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Yes, France with Wemby alone would definitely have been terrifying for any other team.

What I think that Germany's strength right now is the depth of the team. They don't really have to rely on one or a couple of superstars to perform (although Schröder and Wagner do stand out). Instead they have really decent players for every position, with 3-4 players coming from the bench, who are also able to perform nicely. And they are also missing a couple of strong players from the squad.

As I said, if I had to bet, my money would be on Germany, but personally I am rooting for our good neighbors from the north and hope that Markkanen will carry them through to the final.

Well, Estonia left the tournament without advancing from the group. Especially in the last game against Portugal, where everything was on the line, they did not manage to keep up the intensity. Extreme disappointment to a nation that considers basketball the main national sport.

But there were several interesting (or upsetting) games throughout the tournament, especially the finnish performance against Serbia. Though, now Finland faces probably the best team in Europe currently and after having lost the group game against Germany, it will definitely be interesting how both teams will go into the game, considering that the last 2 games Germany was really struggling for large portions of the game.

If I had to bet right now, I would say that my second home, Germany, would have the upper hand and could win the whole tournament.

As I said, if I had to bet, my money would be on Germany, but personally I am rooting for our good neighbors from the north and hope that Markkanen will carry them through to the final. :D

I'm sure it was a major disappointment for you, and I also hoped Estonia would've advanced to playoffs. However, it's a good news for (an Estonian) basketball fan, that it is a main sport in a country - it always brings certain atmosphere around "everything basketball", when that's the case. (While I haven't "made my research" on if that is the case in Lithuania as well, I was mentioning about their basketball culture in earlier message, and here's the point: it's great to sense that passion for that certain sports when you're for instance abroad and see how fans (and every other 'everyday Joe') react and relate to everything basketball related - Lithuania was also mentioned by me, because I have a strong feeling that they more or less "eat and breath basketball").

Very good point LennuK. - many, many exciting upsets during the Eurobasket, and that certainly has made it even more interesting!

Your bet (for Germany) was a wise one, as Finland started the match (vs. Germany) as 12 points underdog (or that's what betting agency mentioned), and actually lost the game by 12. But thanks very much for your rooting - maybe that'll help us bring home a historical medal on Sunday... :)

I believe that Germany is the best team in Europe, BUT :
[..]
- Spain is ... out ???
[..]
My favourite now is Germany, because of this awful clown named Schröeder (I don't like him, but what a player !) and the Wagner brothers.

Yes, Spain was one of the huge upsets for my point of view. (However, I admit I didn't know the strength of their team this time around). Spain is in that sense like France, they are one of the giants and you always expect them to perform at high level - they have a culture of success, and a big reputation to defend, and nothing usually comes easy against them.

Germany, in my opinion, is very likely going to be the champion... Like LennuK. well said, they have quality and width in their material.


Last edited by Wagner at 9/12/2025 2:50:04 PM

Ah SUM is finnish team - darn they so good now in basketball :)
Yes I saw the 1p win. This time around for sure loss.
Finland on a roll!

Trainer is to keep old to not age.

I got boycot from last time in top div.

Been like that all times.
Sad way to do the game.
They should keep tabs on from where you come (under) and look at the entire season and lower the demands on a new team.

Yes indeed, we have many teams from Nordic countries in HGL as already 4 out of 16 are from Sweden-Finland-Estonia axel. And of course we have also Latvian, and it seems on next season we're also going to have a Lithuanian team.

Of course the same goes with for instance French teams in HGL, as in addition to playing against each other, they'll face two Italian and one Spanish team, so lots of "local matches" are played in HGL, while it's simultaneously interestingly international league (special thanks for Uruguayan Chucarro and Australian MrJ for this!). :)
Of course we could have a team from North America, Asia, and Africa as well, but I´m not aware of Asian or African HG teams currently (and I think it's likely we´re going to have a Northern American teams in HGL in the future).

And thanks Spela, it's definitely a moment worth celebrating for Finns, it's not every year that national team breaks their previous success records... :)

As for BB related stuff, I also have to keep that kind of trainer for my team due to lots of aging players.
And yes, fan boycot is very frustrating and personally I do agree that it's too penalizing, and just like you said, expectations should be set accordingly (maybe taking account that you are new team, and/or that you might not have enough money to do well - if you have loads of money that you just wouldn't decide to use, maybe in that case I would understand this strict fan boycot better).

Also, fan survey (that affects team income) is also sometimes ridiculously tough, and it doesn't take into account many things... Like if you play against totally superior opponent, fans don't seem to take that into account even if you played better than you should've (given that you might have been huge underdog for the match)...
Or for instance question "my team did play well when their match was televised", my rating 1 out of 5; I lost by 13 to a team that's 12W-5L (while I'm 6W-11L) and superior in top8-salaries...
Or to a question "team played well when they faced their arch-enemy last time", 1,5 out of 5 balls, while I lost by 8 points to way superior team in salaries... Fans don't seem to be grounded to realism by taking into account likeliness of certain things and tweak their expectations to more realistic ones.
Or my almost continuous rating of 0,5 to 1,5 balls (out of 5 balls) to a question "manager does everything he can to make team better": certainly being HG team isn't appreciated by "regular fans"... and so on. But enough of a rant for now. :D

Playoff-post (here: (327517.7) updated, and semifinal matches on 21st of September added.

For one reason or another, second matchup is incorretly bolded, but it is easy to determine which team is responsible for sending challenge nevertheless, as better ranked team always is responsible for it.

(As for incorrect bolding of text, this has been the case with several other posts as well, and it's not due to incorrect usage of [ b] and [ /b] signs in a post. Examples include these posts, if you don't click into them through link, but scroll down to them when you go to a Scores thread. Example 1: (327517.8) and example 2: (327517.6).

In the most above linked Season 2 Playoff post the problem remains even if you'd click yourself to post through the link.

Tips are appreciated if you guys have a clue if I do something wrong, but I haven't at least spotted (editing) errors in my posts.

Nevertheless, higher ranked teams have once again been able secure wins, so in that sense Second Round on Season 2 Playoffs provided no surprise results.

Now that semifinals are officially announced, Hadár and SventraCanestri as home team managers can start sending semifinal match challenges to Spela and Paul George, respectively.

As usual, Playoffs are played on Sundays, so match day will be 21st of September as you all know.

It's already guaranteed, that at least 2 new countries will receive first ever medal in HGL, as only team left which was also participating to Season 1 semifinals stage is Svätý Jur Snakers from Slovakia!

Last edited by Wagner at 9/14/2025 1:33:44 PM

Playoff-post (here: (327517.7) updated, and semifinal matches on 21st of September added.

For one reason or another, second matchup is incorretly bolded, but it is easy to determine which team is responsible for sending challenge nevertheless, as better ranked team always is responsible for it.

(As for incorrect bolding of text, this has been the case with several other posts as well, and it's not due to incorrect usage of [ b] and [ /b] signs in a post. Examples include these posts, if you don't click into them through link, but scroll down to them when you go to a Scores thread. Example 1: (327517.8) and example 2: (327517.6).

In the most above linked Season 2 Playoff post the problem remains even if you'd click yourself to post through the link.

Tips are appreciated if you guys have a clue if I do something wrong, but I haven't at least spotted (editing) errors in my posts.

Nevertheless, higher ranked teams have once again been able secure wins, so in that sense Second Round on Season 2 Playoffs provided no surprise results.

Now that semifinals are officially announced, Hadár and SventraCanestri as home team managers can start sending semifinal match challenges to Spela and Paul George, respectively.

As usual, Playoffs are played on Sundays, so match day will be 21st of September as you all know.

It's already guaranteed, that at least 2 new countries will receive first ever medal in HGL, as only team left which was also participating to Season 1 semifinals stage is Svätý Jur Snakers from Slovakia!

...and the current reigning HGL Champion!

Playoff-post (here: (327517.7) updated, and semifinal matches on 21st of September added.

[...]

It's already guaranteed, that at least 2 new countries will receive first ever medal in HGL, as only team left which was also participating to Season 1 semifinals stage is Svätý Jur Snakers from Slovakia!

...and the current reigning HGL Champion!

Indeed, and it's never easy to beat a reigning champion, especially as his salaries have gone up 16% (HGL leading $103K) from Season 1!

With current semifinal teams (on Season 2) top8-salaries are quite wide spread among these 4 remaining teams (comparison including Regular Season success on Season 2):

1. Svätý Jur Snakers $742K (Regular Season: 14wins-1loss)
2. Hårdboll $477K (RS: 12W-3L)
3. Virtus Portici $473K (RS: 15W-0L)
4. Rajdersi $342K (RS: 11W-4L)


Both semifinal match links have been provided, so we are good to go.

Good luck for all remaining semifinal teams, and may all 25550 seats be filled in Pala-Fitta in Italy, and 20550 seats in Fatamorgána in Slovakia - home arenas of Virtus Portici and Svätý Jur Snakers, respectively!


Last edited by Wagner at 9/16/2025 5:13:52 AM

+1

+1

As for the salaries and team development, have you made any predictions/projections (with buzzer-manager or by other means) on how your team salaries will develop when we enter HGL Season 3? As we practically know, your young (top 8 players: 25,4 years, 4th lowest value in HGL) team will get a lot stronger in coming years...

And what kind of expectations do you have for a draft? It seems many teams are drafting before you, but only like 3-5 will be human teams (that I guess are the only real opposition in a draft, unless bot teams turn out to be real lucky)... So you might be getting at least one more cornerstone for your future from this draft, if all stars (superstars, perennial all-stars, and all-stars - pun intended) are aligned correctly so to speak... :)

+1

As for the salaries and team development, have you made any predictions/projections (with buzzer-manager or by other means) on how your team salaries will develop when we enter HGL Season 3? As we practically know, your young (top 8 players: 25,4 years, 4th lowest value in HGL) team will get a lot stronger in coming years...

And what kind of expectations do you have for a draft? It seems many teams are drafting before you, but only like 3-5 will be human teams (that I guess are the only real opposition in a draft, unless bot teams turn out to be real lucky)... So you might be getting at least one more cornerstone for your future from this draft, if all stars (superstars, perennial all-stars, and all-stars - pun intended) are aligned correctly so to speak...

Great questions, Wagner. You know me enough to know that I am always looking at all of these things.

My 1st team will go from $95k this season to $125k next season if training stays on track for the last few weeks; so, a $30k improvement.

My second team will go from $83k to $125k; So, a $42k improvement.

EDIT: I should note that the following season will see much larger jumps due to the type of skills being trained. It won't be long before both teams are easily $200k+ teams.

Both could have been a lot more but I deliberately went with 2-position training up until last week just to give more player more training. Something that I believe was necessary for a young side.

I have now gone 1-position training for both teams. I should have a very decent SF and PF for my first team by the end of next season before switching to guard training in Season 71. My SF, Livingstone, will be ready to adapt to guard training to finish him off. My 7'3" PF prospect, Hunter, will be a $50k+ 22yr old with plenty of training left in him.

My second team will have an exciting backcourt by the end of next season. Huysegoms should make the Belgium U21 NT next season as a somewhat rounded SF. Together with my current Irish U21 NT player, Donoghue, and my two secret weapons (shooting guards) who are yet to come into their own (Sevanyan and Bujor), the Tigers are going to be dangerous by the end of next season.

As for the draft?

Well, I am a couple weeks away from knowing exactly what draftees I will select for my first team, but there are some guard prospects I really want target as my backcourt is old and almost ready for retirement. I need to start training new blood soon!

My second team has a ripper 5/5 I'm hoping to get.

In both my first and second team leagues I will pick down the order, however, I have scouted each of the teams (their past history in drafting, their current needs and training) and feel confident I will secure some nice players if all goes well.

Importantly, nearly every one of my players on both teams have received some training this season so this has only increased the depth of both teams.

I am very excited about the future of my bigs on one team and the smalls on the other. Their weekly derby clashes have been very interesting while I toy with tactics and lineups in preparation for when they will actually play in their true positions.

So, my two young HG teams are progressing nicely.







Last edited by MrJ at 9/16/2025 8:19:26 AM