It depends who you send over there. The first dream team had experience players. We have yet to send that type of team to the olympics. This is the team we should send Duncan,Garnett,J oneil James, Brand Mcgrady,Prince Carter, Allen, Johnson Kidd, Billups I would get rid of kobe , Carmello, and Wade. These guys have ego problems. Replace the bigs with guys that know how to deal in the paint. Overall this team would have better chemistry. And let the blowouts begin.
Under NBA rules they would allow Howards run over his defender dunk the ball, and call a foul on his favor. On international rules, one on one, he hasn't been able to do much at all. He had been getting his, when his man defender has gone out to do some help defense. Duncan and Brandt struggle for different reasons, the world didn't respect the US range, so they just pack it in agains the US. IN this tournament they have mainly played man to man, with some soft zone. So they really haaven't collapse on the Bigs. I guess you haven't seem Gasol play international ball, he is the BEST big man when it comes to international. He just becomes a monster.
With the USA shooting threes like they have been doing it this week, it would have been suicide. But yes, mixing up zones and man to man defenses is the best way to play against them.
I've been very impressed, except for the last game. Their perimeter defense has completely destroyed teams and I've lost count of how many close-in layups by other teams have been blocked or missed because of intimidation. On offense, when Team USA passes the ball around instead of dribbling they have been impossible to stop, except when Michael Redd throws up bricks. After a good start he has really crashed. What disturbed me against Argentina was the one on one entertainment shows, the early 3 point chucking and the complete lack of team defense during much of the 3rd and 4th quarters. Scola took advantage of it. A better gauge of Scola will be in Sunday's championship game, at least in the 1st half. Hopefully Team USA won't lose focus unless the lead reaches 35 or 40. If the game is competitive to the end, we should get an even clearer picture of what Scola can do.
I know, that is the reason they haven't pack it in. And they really are not scare of the bigs playing now. But US penetration is pretty good. The reason the US looks so good, ball pressure and force turnovers. Not really the defense, because overplaying the ball is not really playing defense. Better guards will cause them more problems.
What an arrogant ****! Don't call elite international teams a joke in these days. The world has changed. As to purely one-on-one skill, power, and jumping, the world is far behind America. That is true. But as to motion offense, help defense, team cooperation, the best international teams are better than U.S or NBA final champ in my opinion. Why? Because for marketing reasons, NBA over-stresses ego and one-on-one skills, thus fundamental skills and team cooperation are not in the blood of most of American born NBA players. The weakness has been exposed, and you can't take serious excuse after a series of failures in recent years. I agree with some posters that U.S.A is still the team to beat at this point, and in a best-of-seven series, they might be a locked champion. But in one-game system of Olympics and World tournament, 2-3 international teams have fair chance to beat U.S.A. Blow out if U.S send out best players and take the match seriously? In your dream. Don't live in twenty years ago.
I would rather not... Because I don't want him risk injury by over extending himself with a depleted team. My heart skipped a beat there when I saw him go down yesterday.
The cliche is that a lot of people assume that players with individual one on one skills, or players with freakish athleticism do not have fundamentals. Fundamentals are assumed by these people to be things like movement, passing, and (wide open) jump shooting, and that's about it. Since most Euro players are not athletically gifted, have a decent jump shot, and are taught to play a more movement oriented game, they are assumed to be more fundamentally sound than American players. However, individual skills such as footwork in low post move, using speed and fakes to dribble past your defender, man on man defense, etc. are all part of basketball fundamentals. NBA players are mostly superior to international players at these things. Yet they are thought of as less sound in fundamentals. The only "fundamental" international players are better is the understanding of a movement offense, which is more suitable under FIBA rules. The so-called classic post up game (classic only to the NBA style) is not good for international game because of the wider lane and the zone defense. It takes more movement and time to feed the post under such rules. NBA players are not accustomed to that kind of game because 1) the NBA has a short shot clock and 2) feeding the post is easier with a narrower lane and illegal defense rule.
So now who is being arrogant. Your opinion of international is more out of touch than his of USA Any team can be beat 1 game and USA with it's less than best team is no exception. Add that to the fact that they have little time to prepare to a totally different style of basketball. Part of what makes the players in the NBA so good is years of preparation at it. But USA International teams never get that luxury. A luxury that most international teams have. Playing in leagues that or much closer to FIBA's style and playing together for years not months is a certain advantage. So not make no mistake USA still has the best basketball players in the world. The best International team in the world could never beat the NBA Champs in a 7 game series. Maybe some day in the future that will change, but that day is not now!
It's not the truth. The US players that we have sent are just as good at dribbling and footwork as any of the international players. Where is the proof otherwise? Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson are excellent dribblers and have good footwork, as far as I can tell. I did not see them tripping over their feet. THey just were not able to knock down a 21 foot three point shot as well as a lot of their international counterparts, for whatever reason. In fact I have yet to see any US team play poorly and say "man if only they'd had better footwork,, they'd have won!" Let's take other measures, I mean the US team in 2004 that stunk led the tournament in assists, and led it in defense. Let's see, passing and defense - is that fundamental enough for you? Because that is frequently what people mean it to be. The US players (mostly) came from top college programs (save for the high school players) and have had high level coaching their entire lives. Going back to 2004 - look at the players who they had trouble with and pretty much singlehandedly beat the US: Carlos Arroyo, grew up Puerto Rico, which is part of the US, and went to college in the US - there is no fundamentally differnt basketball culture there. He had an american basketball education - there is no magic set of fundamentals he learned in San Juan. Sarunas Jasikevicus - the guy was a backup at Maryland for years. Did he learn magic fundamentals at home in Lithuania, or was he just a really good shooter from 22 feet out under international rules? His inabilty to mak an impact in the NBA leads me to thik the latter.
does anybody know when melo had that sick dunk on the 3 argentines (quarter and minute mark?) thanks.
Ok,but half of these players u mentioned won't play because of possible injury and because of teams and sponsors.Kobe is capiten and Carmelo proved every1 that he can play on Europe court.Wade also.
SamFisher, I'm not referring to our guards. The 4/5s are who I am critizing. If you're talking about fundamentals Kobe, Kidd, Billups, and even Deron are as sound as they get(Lebron is far from it). The guards/wingmen are not the issue. Its the big men. Long gone are the days when big men like Walton, McHale, Sabonis, Divac (not as effective defensively, but a good flopper nonetheless), and even our own Hakeem possess such complete skillsets. Only Brand, Duncan, and Yao fit the description, other's are not even remotely close. As I alluded to earlier... it's the interior game that I'm worried about.
Today's 4/5s are all play like 3s more than they do 4s. The ones that are fundamentally sound are usually undersized. I don't think I have seen many if at all players that are 6'10 + play with a solid back to the basket anymore. They big men I watch are usually very limited in ability.
Again, I don't see it - and anyway you said it yourself - Tim Duncan and Elton Brand, both have collectively played on the three most disappoing Team USA's yet - and there fundamentals didn't get them anywhere. I don't see why they should have to go back to the gym in Wiston Salem or Durham and re-learn footwork to be more successful. I don't see where there is a "fundamental" gap with international big men. Rather, international big men tend to, vs. the US, sit outside to keep them from dominating the paint and neutralize them on defense (see the way teams play Yao in the NBA, e.g.). When the US is on offense, teams collapse the zone on him (which is easier because of ct. dimensions) and force the US to shoot from 22 feet out (a distance normally known as the worst shot in basketball, lol.) In fact I don't recall an international big playr of any sort ever really having his way with the US by usin his 'fundamentals', whatever that means. If having your Center sit on the three point line and shoot from outside is the evidence of the fundamental play we lack, well I don't really think that's a big deal, nor do I think it's more fundamental to have a center play outside. Centers should play inside. That's why they are Centers.
Here's what I observed: 1. The US simply has an overwhelming amount of talent. With Kobe, Carmelo and LeBron on the same team, there is simply too much firepower for any defense to overcome, period. 2. The US team's lack of size on the inside was exposed somewhat in this game. I was surprised to see Tyson Chandler see so little floor time after his stellar performance in the previous game, but for most of the game Dwight Howard was the only one making any effort to rebound or box out. The Argentinean bigs dominated the boards, and this was by far the biggest reason why the score was as close as it was. Way too many second chance points, way too many garbage buckets negating the effects of good perimeter defense. 3. I'm not sold on Chauncey Billups being a good fit on this team. In my opinion, Deron Williams is the better playmaker, and should be the primary backup to Jason Kidd. I also hate seeing both Billups and Williams together on the floor ... it does not work. I'd much rather see Williams paired up with Bryant/Redd and James.
You make some good points: 1 Nuff said, especially with Jason Kidd and Kobe on the team. Those two guys add something that was missing last year. Plus LeBron looks like a completely different player. Last year he didn't fit in and it showed. 2 If Oberto and Herrmann were playing for Argentina, the size advantage would have been more lopsided. I like Howard too, but Amare is undersized as a C and Tyson Chandler doesn't belong on the team. I've harped on this for years, but Chandler needs to gain weight (and hence leverage) to be the best he can be. I can't believe his body still looks like it does. I know he's only 24 but he should be bigger. Seems like 6 years in the NBA would have taught him that by now. He gets shoved around too much. Next year against Argentina, Team USA will not get away with playing Amare at C. 3 Agreed on Chauncey. Deron Williams is already a better player. But Chauncey is a BIG upgrade over Chris Paul, who clearly wasn't ready last year. If Michael Redd doesn't shoot better, he shouldn't be on the team. He's been terrible the last couple of games and won't stop taking shots. Miller is another obvious bubble guy. Hopefully Durant will push him off the squad next summer.
Sorry but... Scola threads = Overrated Can we please talk about something else. I love the guy, but I'm tired of seeing his name.
there are about 12 threads on the dude, like he is the only player that the rockets have. start a thread that isn't scola specific.
