France and Spain still the favorites

PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - We will witness a perfect storm this summer with EuroBasket 2015 because all the countries dream of an Olympic spot and a European title, so they will send the absolutely best team they can, to compete.

The final phase will be of historical proportions being played in front of 27,000 fans each day in Lille, France.

A lot of confirmed NBA stars will be present (Dirk Nowitzki is back for Germany) along with a lot of European stars who could play in the NBA if they wanted to. Players like Dario Saric, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Milos Teodosic or Nando De Colo refused, or put off until later, NBA contracts.

We will certainly see many NBA stalwarts playing for my two favorites to make the Final, Spain and France.

The return of coach Sergio Scariolo means that Spain will go back to playing inside-out instead of the contrary and I feel this means the Spanish selection will be very tough to beat.

Last summer we saw Ricky Rubio dominate the ball at the point and maybe a little too much of Juanca Navarro and Rudy Fernandez trying to create offense from the outside-in.

The two probable future NBA players from Real Madrid, Sergio Lull and Sergio Rodriguez, will be running the show now after collecting the Euroleague and Spanish league crowns this season.

They will get the ball to the Gasol brothers as a priority in the half-court which is good idea since Pau and Marc were the starting centers at the NBA All-Star Game which means they are two of the best centers on earth!

They also know how to get the most out of Nikola Mirotic, Pau's teammate in Chicago, because Nikola is a former Spanish MVP having played very efficiently with the two Sergios at Real.

You add elite talents like Felipe Reyes - who had one of his best seasons ever - and Fernandez to the mix and you've got a clearcut contender right there.

Scariolo's preference for Mirotic over Serge Ibaka is a smart choice for the naturalized spot because he can play four positions, knows Pau quite well and is much more of a three-point threat and one-on-one player than Ibaka.

All Spain have to do is spread the court and let the Gasols either score easy baskets inside or pass out to the three-point shooters for open looks. Scariolo knows all this from first-hand experience.

France's coach, Vincent Collet agrees with Scariolo that the goal is to put the best possible team on the floor, not a mixture of the best individual talents.

This is one of the keys to France's success the last two summers. Collet chose to not select Washington Wizard big man Kevin Seraphin because he feared that he would waste too much preparation time on the competition for the roster spots at center, time that would be better used to create collective teamwork straight from the start.

Rudy Gobert is the defensive stopper and Alexis Ajinca is more well-rounded on offense so the center hierarchy is known from the beginning.

Same thing concerning the leaders who haven't changed much since Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and Nicolas Batum have become the triumphant trident in the last 10 years for France.

You add Florent Pietrus - the captain of the money time defense and brilliant with Nancy this past season - De Colo who has fabulous with CSKA Moscow, Antoine Diot and Thomas Heurtel who will have to prove that they can be complementary to Tony, and you've got another serious contender right there.

France are hoping that this EuroBasket will be the apotheosis for the Parker-Diaw generation, two players feeling very fortunate right now after hearing that LaMarcus Aldridge will be their new teammate in San Antonio next season!

However, Collet is also intelligently harping on the fact that winning a EuroBasket at home is a rare and difficult feat because of the added pressure of playing in front of local fans and media with high expectations. Just ask Spain after the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup!

In my upcoming columns, I will go more into detail concerning the other contenders at EuroBasket 2015. Teams like Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Greece, Germany and Italy, just to name a few.

With multiple European venues for the first round, Lille for the second and the high stakes involved, this may turn out to be the best EuroBasket ever!

George Eddy

FIBA

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