The shooting woes of the US basketball team has been discussed to death. But the lack of defense might be more puzzling. I can at least understand why our outside shooting has been bad, due to our players. But what's the reason why we can't play good defense? The US team has the most athletic roster in Athens, playing for a defensive-minded coach in Larry Brown. Because none of our players, Duncan perhaps being a lone exception, needs to dominate on offense, every player should be able to have expand his energy on defense. Foul trouble also isn't much of an issue for most players because of the deep bench. It seems to me as if we really could've played much defense than we did. As they say, offense is based on talent, defense is based on effort. Did our players simply decide not to put much effort on defense the past two weeks?
From the few games that I saw, US was killed by the HIGH pick and roll. They were used to having the defender going under the pick because the 3 pt. line is farther in the NBA so you can gamble a little bit. This gave their oponents the room they needed to shoot a lot of 3 ptrs. I could not understand why they did not adjust.
IMO, Duncan's defense is nutralized greatly because the international game rely's so heavily on outside shooting. We haven't lost any games because we were beat on the inside. Our perimeter defense just is not that great on this team either. Plus you have opposing players that are running off of picks and then catching and shooting with out putting the ball on the floor and that all but negates the teams best perimeter defender, Allen Iverson. AI's defense has always been about quickness and stealing the ball. But he is only 6 feet tall so even if he has the opposition covered he is not tall enough to effectively defende his man in a catch and shoot situation when his man is 2 to 4 inches taller than him. AI is at his best defensively when he is guarding someone that likes to creat their own shot off of the dribble and not a marksman that likes to run off of picks and catch and shoot. Plus like someone said in another thread, there is no farorable officiating for the so called stars in international play. Flops don't work here very well perticularly when the opposing player is not trying to drive past you, but instead shooting over you. The internation game is the absolute perfect solution against the U.S. style of play. No one outside of Shaq can make a living taking the ball inside on this U.S. team so the international players just shoot over them.
does international bball usually rely on outside shooting or was it just a tactic used against team usa?
I think the international game is designed for good outside shooting with all of the high pick and rolls and pick and pops. They seem to emphasize a much more team oriented attack that has a lot of catch and shoot. In contrast U.S. players seem much more determined to put the ball on the floor and try and create their own shots.
But that has a lot to do with the shorter international 3 pt line. The NBA would be a different game if the 3 was 2 ft closer.
Why doesn't NBA just make the 3pt line closer like before? It seems these NBA players cann't score too well from that distance? It would make the game more fun and high scoring too. Plus it would bring back the art of makeing a jump shot.
