Heure des Jeux olympiques
Underrated teams and players from this year's Olympic Men's Basketball field
Plus de basket s'il vous plaît (More basketball please)
Paris 2024 has begun! For me, this is the one time every 2-4 years that I don’t think about basketball 24/7 and actually realize that the world is filled with all types of amazing athletes. I feel ill-equipped to comment on anything other than, wait for it…………wait for it…………………………………………………………………………..………………..…………………….wait for it……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………..…basketball (*surprised gasp*).
As much as I would love to comment about the field of handball teams, or which breaker (or is it break dancer?) I think is going to take home gold, I think that is going to take a lot more dedicated time and effort on my part. While you all anxiously await my analysis of why the Danish men’s handball team will win Olympic gold you will have to settle for a B-grade overview of some of this year’s Olympic Men’s Basketball field.
Le champ (The Field)
This year’s Olympic men’s basketball field features the following teams:
Group A (AKA The Well-Established “Country Club”)
Canada
Australia
Greece
Spain
Group B (AKA European Powerhouses vs. The Unknowns)
Germany
France
Brazil
Japan
Group C (AKA The group with USA and Nikola Jokic…..oh and there are some other players/teams too)
USA
Serbia
South Sudan
Puerto Rico
Les listes (The Rosters)
It was fun to look over the Olympic rosters and see all of the current and former NBA players riddled throughout. You have former NBA journeymen like Rudy Fernandez of Spain who is playing in his SIXTH Olympic games, current rising NBA stars such as Franz Wagner of Germany, role players like Jose Alvarado of Puerto Rico, and players that you would only know played in the NBA because you’re a sicko like me and have been following the career of Gui Santos of Brazil.
There are a few lesser-known teams (at least for those of us who are fans of the USA) that really intrigue me. Those teams are: Japan and Puerto Rico.
Japon (Japan)
The Japanese team has a couple of familiar NBA faces that many fans would recognize headlined by Rui Hachimura of the Lakers, and ex-NBA rotation player Yuta Watanabe. One of the fun things about the Japanese team is their guard line. It is easily one of the shortest in the field with Yuki Togashi at 5’ 6” and Yuki Kawamura at 5’ 8” both seeing significant minutes.
Yuki Kawamura is a BALLER. In preparation for the Olympics, Japan went through the FIBA 2023 World Cup and beat the Finnish team featuring my favorite Finn, 7’ 1” Lauri Markannen. In that game, Yuki went OFF, scoring 25 points and making 6/9 threes. He also added 9 assists with ZERO TURNOVERS. You can see him cooking on Finland here:
Japan was eliminated in pool play but Kawamura did his best to contribute pouring in 21 points against Brazil and 29 points against France. His shooting percentages weren’t the best, but the future looks bright for the 23-year-old Japanese star.
Porto Rico (Puerto Rico)
Puerto Rico has a guard line with some known and lesser-known commodities: Jose Alvarado of the New Orleans Pelicans (6’ 0”), Tremont Waters (5’ 11”) a former Louisiana State player that had a brief NBA career, and Jordan Howard (5’ 11”) a former Central Arkansas standout.
Jose Alvarado was on MARK during pool play against the USA and South Sudan, shooting 10/14 from three. Tremont on the other hand, struggled to find a rhythm and only ended up shooting 31% from the field over the course of the three pool-play games. The unknown off the bench for Puerto Rico was Jordan Howard, but unfortunately he was NOT efficient in limited minutes shooting an abysmal 22% from the floor.
In contrast to his Olympic performance, Jordan Howard was ULTRA EFFICIENT in Puerto Rico’s Olympic qualifying tournament where Puerto Rico beat Lithuania 79-69. Howard went 4/5 from the floor for 12 points in 15 minutes of play.
You can watch Jordan at his best back at Central Arkansas below:
Training Update
I spent the week of July 26th to August 2nd in Michigan for work. It was a busy week, and I didn’t have access to a full gym but I did my best to continue my training and eat well. I knew diet would probably be my biggest challenge with company-paid meals 24 hours a day. I let myself eat a bit more than I do normally and came back home about 2.5 lbs. heavier than I left.
Even with the small weight fluctuation, I jumped higher than ever this past Monday. I have been playing with my speed in my approach and found I could jump higher by starting slower and then increasing my velocity through my penultimate step into my jump. The result was I was jumping more up instead of out because I was under better control and was getting off the ground quickly.
My main goal right now is to dunk off of a self-lob and I am getting closer and closer. I really feel like this week or next I may get my first dunk off of self-lob. I think I have a solution worked out for my training video so be on the lookout for my first self-lob dunk in the coming weeks!
Happy jumping everyone!
I will not stand for this Gui Santos slander.