USA Basketball

Off Topic
21

Ballin4Christ:

You've got to be kidding.  Have you ever watched Shaq play?  Is there such a thing as travelling or carrying the ball in NBA?  How many fouls does Shaq get before one is actually called?  I mean its a joke.  I'm a Spurs fan and even I start getting pissed when I see Tony Parker taking all of those stutter steps without getting called.  You don't think kids don't notice?  They all try to get away with that crap in little leaugue games but the little league refs call it.  The guy who lays the blame on Stern is correct.  I really do think he is the root of all evil.
22

Heh, some ignorant posts in this thread.

As a few have said, basketball is a team game. At the highest levels (where the gap in talent isn’t very large), team chemistry will almost always eclipse individual talent.

Playing together for two months (US) just doesn’t compare to playing and winning together for years. (Arg, Greece)

23

[quote]jlesk68 wrote:
We all know that if the US would have taken the best of the NBA to Japan they would win it all , eyes closed, one hand tied behind their backs, just remember the Dream Team.[/quote]

Dream Team was over 10 years ago dude… The times they are a changin’.

Some of the best in the NBA are Canadian, Chinese, German, Argentinian, etc.

24

Call me a homer, but a Pitt-style defense and a UConn style offense with NBA caliber talent would whoop any foreign team’s ass. JMHO…

25

Im sorry. I cant stop laughing.

You guys complain that we lost to a team that has been playing together for years and on the day they played the americans only missed ONE shot! when the game was descided!

Are you freakin kidding me! We didnt hit anything in this game and still made it close in the end against a team that shot a blistering 75% in the 3rd quarter!

We demolished everybody else(except Italy who also had the game of their lives)so to say that this was a failure is dead wrong.

And saying we didnt bring the best of the best is just pure bullshit. Carmelo, Wade, LBJ, Howard, Brand and Bosh IS the best AND they are the future of the NBA. Remember that the whole plan was to keep these guys together for 3 years so that they would win the Gold in the Olympics back. The world championships was just a warmup!

26

[quote]8 wrote:
Im sorry. I cant stop laughing.

You guys complain that we lost to a team that has been playing together for years and on the day they played the americans only missed ONE shot! when the game was descided!

Are you freakin kidding me! We didnt hit anything in this game and still made it close in the end against a team that shot a blistering 75% in the 3rd quarter!

We demolished everybody else(except Italy who also had the game of their lives)so to say that this was a failure is dead wrong.

And saying we didnt bring the best of the best is just pure bullshit. Carmelo, Wade, LBJ, Howard, Brand and Bosh IS the best AND they are the future of the NBA. Remember that the whole plan was to keep these guys together for 3 years so that they would win the Gold in the Olympics back. The world championships was just a warmup! [/quote]

You make some pretty good points, I think.

I was just thinking about this USA Basketball debacle and I keep thinking about international soccer (since it is the closest comparison in terms of having an international play format).

From a talent perspective, the U.S. pool of potential players is the best in the world. I don’t think we need to argue much about that. The game is clearly becoming more international and there are some phenomenal international players (Nowitzki, Ginobli, Nash, Parker, etc.)

But if you had a soccer team with the depth and talent equivalent of USA Basketball, they would almost walk through the World Cup. International soccer has more parity to it than international basketball… but the rest of the world is definitely catching up and catching up fast.

In soccer, these teams have a full-time international coach and the players play and practice together a great deal more consistently. A fundamental team approach is created and developed through years. I mean think about it… are there any international basketball friendlies being played? Hell no. Why?

Well, the basketball season is really long… the NBA is not going to be willing to give players time off in the middle of the season to go and play in national team qualifying games… and honestly, the players are just not really interested enough (although if we keep f-ing up in international play like this that might change).

For U.S. players, international titles just do not matter nearly as much as the World Cup does for soccer. It just doesn’t. If you had the best of the best from the U.S. playing together as a team for some chunk of time AND with the fervor they bring to the NBA playoffs, none of this would be an issue.

The big question remaining is will we get there or not…

Oh and I agree with EC… Huskies for life.

27

[quote]8 wrote:
Im sorry. I cant stop laughing.

You guys complain that we lost to a team that has been playing together for years and on the day they played the americans only missed ONE shot! when the game was descided!

Are you freakin kidding me! We didnt hit anything in this game and still made it close in the end against a team that shot a blistering 75% in the 3rd quarter!

We demolished everybody else(except Italy who also had the game of their lives)so to say that this was a failure is dead wrong.

And saying we didnt bring the best of the best is just pure bullshit. Carmelo, Wade, LBJ, Howard, Brand and Bosh IS the best AND they are the future of the NBA. Remember that the whole plan was to keep these guys together for 3 years so that they would win the Gold in the Olympics back. The world championships was just a warmup! [/quote]

You make it seem like not hitting anything in the game and allowing a team to shoot 75% in a quarter are things that are out of USA’s control.

Also, they may have sent close to the best of the best, but still not quite. No Kobe, no Iverson, no Garnett… and those guys have more competitive fire than most of the guys on this team that lost. Another reason was the lack of pure shooters? No Redd, no Ray Allen, no Hamilton.

I think another big reason is too many guys in the rotation. When all your guys are getting around 20 minutes per game, it’s hard to have good continuity. I think they need a set rotation of about 8 or 9 guys, with a core group of about 5 that plays around 30 minutes per game. I don’t think they will do this, but it would at least help them gel together as a team.

And although I’m not a big fan of him, I must say that they would have won if Kobe was there.

28

[quote]escot4 wrote:
8 wrote:
Im sorry. I cant stop laughing.

You guys complain that we lost to a team that has been playing together for years and on the day they played the americans only missed ONE shot! when the game was descided!

Are you freakin kidding me! We didnt hit anything in this game and still made it close in the end against a team that shot a blistering 75% in the 3rd quarter!

We demolished everybody else(except Italy who also had the game of their lives)so to say that this was a failure is dead wrong.

And saying we didnt bring the best of the best is just pure bullshit. Carmelo, Wade, LBJ, Howard, Brand and Bosh IS the best AND they are the future of the NBA. Remember that the whole plan was to keep these guys together for 3 years so that they would win the Gold in the Olympics back. The world championships was just a warmup!

You make it seem like not hitting anything in the game and allowing a team to shoot 75% in a quarter are things that are out of USA’s control.

Also, they may have sent close to the best of the best, but still not quite. No Kobe, no Iverson, no Garnett… and those guys have more competitive fire than most of the guys on this team that lost. Another reason was the lack of pure shooters? No Redd, no Ray Allen, no Hamilton.

I think another big reason is too many guys in the rotation. When all your guys are getting around 20 minutes per game, it’s hard to have good continuity. I think they need a set rotation of about 8 or 9 guys, with a core group of about 5 that plays around 30 minutes per game. I don’t think they will do this, but it would at least help them gel together as a team.

And although I’m not a big fan of him, I must say that they would have won if Kobe was there.[/quote]

Did you watch the game? The greeks were on fire!!!

I agree that Kobe could make a difference, BUT he wasnt there because of surgery. Id rather have Billups than Iverson and Garnett has 2 bad knees and I would pick Howard and Brand any day over Garnett.

Ray Allen and Redd were invited but chose not to participate.

So all in all, they DID send the best of the best…of the players that chose to participate!

29

People need to relieze that the USA isn’t the best. They don’t have the best players, and they arn’t the best team. There is a reason the US’s shot was off, and why Greece was hitting everything, shit like that doesn’t happen just out of the blue.

Also, about the college thing, shut the hell up, if we sent a college team to play against these guys it would be UGLY. The US would get dominated by the mid and upper level teams.

30

[quote]and1bball4mk wrote:
People need to relieze that the USA isn’t the best. They don’t have the best players, and they arn’t the best team. There is a reason the US’s shot was off, and why Greece was hitting everything, shit like that doesn’t happen just out of the blue.

Also, about the college thing, shut the hell up, if we sent a college team to play against these guys it would be UGLY. The US would get dominated by the mid and upper level teams.[/quote]

USA is the best at everything in the world. Shut your mouth.

(half serious)

31

[quote]8 wrote:
Did you watch the game? The greeks were on fire!!!
[/quote]

What I’m saying is, they wouldn’t have caught fire in the first place if USA had clamped down on defense and not given them good looks.

Another thing, to those saying USA doesn’t have the best players… do any of you argue that Greece has better players? Would anyone seriously make that argument? It’s obvious that USA had more talented players, but they just didn’t play together as a team anywhere near the way Greece did.

Now, the world has definitely caught up to a great degree since the original dream team was destroying everyone. However, no single team has better players than the USA team. The other teams just play better as a cohesive unit.

32

Now that I’ve had a chance to read more about the game and see some highlights I have some more thoughts:

We do have great players out there but I question Coach K on two things:

  1. we could not defend the Greek pick and roll at the end. So it was definitely a defense problem. Wouldn’t Bruce Bowen have helped? Coach K cut Bowen and took Brad Miller but Brad Miller sat the whole game against Greece.

  2. Why didn’t Coach K adjust to the pick and roll and start playing a zone defense instead of clinging stubbornly to the man? Ultimately, I think Coach K did lose that game. Just my thoughts.