27 games in a row, after a mediocre US team led by Stephon Marbury had no trouble with Spain in 2004 and Gasol and their coach whined and b****ed like little babies.
i can honestly say that i have not seen enough of them play, so i will have to take your word for it for now.
You're right, all those guards will be able to take on LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chauncey Billups, and Jason Kidd. Team USA's offense has been spectacular, with great scoring and ball movement, and their defense has been stellar. Good luck to the world, they'll need it.
Yes, its better. But the team of 2004 was better than the one of 2002, and the 2006 team was better than the 2004 team... but none of them won the big thing. USA has a big chance to win... but this is bbl, and anything could happen.
Don't especially want to step on anyone's hard earned bragging rights, but that's silly. The best team in the world is whichever team wins the NBA Finals. The USA Basketball team goes to the Olympics on a lark. They're just having a good old time over there. Yeah, they lost last time around, but they don't really care about that because everybody knows the real tourney's US only. You want to put the "best team in the world" up against the Spurs? Or the Mavs? Or the Suns? Or the Rockets? Or the dang Hornets? You'd lose every time. The Olympics are an expo for NBA players. They rank those games somewhere between the All-Star Game and the pre-season. I'd love it if there were enough good teams (let's just say two, for the sake of argument) that the Olympics mattered, but as it stands there are only about thirty international players in the world that are good enough to play in the US. The trend is good, but we're not there yet. And Spain is nowhere near as good as any of the 30 NBA teams.
According to FIBA the US is the best - even if you dedcut the U19 (15 pts or less for the US) and U21 rankings (40 pts for the US).
Like it or not, no teams in the world, be it Argentina, Spain or Greece, can beat this USA Team. The problem is, the team USA is no longer the dominant team they were 15years ago. The world is catching up. This USA team can beat the full squad of team Argentina, Spain, Greece by 10-20 points but there are no chance they can beat them 40points like they did 15 years ago! The team USA sure can trash the Yao-led China Team by 50 points cos the rest of the world is catching but not the Chinese team!
Your posts are useless. You posted about the 2004 vicotry over Spain which at that point was gasol and alot of talent, not extremely good players. Also the 2004 US team had the game of their life's that night. They just couldn't miss one shot from the 3 point line. Actually i can notice you really didn't pay attention to what i was saying, the US has been winning by creating turn overs by over playing the lanes, and the dribble. The guys I meantioned will make the US pay for this. Btw my favorite to win it all is the US, but think of this tournament as March Madness. It is single elimination after qualifying round. I don't think any of these team would have a chance agianst this US team on a best of 7. But single elimination? I wouldn't be surprise at all.
I don't know about that....but we could actually have better roster on paper than all of those teams... vs. Suns Yao > Amare Scola > Diaw, Scola<Marion, but kinda screw their match up because they will be over matched on the front court Battier = Diaw, Battier has better defense, while Diaw has better offense McGrady > Bell, Bell can't slow McGrady down like does Kobe sometimes....he has too much height on him... James < Nash, well obviously Wells, Francis, Hayes, Head, Mutombo > Barbosa, Hill, Jones, and etc. vs. Mavs Yao >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Diop, Dampier, or whoever Scola < Nowitzki Battier < Howard McGrady > Terry James > Harris Wells, Francis, Hayes, Head Mutombo > Stackhouse, Croshere, George, Jones,
Ok, I should have said World Champions instead of best team in the world. I don't think US players give that little importance to the Olympics but well... its just my opinion.
The 2002 National team was a joke. How about you rewind to 2000 if you want to act like the team's get progressively better? LaFrentz? Antonio Davis? We even had Nick Collison as an alternate. The 2000 team was dominant, and the only similarity the USA is missing from that team is the powerful scoring PF in Kevin Garnett, but we have the rebounding. Then again, we didn't have the three-headed monster that is LeBron, Kobe, and Carmelo.
Actually you are wrong. Spain, Argentina, Greece and Italy can beat team USA. It is SINGLE elimination. This US team losing one game against these teams can happen, the thing for the US is not to do it when it matters the most, the knockout round.
Because there is no Nash. This guy sucks! He is lucky enough to have Nash besides him and become an All-star. He can't create his own shots. Sick with some people arguing he's better than Yao.
I'm looking forward to the USA playing against Spain and Argentina in the Olympics. This year's squad is much more representative of our best than the World Championships last year. Next year when Wade is back on the team and we compete against the best, it should be clearer where the U.S. stands vs. the world. On Scola, he did OK in the 3rd quarter when Team USA let its guard down after going up by 25. Nothing special. But he showed enough that if NBA defenses take him for granted and focus on stopping other players, he will punish them. His passing, running the floor and movement without the ball are both outstanding. I'm still concerned about how he and Yao will be on defense together. I don't think it looks promising.
