No fuckin' with the US basketball team next time around.

[Precious Roy 0]

Yeah, we beefed up our stats running and gunning against a bunch of shitty teams. When we played teams like Germany and Greece that actually know how to slow the game down and defend we had trouble scoring.

 

But really, the problem isn't our shooters, we have guys who can shoot, the problem is the shots we take. Too much one on one, too many contested jump shots. It's the same problem we had in the last Olympics. We don't know how to fucking move the ball or move without the ball.

[Fökai 0]

I think it's funny that people trace the problem back to shooting. The team shot over 60% from the field and still lost. Maybe the problem isn't shooters?

 

". . . Americans, who couldn't overcome their 32 percent shooting from 3-point range or 59 percent from the foul line."

It isn't spot-up shooting. It's guys like Carmelo chucking it on the second touch with defenders in their face from twenty-five feet away without setting their feet. If you watched the Germany and Greece game, this was prevalent.

 

"The Americans were 2-of-10 from behind the arc -- after going 10-for-40 in their quarterfinal victory over Germany"

 

When Howard, Bosh, Brand and Battier got into the game, the pace slowed down and they started to wear down Germany. In the fourth quarter of that game, the Germans were spent physically and you could see it on their faces.

[Brett Favre 0]

Even so, you need shooters. You can set up for great shots and everything, but LeBron, 'Melo, and Wade aren't spot up shooters. I expect to see Redd, Hamilton, Gordon, Morrison, those types of players on the team in two years. You need guys who are known for shooting; LeBron, and Melo and those types aren't 3 point shooters. Yes they can make threes, but it's not something they specialize in. Those guys do (well Hamilton this past year).

[Guest JustPassinBy]

The only person whom it would make sense to replace with Arenas is Joe Johnson, and personally, I think that Johnson does the little things better, and is more effective in his role.

Joe Johnson is one the *last* guys who should be cut from the squad, IMO. He's a great set-up man, can play a lot of spots, and is the best shooter of the current bunch. This tournament proved that you do need good post offense, but we don't need THAT many bigs. But you do want Miller's passing/shooting, Howard's prescense on defense, and Brand's...everything. So I'd drop either Bosh or Jamison.

 

Other than that, Paul's a great PG, Hinrich's a good shooter, Battier's a good shooter/defender...I say drop the '03's and try Kobe, Allen and Redd next year, with the same reserves, and see if it works. Maybe even Rip Hamilton in place of Redd. The media might cry a river over it, but it would go a long way towards fixing our biggest problem, shooting, which none of those three can do consistently.

 

 

We'll win the Gold Medal in 2008 but a couple changes need to be made.

 

#1. Add Greg Oden to the team---this team is in need a defensive shot blocking presence that can dominate the defensive end. If Oden comes back healthy from his injury, he should definitely be added to the team. Greece got a ton of layups of the pick and roll, but if Oden is under the basket protecting the rim, those wouldnt have happened.

 

#2. Add Kobe Bryant and drop Jamison--- this is easy.

#3. Add Chauncey Billups and drop Hinrich---Hinrich's defense is terrible. Billups is just better at everything than Kirk is.

 

Add these 3 players, and I think the team blows everyone out. But the key is defense.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

We'll win the Gold Medal in 2008 but a couple changes need to be made.

 

#1. Add Greg Oden to the team---this team is in need a defensive shot blocking presence that can dominate the defensive end. If Oden comes back healthy from his injury, he should definitely be added to the team. Greece got a ton of layups of the pick and roll, but if Oden is under the basket protecting the rim, those wouldnt have happened.

 

#2. Add Kobe Bryant and drop Jamison--- this is easy.

#3. Add Chauncey Billups and drop Hinrich---Hinrich's defense is terrible. Billups is just better at everything than Kirk is.

 

Add these 3 players, and I think the team blows everyone out. But the key is defense.

I may be alone in this opinion, but I don't think that there's a thing wrong with Oden, or not much of anything, anyway. He may have been legitimately hurt, but I suspect that he's better already, but may well remain "injured" until a month before the '07 draft, when he becomes "miraculously" healed.

[Brett Favre 0]

If we're talking about college players, I'd like to see Joakim Noah on the team. That's the big guy you need.

[alfdogg 0]

I may be alone in this opinion, but I don't think that there's a thing wrong with Oden, or not much of anything, anyway. He may have been legitimately hurt, but I suspect that he's better already, but may well remain "injured" until a month before the '07 draft, when he becomes "miraculously" healed.

I'm not sure I follow this...if he were to sit out the full season, that would only hurt his position come the draft, whether the injury's legit or not.

[Damaramu 0]

I thought he was going to Ohio State....is the injury preventing him from playing college ball?

Do you think he's faking the injury so he doesn't have to play college ball and can go to the NBA?

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

I may be alone in this opinion, but I don't think that there's a thing wrong with Oden, or not much of anything, anyway. He may have been legitimately hurt, but I suspect that he's better already, but may well remain "injured" until a month before the '07 draft, when he becomes "miraculously" healed.

I'm not sure I follow this...if he were to sit out the full season, that would only hurt his position come the draft, whether the injury's legit or not.

I sincerely doubt it. You really think that a team that's desperately in need of a big man would refuse to draft him for sitting out rather than playing for OSU when they know that he doesn't want to play in college, and would have gone into the draft this year if the league had let him?

 

 

I thought he was going to Ohio State....is the injury preventing him from playing college ball?

Do you think he's faking the injury so he doesn't have to play college ball and can go to the NBA?

Yes, that's actually exactly what I think.

[alfdogg 0]

No matter how good he is or how much the team needs a big man, he still hasn't played in a year. That has to weigh heavily on a team's mind.

[alfdogg 0]

US beats Argentina 96-81 for the bronze, despite 50% shooting from the line. Dwyane Wade had 32 points.

 

Pau Gasol won't play in the gold medal game today after suffering a broken metatarsal (foot) in their last game. No word yet on how much time he may miss in the season.

[alfdogg 0]

Gasol will be out up to 3 months, which means he could miss at least the first month of the season.

[alfdogg 0]

And just to add insult to injury, Greece puts up a whopping 47 points against Spain in the gold medal game. The same Spain team who was playing without Pau Gasol.

[alfdogg 0]

Here is the expected roster for the Olympics, to be officially announced Monday, according to Chris Sheridan.

 

Carmelo Anthony

Carlos Boozer

Chris Bosh

Kobe Bryant

Dwight Howard

LeBron James

Jason Kidd

Chris Paul

Tayshaun Prince

Michael Redd

Dwyane Wade

Deron Williams

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

 

Chandler didn't make the team, and Stoudemire bailed... so we're going to Beijing with, basically, one and a half bigs?

[Guest]

I'm fine with that group, for now. I'll wait to say more until we know the teams that will qualify from the July tournament.

[Vampiro69 0]

Glad to see that Jason Kidd will be destroyed in practice by Paul.

[Fökai 0]

Tayshaun is not even going to play unless it's in garbage time - he's on the depth chart behind LeBron and Melo. They need Chandler WAY more than they do Prince. What a waste of a roster spot.

[Ripper 0]

thing is, Prince is about 10 times more useful than Melo on this team.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Don't know if I'm alone in this or not, but I hate pros in the Olympics. The Olympic events are supposed to be about the best amateur athletes in the world competing, not pros. They should go back to college kids and then maybe I'd have a team to root for.

[Ripper 0]

Problem is, no other team in the world has ever done it. They have guys that turn pro and are playing with the best competition in the country(and alot of guys that were THIS close to making it in the NBA) from the time they are 16. There is no NCAA there. Its go pro. So it was always US college guys playing a bunch of professional basketball players from other countries.

 

Us sending our pros just evened up the playing field.

[alfdogg 0]

We can barely medal these days when we do send our pros. I'd hate to think how bad off we'd be if we sent a group of college kids.

 

Regarding the Prince/Chandler thing, I'd definitely rather have Prince on this team. In international play, you don't really need three true centers...Howard, Bosh, and Boozer are all plenty capable of playing center in these games, and you can get away with playing LeBron and Carmelo at PF (and in fact, Carmelo is going to be the starting PF, according to Sheridan). Prince could probably even play some PF here. I can't think of anything that Chandler could give you here that Prince wouldn't.

[Ripper 0]

We can barely medal these days when we do send our pros. I'd hate to think how bad off we'd be if we sent a group of college kids.

 

Regarding the Prince/Chandler thing, I'd definitely rather have Prince on this team. In international play, you don't really need three true centers...Howard, Bosh, and Boozer are all plenty capable of playing center in these games, and you can get away with playing LeBron and Carmelo at PF (and in fact, Carmelo is going to be the starting PF, according to Sheridan). Prince could probably even play some PF here. I can't think of anything that Chandler could give you here that Prince wouldn't.

 

Well...alot of rebounds? I think with Howard and Bosh they will be okay though.

 

And we would have been fine last time had Larry Brown not been a total ass.

[alfdogg 0]

Well, yeah. My point was, they won't be severely lacking in any areas because Tyson Chandler's not there.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Don't know if I'm alone in this or not, but I hate pros in the Olympics. The Olympic events are supposed to be about the best amateur athletes in the world competing, not pros. They should go back to college kids and then maybe I'd have a team to root for.

The amateur spirit of the games has really suffered ever since '84 when Peter Uberroth ran the games and set the template for milking it for all the money possible. It's difficult to expect athletes to live up to amateur standards when the organizers don't buy it.

[Fökai 0]

We can barely medal these days when we do send our pros. I'd hate to think how bad off we'd be if we sent a group of college kids.

 

Regarding the Prince/Chandler thing, I'd definitely rather have Prince on this team. In international play, you don't really need three true centers...Howard, Bosh, and Boozer are all plenty capable of playing center in these games, and you can get away with playing LeBron and Carmelo at PF (and in fact, Carmelo is going to be the starting PF, according to Sheridan). Prince could probably even play some PF here. I can't think of anything that Chandler could give you here that Prince wouldn't.

 

Carmelo at the 4? Holy shit, I am watching every U.S. game this time around. Howard and Boozer will be looking to shank Melo by the second quarter.

 

And Tayshaun can't get away with a 4 in international play. He couldn't get away with it in a rec league. I agree with Rip that he's a better option than Melo for this team, but he isn't the "name" that Melo is to get the seal of approval from fans. Prince and Chandler on the same court poses trouble for any team, and that's just your bench players if LeBron and Boozer get in foul trouble. I just hope that Melo fails and pouts so he doesn't get on the 2010/2012 team. He's a liability on both ends when his shot decides not to fall, because he's still demanding the ball shooting 2-12 or whatever it may be. I'd love to see him prove me wrong this summer, but he won't.

 

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

There were times during that Tournament of the Americas when Melo looked like the best player on the floor. Something about international competition/not playing on a complete dysfunctional mess of a team really seems to bring out the best in him.

[Brett Favre 0]

Carmelo is a solid mid range jump shooter, and is a good rebounder. I don't mind him starting.

[At Home 0]

Just throw Magic Johnson in there to spice up the mix.

[alfdogg 0]

Dwight Howard apparently has a stress fracture in his sternum, which he suffered in the series against Detroit. Coach K said the recovery time was 6-8 weeks, and he's in the sixth week. I never even knew about this. Knowing this, I'd have to say yeah, they probably should have taken Chandler.