You misunderstood. If a starting team of Tim Duncan Lamar Odom Shawn Marion Allen Iverson Stephon Marbury wins a bronze then a team of Kelvin Cato Maurice Taylor Jim Jackson Cat Mobley Charlie Ward won't qualify for the medal round.
yeah according to your logic if a starting team of Tim Duncan Lamar Odom Shawn Marion Allen Iverson Stephon Marbury wins a bronze then a team of Luis Scola ? ? Manu Ginobli (role player in NBA) Pepe Sanchez (waived by Hawks & Pistons) won't qualify for the medal round either. only a starting 5 of Magic, MJ, Bird, Malone, Robinson has a chance at the gold.
sounds like every int'l team are filled of players like Gasol. if someone waived by the Hawks(Sanchez) can run the Olympic champ then Ward is more than capable doing it. yeah Ward'd make you laugh comparing to the big names from NBA (Marbury, Wade, Iverson) but i'll tell you what, Ward is the best true PG among these players. none of those big names really knows how to play PG or run a team and that's why they failed in the Olympic. Taylor a defensively liablity? how did Luis Scola & Pepe Sanchez stopped Duncan & Iverson? you play team D and you use the rules to guard the best talants. and for your Kings: Bibby: refused to play Christie: is he any better than Cat at this point? Jackson: my choice too Webber: according to your logic he'd "get run over by Gasol everytime so this team never would have been able to get by Spain" we need Big Ben here to stop Gasol..... woops Big Ben refused to play too. Miller: good pick but not sure if he wants to play please guys, learn a lesson. we don't need a dream team filled by stars (maybe 1 or 2 would be fine). EVERY NBA player has the talant to play in the Olympics, even scrubs. we need system & chemstry NOT talant/big names. would you trade Cato for Scola last season?; Nocioni better than Mo Taylor already? I don't think so; who's their SF? more talanted than JJ? I don't think so; Ginobli surely the only adventage over Cat but by how much?; and yeah you can laugh Ward to death but imaging if the Rockets sign Sanchez to start at the PG when he waived by the Hawks what'd you said? again talant isn't the problem, but how you play the game.
You need to wake up. The world is changing. If you present this crap team, the only opponent they can beat is Angola. The crappy China team is even better than them simply because no one can stop Yao. Talking about passing and chemistry, is Duncan a worse passer than Cato or Taylor? Give me a break! The european bball level is improving rapidly in the recent decades. They not only have shooter, also they have rebounder, slasher, bball smarts, and excellent discipline. Under the International rules, don't imagine a bad NBA team can beat them, Never!
I think the reason that all those other wise scrub average players for the international teams play so well is that they play with an insane amount of pride for their country. They take on the challenge of playing against better players, countering it with their team work. Only situation in which our scrub Nba team would win was if they were ever as motivated as the foreigners.
where did you read i said Duncan a worse passer than Cato? you give me a break! I said SYSTEM not any single player. don't just tell me something you read on the BBS, tell me exectly who's on the Argentina team a better "shooter" than Jim Jackson; who's on that team a better "rebounder" than Cato; who's better a "slasher" than Cat; and how do you prove that Sanchez smarter than Ward as a player?
If a team of All-stars that play NBA-style ball can only win the bronze, how does a team of role players that play NBA-style ball win the gold? I'm going to throw a number out for you: 0 That's the number of games that Ward, Cat, JJ, Taylor, and Cato have played in international competition. It's not like that team would play Euro-style ball. And if they did, they'd get beat at it. JJ and Car didn't have great shooting years last year because they were deadeye long distance shooters. They're both streak shooters. They had great shooting years because of the double teams Yao was facing. How many double teams would Cato face? Team USA still would not have won the gold medal if you substituted Cat for Ivy and JJ for RJ and Taylor for Odom. They would not win the Gold if Charlie Ward was the PG instead of Marbury. Would you put together an Olympic team with Cato instead of Duncan? Your argument makes no sense. A team of Ward, Cat, JJ, Taylor, and Cato wouldn't win 30 games in the NBA. And you think that would be the best team in the World if we sent them to the olympics?
you just answered yourself. it's because the "STYLE" of play not all-star/role player issue. sorry but that'll be an idle team imo. Duncan, Okfor Taylor, Boozer Jackson, Anthony Mobley, James Ward, Wade if that was the team we sent to Athens we just might won the gold. why? we don't need Marbury & Iverson's low% high scoring game, we need Ward's assist & Cat's 3pt shooting. Jefferson's been a total waste untill he start to hit the open 3s for like 1 & half qualters and JJ can do that night in-night out; Taylor at least can hit the J and you still have Boozer/Okfor/Amare to rebound and play D. btw, stop telling me how much better Duncan is than Cato. Duncan is great on ANY team assembled. it'd be even better if it's Cato+Duncan+JJ+Cat+Ward or Camby+Duncan+Bowen+Barry+Billups it doesn't matter which NBA player you send to Olympics because they'll have the world-class talant. the problem is we don't have a "system" that suits well for int'l games. for example (not likely but gives you an idea what i'm talking about): if we have a "balanced" team (3pt shooting, post-up game, rebounding, defense, passing, ...) assembled by any 12 average NBA players and have them trained 4 years for the Olympics, don't you expect them to win the gold? you get the idea? we don't need any of those "stars" we sent to Athens, probably just 1 or 2 very good players (Ginobli/Gasol caliber) and 10 average role players and most importantly a right system and chemstry.
