My US-Yugo Post Game Analysis - EEK!

i say some people. (people like me) were going for the underdog. I say if U.S doesn't send their best players then i am a pissed off fan that wants them to lose to prov ethat we need the best over here.

 

I hate to see the U.S. lose but losing might be the only thing to get the best players off of their @sses and actually help the country in athletics. There was a HUGE USA chant, but the team just sucked.

 

in a way U.S team does represent the nba. So i see why you posted here.

 

HOOP-T -

Great points, especially with the foul call against Andre Miller at the end. Couple more things to add.

1) Lack of a low post presence: We were outrebounded, outmuscled, out everything'ed down low. Our low post game was non-existent.

2) Poor FT/outside shooting. I don't know how many missed wide open shots, free throws or otherwise, I saw tonight from all-star caliber NBA players. Inexcusable.

 

Without analyzing too much.........we just SUCK.
Physical talent isn't a question........but BBall IQ just isn't too high these days.
It's been said for years, maybe now some of the NBA players will actually learn some of the fundamentals.

Maybe not........they're already making millions of dollars, who cares about fundamentals.

 

HOOP-T,

Didn't Jermaine miss about 4 FT's in a row? At least one of them was a flat out airball.

I also loved how we passed the ball to Ben Wallace to jack up at least 2 shots near the end. Ben isn't exactly my idea of a go-to guy. Andre Miller passed to him once when he should've just pulled up for a jumper. You could tell these guys don't play with each other much.

 

So if a player makes sure to run into a pick "blindly" without looking at it, they are allowed to slam into the player as hard as they want? Andre should blame his teamates for not calling out the pick. I personally thought it should have been a no call (the US should glad it wasn't, because the Yugo player made the layup), but I can't see how you call that a foul on Vlade. He stood still the whole time. He set a standard pick, and he shouldn't be called for a foul just because a player doesn't go around that pick.

Edit: You are correct that Jaric should not have been shooting the foul shots. There is no way that Miller fouled Jaric. I would say he didn't even foul Vlade.

 

I say it isn't about who plays, although that is a factor. I mean, come on, we still had waaay more talent than any other team. But what good did that do us? Sure, you can put our best of the best out there, but that will still be winning on individual talent alone over the beautiful team play we're seeing from other countries. It's not the point who plays for USA, the point is whether we'll play like a team.

l say that team USA has to have a lot more practice time together. They'll never get as much time as others (Argentina team has been practicing together for a year) but now that the world has caught up we have to win with team ball.

I'm going to repeat a suggestion I had after the last olympics where we almost lost: I say whatever team wins the NBA championship gets the honor of representing their country on the international level. That would assure that we would have a badass team, a championship team that has already been to the top of the mountain, has all their stars and role players established, has a system and knows how to use it. Lakers or even the Nets would have torn WBC up this summer.

 

Picks are designed to block or impede a defender from the offensive player. That is its purpose. The fact that a foul was called when the pick was serving its purpose is ridiculous. No, the foul should not have been called on Andre Miller. There was no intent in slamming into Divac...now if he knew the pick was coming and lowered his shoulder or something, that's a different story. But in this case, the pick was simply serving its purpose, and a foul was called. Regardless, since a foul was called, Divac should have been shooting the free throws. The fact that Jaric shot them and that a referee gave him continuation (which was later waved off) is extremely bizarre. I mean Jaric wasn't even involved in the collision. This is just the latest chapter in the atrocious officiating of the FIBA World Championships.

 

Just make sure the mavs doesn't make it to the top

 

How do you decide whether a player lowered his shoulder intentionally or not? I think if a player slams into a picker very hard, it should be a foul on the offensive player. Otherwise, players could just turn their head and run into the picker as hard as they wanted, possibly injuring the guy setting the pick.

 

I don't know if you saw the play, but if you've seen it, you would have seen that it was obviously unintentional, and that Miller did not see it coming. Miller did not lower his shoulder or slam into Divac all that hard. Miller was the one lying on the floor; Divac barely moved. Thus, the pick was simply serving its purpose.

Regardless, why in the world wasn't Vlade Divac shooting those free throws?
Maybe if he had, he would have choked like he did against the Lakers in game 7 of this year's WCF .

 

Regardless of whether it was serving its purpose, what if Divac had gotten hurt there? Is it okay for a player to injure another just because he didn't know? The purpose of the pick is to make the player go AROUND it and to not get steamrolled by a guy whose teamates weren't paying attention. I don't think you can excuse a collision like that just because the player that instigated it didn't mean for it to happen.

 

No no no. The purpose of the pick is not for the defender to go around it. That's what the defenders do when they are aware of the pick to avoid blindly running into a wall. That's why you hear players yell, "Pick left/right, get around it (or switch depending on the defensive scheme)." The purpose of a pick is to block or impede a defender from an offensive player. Making a player go around somewhat serves its purpose, but rarely do you see offensive players open for shots off picks when the defender gets around a pick. It's when the defender runs into a pick that the offensive player gets his/her open look at the basket. Thus, the pick was simply serving its purpose. Offensive players are just as much at risk as defensive players when running into a pick, even more at risk when it is blindly (I've been nailed several times by hard picks that I was not aware of. Trust me, it hurts.). This is why if a player is seen to intentionally lower his shoulder into the pick setter, or if the pick setter is seen moving into the defender, it is a foul.

Again, why wasn't Divac shooting those free throws?

 

I agree with your sentiment completely. The problem is that for the most part, the NBA is all about winning on individual talent and one-on-one play.

Other teams don't necessarily spend all year together. Their players play in professional leagues too. Vlade and Peja spent most of the year in the NBA but Yugoslavia still won.

I don't think that the Lakers are a lock to win the WBC. They still play one-on-one basketball and I think that Shaq would not be as effective with the trapezoidal lane and pace of the Argentina game.

With more underclassmen and high school players going into the NBA, fundamentals can only continue to get worse. The NBA values athleticism above all else. At this rate, I don't see the USA winning a gold medal in the next Olympics regardless of who they select for the national team.

 

You said everything I was going to say. But, Michecon is right: we have citizens of other countries playing on our teams, so you can't always send our champion to play. We can't really send the Mavs without Nowitzki and Nash or the Kings without Stojakovic and Divac.

But, you're right that this is not about the level of talent but the level of chemistry. All the other teams are working hard to do well in this competition and the USA team figured it could get together 2 weeks before the games so everyone could learn everyone else's names and they'd win. I'm glad they lost not because USA will have to send their best players but because maybe they'll realize they have to really work in order to win.

 

I'm not sure what the nightlife is in Indianapolis, but the U.S. team has found whatever attractions (distractions) there are. They sure didn't spend all of their time practicing. I've heard that Indianapolis has an excellent children's museum.

I don't think we need to send the NBA Championship team to the Worlds... one of the Division winners would do. You know, a TEAM. The rest of the world is getting better. We need to either practice a hell of a lot more or send a team. It has gotten pretty bad when we start howling about calls or non-calls.