"OFFICIAL" 2012 USA Basketball thread Because why the hell not There's currently a game on ESPN, Brazil is up 6-2 Obama just made an entrance in style
VAMOS ESPANA!!!! ME AND MY BOYS ARE GOING TO FUCKING SCREAM THE INSTRUMENTALS FOR 7 NATION ARMY ALL GAME LONG
Was anyone else very impressed with Mercelo Huertas? I remembered the guy's name from when he entered the draft (and went undrafted) back in the day, and I had read that he was the new point guard for FC Barcelona when I was reading up on the Olympics, but I didn't expect him to look that good. Huertas gave both Paul and Williams a run for their money when Brazil was on offense. I thought for sure Team USA would pick him off on some of those passes, but somehow he continued to weave the ball through Team USA's defense with ease and very rarely turned it over. Not to mention, how good of a ball handler do you have to be to catch Deron Williams on that spin to the basket that Huertas did? It just seemed like he had the ball on the string out there. I figured that Brazil would have a really hard night with Barbosa anchoring their backcourt, but I didn't anticipate Huertas to be the real quarterback of the Brazilian team. Fran Fraschilla, who has parlayed himself into the role of ESPN's resident Euroleague pundit, said that he thought Huertas was better than Jeremy Lin. I know a lot of you probably aren't really hot on Lin, but he also said that Huertas could start on several NBA teams, and at the least, be one of the best backups in the NBA. Unfortunately, Huertas recently turned 29 and has three more years on his contract with FC Barcelona. So unless a team wants to buy him out (not sure about the buyout clauses in his contract), he could potentially be in the Euroleague until he's 33. Fraschilla said that Huertas would be interested in the NBA, but he doesn't want to just take the veteran's minimum, which is understandable --- who wants to take the same (or less) money to have less acclaim? If I were a NBA GM though, I'd be trying to get all the information I could about Huertas right now and trying to see how soon I could get him on my roster. Maybe I'm overreacting based on one game, but he looked like a point guard who could make it in the league tonight. Anyone else get that impression?
I just found the boxscore: Huertas: 30 min, 11 pts, 5 rbs, 13 ast (Team USA only had 11 ast as a whole) on 5/8 FG, 1/2 3pt, 3 TO with really good decision making. He didn't have any steals, and I didn't really make a point to notice him on defense, but he out-dished all of Team USA combined, had the third highest scoring total (and did so efficiently), and more importantly, he kept a Brazilian team in striking distance that has some decent NBA players but nowhere near Team USA's talent. I get it that Brazil had a bit of an advantage in the post with three true NBA centers opposed to just Tyson Chandler, but at the end of the day, Huertas was able to exploit that in a way that I don't think a lot of point guards could have. EDIT: Does anyone have any vids of some of those passes he made, or when he took Deron Williams to the rack? They were playing them on ESPN2 going to the commercial break, but I can't find them on ESPN.com or YouTube. It seems like everything's just about like LeBron James. Apparently, the breaking news is all about how LeBron is, surprisingly, a good basketball player... not about how we don't have any legitimate scorers in the post, how Brazil exploited that and got a lot closer to winning than they should have, how Huertas went off against our PG's, how several players lost their cool in an exhibition game and started forcing things and getting into it with the Brazilian players, or how we kept settling for ill-advised outside jumpers. Rather, the big story is that LeBron James scored a lot of points in an exhibition game.
I like Huertas a lot, too. He plays with moxy and has great court vision. Whenever Lebron was guarding him though he got scared and looked stupid. I remember him from last Olympics, or maybe FIBA a couple years ago. I think US is going to have trouble with Spain's bigs.
