OQT Team Power Rankings

[christodoulou76]

As the final preparation tournaments wind down, I am wondering what everyone thinks is the relative strength of the OQT teams. What are your power rankings (not necessarily your predictions about final standings) for the teams participating in the OQT tournament?

[christodoulou76]

Here is my shot in the dark:

1. Russia
2. Puerto Rico
3. Greece
4. Dominican Republic
5. Lithuania
6. FYROM
7. Venezuela
8. Nigeria
9. Angola
10. Jordan
11. New Zealand
12. South Korea

[Federoy]

Here's my two cents...

1. Russia
2. Greece
3. Dominican Rep.
4. Puerto Rico
5. Lithuania
6. Venezuela
7. Macedonia
8. Angola
9. Nigeria
10. Jordan
11. New Zealand
12. South Korea

[JGX]

Wow, people are really down on Lithuania. Hard to believe that they wouldn't qualify for an Olympics, although I'm always happy to see new teams.

1. Russia
2. Greece
3. Lithuania
4. Puerto Rico
5. Venezuela (with homecourt advantage)
6. Macedonia
7. Dominican Republic
8. Nigeria
9. Angola
10. New Zealand
11. South Korea
12. Jordan

4-7 could go in any order.

[CKR13]

Here is my shot in the dark:

1. Russia
2. Puerto Rico
3. Greece
4. Dominican Republic
5. Lithuania
6. FYROM
7. Venezuela
8. Nigeria
9. Angola
10. Jordan
11. New Zealand
12. South Korea

I agree with this projection. Spot on with my thoughts.

[saalsapr]

Here is my shot in the dark:

1. Russia
2. Puerto Rico
3. Greece
4. Dominican Republic
5. Lithuania
6. FYROM
7. Venezuela
8. Nigeria
9. Angola
10. Jordan
11. New Zealand
12. South Korea

Interesting you would put us above you when we havent beaten you guys in over a decade.

Heres mine:

1. Russia
2. Greece
3. Lithuania
4. Puerto Rico
5. Dominican Republic
6. Macedonia
7. Venezuela
8. Angola
9. New Zealand
10. South Korea
11. Nigeria
12. Jordan

[Terrorizer]

ok, if we talk about strength then I put it that way:
1. Russia
2. Greece
3. Lithuania
4. Macedonia.
5. Puerto-Rico.
6. Dominicana.
(quality-wise 4-6 are very close to each other as all are solid teams but still short of being international powerhouses)
7. Nigeria.
8. Venezuela.
9. Angola.
10. New Zealand.
11. Jordan.
12. South Korea.

But it's all about their relative power which is quite a theoretic notion. So I won't be surprised if one or even two of Latin teams would qualify and sadly have a very pessimistic foreboding about our chances. Though I would like to be wrong on that.

[Dtown]

Basing it solely on the prep games so far.

1: Russia
2: Greece
3: Puerto Rico
4: Lithuania
5: Dominican Republic
6: Macedonia
7: Nigeria
8: Venezuela
9: Angola
10: New Zealand
11: Jordan
12: South Korea

Admittedly I've only had a brief look at 8-12, and of course prep games don't mean anything when the real thing starts.

[Victorious]

Interesting. Russia is first in every prediction.

[macleopard13]

Why is Dominican Republic stronger than us? Is it because a bunch of NBA players are playing?

If we had Motiejunas:
1: Russia or Lithuania
3: Greece
4: Puerto Rico
5: Macedonia
6: Venezuela
7: Dominican Republic
8: Angola
9: Nigeria
10: New Zealand
11: Jordan
12: South Korea

But we don't:
1: Russia
2: Greece
3: Puerto Rico or Lithuania
5: Macedonia
6: Venezuela
7: Dominican Republic
8: Angola
9: Nigeria
10: New Zealand
11: Jordan
12: South Korea

Based on prep games:
1: Russia
2: Greece
3: Puerto Rico
4: Macedonia
5: Venezuela
6: Lithuania
7: Dominican Republic
8: Nigeria
9: Angola
10: New Zealand
11: Jordan
12: South Korea

[JRS Bonnet]

Without Thomas Abercrombie and Kirk Penney, New Zealand will be the worst team in Venezuela. South Korea seems to be the most underrated team in the planet; its awkward playing style, however, already proved to be a nuisance in 2008.

[Olympiacos]

Wow, people are really down on Lithuania. Hard to believe that they wouldn't qualify for an Olympics, although I'm always happy to see new teams.

In all honesty, Lithuania has the weakest roster it has had in as long as I can remember. It will be no surprise if they qualify of course, or even do well at the Olympics.

But I don't think people are down on them, it's just that their team isn't close to as good as it usually is, on paper. They are relying on a kid at center that gets a lot of hype, and has a lot of talent and potential, but is nothing special even at Eurocup level, a legend in Saras, but that is now like 36 years old.......

Kaukenas, who is old and coming off surgery, Kleiza, who is nothing resembling of what he used to be, Maciulis, who comes off an injury and barely even played with Siena, players like Delininkaitis, that are not that good, over the hill Javtokas, Jankunas, who is just solid, Songaila, who is washed up, etc.

Kalnietis is a great young player, but he can't shoot from outside, which causes a problem. Pocius is overrated. He's good on defense and athletically, but he's almost nothing on offense.

It's really not a roster that should be impressing anyone on paper.

Basing it solely on the prep games so far.

1: Russia
2: Greece
3: Puerto Rico
4: Lithuania
5: Dominican Republic
6: Macedonia
7: Nigeria
8: Venezuela
9: Angola
10: New Zealand
11: Jordan
12: South Korea

Admittedly I've only had a brief look at 8-12, and of course prep games don't mean anything when the real thing starts.

Basing it solely on the prep games? Then why do you have Russia above Greece? Greece without Zisis, Spanoulis, Fotsis, and Bourousis.......beat Russia 66-63.

[Visseira]

This consensus about Russia is weird. Greece is the best team in my opinion.

[Olympiacos]

This consensus about Russia is weird. Greece is the best team in my opinion.

They have Kirilenko, a "legit NBA rotation player".......that's the term that people use. Whether people want to admit or not, any such player is overrated automatically, as is the team he plays on.

Russia does have a very good team, but the thing about Russia is they don't have a single actual point guard on the entire roster. Shved and Ponkrashov are not real point guards.

Blatt is also about the most predictable FIBA coach there is. Russia is just a stupid team in how they play. They have to be able to beat you with their size, length, depth, and athletic advantage, because they sure can't beat you with their schemes or point guard play.

Russia is definitely good, but if any team can match their level of physicality, well, that team should beat them. Because that team will probably also have a much better offense. I think Russia is one of those teams that benefits a lot from these tournaments where they only play teams once for the most part.

If teams get familiar with them, their style of stupid and boring predictable offense would cause them problems. Because they can only use their physical advantages to a certain point. But that is all Blatt seems to do. He has no imagination at all.

So Russia is very good, but yeah, they are definitely being overrated here big time, due to everyone saying they are the best team without a doubt. It's like people are putting them into another class from all of these teams, which isn't true.

[Hepcat]

Right now:

1: Greece
2. Russia
3. Lithuania
4: Puerto Rico
5. Venezuela
6. Macedonia
7. Dominican Republic
8. New Zealand
9. Angola
10. Nigeria
11. South Korea
12. Jordan

But Lithuania could move up!

[macleopard13]

In all honesty, Lithuania has the weakest roster it has had in as long as I can remember. It will be no surprise if they qualify of course, or even do well at the Olympics.

But I don't think people are down on them, it's just that their team isn't close to as good as it usually is, on paper. They are relying on a kid at center that gets a lot of hype, and has a lot of talent and potential, but is nothing special even at Eurocup level, a legend in Saras, but that is now like 36 years old.......

Kaukenas, who is old and coming off surgery, Kleiza, who is nothing resembling of what he used to be, Maciulis, who comes off an injury and barely even played with Siena, players like Delininkaitis, that are not that good, over the hill Javtokas, Jankunas, who is just solid, Songaila, who is washed up, etc.

Kalnietis is a great young player, but he can't shoot from outside, which causes a problem. Pocius is overrated. He's good on defense and athletically, but he's almost nothing on offense.

It's really not a roster that should be impressing anyone on paper.

Neither was the 2010 roster. A bunch of newbie players who were not at all exceptional (except Kleiza, although no one expected him to play that well either given his underperformance in 2009) in Euroleague or Eurocup came together and won the bronze.

Yes, we don't have star players anymore, but we've got some decent players who should star playing as a team and establish tandems with each other. It's true, we're lacking a leader like Kleiza in 2010, but we can make up for that by playing as a team.

This consensus about Russia is weird. Greece is the best team in my opinion.

Russia has traditionally been a threatening opponent from downtown. They really know how to shoot the ball. Besides that, they're a semi-athletic team who can play fast basketball. Greece has almost always looked good on paper (Spanoulis, Diamantidis, etc), but has lost to Russia in every official match since 2007 (the year Blatt started coaching). If you claim that their offense is so predictable, then why haven't you beaten them once since 2007?

[saalsapr]

They have Kirilenko, a "legit NBA rotation player".......that's the term that people use. Whether people want to admit or not, any such player is overrated automatically, as is the team he plays on.

Russia does have a very good team, but the thing about Russia is they don't have a single actual point guard on the entire roster. Shved and Ponkrashov are not real point guards.

Blatt is also about the most predictable FIBA coach there is. Russia is just a stupid team in how they play. They have to be able to beat you with their size, length, depth, and athletic advantage, because they sure can't beat you with their schemes or point guard play.

Russia is definitely good, but if any team can match their level of physicality, well, that team should beat them. Because that team will probably also have a much better offense. I think Russia is one of those teams that benefits a lot from these tournaments where they only play teams once for the most part.

If teams get familiar with them, their style of stupid and boring predictable offense would cause them problems. Because they can only use their physical advantages to a certain point. But that is all Blatt seems to do. He has no imagination at all.

So Russia is very good, but yeah, they are definitely being overrated here big time, due to everyone saying they are the best team without a doubt. It's like people are putting them into another class from all of these teams, which isn't true.

I personally have them there cause its the team we're less likely to beat, and is the third best eurobasket team according to the tournament last year.

[Mojado]

My take:

1. Russia
2. Greece
3. Puerto Rico
4. Lithuania
5. Dominican Republic
6. Venezuela
7. Macedonia
8. Nigeria
9. Angola
10. South Korea
11. New Zealand
12. Jordan

[Terrorizer]

They have Kirilenko, a "legit NBA rotation player".......that's the term that people use. Whether people want to admit or not, any such player is overrated automatically, as is the team he plays on.

Russia does have a very good team, but the thing about Russia is they don't have a single actual point guard on the entire roster. Shved and Ponkrashov are not real point guards.

Blatt is also about the most predictable FIBA coach there is. Russia is just a stupid team in how they play. They have to be able to beat you with their size, length, depth, and athletic advantage, because they sure can't beat you with their schemes or point guard play.

Russia is definitely good, but if any team can match their level of physicality, well, that team should beat them. Because that team will probably also have a much better offense. I think Russia is one of those teams that benefits a lot from these tournaments where they only play teams once for the most part.

If teams get familiar with them, their style of stupid and boring predictable offense would cause them problems. Because they can only use their physical advantages to a certain point. But that is all Blatt seems to do. He has no imagination at all.

So Russia is very good, but yeah, they are definitely being overrated here big time, due to everyone saying they are the best team without a doubt. It's like people are putting them into another class from all of these teams, which isn't true.

Totally surprised to see you writing that bullshit. Yes, Kirilenko and Blatt are massively overrated but the truth is that people have a high esteem of Russian NT not because of their 'overratedness'. And not because of their 'physical advantages' - to tell you the truth is that while we have indeed very athletic forwards (though, f.e., Khryapa's style is based mostly not on his physical presence (he is pretty average in that) but on his court vision, high basketball IQ and passing skills) our guards are very mediocre in athleticism and definitely aren't musclemans. The most important strength of our NT was consistently a combination of speed and mobility with clever and unpredictable decision-making.
And about Ponkrashov: probably you didn't watch him too much because he is a pure PG (while Shved is really not even a combo guard but a SG) and the one with pass-first mentality (he was second in assists in EB-2009 and sixth in WC-2010 averaging something like 5 apg). The fact is that Anton is hugely unstable which became a subject of proverbs over here and has a very streaky shooting from the distance. Also his career moves are awkward and really stupid - after brilliant season with Spartak in 2010/2011 he came to CSKA for big money already knowing that he barely will get any substantial playing time behind the backs of Teodosic and Jamont Gordon.
'their style of stupid and boring predictable offense would cause them problems. Because they can only use their physical advantages to a certain point" - another proof of that is the fact that on the last Eurobasket Russia was second with 19,0 assists per game behind only Spain who has 19,2 apg. And clever and unpredictable Greece wasn't even in Top 10 in that department.

[Shawshank]

o loved this that Lietuva is in middle with nigeria in many people eyes In fiba ratings for 10 years lithuania is sitting on 5 spot,and in this QFF tournament,without elite teams,we are still 5th OK everybody can have their own opinions,but i think we earned some respect with 5 stright olimipic semifinals....The only team,that really is better than us this year is russia,greece is very strong team,but their style is good matchup for lietuva and always was.I dont wanna go to details,but the facts W/L says that.Puerturico and macedonia is dark horses.But at the end of the day 3 team to qualife gonna be from europe,same as it was in 2008...fiba is not fair to europeans teams.Such teams like Slovenia,Serbia,Turkey,Germany,Croatia would beat most of this QFf teams,and they cant even play here because of super high level in european championship...
To win a medal in Pre-Olimpics euro championship is harder,than to win medal in OLIMPIC GAMES! 1999-2003-2007-2011 european championships was something to watch,strongest team not from europe like puerturico would have had hard hard time getting out from group game believe me...ask turkeys or germanys nba players...
My rakings:
1.Russia
2Greece
3.Puerturico
4.Macadonia
....

12.Lithuania