i think it would almost be best to just have the nba champs go play in the worlds and olympics. these all-star teams don't seem to have a great chemistry.
yeah, but if the nba champ just played in the olympics wed have problems. for example, if dallas had won, dirk couldnt play for the us. if san antonio wins, they have to play without parker or ginobili. i used to be an advocate for just sending the pistons but i dont know anymore. i think the us is on the right track as far as international preperation goes now.
Do you know what the sad part is? The Netherlands is not even ON the list I'm sure we can beat Madagascar
LOL, and the worst part is that the Netherlands are among the tallest countries on earth, isn't the average Netherlands male like 6-1 or 6-2? No way they shoudl be behind Kazakhstan! PS, arno where are your africa pictures/stories? We're still waiting........
Plus, even the best NBA teams really only have 3 or 4 good players. Depth would be a huge problem. If we sent the Heat to the WC's this year, I doubt they would even medal.
Depth? Really? Well international teams are a lot less deep. Take Argentina, probably the deepest non-us team. I doubt that outside of Ginobili, Nocioni, and perhaps Luis Scola, that Argentina has anybody who woudl crack the heat's rotation. Carlos Delfino and Fabricio Oberto are bit players with Det & SA, tohter than that it's NBA rejects like Ruben Wolkowyski and Pepe Sanchez. On the onthr hand, you're right, the heat -- if they're just hanging out in the offseason -- probably don't medal. if the same Heat team that showed up vs. Dallas in June is there and plays the same way, however, they blow every team out of the gym by 40 points.
You think? Would you be comfortable replacing LeBron James with Antoine Walker? Or Chris Paul with Gary Payton? Or Melo with James Posey? Blech, not me.
Well let's look at it another way - that same heat team whooped Dallas....but Dallas aint in the WC's, so are you comfortable replacing Dirk Nowizitki, Josh Howard, and Jason Terry with Oberto, Ginobili, and Pepe Sanchez? I know which wone I'd rather play.
They didn't exactly whoop Dallas, let's not get all revisionist here. They won the very close series on some extremely clutch play from D-Wade, a lot of help from the refs, and some really stupid moves by the Mavs (see Josh Howard timeout). I don't think the Heat would do that well in the WC, mostly since their perimeter shooting isn't that great. Still, the amount of chemistry they have is probably greater than that of any national team, turning a previous US weakness into a strength. I would say that they would be strong contenders but not prohibitive favorites. For the record, I think the USA is definitely the best team. However, we all know that the best team doesn't necessarily win and that this is why the games are played.
Dwayne Wade is on the US team. I think both Wade's would cancel eachother out. Actually, this kind of proves my point. Why did the Heat win the Championship last year? Because of Wade. Well, Wade is already on the US team, so would replacing Lebron, Melo, and Bosh with Jason Williams, Alonzo Mourning and Derek Anderson really improve the team chemistry enough to actually make the team better? I don't think so. The Heat would have just a much trouble adjusting to the international game as the US team, if not more.
They still won, and they beat a much better, more talented team than any of the international teams (other than the US) that will be in Japan next week...that's the point. I don't know about you, but the Wade from two months ago looked a lot better to me than the Wade from two days ago.
Not only would the Heat be the favorites for the gold medal, but the Hawks would too. Most national teams have only a couple of players that can even make NBA rosters, let alone crack people's rotations. Even the top non-US national teams have maybe five or six NBA players. Every NBA team of course has 15 NBA players. We put together a national team of all-stars because the fans want to see all of the best American players play together (not that that actually happens, but I digress), although that is not neccessarily a formula for success. A full NBA team that has played together for a long time, including their coaching staff, would have chemistry like the national teams of other countries, but more talent.
Well, I guess I'm in the minority here, but I still like the current US team's chances more than I would like the Heat's chances. I see your point about chemistry, but I think this edition of the US team wasn't built "for the fans" like all of the teams since 92 (except for the lockout year) were. How many guys on this team have ever even been to the All Star game? Many of them aren't even the 2 or 3rd best player on their NBA teams. This team was built like an NBA team would be built, as opposed to an 'all star' team like in years past. It has the stars like Wade, LeBron, and Melo but it also has some of the best role players in the game like Shane and Bowen. I guess I'm saying I would agree with you if we were talking about the last few USA teams, but I really think this team is different. And I really like their chances of correcting the wrongs of the last few US teams and bringing the gold back home where it belongs.
