From Distance: FIBA 2019 and Jersey Nostalgia

four point play….

1. Andy!!!! I know it is against Uruguay, and in an exhibition game, but how much fun is it to watch our old friend, Anderson Varejao play basketball? There is so much to Andy’s game that has been adopted and and incorporated into the modern NBA.

Look how he screens, passes between his legs to the PG, flips the screen before diving on a perfectly timed roll, only to have the opportunity to tap in the guard’s miss. That was Andy in a nutshell. A screener, passer, brilliant roll artist, and garbage man, all wrapped up into one.

The 2019 FIBA World Cup is finally starting Saturday after about a month of exhibition play. Obviously, any basketball tournament is fun for us basketball junkies, but the World Cup adds the pleasant addition of “hey, that guy is still playing?! He is good!”

Brazil will trot out Varejao and Leandro Barbosa, China still features “Chair Dominating, Yi Jianlian”, and Russian runs plays for Cavs legend, Sergey Karasev! Fun all around.

2. While there are plenty of guys to root for out of pure nostalgia, there is even more legit 2019 talent on display. NBA MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo will try to carry his literal and figurative brothers to a championship for Greece. NBA Champion, Marc Gasol still leads a deep Spanish team with its own new set of brothers named Hernangomez. And ESPN’s pick to win it all, Serbia, has my favorite basketball player of this era, Nikola Jokic.

The Joker has a lot of help on the wing in the way of Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kings teammate, Nemenja Bjelica. It is a deep team with shooting everywhere. FIBA is mostly a small ball activity with only a handful of teams playing legit big men. Jokic is next to impossible to stop in the NBA. In FIBA, there are even fewer guys large enough to bang with the future NBA MVP. (That’s right. I said it.)

Lithuania, Spain, France, and the USA are really the only teams I can think of that have the size and defensive versatility necessary to challenge Serbia. Lithuania is clearly a tick below, lacking the wing strength to compliment Sabonis and Valanciunas.

My adopted country, Germany does have some NBA big men to throw at FIBA’s main contenders. Maxi Kleber and Daniel Theis are both active bodies with three point range. Dennis Schroeder is deadly in PnR ball against any competition. If Paul Zipser can give Germany’s NBA guys enough on the wing, they have a chance to come out of their Group.

France won’t make that easy. Rudy Gobert has had a tendency to straight dominate this competition. Gobert’s initial coming out party as a defensive force was against Spain in 2014.

It is always a good time to have Germany and France square off in International play (less fun in International, er, skirmish). The French team should be a terror on the defensive end if Nicolas Batum can display a pulse. I may be one of the last people to believe in Frank Ntilikina’s NBA potential. Nando de Colo is a solid two-way player off the bench. Group G should be fun.

I am only going to casually mention Cedi Osman’s name here as a sacrifice to the basketball gods. I shall not talk him up any more. Let him thrive as you see fit, Basketball Gods.

3. Okay, fine. I will talk about the Celtics. Oops, I meant Team USA. I love me some Popovich, but I am not a fan of his lineup choices. I guess it is always easier to criticize a rotation when the team loses for the first time in about a decade. Still, I say forget names, and go with the guys who are most likely to thrive in International play.

Brook Lopez, Jaylen Brown, Khris Middleton, Derrick White, and Marcus Smart would be my starting lineup. I would hand Khris Middleton the ball like he is LeBron James, and let that defense take away the other teams’ souls within the first seven minutes of game action.

Bring Kemba and/or the currently overrated, Donovan Mitchell off the bench to exploit these other squad’s shaky depth. Basically, use the incredibly deep USA roster to suffocate, and then score. These other countries don’t have the talent in their second units to compete with a Walker type player off the bench.

When teams are feeling each other out in that first stretch of the game, it is often easier to build a lead by being surprisingly aggressive on the defensive end.

C’mon Pop. I want to see that starting lineup with a three quarter press! Scare these other teams into submission! Defense, Defense!!!!

4. In non-FIBA related news, the Cleveland Cavaliers unveiled some rather beautiful 90s throwback jerseys to be worn as alternates this season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_qL7lev_P8

I gotta say, I am a little confused as to why they have some child modeling the new jerseys along side of Larry Nance Jr. Did that kid’s parents okay this?

At this moment I realize this child is actually Cavaliers’ rookie, Darius Garland, I chuckle…and feel older than I have ever felt in my life. 

Back in the 90s, I looked longingly at the old-school Wine and Gold from the Austin Carr days. I still very much prefer straight Wine and Gold, without any real influx of blue for the Cavs’ jerseys. Basically, I love me some Hardwood Classic Austin Carr style, the LeBron 1.0 era Wine Away, and maybe my favorite, the 2009-2010 CavsFanatic.

BUT, Looking back at these new retro jerseys does bring quite a bit of joy. I suppose I have never liked mixing the color schemes up too much. Regardless of its Championship success, why did the Cavs have black jerseys in 2016?

When black is part of the main color scheme, it is different. And those 90s jerseys with their beautiful powder blue will be nice to see this season.