FIBA World Cup: How would the 9 best FIBA squads perform in the NBA?
A breakdown of the top potential lineups for each FIBA World Cup team in order to project how they would do if they were NBA expansion teams
Watching Team USA’s exhibition loss to Team Australia prompted the question: just how good are these FIBA World Cup teams? Put another way, how would some of them do as standalone NBA franchises?
Clearly, many of these teams do not go 12-deep with NBA-level talent and not all of their best players are even participating in this year’s event. However, since this is simply a thought exercise, we can add in whatever stipulations we choose. In order to make this a more interesting discussion, let’s say these teams are at full strength personnel-wise and are able to supplement their core with average bench-level NBA players.
To aid in this process, I reviewed “the ultimate guide to FIBA World Cup 2019” that was compiled by Eurohoops.net. Using that as a reference point, each country’s ideal depth charts are listed below. Additionally, each player’s current NBA team or their previous highest levels of competition are denoted (NBA, G League, NCAA, etc).
In order to focus this discussion, looking at the respective FIBA World Cup groups provides a framework for whittling down which nations to profile in more detail.
Group A consists of Ivory Coast, Poland, Venezuela, and China. All of these teams would be worth considering in a follow-on article: How would certain FIBA teams do in the G League?
Group B is made up of Russia, Argentina, Korea, and Nigeria. While Russia and Argentina have stronger track records at these types of events, Nigeria’s ceiling is the most interesting for this type of day-dreaming endeavor.
Group C is Spain, Iran, Puerto Rico, and Tunisia. Spain is the obvious choice here are as they are loaded with current and former NBA players.
Group D is Angola, Philippines, Italy, and Serbia. Considering Serbia is a strong contender at the World Cup, they are the clear cut team to go with from this group.
Group E is Turkey, Czech Republic, United States, and Japan. While Turkey and Japan have some exciting youngsters and the Czech Republic has some players with NBA experience, the United States is the heavy favorite.
Group F is Greece, New Zealand, Brazil, and Montenegro. A few interesting teams here with some familiar names but since Giannis is arguably the best player in the world, let’s explore how they would stack up as an NBA expansion team.
Group G consists of the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, and Jordan. France seems like the best team on paper but Germany has enough NBA players that it merits an honorable mention look as well.
Group H, our final group, is made up of Canada, Senegal, Lithuania, and Australia. Both Senegal (Gorgui Dieng and Tacko Fall) and Lithuania (Donatas Sabonis, Jonas Valanciunas, Donatas Motiejunas) have some NBA big men but their guards are not up to snuff. Australia has earned a deeper dive with their win over Team USA. Canada will also get some attention based on its long-term potential.
Now that we have set some parameters, let the fun begin.