I see your point, and this would be a decent team...but are you serious that you'd put rashard lewis before shawn marion? and griffin before mcdyess or shareef? and the barry brothers before carter, who said he would play if he wasn't injured? I don't get those.
Great choices. I'd add in Ray Allen as the 12th guy, so we'd have a shooting specialist on the team. Another alternative is to replace Iverson and his one-on-one style of play with an additional post player, considering you've only chosen 4.
MY TEAM WOULD CONSIST OF : STARTING: C- SHAQ PF- DUNCAN SF- GARNETT SG-TMAC PG- AI I WOULD WANT A STARTING LINE-UP THAT WOULD STRIKE FEAR INTO THE OPPONENT. BENCH: KOBE WEBBER PIERCE R. WALLACE ALLEN KIDD FRANCIS reason i would add AI is i would want a team that would be unstoppable on offense and i think everybody would agree, this team would do it on both sides of the court. I like the emotion AI and Wallace would bring to the game.
You might have a point. The reason I put those guys on the list is because Lewis is a superior shooter to Marion in my opinion. Marion is a much better rebounder and is a better one on one player but I think Lewis would be better suited for the International game. I added Griffin because of his range although McDyess can consistently hit the mid range jumper so he might replace Griffin. I might still put Griffin before Shareef in International play. Really the most important thing is that the guys we sent MUST be able to hit their free throws.
IMHO, there is something fundamentally wrong with most of the lineups listed here. The Argentine's won with team oriented basketball and the majority response here is just to get "better" individual players. I heartily disagree. I think the team should be built from tandems or trios that play on the same team during the regular season. For example, if Webber is the PF then Bibby must be the PG. 1) Bibby / K. Anderson 2) P. Pierce / R. Miller 3) KG / SAR / B. Bowen 4) Duncan / Webber 5) J. O'Neal / T. Ratliffe The only exception I made was KG who could probably play all 5 postions in an international style game. Most of the players can easily play multiple positions. This is the best I could do on the fly. Of mention are B. Davis-Mashburn / D. Davis - B. Wells / Kidd - K-Mart / McGrady - M.Miller (Hill if healthy) / Payton - Mason or Payton - Lewis. If the team is real young, Stockton - Malone. (God, that last one nearly killed me to type). If you select Francis, you must select either Cat or EG. In my method, you clearly windup with less Marquee players but I think you will ultimately have a better team.
After tonights loss to Yugoslavia, a thought occurred to me that would improve the US team immensely. Any player who doesn't volunteer his services to the US National Team ought to be banned from having their commercials run during the telecast of the games. In fact, a grass roots effort to not purchase products endorsed by the NBA players who forgo the NT would hit 'em where it hurts most. IMO, a week or month of no Spalding purchases would send a message. Shall we pencil you in for Brazil next summer, Mr. Bryant?
Great point. It was sickening to me that they were playing that Kobe Bryant Spalding's commercial over and over again during a World Basketball Championships that Kobe refused to play in.
Steve Francis Cuttino Mobley Jalen Rose Kevin Garnett Tim Duncan We have 3 deadly shooters in Steve, Cat, and Jalen. And 2 powerful men at the 4 and 5. Im being realistic here. Honestly I don't think Shaq would play. For my bench, i would have, Jay Williams Ray Allen Pual Peirce Vince Carter Rasheed Wallace LeBron James Jason Richardson There is noone on this team that cannot shoot. There is noone on this team that cannot Run. There is noone on this team that cannot pass. And there is noone on this team that cannot Dunk. The only player that is a question mark at the free throw line is Jay williams. But maybe by the south america Olympic Qualafying rounds he will work on that.
Here's another thought, it's become painfully obvious that poor coaching is another factor as to why the US lost (again). Wouldn't it make more sense to have a coach that knows how the Internation game is played. I've seen several times where the US players don't seem to know the rules such as the non-goaltending rule after the ball has already hit the rim. Along with the team that I already mentioned I'd like to see I would like to see the US team coached by Donnie Nelson. I'd also like to see a permanent team selected for these games. There have been serious chemistry issues with the last two US teams that were selected. The US team still may not be able to play together as much as the Yugo's or Agentine's of the world but at least the US players would know who their teammates will be. They would at least have a feel for the guys they will be playing with.
I'd clone these players and have them play together every day of their lives until they were a well finely tuned basketball team. PG. S.Francis J.Lucas SG. C. Murphy C.Mobley SF. C. Drexler, R.Horry PF. C.Barkley, O.Thorpe C. Dream, M.Malone I
C) O'Neal PF) Duncan SF) Garnett SG) Jordan- for his mystique alone. PG) Kidd 6) Bryant 7) McGrady 8) Iverson 9) Payton 10) Pierce 11) Webber 12) Ben Wallace Very undersized, but the three frontcourt starters can all split time at center with Wallace getting some hustle time off the bench.
1) Kidd, Bibby, A. Miller 2) Kobe, Allen, Marion 3) TMac, SAR, KG 4) R. Wallace, C.Webb, E. Griffin or C. Wilcox 5) Shaq Daddy, Duncan OK, you're gonna ask why I include Eddie and not Stevie. Well the reason is because we need a PG to be a PG. I noticed that Miller ran the team alot better than B. Davis, and Steve's game resemble's Baron's game. A real PG is more effective than an athletic one.
