we needed poise and shooting from the PG position plus we need some versatile and long defenders for all the eurobigs who can shoot.
When I saw tinman started this thread, I thought there would be nothing but golden-era Rockets recommended. I was only half-right.
They should have just called everybody that was on the Rockets 1995 championship team Hakeem - dominant low post play Clyde - spreads the floor and can go coast to coast Elie - tough perimeter "D", something this team didn't have Horry - deadly three point shooting Cassell - floor leadership Off the bench Kenny Smith Vernon Maxwell Chucky Brown Pete Chilcutt Tracy Murray Scottie Brooks and Tim Breaux can come in for some garbage time when we're up by 30 in the fourth quarter. Of course, Rudy T. would be the head coach. Seriously, if he could win the bronze medal with a bunch of CBA castoffs and college kids, there's no doubt he could win the gold medal with the above mentioned players...
you know that cassell > chris paul and henrick you know cassell wouldn't clang open 3s in crunch time
Keep this team together. Do not break it up. Do not cram new stars on to it. Let them learn. A core of Hinrich/Paul-Wade/JJ-James-Melo-Howard/Bosh can come to play every 2 years (WBC/Olymp) and learn to thrive in international play. Continuously tossing out international first timers has been the biggest mistake of USA basketball in the past decade. Keep Kobe off the team. Keep Billups off the team. Stick with this nucleus and only change the supporting cast as neccesary. This team looked much more cohesive than the last two jokes of a dream team. Stick with them. Evan
Wow! Has the NBA/American basketball taken that many steps backwards? Can you find a team that has that kind of talent in the NBA today? And they weren't even as talented as San Antonio, Phoenix and Orlando IMO.
Tinman's USA TEAM starters: PG Sam Cassell SG Ray Allen SF Carmelo Anthony PF Kevin Garnett C Ben Wallace Bench: PG Jason Terry SG Dwade SF Ron Artest PF Battier C Rasheed Wallace
The current roster will do fine given time. They had 6 weeks to play together. I'm sure anyone would take team USA's lineup anyday. It is true they need a pure shooter on the team, perhaps Reddick will fill that role.
I'm hoping Hinrich and Paul learn from this but I'd take Billups over either of them. This is Melo's and James second international go around, are they learning? And you would not want Kobe on the team just for team continuity? I would definitely bump off Jamison or Joe Johnson for Kobe, what are we losing versus gaining in the tradeoff? I think Kobe's Bball IQ is vastly underrated and his ballhog tendency is just being a victim of what's available to him. I'm not enamored with our bigs either, Brand was invisible at times and Dwight Howard while spectacular at times had the Stro-itis at times and totally had brainfarts on alot of defensive moments.
Ben Wallace was completely useless in Indianapolis; I'm sure the washed up version of him would be much better. YOu might as well put Kevin Willis in there tinny.
but if you combo wallace with KG, he'll server his rebounding and defensive purpose. maybe Jermaine ONeal instead. but with Cassell, you're guaranteed a gold medal.
Now that I think about it, I think we can replace Pete Chilcutt with Matt Bullard, even though he wasn't on the '95 team. Could you imagine Horry shooting threes with Bullard coming off the bench? They wouldn't even think about throwing a zone at us.
but you keep forgetting that they wouldn't respect the Rockets if we beat Alien Invaders out of the planet. CNNSI would probably have soccer on their cover instead of the Rockets winning the gold medal.
Wallace had Jermain Oneal and Elton Brand in Indy, if you've forgotten. Still sucked arse. I'd want KG and the other Wallace - Rasheed as our bigs, can't get more multidimensional then that. Alas KG wants no part of international competition. And well, Sheed, he and Artest aren't what Colangelo had in mind for USA.
Tinboy- Jermaine O'Neal WAS on the 2002 Indianapolis squad and was only marginally more effective than Wallace.
SamBoy there was no Cassell on that team. Cassell makes everyone better. see Kevin Garnett, see Elton Brand
I admit I'm curious how affective Cassell would be against international play, he's got that crafty herky jerky type of play that would fit right in with the weird guards of the other international teams. But guaranteeing a gold is a bit much. And the guy is injured too much and probably too old to ever get consideration to the roster. But yeah I'd pick him over Chris Paul, watching him play against Greece made me want to choke him through the TV. Chris Paul is suppose to be one of the most talented PG to come around in recent memory and he gets compared to Zeke alot, I saw nothing in that Greece game to validate that. I'm crossing my fingers he gets better in later international competition as he and Hinrich seem to be the PGs for the next 3 years. And yeah I know Paul is only 21 and this is his first international experience.
