Poll: Who goes away with GOLD?
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Turkey
40.00%
2 40.00%
USA
60.00%
3 60.00%
Total 5 vote(s) 100%
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FINAL: Turkey-USA
#41
Why does the US media keep going on about when Wade, LeBron and Melo are back in 2012? If I could take players from the 2008 US Roster to mix with the 2010 US Roster for the 2012 Olympics the most obvious choices would be:



1) Dwight Howard for Tyson Chandler

2) Kobe Bryant for Chauncy Billups

3) A PG: Chris Paul, Deron Williams or even Rajon Rondo (albeit not part of the 2008 roster) for Stephen Curry



I'm not sure that Durant and Carmelo would co-exist, namely because of the latter. They are somewhat redundant players that I can't see complementing each other. At this point I'd rather have Durant, although Carmelo has been very good in FIBA play.



Kobe on the other hand would give the US a second lights out shooter and add a tough defender. Dwight would add the physical presence to the middle which the 2010 was desperately lacking and would completely change the way teams strategize when playing the US. Kobe, Durant and Howard would be the core I'd be most excited about. I think that there'd be a lot of synergy between their styles of play and that they'd be very, very difficult to beat.



Guys like Iguodala, Odom, Love, Westbrook and Gay were underrated in this tournament. They checked their egos at the door, let Durant do his thing and did the intangible, hustle plays that won't show up in the box score. I'm in no rush to replace guys like these from the roster. I don't think the US needs to completely makeover this roster, they just need to upgrade in a few key areas. Kobe and Dwight can address those needs.
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#42
[quote name='skangles' timestamp='1284423244' post='24947']

Why does the US media keep going on about when Wade, LeBron and Melo are back in 2012? If I could take players from the 2008 US Roster to mix with the 2010 US Roster for the 2012 Olympics the most obvious choices would be:



1) Dwight Howard for Tyson Chandler

2) Kobe Bryant for Chauncy Billups

3) A PG: Chris Paul, Deron Williams or even Rajon Rondo (albeit not part of the 2008 roster) for Stephen Curry



I'm not sure that Durant and Carmelo would co-exist, namely because of the latter. They are somewhat redundant players that I can't see complementing each other. At this point I'd rather have Durant, although Carmelo has been very good in FIBA play.



Kobe on the other hand would give the US a second lights out shooter and add a tough defender. Dwight would add the physical presence to the middle which the 2010 was desperately lacking and would completely change the way teams strategize when playing the US. Kobe, Durant and Howard would be the core I'd be most excited about. I think that there'd be a lot of synergy between their styles of play and that they'd be very, very difficult to beat.



Guys like Iguodala, Odom, Love, Westbrook and Gay were underrated in this tournament. They checked their egos at the door, let Durant do his thing and did the intangible, hustle plays that won't show up in the box score. I'm in no rush to replace guys like these from the roster. I don't think the US needs to completely makeover this roster, they just need to upgrade in a few key areas. Kobe and Dwight can address those needs.

[/quote]



That is a very informed post, however, I feel Carmelo Anthony would absolutely coexhist with Durant. With a true power center like Howard, the US could put three shooters on the court i.e. Kobe, Durant and Carmelo and then any number of point guards (Paul, Williams, Rose, Curry, Rondo, Wall). This would be incredibly hard for zone defenses to guard. Carmelo was the best FIBA offensive player in the last three tournaments I saw him play ('06 Worlds, '07 FIBA Americas, '08 Olympics). He's a very underratted offensive rebounder, as well as post player. Everyone knows about his jump shooting abilities but he has the complete offensive package.



I would venture to say Westbrook, Gay and Love are near shoe-ins for 2012, although they'd need to perform in Vegas Camp to solidify that. The current culture of USA basketball is not one to reward past accomplishments and reputation over current value. Doing that is what caused USA the embarrasment of '02 and '04(that and a total lack of respect for the global game).



Iguodala was a huge surprise this past tournament. He was just a Sportscenter highlight package prior to this summer. I didn't really think he could contribute in the FIBA game, especially after the friendly in Spain where he had 3 straight bad possessions in the final minutes which gave the pesky Spainards life before Durant, well Durant'd them at the end. I'm not so sure he'll be a part of 2012 but his defense, especailly against Lietuva, was key in bring home the title. For that, he has a special spot in the hearts of all of us actual Team USA fans, maybe not the ignorant ones who still think the USA should just show up and win by 35 every night.



There are two reasons I am so proud of my boys this summer. First reason is, the American sports media puts our basketball team in a no win situation. If they win the tournament all the talking heads say, "well that's what they are supposed to do" if they don't win, well then it's the end of western society as we know it! This same school of thought applies to close games as well. After the Brazil game, people treated it as a loss almost because we only won by 2 and Brazil had a shot to tie it at the buzzer. It's not enough for our players to win a tournament but they have to go undefeated in the exhibition games, prelims and not only that but they have to blow everyone out for it to be good enough. That's incredibly high expectations for a sport like basketball, where shooting can be fickle, officiating can be terrible and cohesion is nearly as important as talent. Not to mention most of the countries competing in FIBA and the Olympics have had basketball for 70+ years and no longer view the Americans as invincible(which we're not, obviously). Basketball is the second most popular sport in the world and in the case of places like the Balkan countries, Greece and Turkey, basketball is actually more popular on average than it is in the US(the NFL draft, which isn't even a game, draws more viewers than most NBA playoff games). Our players knew this and sacrificed their summers anyway to represent our country in an elite tournament at a time when America isn't exactly popular around the globe. For that I thank them.

My second reason is, and I've stated it often on this forum, we sent a fresh 12 to this tournament and they came home with the Gold and an average margin of victory of 24 pts(granted the 55 point win over Angola helped the math after the Brazil scare). I realize a number of NTs were missing some of their best players, but nobody, nobody was missing every single player from their Olympic squad. This cannot be understated enough. That is a remarkable achievement. Thats the two most major tournaments in the sport and the US won it with essentially two completely different teams. The NBA has to compete with the NFL(a god like entity in America, just check my avatar) and the NCAA which is wildly more popular among the casual sports fan, so to combat this David Stern has chosen the "Star Model" as a way to promote the league. This leads to a lot more individualised play and style, so to get a brand new set of NBA players to come together in a short time frame, check their egos at the door and perform the way they did, well it's refreshing to say the least.



Truth be told we could also have a third team that would be just as capable of winning this past tournament as well. The tryouts for Team USA are a spectacle in themselves. As long as it stays "cool" to play for Team USA and we keep guys like Colangelo in charge, it's going to be tough sledding for the rest of the world. Not to mention our U-19 and U-17 teams ran away with their respective FIBA tournaments. I fully respect that basketball is a global game and by it's very nature it's hard to win every game which makes single elimination tournaments so great, but with the young age of Team USA whether it's the stars from '08 or the role players and Durant of '10(plus some of the young talent in the NBA not represented in international play yet) I think it's going to take a herculean effort to unseed the Americans in the next two major tourneys, 2012 and 2014. But that doesn't mean I don't have my eye on Serbia.
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#43
Quote:Bucks guard Brandon Jennings isn't exactly sure why he wasn't invited to try out for Team USA this summer, but he thinks his shoes might have had something to do with it.



Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry, who along with Jennings were among the NBA's top rookies last season, were invited. Both wear Nike, Team USA's sponsor, while Jennings spots Under Armour.



"It's not my call. That's on them," Jennings said. "But if you want to get technical about it and you really want to look at it, half of the guys there are Nike guys. I'm not saying it's a Nike thing, but Nike is kind of running a lot of things right now. To have a guy like myself on the USA team that's flashy and really outgoing, you don't want Under Armour to get all that [publicity].



"I'm just telling you how it is."



Of the 12 members on Team USA's final roster, only Chauncey Billups, Derrick Rose and Eric Gordon wear shoes other than Nike.



<img src='http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rofl3.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='Rofl3' /> Man, I love my Milwaukee Bucks. Evans was brought in because he's great and Curry was part of this team solely for his shooting. Jennings never had a chance to make this team, although it would have been interesting to give him an invite out to Vegas back when there were a ton of players battling it out.
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#44
[quote name='ZEUS' timestamp='1284320012' post='24902']

Well of course you'd prefer to play against the Turks than the Serbians, that was most clear <img src='http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rofl3.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='Rofl3' />

[/quote]



I know I'm chiming in way to late on this BUT I wanted to play Serbia so bad i could taste it. I was so excited about the potential Serbia vs USA match up. It was unfortunate the out come of the Turkey vs Serbia match. In my humble opinion USA, Lietuva, Turkey and Serbia all had very strong teams. The teams I liked most in the tournament (besides the USA) were 1. Lietuva 2) Serbia 3)Turkey. I was really impressed with all these teams. Still I wish USA vs Serbia would have happened. I'd also like to add that FIBA officials are very inconsistent. I also noticed this about FIFA refs during the world cup. I wonder why FIFA and FIBA don't use instant replay. Maybe this is a cultural thing since FIBA and FIFA are mostly run by Europeans. In many American sports the coaches can ask the Refs to check the video and calls can be overturned. I think this would help establish a sense of fairness. I think since they have the technology it should be used.
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#45
^ Good point, but I've seen them use video playback to decide a call, and they've STILL got it wrong. Latest one I saw was in the top 16 game in this last WC, Spain-Hellas, tenths of a second before the end of half time, Diamandithis makes a shot from the 3p line and TV playback clearly showed the ball leaving his hand at 0.1 seconds left on the clock, the shot went in. The refs SAW that the shot was made on time before the buzzer yet STILL disallowed the points to be justifiably given to Hellas! There's no excuse for referees obviously messing it up in the world championship, it's supposed to be refs who are the cream of the crop worldwide, just like most teams playing in the WC. Serious oversights/favouritism like this should be criticized like a ton of bricks falling upon them (the refs).
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