Which countries will dominate 2010s?

[Straight forward]

00's was pretty much revolutionary for international BB. USA wasn't that unstoppable predominant. Serbia pretty much disappeared from the top of the map.

Argentina kinda dominated in the first phase of the decade, as well as Lithuania was very dangerous. Spain and Greece step in in the middle and the end of the decade Spain and USA became the teams to beat.

Which NT teams will dominate in current decade- "twenty- tens"?

My predictions:

-USA is going to dominate again, but will have to pay everything they have for that.
-Argentina won't be able to hold the level 00's.
-Greece won't be able to hold the level of 00's
-Spain will hold the name of one of strongest teams on the stage, but will have to make a way for either Serbia or Lithuania.
-Serbia and Lithuania will fight for the name of the best European NT since the middle of 2010s.
-France and Croatia will become a constant contenders for awards (they never actually were a constant contenders in 00's right?)
-I have some feeling Australia and Brazil might surprise, but can't see them as constant medal contenders.

So, waiting for you predictions. In the poll you can choose more that one team!

[rikhardur]

-USA is going to dominate again, but will have to pay everything they have for that.

Agree.

Argentina won't be able to hold the level 00's.

Absolutely agree. This generation is coming to an end and there are no perspectives of a new one of the same caliber.

Greece won't be able to hold the level of 00's

Agree.

Spain will hold the name of one of strongest teams on the stage

Agree. They'll remain strong as they are now imo, new highly promising (or established players) appear every year for them. Their future will keep golden.

Serbia and Lithuania will fight for the name of the best European NT since the middle of 2010s.

I think this will be especially true for Serbia, even earlier.

France and Croatia will become a constant contenders for awards (they never actually were a constant contenders in 00's right?)

Yeah, more or less right imo. I actually see Croatia coming up quite big.


Slovenia remains a mystery for me on what they'll do in the next decade.

[pohani komarac]

I think it's bit to earley for those predictions

p.s.

we can also make pull wich future stars will avoid playing for nt and wich will be there always for nt like dirk

[rikhardur]

I think it's bit to earley for those predictions

p.s.

we can also make pull wich future stars will avoid playing for nt and wich will be there always for nt like dirk

Good point lol Well I guess these kinds of predictions are always according to normal circumstances

[Straight forward]

I think this will be especially true for Serbia, even earlier.

Damn, you post looked almost perfect till you gave more credit to Serbia instead of Lithuania

I think it's bit to earley for those predictions

Hey that's all about predictions. We won't be able to make them at the end of the decade

[Dtown]

USA: so long as the NBA remains a top league the US will always be on this list. Too much talent consistently coming down the pipes. While they'll no longer completely dominate like the start of the professional era, they'll be contenders year in year out on the global stage.

Spain: The team's getting older, but not enough to stop them anytime soon. Like the US they have young talent, and an amazing domestic league. I don't see any true drop off in the future.

Serbia: They weren't supposed to be this good for a couple more years, but they've announced their presence at Eurobasket. This decade will be a return to greatness for them. I see them replacing Greece and joining Spain and the US as constant medal threats.

Now I'm going to surprise you.

Brazil: I think we'll finally see it this year, the year Brazil finally puts it together and becomes the force they should be. Argentina's time seems to be coming to an end, Brazil is getting full commitments from it's stars around the world. NBB looks to be developing into a strong league, and there's the 2016 Olympics in Rio to look forward to. While I'm not sure they can rival what Argentina did this decade, I think they'll be a consistent threat this decade.

[sinobball]

Before answering 2010s, I don't even know who dominated 2000s?

I looked at the top 8 in Olympics, WBC since 2000 and came up with this ranking:
1. USA 8+3+6+6+8=31
2. ARG 7+8+5+6=26
3. ESP 4+2+8+7=21
4. LTU 6+5+2+5=18
5. GRE 4+7+4=15
6t. FRA 7+4=11
6t. ITA 4+7=11
6t. YUG 3+8=11

Who would you say dominated beside USA? I noticed you can vote all of them on this poll. I vote for USA BTW.

[pohani komarac]

Hey that's all about predictions. We won't be able to make them at the end of the decade[/B]

but that way you are more acurate

[rikhardur]

Montenegro will give a hard time to any team imo.

[kaiziken_pinas]

I noticed in the poll, there are some Asian teams that qualified for the WC absent. -_-

[Lewis]

Spain: The team's getting older, but not enough to stop them anytime soon. Like the US they have young talent, and an amazing domestic league. I don't see any true drop off in the future.

completly disagree there.
If you paid close attention to the drafts, you'll notice that every single year you always hear some young Spaniards' names who are putting good numbers in the Spanish division two, 3, etc coming out. I think you are overestimating the "Ricky Rubio Generation", yeah, most of those kids won't probably make it to the NBA, but they are still good enough be playing in the second best league in the world, and to field a pretty competitive a National team (in the future that is). Spain have one of the best farm system of any country other than the US, so there is always going to be development of young talent available there. If you think about it. most of the time young European prospects who get drafted turn into just role one-dimensional role players or even worst, scrubs, whereas most Spaniards have some kind of impact on their teams, whether it's instant or not. So that just show you that whatever Spain is doing with their prospects, they are doing it the right way; Now, that's not to say that every single Spanish proscpet will be a star, or even just great player (let alone a super star), but those kids are well developed in terms of fundamentals and skill set.

This situation is almost identical in baseball to the "Matsuzaka Generation" in Japan, where most of the baseball players from that generation didn't make it to the Majors like Daisuke did, but they were still good enough to give Japan 2 World Baseball Classic Championships, and a couple of Olympic medals.

the one country that I do think will have a hard time getting younger is Brazil, that didn't accomplished anything (besides this past Americas Championship) with their core players at their peak, I do think they still have a couple of years left though, but I don't see much being done in what development of future young talent is concerned. Barbosa, Alex, and Varejao won't last forever y'know (btw, I didn't mentioned Nene there 'cause he never plays anyway) and Splitter won't we able take that team to another level alone.

I think the one team that everybody look down upon right now that will give a lot to talk about is Slovenia

[Dtown]

completly disagree there.
If you paid close attention to the drafts, you'll notice that every single year you always hear some young Spaniards' names who are putting good numbers in the Spanish division two, 3, etc coming out. I think you are overestimating the "Ricky Rubio Generation", yeah, most of those kids won't probably make it to the NBA, but they are still good enough be playing in the second best league in the world, and to field a pretty competitive a National team (in the future that is). Spain have one of the best farm system of any country other than the US, so there is always going to be development of young talent available there. If you think about it. most of the time young European prospects who get drafted turn into just role one-dimensional role players or even worst, scrubs, whereas most Spaniards have some kind of impact on their teams, whether it's instant or not. So that just show you that whatever Spain is doing with their prospects, they are doing it the right way; Now, that's not to say that every single Spanish proscpet will be a star, or even just great player (let alone a super star), but those kids are well developed in terms of fundamentals and skill set.

Dude you should have finished reading what I wrote, I said the current team was getting older, BUT they have an amazing domestic league where young talent can develop and replace those that are aging. I mean I did have them as continuing to be a dominant force in the world for the next decade.

[Victorious]

I think that Serbia will be the new 'reborn' dominant power of Europe. But it's hard to say which country will dominate between 2010 and 2020. A decade is a long time.

Sure, I can see Argentina declining after 2011, but they may recover in 2017. Whereas Serbia may dominate until 2017 and decline afterwards.

The last decade Greece was dominant only after 2005 and some of their best players (except Papaloukas) have another few good years in them, while at the same time they seem to develop quite a lot of talents. They'll remain on top at least until 2014. After that it's hard to predict.

Same goes for Spain. Their best still have another few years left and they continue to produce a lot of talent.

Argentina and Lithuania unlike Spain and Greece were the teams who were performing well since the turn of the century, but Saras, Siskauskas, Ginobili & co will be hard to miss for these teams. I think they need a few years to create full strong rosters. We'll see.

[Federoy]

Brazil: I think we'll finally see it this year, the year Brazil finally puts it together and becomes the force they should be. Argentina's time seems to be coming to an end, Brazil is getting full commitments from it's stars around the world. NBB looks to be developing into a strong league, and there's the 2014 Olympics in Rio to look forward to. While I'm not sure they can rival what Argentina did this decade, I think they'll be a consistent threat this decade.

I agree with you D. I think Brazil is a re-emerging powerhouse. They've been down for years, but if they can get their act together this decade I can easily see them challenging any team in the world. They certainly have the population base and resources, but it's just a matter of cultivating/developing what they have and turning it into a winning product.

[Federoy]

I think dominate is too strong a word. If anything, I believe as the sport expands internationally we'll witness more parity between teams, so the days of the US and Serbia destroying established teams by 30-40 points will be all but over as this decade unwinds. The next step in international basketball is the development of non-traditional basketball countries, like Colombia, Great Britain, Netherlands, Congo etc.; the further talent development of middle-tier countries like Germany, Macedonia, and Canada, and the competitive evolution of "minnows" like Angola, Venezuela and New Zealand.

The sport will never grow and reach its full competitive potential until these factors take place.

[Dtown]

I took dominant to mean consistent medal contention in the Olympics and World Championships, which when you consider how many teams try to qualify for those tournaments, is in it's own way dominant.

Completely different question, but the nation I expect the most improvement from is Great Britain. I felt they would just make a good show of it for the Olympics then disband, but apparently they're trying to snag the Eurobasket 2015. I certainly wish them luck.

Also among non Americas/European nations I look to Australia, China, and Iran, With Australia I believe having the best shot at winning a medal before the decade is out.

[Straight forward]

Serbia: They weren't supposed to be this good for a couple more years, but they've announced their presence at Eurobasket. This decade will be a return to greatness for them. I see them replacing Greece and joining Spain and the US as constant medal threats.

Serbia is already dangerous, but Eurobasket 2009 was the shadow of what i used to be- it was the Eurobasket of absence. That doesn't mean the awards the countries got there isn't valid or is worthless, but Serbia was swept away by Spain in the final, and that is not usually happens to the finalist. They will face bunch of quality teams in WC, than we will be able to say how fast Serbia might join the top again.
More over, off course you remember only Greece as the constant contender of 00's (while that kick in 2006 was so uncomfortable), but they have the same amount of awards (3 medals) as well as Lithuania which was three times (00, 04, 08) Olympics semifinalist in a row.
And I will remind that Greece never beat Lithuania with it's normal roster (Šaras and Co.) in 00's, anytime it's a need.

[mvblair]

USA, Serbia, and Lithuania are the obvious ones to me. Historically, those are the best teams. They always have good players coming up.

Dtown, I think Brazil should be one of the top basketball countries, but they never got their act together. They could have had a great team in the past 10 years with Nene, Barbosa, Machado, Garcia...but they could never get those players on the court at the same time. That was very disappointing for them. If they can "get their act together," you might be right.

[Levenspiel]

I selected Serbia and the USA, but Matt is right, Lithuania should be there too. These are historically best basketball countries, and they have everything to rise to the top at any given time.

It's not dominating, but sometimes a single player can take a whole team to another level. We might see surprises in the next decade.

[Straight forward]

I realized I didn't include Turkey. I can only say it's random move (only 15 teams could be included), I think Turkey has potential to stay at least at the same level they were in 00's and maybe even gather a stronger NT (you have great prospects in the frontcourt, but I'm not sure about the guards).