[Yahoo!] Five Questions for Team USA

EbolaScola · Aug 9, 2008

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/be...ys-teamusaquestions080808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

By Kelly Dwyer, Special to Yahoo! Sports Aug 8, 10:12 am EDT

Team USA enters the Olympics as gold-medal favorites, but still trailed by a handful of questions that need answering.

1. Does Team USA know who it is playing?

In an embarrassing spectacle, Team USA lost to Greece at the 2006 World Championships, partially because it treated guard Vasileios Spanoulis as if he were the second coming of Mark Price and mainly because Spanoulis made his first three-pointer of the game.

Although Spanoulis would go on to make two more from long range (one a lucky banked-in three-pointer), Team USA’s aggressive perimeter play on the poor-shooting guard allowed for all sorts of back cuts and easy interior looks for the rest of the Greek team.
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Even those with a passing knowledge of international basketball could tell you that V-Span (who missed 24 of 29 three-point attempts for the Houston Rockets in the NBA the next season) was hardly a perimeter threat. But because Team USA hadn’t bothered to read or listen to a scouting report, he was hounded at the three-point line, which allowed for layup after layup in the second half. U.S. guard Kirk Hinrich even fouled Spanoulis on one three-point attempt, handing him three cheap free throws.

Following the game, coach Mike Krzyzewski added to the embarrassment by referring to the Greek players by their numbers, not their names. One could give Coach K the benefit of the doubt in assuming that he had a hard time with pronunciation, but the guy coached Steve Wojciechowski and grew up on the south side of Chicago. He’s used to having to work through syllables.

All the team-building exercises and talk of redemption won’t mean a thing if Team USA doesn’t know who to go over a screen – or under – in order to guard.

2. Will Jason Kidd step aside without incident?

Kidd didn’t even sniff the NBA’s list of top five point guards last year, so it seems a little odd that he’d be starting and playing big minutes while superior players like Deron Williams and Chris Paul, who dominated Kidd during the playoffs last year, sit on the bench. Team USA talked endlessly about how much it enjoyed playing with Kidd during last summer’s FIBA Americas tourney, but that win had more to do with Kobe Bryant’s presence and a weakened field than Kidd’s ability to throw an alley-oop pass off the backboard.

Kidd likes attention nearly as much as teams like playing off of him, so Coach K could be in for some tough times. Assuming, of course, that he makes the right decision and plays Paul and Williams more than Kidd. The idea of giving Kidd the starting nod for superficial purposes makes little sense, too, since points scored or allowed in the opening minutes of both halves count just as much as the points scored or allowed in the final minutes of a game.

3. Will Dwight Howard hold up?

Howard’s still only 22, he’s playing international ball for the third straight summer, and he’s going to have to pull double duty on the interior.

Team USA is thin in the pivot, and because international teams love to draw the center away from the rim and cut toward the basket once the lane frees up, Howard is going to need eyes in the back of his head while checking the perimeter, so he can dash back in time to divert, or at least challenge, a shot in the paint.

Oh, and grab some rebounds while you’re at it, kid.

This was the bed that Team USA made by adding Tayshaun Prince to the roster over Tyson Chandler. Prince is a terrific defender, but in spite of his famous playoff exploits against Reggie Miller, he might be the most famous non-shot-blocking shot-blocker (0.6 a game over his career) in NBA history. He can’t be expected to patrol the paint.

4. Can LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony diversify their games?

Or, can they do anything besides dunk and shoot three-pointers?

Anthony loves the isolation play that allows him to shoot a 20-footer after using the clock in the triple-threat position, but that doesn’t really fly in international ball. And James’ poor footwork leaves him out of sorts when it comes to anything besides getting all the way to the rim. With the international floppers guarding the basket, James and Anthony can’t keep bailing the defense out with three-pointers.

5. Can the U.S. ever win?

Of course it can win the gold medal, but can it win over the doubters?

Team USA is playing a brand of basketball that is and has been, pardon the phrase, completely foreign to its players through their entire basketball-playing lives; save for the few scant weeks in the summer when these players join USA Basketball for a run.

This is a different game with different rules and different referees, who call the game completely different, and Team USA – playing with different teammates after a short training camp – is somehow expected to win every game by 30 just because we’ve seen them on the cover of video game boxes while in their NBA duds.

It doesn’t work that way. Familiarity counts, and Team USA doesn’t have that to fall back on – both in their own team confines and when it comes to their ease at playing the international game. And if Team USA brings home the gold? A shrugging legion of observers will scoff, reminding anyone who will listen that Team USA is “supposed” to win and pining for the days when amateurs could be counted on to finish first.

Well, even a group of the best the NCAA (or even the minor leagues) has to offer would still lose every game by 30 on this international stage, but that matters little to those who have already made up their minds.

Which is a shame. The players on Team USA aren’t exactly making the biggest sacrifice of anyone in the Olympic Village, but they are leaving themselves prone to all sorts of criticism for any number of perceived misdeeds.

Chief among them? Winning, not winning, winning by too much, not winning by enough, showing arrogance, offering fake humility, not passing enough, not being aggressive enough, shooting too much from long range, showing no perimeter “fundamentals” and getting into a competitive contest with a team full of international pros who have been playing every year for their country’s respective team since their teens instead of blowing that team out.

It can be agreed that hubris from various executives, coaches and even players has led to Team USA’s downfall since the 2002 World Championships. But win or lose, let’s try to give this year’s model the benefit of the doubt while trying to recognize why they’ll struggle at times.

It’s a different game. And the players Team USA is up against are very good at this particular, different, game.
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peleincubus · Aug 9, 2008

they may be able to do "no right" but ill be very content if they beat every team they play soundly. shut people up for a while even if they can say it was expected.

KellyDwyer · Aug 9, 2008

I say it for other people's columns, and I'll say it for mine:

PLEASE DO NOT CUT AND PASTE ENTIRE COLUMNS INTO A POST.

Cut a snippet out and provide a link. Editors work too hard on this stuff and page designers work too hard on this stuff to see it end up here.

Rover16 · Aug 9, 2008

Article was crap just like his last artest article. Dissing vspan like that...wtf?

dandorotik · Aug 9, 2008

KellyDwyer said:

I say it for other people's columns, and I'll say it for mine:

PLEASE DO NOT CUT AND PASTE ENTIRE COLUMNS INTO A POST.

Cut a snippet out and provide a link. Editors work too hard on this stuff and page designers work too hard on this stuff to see it end up here.
Click to expand...

We agree.

Sincerely,

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No, I agree- but as long as it's out there on the Internet and people are able to copy-and-paste entire articles, they're going to do it, unfortunately.

Dave_78 · Aug 9, 2008

I don't even watch Team USA anymore. It hurts too much to see the most gifted athletes in the world barely win or lose because they somehow managed to never learn how to play the game.

baller4life315 · Aug 9, 2008

6. Can Coach K. win with all that talent?

Having 20 McDonald's All-Americans every year hasn't ever guaranteed him a thing at Duke, why should having the four best basketball players on the planet be any different?

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