Aussies came to play DUB! Good showing by your guys down there...team USA has to be humbled real good about now...time to figure it out!
KD would have been on an all-nba team if he would've played more games. Tatum was all NBA last season. Let's not forget that Booker, Jrue and Middleton are on their way. Again, they've been in Vegas together for a week now, I'm not worried. You can give me a big fat "I told you so." if we don't end up with the gold because for me, right now, it's not even a concern.
Yeah, I noticed Pop waited too long to bring back in starters and over played players like Johnson. I figured too it was because these are Exhibition games. USA is getting embarrassed though. Hopefully they gel and get better because I didn't see much of a team. Austrailia played like a team. I know these are Exhibition games, but they are giving other teams confidence and they are looking weak. Not a good luck. Too many iso players trying to get theirs and Lillard being too fucking modest. It's frustrating because we see the same with Lillard we see on the Blazers. He gets doubled and passes the ball. If Pop can't find a fix for that, who can? I guess it's a good honor to see Australia focus so much on Dame as their gameplan to win it. It's just fucking frustrating.
Australia has never won a men's basketball medal, either at the Olympics, nor the World Cup. We've finished just outside the medals many times. Given their age, this may be the last chance for quite few of these guys. They're very hungry.
And that’s not the point. I’m not talking about the top two or three guys on the team. I’m taking about the overall talent on the roster. The rest of the roster is pretty mediocre compared to past USA teams.
You still have more talent than any other country in the world. Talent isn't the issue, teamwork (or lack thereof) is.
Yeah it's probably the worst roster we've put out there. It doesn't help that AD and LeBron got two months off before this brutal schedule this season. The team would be a ton better with AD. Really the lack of size is weird but all three all nba centers this season were foreign born. Hell 3 out of the 5 guys on the all nba first team were foreign born. Julius Randle is a player the team should have recruited. In fact Dame and Beal are the only two all nba players on the team USA roster. Aaaand, we'll still win gold.
Last night, I was looking at all the USA born centres in the NBA. There really isn't much to choose from. Even Mason Plumlee might have been worth a roster spot, that's how few options there are. Yep. Yep.
But that's how USA has to approach the games. Your guys have been playing together for years. It's the same with every other international teams. Spain, France, etc. Their guys all grew up together in most cases. USA can't match that level of chemistry, so they usually beat it by putting out a team with a staggering amount of talent. I'm not even going to count the original dream team. 2008 Jason Kidd LeBron James Dwyane Wade Chris Paul Kobe Byrant Chris Bosh Dwight Howard Carmleo Anthony Deron Williams Michael Redd Tayshaun Prince Carlos Boozer 2012 LeBron James Kevin Durant Chris Paul Anthony Davis Carmelo Anthony Kobe Bryant James Harden Russell Westbrook Kevin Love Deron Williams Andre Iguodala Tyson Chandler 2016 (this team was kinda sketch as well but at least they had legit centers.) Kevin Durant Jimmy Butler Paul George Carmelo Anthony Klay Thompson Kyrie Irving Kyle Lowry DeMar DeRozan DeMarcus Cousins Draymond Green DeAndre Jordan Now look at this team Dame Durant Booker Draymond Bam Adebayo Beal Jerami Grant Jrue Holiday Zach LaVine Kevin Love Khris Middleton Jayson Tatum I mean... those are good players, but the talent level just isn't as good.
