How many Euroleague teams would legitimately be PLAYOFF teams in the NBA?

[CavaliersFTW]

Didn't just a few weeks ago or months ago a college team from Michigan score 75 points against the Euroleague CHAMPIONS?

The Euroleague team won with 90 points but those grown professional athletes gave up 75 points to a non-champion caliber U.S. college-town team of boys in their teens and early 20's from the U.S.

That's the difference between Euroleague and U.S. college basketball. Now imagine the difference between Euroleague and NBA basketball, let alone NBA playoff basketball.

[Chicago Ted]

Didn't just a few weeks ago or months ago a college team from Michigan score 75 points against the Euroleague CHAMPIONS?

The Euroleague team won with 90 points but those grown professional athletes gave up 75 points to a non-champion caliber U.S. college-town team of boys in their teens and early 20's from the U.S.

That's the difference between Euroleague and U.S. college basketball. Now imagine the difference between Euroleague and NBA basketball, let alone NBA playoff basketball.

No they didn't. Real Madrid is the Euroleague champions, it would have made the playoffs in the east last year, no doubts about it.

[chips93]

Real Madrid would make the playoffs in the east.

Llull and Rodriguez are both top notch guards, playing against the celtics recently they were clearly the two best players on the floor, and they have a bunch of quality bigs. They're clearly better than the nets last year, and it would probably come down to injuries/luck between themselves and the celtics.

[sportjames23]

LeBron could win the Finals there

Oh snap!

[TaLvsCuaL]

The direct flight time from New York to Madrid or Barcelona is like 8-9 hours, for that reason I think they are the only two teams that could play in the NBA in the future. But it is unlikely for many reasons.

[Jon_Koncak]

Biggest problem with euroleague teams is their frontcourts. To put it simply the quality of bigs in Europe is abysmal.Every single quality big plays in NBA,what's left in europe are undersized athletic americans who couldnt make it as forwards in NBA or big but unathletic and slow euros.

[Euroleague]

CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce Ulker and possibly Barcelona, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Khimki Moscow would be play-off candidates. Especially in the East...

Khimki would not make the NBA playoffs.

Efes would though.

[Euroleague]

The current Euroleague Champions, Real Madrid, consists of mostly ex-NBA roleplayers. Maybe they make a 7-8 seed out East, but I wouldn't put money on it.

Real Madrid is nowhere close to being the best team in Euroleague. They are maybe top 6 at absolute best. But that seems like a stretch to be honest.

It's not the same team as that won the Euroleague.

Besides that, the ONLY reason they won the Euroleague last year was because the final four took place on their home court. So they got to play the championship games at home.

In almost all Euroleague years, those games are on neutral courts. So that championship last year was an aberration, or what NBA fans would call an asterisk anyway.

Stop pretending like they are the best team in Euroleague.

[Euroleague]

None. Euroleague teams usually get crushed in pre-season exhibition games where NBA teams play D-League guys that haven't even made the final NBA roster.

I remember when Shaq met "EuroShaq" and it was ugly, Shaq manhandled him like a rag doll and Euro-Shaq just looked like an immobile 6 foot 8 fat guy. Euroleague teams are good no doubt, they are professional athletes playing a professional sport. But they are not NBA good. The best players in the world, European or American or otherwise, all end up playing in the NBA. It's the top league. The cream rises to the top.

The NBA is 14-8 against the Euroleague since the two leagues started playing real rules games against each other, and not the fake made up "mixed rules" games they used to play.

The last 22 games have been played under NBA rules, and the NBA is 14-8 in those games.

And Euroleague teams almost always use their whole roster, rest some of their best players, etc. in those games.

Fener and Real both benched top players in their rosters and played players from their HIGH SCHOOL TEAMS instead of them, just in the recent games they played against NBA teams.

So when Euroleague teams were benching some of their best players and playing HIGH SCHOOL players instead of them in those games against NBA teams, don't even try to pretend like that is the same thing as NBA team playing a pro player trying to make a roster.

And one more thing.......

STFU asshole.

[Euroleague]

Didn't just a few weeks ago or months ago a college team from Michigan score 75 points against the Euroleague CHAMPIONS?

The Euroleague team won with 90 points but those grown professional athletes gave up 75 points to a non-champion caliber U.S. college-town team of boys in their teens and early 20's from the U.S.

That's the difference between Euroleague and U.S. college basketball. Now imagine the difference between Euroleague and NBA basketball, let alone NBA playoff basketball.

The contest for biggest liar in this forum award is a close call between you and Rooster.

[Euroleague]

Real Madrid would make the playoffs in the east.

Llull and Rodriguez are both top notch guards, playing against the celtics recently they were clearly the two best players on the floor, and they have a bunch of quality bigs. They're clearly better than the nets last year, and it would probably come down to injuries/luck between themselves and the celtics.

They would make the NBA playoffs, but they are nowhere near the best team in Euroleague.

They never won it before they had the final four fall into their lap by Euroleague scheduling them to host the event. They won't win it again for a damn long time.

And their team this year is about 2-3 notches a lower level than their team of last season.

Yes, they would make the NBA playoffs, but they are not close to being a representation of the best teams of Euroleague.

Fener
Efes
CSKA
Olympiacos
Panathinaikos

All much better teams than Real Madrid.

Maccabi and Barca are debatable, but I would put them at about the same level as Real.

Then there are teams like Khimki and Lokomotiv that you could VERY EASILY argue actually have better rosters and more talent than Real does. But they don't have a winning mentality.

But in terms of talent, they are better.

[Euroleague]

Biggest problem with euroleague teams is their frontcourts. To put it simply the quality of bigs in Europe is abysmal.Every single quality big plays in NBA,what's left in europe are undersized athletic americans who couldnt make it as forwards in NBA or big but unathletic and slow euros.

So how do you explain that the NBA constantly signs bum bigs from Europe and they end up being rotation centers in the NBA?

And when I say bums from Europe I don't even mean Euroleague. I mean Europe. Because very rarely do any of them even play at Euroleague level.

Is that just a strange and bizarre coincidence to you?

Or do you only follow Euroleague and have not seen an NBA game in many years, thus explaining why you would somehow not be aware of this?

Bigs are the least of the issue of Euroleague teams. The NBA bigs are awful for the most part.

The biggest weakness of a general Euroleague team versus a general NBA team would be that most Euroleague teams are too focused on pick and roll and playing half court basketball.

There isn't enough offensive freedom allowed by almost all of the Euroleague coaches. Even the very best offensive players are forced to run pick and roll like 50 times a game, or whatever.

[90sgoat]

Do you guys realize that basketball is very far down the list of popular sports in Europe?

There are probably more active basketball players in the US alone than in the entire Europe, probably by double.

I would not be surprised if there are more bullfighters in Spain than basketball players.

Some of these countries who have given the US a lot of problems like Croatia have 4 million inhabitants and soccer is by far the most popular sport. The US is 75 times bigger country!

The Sovjet Union which was only Eastern European countries spanked the US.

[Euroleague]

Do you guys realize that basketball is very far down the list of popular sports in Europe?

There are probably more active basketball players in the US alone than in the entire Europe, probably by double.

I would not be surprised if there are more bullfighters in Spain than basketball players.

Some of these countries who have given the US a lot of problems like Croatia have 4 million inhabitants and soccer is by far the most popular sport. The US is 75 times bigger country!

The Sovjet Union which was only Eastern European countries spanked the US.

I can't think of any place in Europe where basketball is a real popular or top sport, other than Lithuania, and it's a tiny country.

However, I don't think basketball is all that popular in the USA as people think it is, in this terminology of NBA.

Basketball is miles and miles away from American football, whether it be NFL, NCAA, high school, and it's not even in the same class as baseball for the majority of the country.

It's less popular than ice hockey in much of the northern US.

And at the youth level, even soccer (European football) is way more popular than basketball.

On top of that, "basketball" is what most people like in the USA, not the NBA.

The NBA is a very distant second place to NCAA basketball in terms of popularity in the USA.

Of course, all of the insane and retarded and totally delusional NBA only fans will claim none of that is true. But that's because they are retarded, delusional, and insane.

[catch24]

The NBA is a very distant second place to NCAA basketball in terms of popularity in the USA.

Where are you getting that information from? A simple google search of the "Nielsen ratings" will debunk everything in the bold.

After football (NFL), the NBA is clearly and FACTUALLY second place in terms of most watched.

Don't derail my thread with your incessant trolling, psycho.