Who will win Gold?

[TalkBasket]

We can start voting and predicting the winner of Olympic Games. All the teams participating are added t the poll. It would be nice if you would post why do you think a certain team will win it.

[Straight Faced]

Well, we're 4-0 in friendlies, won every game by a very large margin.



Overall our players probably have the most skill.

[Sit]

It's going to be a very tight competition!



Here's how I see it.



The Favourites



USA: On paper, the most talent, athleticism, and definitely start off as favorites. The gold is theirs to lose, in my opinion, and they can lose it if they are not prepared to stop the simple pick and roll that Greece used multiple times to beat them at the WC in 2006. I think that the biggest issues for Team USA might be their lack of size (which could be accounted for in their athleticism) and also the situation at the point. Who do you play out of Kidd, Paul, and Williams. Kidd is experienced but his shot is terrible. Paul is very quick but will he get manhandled in the full court press and against bigger and older PGs? And although Williams might be the most solid PG (I see him as a mix of Kidd and Paul), I don't think Coach K has played him too much at PG but a lot more at SG.



Spain: The second best team on paper. You have a dependable group of big men in the Gasol brothers, Garbajosa and Felipe Lopez (I think that's his name) but the backcourt rotation is even more crazy! You got the starters in Navarro and Calderon whom I've always thought of as the best (or at least one of the best) SG-PG starting tandem in international basketball in the past few years. Then you got two young future superstars in Rudy Fernandez and Ricky Rubio backing them up. Lots of potential and talent on this team. They will be a lot of fun to watch.



Darkhorse



Argentina: They have a solid and experienced core led by Manu. This team will rely on Manu's health status. If Manu is healthy, Argentina will be a threat to defend their crown. If not, I think it will be a tough task. Comes down to guys like Scola, Oberto, Delfino, Herrmann helping to pick up the slack. But as i understand, Argentina's original starting PG isn't at the Olympics? That makes Manu's role even more important!



Other Contenders



Russia/Lithuania/Greece: I see these teams as teams that can contend as long as they do what they do best. Russia and Greece need to play their stifling defenses to perfection to overcome teams like Spain and USA. Lithuania needs to execute on offense to put teams in such a hole that their defensive inability is not exploited. I put them all in the same group for this reason. Great teams but not at the very top because they don't excel on both ends of the floor... not to the extent that the top three mentioned above do.



Surprise Teams?



Germany: Dirk Nowitzki has done it all by himself before. However, the rest of the World has gotten better in the past 4-6 years and Germany is still about the same. How the Germans play depends on how Dirk plays. Will be interesting to see how Kaman fares.



Australia: I think the Aussies are capable of causing a few upsets. Perhaps call it patriotism on my part but I think we have the front court talent to do so. The onus falls on the backcourt though and out backcourt is very thin. If CJ Bruton and Patty Mills can protect the ball, score in spurts while also distributing the rock to our talented quartet of Bogut, Andersen, Nielsen, and Anstey; then we could go further than many people might expect.



China: Many have predicted Team China to crash out of the first round. However, I'm a bit of a dreamer and can see a repeat of Athens when Yao helped lead China to a win over Serbia. Yi Jianlian is a good contributor for the national team and I'm surprised people have not mentioned Wang Zhizhi who will definitely stretch defenses with his stroke from three. Main issue is how guards will handle the full court press... hopefully Del Harris is right and that the Chinese have improved a lot over the past few years and will handle the press at least semi-well and survive...