The Key Without Dirk will be Bauermann

No Nowitzki once again leaves experts divided about Germany’s chances in Turkey this summer. One thing that is for certain is that Dirk Bauermann has a couple of diamonds in the rough who are the next generation for a team that for a decade has revolved around one man.

Germany is a team that remains very much in transition – with or without their long-time leader Dirk Nowitzki. Left with an ageing team in the wake of the 2008 Olympic campaign, a raft of young players are still being blooded under the expert eye of coach Bauermann.

When Nowitzki opted for rest last summer and failed to show up for EuroBasket 2009, the doom merchants predicted the rapid demise of German basketball – after all, the moment everyone had dreaded for so long had finally arrived.

While ultimately they only managed to win one game last summer in Poland, the new-look team containing many young players competed far and beyond the level expected of them. In several close and highly entertaining games, the Germans showed unequivocally there is perhaps far less to fear than first thought and with a little bit of luck, could have won more than the solitary game.

Nowitzki’s late withdrawal from the German World Championship squad following his signing of a new contract with the Mavericks, obviously came as a huge blow to the Germans. The coaching team, who had been given good reason to be confident about the big man’s participation, had probably spent a good amount of time trying to work out how to get the NBA superstar to gel with the new generation of talent at their disposal.

Since last year’s EuroBasket, opinion has been divided about the role and importance of Nowitzki; the obvious reaction is to consider his absence as nothing less than a disaster, while a number of pundits – including some very well respected ones – have suggested that his renewed absence could actually be beneficial to the team both in the short and the long run. Indeed it has been claimed that Nowitzki would actually have disrupted the transition taking place in the team.

Bauermann is getting his players to fit into his system and what he will be spared the possibility of his players becoming spectators as they wait for Nowitzki to create. Either way, Bauermann has no choice but to look ahead and hope that his team will be able to match the form they showed in Poland and – with some luck – improve on results. Nowitzki chapter closed.

Focusing on those who will be there for Germany this summer, we are suddenly reminded that, in the shadow, stand a number of extremely talented and promising players, as well as a couple of well established players most teams would be more than happy to include in their rosters.

Everyone will be looking for Benzing to carry on where he left off in Poland, especially considering the amazing rookie year the forward from Ulm has just had. Joining him in the front court, Ohlbrecht finally looks like he has a chance of fulfilling the promise everyone saw in him as a youth player. In fact, although short on experience, Germany have an extremely talented young frontcourt.

The backcourt is a source of more concern for Bauermann and followers of the German team. Greene and Hamann are experienced and quality players, but arguably lack the quality or creative genius to tear open the best teams in the world, but in young Heiko Schaffartzik Germany seem to have found a point guard that can deliver on the World stage.

If Germany can churn out four or five more young talents, they will rapidly establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage. Whether they can do this in Turkey however, remains to be seen.