Diaw Makes All-Tournament Team

[George O'Brien]

This was buried in another thread.

MVP Nowitzki Tops EuroBasket 2005 All-Tournament Team

MVP Nowitzki Tops EuroBasket 2005 All-Tournament Team
By David Hein

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25 September 2005
Germany's Dirk Nowitzki claimed the Most Valuable Player award at the 2005 EuroBasket and topped the competition's All-Tournament team.

Nowitzki won the honour - voted by international media representatives at Belgrade Arena - for leading Germany to Sunday's final against Greece. The Dallas Mavericks star went into the final as the tournament's leading scorer (26.7 ppg) and second-leading rebounder (10.8 rpg) and shot blocker (1.8 blpg).

Nowitzki carried his team, twice hitting shots in the final seconds to will Germany into the final and guaranteeing them their second EuroBasket medal following their gold medal at the 1993 championships in Munich.

Nowitzki was also voted by the media as the top power forward of the tournament.

He was joined on the All-Tournament team by Greek center Lazaros Papadoloulos (11.3 ppg and 3.7 rpg) and Greece's point guard Dimitrios Diamantidis, who led the tournament in assists (5.3 per game) had 5.2 rebounds and 6 points a game. Diamantidis also hit a three-pointer in the
waning seconds against France to move the Greeks into the final.

France's Boris Diaw was picked as the top small forward for his all around game (13.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.0 spg, 1.3 blpg) in leading the French to the bronze medal.

Spain's Juan Carlos Navarro was selected as the top shooting guard, averaging 25.2 points and 1.2 steals as well as hitting 69-79 (87.3 per cent) free throws for the fourth-placed Iberians.

It is notable that Dirk was the only other NBA guy on the All-Tournament Team. Overall, the NBA players did not really do well with the European officiating which penalizes one-on-one style play. Diaw's team oriented style fit in well with the needs of the European style while Parker and Pietrus struggled in many games.

Parker in particular had problems. In the seven official games, Parker averaged 11.9 ppg but shot only 39.4% on 66 shots and averaged just 2.9 assists per game. Parker averaged 27.9 minutes a game to Diaw's 31.6 minutes but took 6 more shots. Parker averaged 0.5 fewer assists than Diaw despite the fact that Diaw spent most of his time playing forward.

One other thought on Diaw's play. Hidden in the discussion of his horrific free throw shooting was his three point shooting at a very acceptable 43.8% for three - 7 of 16. Since four of those were in that awful Slovenia game (where he missed 11 free throws); his average in the other six games was 7 of 12 for 58%.

 

[carey]

Nevermind.

 

[mathbzh]

Just a precision regarding Tony Parker.
He struggled in his 3 first games. He scored only 2 pts in the games 2 and 3.

But in the four last game, playing as a sixth man, he played very well (not great). In four games he was 17.25 pts and 4 assists. He also has major impact (that stats doesn't show) when he was on the floor.

His stats line against Spain (game for the third place) is great:
25 pts 5 assists 3 rb 3 st 4 TO 3 PF.

Diaw was the French MVP. He saved French hopes during th qualification. He has a very consistent game except regarding FT. But parker worked as a booster for the team.

I guess that in a few years, France will be really strong with Parker (spurs), Pietrus(warriors), Diaw (Suns), Gelabale(madrid/Sonics) and hopefully Turiaf (lakers), Petro (Sonics) and Mahinmi (Le havre/Spurs).
France will just have to find some "outside scorers" (Gelabale could be the one). All these players are under 23 and have a bright future.

 

[George O'Brien]

This scomes from Suns.com

Diaw Wins Bronze at European Championships

Updated: Sept. 26, 2005
For the first time in nearly 50 years, France has won a medal in basketball. And it’s the Suns who couldn’t be happier.

That’s because Phoenix's back-up point guard Boris Diaw used the recent European Championships as a springboard to showcase the skills they hope will help ease the burden of starter Steve Nash when the NBA season gets underway in just over a month. Even though his French National team left Belgrade with a bronze medal, the Suns are seeing “gold” when it comes to the 23-year-old.

“Obviously he can play one, two, maybe three,” Suns assistant coach Marc Iavaroni said. “He can defend pretty well. He’s got size and quickness. We’re excited about him as a sleeper kind of guy.”

Diaw’s overseas highlight reel included an 18-point, 11-board and three-assist effort in last week’s 63-47 quarterfinal win over defending champ Lithuania. It was his biggest scoring outburst since he dropped 23 on Bosnia & Herzegovina the week before. Diaw averaged 14 points in Saturday’s loss to eventual gold-medal winner Greece. The guard’s overall 13.7 ppg average was tops for a French team that also featured fellow NBA ballers Tony Parker and Mickael Pietrus.

It is not always clear exactly how close their writers are to the team, but this is the second article on their web site pushing Diaw at PG.

 

[reader]

The quote from D'Antoni is this thread mentions only the 2,3 & 4 positions. So I am not really sure where they see him playing. They will probably have to wait until he gets to camp to see how he fits in.

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=61121

 

[mathbzh]

I think he didn't play PG except for few minutes.
The PG was Parker or Rigaudeau.