Olympics : your predictions

[Fanchie]

So without taking brackets into account, what is your prediction for the Olympics ? Which country do you picture being the main threat to a US repeat ?

France starting 5 is quite interesting :

PG : Parker
SG : Beaubois
SF : Batum
PF : Diaw
C : Noah

Beaubois is clearly the weakest link, but they have some Euro based players (De Colo for example) to cover. And they're loaded in the paint (Seraphin, Mahinmi, Turiaf).

Spain will really suffer from Rubio's injury, I see this competition being the beggining of the end for the Gasol/Calderon/Navarro/Fernandez generation.

All in all, I'd say :

Gold : US
Silver : France
Bronze : Argentina

[Soft Euro]

I'm going for the obvious choices; a Spain vs USA final, 3th and 4th Argentina and France. I see Spain taking the gold medal because they are (much) better at the 4/5 (allthough USA will probably play Durant and Lebron at the 4? but that will be because they are lacking there). Spain got the two Gasol's and Ibaka playing besides Fernandez, Calderon and La Bomba. The USA can't match them on the inside and there are no defensive three seconds calls (which is big). Spain will continue to be a force for years to come with Marc Gasol, Ibaka and Rubio.

[ezz_bee]

Lithuania Gold
Canada Silver
Philippines Bronze

[NoPropsneeded]

Pretty soon Canada is going to be a powerhouse.

Kabongo
K.Joseph
Wiggins
T.Thompson
J.Anthony

pretty sick team

[stretch]

Pretty soon Canada is going to be a powerhouse.

Kabongo
K.Joseph
Wiggins
T.Thompson
J.Anthony

pretty sick team

I like your optimism but I am not holding my breath on the senior team being a world beater anytime soon.

[e2thed]

Pretty soon Canada is going to be a powerhouse.

Kabongo
K.Joseph
Wiggins
T.Thompson
J.Anthony

pretty sick team

sick to my stomach team

[Jon_Wade]

Pretty soon Canada is going to be a powerhouse.

Kabongo
K.Joseph
Wiggins
T.Thompson
J.Anthony

pretty sick team

I think wiggins will end up being a shooting guard and bennett would be the starting three in a couple years which to me looks a lot better than joseph and wiggins but really just my opinion

[omgsomuchpotential]

Neither France, Spain or Argentina will be able to compete with USA this year. That won't be even close I think. Pretty easy Olympics for americans.

[stretch]

David Stern has been giving some credence to Mark Cuban's under 23 basketball proposal of late. This could be the last Olympics for a while with the NBA's best over the age of 23.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oly...23-format.html

[Prime]

Pretty soon Canada is going to be a powerhouse.

Kabongo
K.Joseph
Wiggins
T.Thompson
J.Anthony

pretty sick team

A. Nicholson as 6th man.

[octothorp]

A. Nicholson as 6th man.

Not to mention, potentially, guys like Cory Joseph, Pangos, Sacre, Liles, Birch... we could have a team where the entire roster is made up of NBA players. Probably not all those guys make it to the NBA, but it's still a huge step forward... if any one of the starters can't make it, there's still more than enough there to field a solid team.

As for this year, I think France is the only team with an outside chance of knocking off the US, but right now the US is still the massive favorite. Bronze is between Spain and Argentina.

[RandomGuy]

Argentina? In my opinion they are going to be eliminated before semi finals. TOP 3 for me is US, Spain, France. Lithuania can come up with surprise, of course they need to qualify first.

[omgsomuchpotential]

Argentina? In my opinion they are going to be eliminated before semi finals. TOP 3 for me is US, Spain, France

I have to completely agree with that. Argentinian national team will definitely suck ass. They're just mediocre team now at best with their best players being so old. As I said earlier, team USA will have no rival, will be beating everyone (including Spain and France) by 20-30 pts, that's not even going to be close.

However, the 2nd and 3rd places are very hard to predict. Spain will be much much weaker than in Beijing 2008, only a shadow of that runner-up team, main reasons being Rubio not playing, Pau Gasol being old and rapidly declining in his abilities, Rudy declining as well, Calderon gotten old (I imagine he would be just above average pg in Europe as well), so basically it doesn't look very good for Spaniards, Marc Gasol might become their leader. France though, looks much stronger. From other countries that might as well be included into discussion for 2nd and 3rd places, I imagine Brazil and Lithuania, Greece, Russia (if qualified).

[NoPropsneeded]

Canada and USA will be going at it in a couple of years. Wiggins be dunkin all over the US

[omgsomuchpotential]

canada and usa will be going at it in a couple of years. Wiggins be dunkin all over the us

hahaha lol.