Didn't use Nico much. He played well and made some defensive plays, spreads the court to facilitate instead of dominate, but the game plan in the fourth quarter (all I saw) was for Parker to dominate the ball. France won in spite of it.
Argentina had some amazing flopping in this game. Batum came out strong and then just floated at the 3-point line the rest of the game. Somehow I don't think his problem with being passive is Nate's offense.
They really would be one of the worst teams in the NBA. Ginobili and Scola are the only ones who could be really effective.
Agreed, but I also think that most Americans tend to just look a the big names on national squad without considering how the team plays. NBA basketball has transitioned away from a team orientation and favors teams that have a lot of high level talents that can be ball dominant amongst role players, but a team that's cohesive, plays well together, and has a lot of talent to boot will always fair well on any level of competition.
Here's another Ben Golliver review of Batum and Freeland and Claver. He gave Batum a grade of 7 of 10. Sounds like Freeland will struggle in the NBA and I am still not sure why they signed Claver to a three year contract. http://www.blazersedge.com/
Claver doesn't really have a role on that Spanish team as currently constituted. But neither did Ricky Rubio (he looked great with the previous coach in the 2008 Olympics, but not so much with Scariolo) and he turned out all right. Claver is suited to be a glue-guy starter. He stretches the floor and plays defense. Like Batum, he defers almost to a fault. But he's an NBA player - if he wanted to stay in the US he could have a long career, just not a particularly notable one. He's sort of the polar opposite of their other backup SF, San Emeterio, who looks a lot more impressive because he's always looking for his offense, but would probably struggle to have an NBA career because he's not quite athletic enough to have the featured role he's used to.
I was actually pretty impressed with Freeland in this game. He really battled, and he was going against Nene, Splitter and Varejao. He wasn't as good as any of them, but he's not paid half as much either, and he made them work for their points. But the next time Freeland plays with a real PG will be the first time in his entire career.
It's funny that Argentina essentially has the same team it did when it beat the US in 2004. I guess the pipeline of talent dried up. Who's on this US team: [video=youtube;XBIJjIE1W9w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBIJjIE1W9w[/video] ? (Boy, Tim Duncan must have really wished he'd played for the Virgin Islands instead.) (The Argentine coach in this video is now the coach of Brazil. I'm surprised that's allowed. That would be like Romanian gymnastic coaches coming over and coaching the US team...)
Sorry I didn't get to see it; but Golliver also said Freeland really gave an effort; I'm just concerned that it may not be enough with him.
Yeah, and he plays very solid D. Where was it that he played in the NBA? Oh yes, Seattle - he actually started 14 games in 2006/7.
