FIBA as an evaluation setting. Mileage has varied on the ability to take meaningful insight from FIBA youth events that include the USA. Without any sense of chauvinism, I think it’s fair to say that America often romps through youth events with overwhelming talent, pressing & being the only country that has a roster full of toolsy wings. Looking back on the last FIBA U17 WC in 2018, where the US brought a future NBA talent laden roster (Mobley, Okoro, Scottie, Suggs, etc) & waltzed to a gold by an average margin of victory of 53.7 points (the closest game was a 32 pt win vs Serbia). There were real valid takeaways when using the US players/playstyle as a measuring stick (the performance of Alperen Sengun, Oumar Ballo &Killian Hayes) but it’s hard to glean any real valuable scouting detail from the play of the Americans in 40,50,60+ point blowouts. Another interesting thing about that 2018 group was its age composition - it was an older roster, with every player but 1 being born in 2001 (the lone 2002 was Jalen Green), especially when compared to the 2022 group. The time-honored easiest team building strategy to bring success at these age-capped events is to bring the oldest players possible (those with birthdays as close to the cutoff) - and America’s decision to bring a much younger roster altered the dynamic of the tournament & the dynamic of the tournament’s scouting context.
10 Things: FIBA U17 World Cup
10 Things: FIBA U17 World Cup
10 Things: FIBA U17 World Cup
FIBA as an evaluation setting. Mileage has varied on the ability to take meaningful insight from FIBA youth events that include the USA. Without any sense of chauvinism, I think it’s fair to say that America often romps through youth events with overwhelming talent, pressing & being the only country that has a roster full of toolsy wings. Looking back on the last FIBA U17 WC in 2018, where the US brought a future NBA talent laden roster (Mobley, Okoro, Scottie, Suggs, etc) & waltzed to a gold by an average margin of victory of 53.7 points (the closest game was a 32 pt win vs Serbia). There were real valid takeaways when using the US players/playstyle as a measuring stick (the performance of Alperen Sengun, Oumar Ballo &Killian Hayes) but it’s hard to glean any real valuable scouting detail from the play of the Americans in 40,50,60+ point blowouts. Another interesting thing about that 2018 group was its age composition - it was an older roster, with every player but 1 being born in 2001 (the lone 2002 was Jalen Green), especially when compared to the 2022 group. The time-honored easiest team building strategy to bring success at these age-capped events is to bring the oldest players possible (those with birthdays as close to the cutoff) - and America’s decision to bring a much younger roster altered the dynamic of the tournament & the dynamic of the tournament’s scouting context.