in the hopes that their talent will carry them
Thank you, the level has increased, they also have the advantage of playing together for years. You can be Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy... If you send players who have never played together, you will never win the World Cup,Never! Americans going this far is impressive It surprises me that Europeans who know football have little iq to understand that..
Back in the day other countries feared the USA Basketball team but now they want to show how soft USA Basketball team is. Talent is there but they know how mentally weak we are
Maybe becoz european uses motion offense more, less dribble, more passing looking out for the open man. There is no one man show either. In defense, they often use collapsing defense withn the hoop behind their back, and there is always help defense for the opponents open man
@@burrybondz225Everything is wrong with it when very talented players are playing way below what they are capable of. It is a travesty what it has turned into.
Alot of comments seem to talk about how USA lost cause of NBA rules made offense too easy. But if that's the case, then USA team would struggle offensively. If anything, USA had one the most potent offense in the tournament. They had the best FG% and shot nearly 40% from 3pt line despite averaging the most shots in the tournament. This video within 1min already expressed the main issue. USA doesnt know how to play defense within FIBA rules. Which is why their loses also resulted their opponents (canada, Lithuania and germany) having some of their best offensive performances. USA's shtick is to play switching defense which doesnt work without elite coordination (which they dont have) as well as help defense (They stick to their man after switching). This video within one minute is already showing how USA doesnt know how to capitalize on the FIBA rules (no 3 seconds and clogging the paint) Did NBA rules make team USA struggle? Yes, because of them not adjusting and not because of player quality. All this shows is USA cannot settle on their talent and need to learn how to properly play within the FIBA rules
Here is an interesting question though: many of the final teams (incl. Germany that beat the US in the end) are also full of NBA players. Yet they don't seem to have the same issue. Is that cause the European grown players learned to play in Europe (thus have different/more adaptive fundamentals) or is it that US coaches don't understand how to structure their defense on the international stage while their european counterparts do? 🤔
@DarkHarlequin I would guess the latter. Most of the time, if it's a consistent team problem, it's a coaching thing. It's the same reason not many of the nba players in the other international teams aren't dominating defenders in nba since they are better in team defence rather than iso defence
Yeah the U.S. is in trouble in the international game not because NBA rules made offense too easy, but rather because they made defense too hard. Successfully executing a defensive possession in the NBA is so difficult relative to the reward that teams only really do it to the top of their ability consistently in the playoffs. This means a lot of the top regular-season players aren't really tested for their defensive ability all that much anymore - the return on investment for making the most of defensive possessions just isn't there. Nobody cares that most of the top 20 players in the NBA statistically in any given year - or even probably half the All-Star teams - are defensive liabilities relative to a replacement player - as long as they can generate an overwhelming volume of efficient offense. And that's where people want to look to find the best players. They prioritize offensive statistics over playoff success, which is what tests defense - and which makes sense if you're playing by the NBA rules where defense is very weak and still takes a ton of effort. A guy like Anthony Edwards - a regular season darling with little playoff success - is thus on team USA and is considered a potential superstar, and a guy like KCP - a top college player, two-time NBA champion, who would be on the national team of any other country he was born in - has never been on Team USA. But defense is buffed in the international game - you get more reward for less investment. It would make sense to bring more defensive players. And where you find them is guys who were really good in college and have a ton of NBA playoff success but aren't considered superstars. If you have Steve Kerr as your coach you are already signaling you are not trying to play this kind of basketball and are instead prioritizing overwhelming the opponent with efficient shooting - which of course is the dominant strategy right now in the NBA. But for international rules, if team USA can't bring their very, very best superstars to international play, I think they would be better off bringing more defensive guys with proven success getting to or winning the finals - like KCP, Brook Lopez, Bam Adebayo - and I think you'd see them outperform the guys with more high-profile regular season success as volume or iso scorers in the offense-friendly game. As an example - Daniel Theis has made the Eastern Conference Finals twice since 2020 and his playoff defensive stats are impressive. His regular season stats by comparison are not good at all. He would never have been picked for Team USA, but here he is winning with Germany.
Basketball is basketball, you either can play the game great or you cannot. If anything Fiba exposed current NBA players for not knowing the game. What Fiba teams are doing is nothing different than what old school NBA teams did, which current NBA players despise. Old school NBA destroyed international teams while current NBA players struggle
@@fenzelian "Nobody cares that most of the top 20 players in the NBA statistically in any given year - or even probably half the All-Star teams - are defensive liabilities" ... I see your 'FIBA is just wrong so it doesn't count' argument and I guess it's a stance you can take if you want to argue that nothing but NBA should matter. But I would argue if on a 5 man on field team game you're a defensive liability ...that's not good... maybe you're just not as 'All Star - best in the world' as initially thought?😅
Steve Kerr is one of the weaker coaches in the NBA he just happened upon Steph Curry honestly, as an American basketball enthusiast we do very little scouting and very little game planning for FIBA World Cup games we stopped playing competitively after the first loss and team were the rookies of our league
So it’s all Steph Curry? Does Kerr dont have a big factor with his development? Bruh, they got a better placement this FIBA year than last time with Popovich.
The NBA having 5 straight MVPs from Europe/Africa speaks volumes. Basketball is more international than ever and the US team can't just cruise past everyone like in 1992. This has been the case for some time now. Adding to that, NBA ball is becoming increasingly different from FIBA ball.
MVPs don't mean much, Cristiano Ronaldo won 5 golden balls and has dominated football for years yet Portugal has never really been a real top team and French/Spanish/Germans are the most dominant of the last 2 decades. Being at the top doesn't mean you represent other good players, it's all about the average, and you can't deny Americans take most spots of the top 20.
I mean, i wouldn’t really call a team missing the legitimate best players in its league losing a couple of close games “struggling”. It’s like we all have this weird arrogant notion that if a USA team isn’t steam rolling, dominating 100% of the time, it means they’re struggling. I agree with many American players not being able to adapt fully to the different rules, mindsets, and mechanics of interactional basketball, I just think struggling isn’t really a fair word.
Team USA loses in the Olympics and FIBA World Cup since the Dream Team: Argentina (twice) Yugoslavia Spain Puerto Rico Lithuania (thrice) Greece France (twice) Serbia Germany Canada
Every stereotype on Europeans coming into the NBA is them not being athletic and yet they form a less athletic small lineup to compete with. Most of the European teams have shooters around the same level if not better, they have better fundamental and and play big. No idea what the plan was besides moving the ball fast and shoot up 3's.
Exactly why in the world would they bring Jalen Brunson. A short arm stubby guy that's an advantage already then you got small bigs on the USA... they were at a disadvantage and at mismatches ...
We lost 2 more games after this video. We got cooked 🔥… America needs to start taking international play seriously. We are looking like an embarrassment.
We often ask, how would modern NBA players go against the "plumbers and firemen" of the 1960s. Its seems to me with the stricter rules of FIBA, it gives an indication...not well.
I feel like the NBA has become very soft over the years with the foul protection of major players, massive tightening in ability to check or body up players, very very soft rules around travelling etc. They would argue this makes it more exciting. You look at many of the European teams and even my home country (Australia) and they all play very physical. I personally appreciate that a lot more (as a player) and feel like the NBA of the 90s was played much more that way than it is now. The modern NBA also seems to prize 3 point shooting rather than the old school physical post and burn and high quality 2s. International teams also universally play as a group, protecting the paint, helping on defence, and a lot less 'hero ball' (even if they do have NBA players). I completely agree that the elite NBA players are still just amazing, and take nothing away from them - they remain truly scary in one group. The issue they face is that many of the other teams play much better as a team that relies less on one on one brilliance and also that there are an increasing number of international players in the modern NBA who can switch modes to FIBA rules where required. They definitely need to think harder about team composition, although having names like Steph and Lebron would instantly make the challenge a whole lot harder for others. This brings me to the last point - there is a little bit of a lack of respect for other teams, not only in how they scout and prepare, but also just in the way the team is selected. PS. To be clear I still enjoy watching the NBA which is an elite competition.
@@wat4504the NBA doesn't enforce travels like ever watch almost any game you will see multiple instances of NBA players taking 3-4 steps without dribbling.
@@_-__. Already know you don't have any idea how travelling works when you said "steps without dribbling" The nba calls travels. You just don't know what a travel is
The USA won the last 4 Olympics and they use FIBA rules. The problem is not the players or NBA rules. It's the fact that they bring Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr is over-reliant on his 3-ball and thus uses a small ball 5 line up.
American basketball style has changed. Previously the basketball style was getting the ball in the low post having the big as the focal point. Now American basketball is more of a shooter first mentality rather than previous getting the ball to the low post then rotate the ball based on the defense.
Agree, having the best players on earth made them rely on they're big in the paint or on the all stars to go iso (in most cases), now the game has transitioned a lot more downtown. The long shots are more frequent and further (for all 5), the centers are playing more distant from the hoop. And more ball movement from the 3pt line.
The problem aint the offense. There's a reason why the NBA has shifted to a more perimeter oriented play, instead of a more low post game on offense. Three point shooting provides more spacing, and scoring efficiency goes up this way and the numbers pretty much supports that. The Americans didnt lost because of poor offense. The Americans lost because of poor Defense and bad rebounding.
@@leonardoyi3183 and that's because more and more players are encouraged to shoot the 3 ball thus lowering demand for big guys that specialize on defense, rebounding and scoring in the post.
@@nicola-xk5cp Rules those days allow more for better defense so it was harder for long range shooters, thus they are smaller percentage shots resulting to more misses that is why big men were important to rebound those misses. Good big men also produce high percentage shots as they are just around the rim.
@@imfinishedgrinding638 i think you are overreacting about the center thing. Even in the 80's and 90's center position was a liability for most teams. Heck, a lot of finals teams in the 90s had horrible starting centers (cartright and luc longley for the bulls, ervin johnson for the supersonics, greg ostertag for the jazz, oliver miller for the suns). But people like you, tend to think that was the golden era, just because the NBA had 3 or 4 centers that were really good (90s, hakeem, shaq, DR and ewing). The same story in the 80's. An Average starting center in the 90s was someone like olden polynice. Average starting center today is someone like Vucevic or Jonas Valencianas, players who would contribute a lot more than an Olden polynice. In fact, Valencianas and lituania beat that US Team. Today the NBA still have players who have great defense, rebounding and scoring on the post. Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, Rudy Gobert, Bam Adebayo are good examples.
Dude, if you improve the quality of your videos, editing, thumbnails, narration etc youre gonna explode on youtube. This is my constructive criticism, because you definetly have great content. Hopefully you do well
NBA is just a different sport at this point, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The best NBA bigs tend to sacrifice rim protection and rebounding to be versatile enough to guard the talented offensive players in the league. Of course theyre gonna look out of place playing in a league that emphasizes physicality, has smaller courts, and doesnt have a 3 sec defensive rule. Just like all these top FIBA players would get embarrassed in the NBA on defense because they wouldnt be fast enough to keep up.
@@marcelmarshall4240the nba has defense it’s just not the defense you like I guarantee if the USA played Lithuania with nba rules on a nba court Lithuania wouldn’t have sniffed 70 points
Smaller court... not enough spacing. Players allowed to clog the paint on defense... in the NBA, there are both defensive and offensive three-second rules, while there is only an offensive three-second violation in FIBA, meaning defensive players can stay as long in the paint as they want without any repercussions.
It would be interesting to see one world tournament with nba rules. I know it would be an advantage for nba players but I'm more interested in seeing european style in that context in games that matter
Why would an international tournament apply the rules of a single national league? NBA rules only exist in the NBA, and there are a loooot of other countries.
don´t think that is a barrier, look at the size differences yourself....... NBA FIBA Court length 94 ft - 28.65 m 91.86 ft - 28 m Court width 50 ft - 15.24 m 49.21 ft - 15 m 3-point line 23.75 ft - 7.24 m 22.15 ft - 6.75 m 22 ft corner - 6.70 m corner 21.65 ft corner - 6.60 m corner Free-throw line 15 ft - 4.57 m 15.09 ft - 4.6 m
I mean only Europe can compete physically and economically. Other regions are either less economically developed (Africa and most of Asia) or also less physically gifted (most of Asia I guess) And it's not that fair to compare single European countries to the US which has 330+M people
Instead of focusing on rules and styles (judging the nba as a one on one league and fiba as a team basket one which is false in both case) . Why don't we focus on the rosters. Team USA always built their teams as an All Star Team (mostly stars who are not comfortable playing certain roles). Thus no chemistry, no real game philosophy, no automatisms. Meanwhile FIBA Teams are more balanced and most of these guys have played together since they were teenagers. If you mix that with fiba rules like the euro zone defense, where guys can stay in the paint for defend the rim for hours. And attackers are forbidden to stay in the same paint more than 3 seconds. You got a raw deal for NBAers. Specially young ones (last USA TEAM was too young to play old FIBA vets), who have not yet really figure out their nba game. And to whom it is required to figure out another type of basketball. This a perspective of a guy who played mostly european basketball and who lives in Europe.
I’m not surprised. 9 out of the top 10 rebounders in the NBA are not American. The last 5 NBA MVPs were not American. Only one American in the NBA first team in 2023.
The NBA is trying to kill itself with the no travel, bouble dribble calls... defensive 3 seconds... just all the basics of basketball in general. If it wasn't for Jovic, I wouldn't bother even following it anymore. It's sad. I love the sport. Thankfully, the NCAA is still decent, but I'm afraid some of it will bleed down into college.
@@pizzafria52 Can you connect your 2 brain cells ? The best possible USA team would demolish any other team, they just don't care and send their C team, just like European football teams couldn't care less about the Olympics. Has nothing to do with "the NBA".
These Fiba players are balling out like their life depends on it and get chance to show out against NBA players who are too comfortable and don’t want it bad enough
Its the lack of talent from team USA. Team USA used to have players like Dwade, Melo, Lebron and Kobe. Now we stuck with a bunch of B and C list players.
That is what the international teams have a brunch of B player...Dennis Schroder and Daniel Theis are the best guys on Germany's Championship team...they not even All Stars in the NBA. Not even top 100 guys. The USA should need A-list NBA players to defeat B and C list role players in the NBA...At least the guys on Team USA are starters in the NBA
Lack of talent? Do you think any Bucks fan is trading Portis for Bonga? Do the Lakers try everything to replace Reaves with Wagner? The "C team" has more talent than any other team in the tournament. They just don't know how to defend for 40 minutes cohesively
NBA doesn't value the role of Centers and Defense. They're all shooting 3's. And thus is the fault of Curry for popularizing offense mote than D with 3 point shootings. That is why most popular centers are foreigners and that is why the USA didn't have a good center. Mostly shooting guards and shooting forwards.
- less chemistry and team play - less entrenched fundamentals - not as good or dominant as before against foreign players - not as used to physical play as before - less midrange and post skills - does not send best of the best
Reaves was not struggling at all so I don’t know why he is in the thumbnail. The main reason is because they send their D-H teams to the World Cup. They do much better in the Olympics where they send their A-C teams
But Dillon Brooks and Shroder are NBA players and they were stars of the FIBA World Cup. So it’s not NBA players, it’s American NBA player problem. American players are more into highlight reels than fundamentals that’s the American problem. Notice that recent NBA MVPs have been from other countries.
Fiba basketball just proves what many old head basketball players been saying for over a decade...Modern NBA is trash and they don't eally know nor understand the game of basketball. Those International teams are simply doing what old school basketball did. Move the ball, fundamentals, get high percentage shots, play good physical defense. Modern NBA is all about 1 on 1 ISO, drive kick out shoot a 3. And defense and post up play don't exist in modern NBA
Nah, you gotta consider that for these European teams it’s literally the game of of their lives with a chance for huuuge exposure and to go up against the best up and coming NBA players. Whereas the USA team just wants to not get injured for the NBA season which would jeopardize their entire career. Which is also another factor, if we sent over our best it wouldn’t even be a contest. But taking off 2 years just to play in both FIBA and the Olympics is completely unreasonable so the best players all go to the Olympics. All the veteran experience of the European players would be cancelled out by the veteran experience of NBA players.
Agree with you: more individual match ups, different rules, different court size, more outside game and has caused the usa to play an almost different sport from fiba, this gives a significant advantage to the europeans team. I would like to see 1vs1; 3vs3 worlds tournaments with the nba stars
American players used to be able to win AND dominate on talent alone. Nowadays, European teams have caught up and understand that to win, its not all about dunks.
Nah, old school NBA players were very fundamentally sound. They just made their fundamentals look like talent/skill. Modern NBA players lack fundamentals and IQ of the game. This current NBA is Entertainment Basketball, not real basketball
American C teams vs European A teams. It's like comparing an Olympic football team (mostly only youth allowed) to a WC one, doesn't really make sense, if anything it's a "shame" that the US can still compete without their biggest stars
Usa didnt beat a single contender. They played way too fast and got scored 100 points against the 3 good teams they faced. Sounds like a coaching issue. If you cant beat a single contender without curry, lebron, durant etc, while serbia without their best player reached the finals, or germany that has very good players but no fancy superstar, then youre just not that great of a coach
The sent out a C list team out.. if they had sent out the their best players they would’ve won.. literally do it every Olympic cycle by like 20+ points .
really? 118-107 Vs spain in 2008 thats 20+ points?? 107-100 in 2012 thats also 20+ points??? Interesting..... those 2 USA rosters should have beaten spain by 35 points+ easy so why the trouble with Spain and their WHITE PLAYERS??
