Team USA vs Brazil Game thread

USA wins 95-78

I will move the thread tomorrow.

 

So there was plenty of rust on Rose but he definitely has his quick back. I look forward to the rest of USA basketball and hope he will be in form by preseason.

 

Repeatedly hearing that "Derrick has his speed and explosiveness back" does nothing for me. I thought he had those things back last season. Being consistently really good at basketball was his problem.

 

It does something for me. But Derrick is nowhere near being a good basketball player yet. Rose looks so passive at times, it's almost as if he's running away from touches because he doesn't want to be the focal point.

Up until this point, I had been under the impression that the reason you've seen so much positive in the press about Rose from the Team USA coaches is that they were laying the groundwork, should they need to cut Rose. Something along the lines of, "He's 90% of the way back, as you've seen from all our comments, he's just not quite ready yet."

I think I was underestimating how tough this situation must be on D Rose. The more obvious reason for all the positive press -- because we know it's almost certainly not about his current level of play -- is that they're trying to build his confidence. I can only imagine how terrifying it must be to attack the rim after two knee surgeries. It's going to take Rose some time.

I'm glad that Rose is playing on Team USA. It looks to me like we would have been at least a full 30-games to a half season away from seeing what we had in him post injury. And I think his time on Team USA is going to accelerate that process.

 

Are you channeling me?

Missouri. Show me.

That said, I like Rose better than a #16 kind if draft pick. Or even a #11.

 

Agree 100%. The more he plays, the sooner he's likely to have that epiphany where he says to himself, "I got this" and he's that natural baller we came to know and love.

 

I don't recall the same speed and explosiveness before he got injured last year. I also agree that he didn't play well.

I didn't expect a high level of execution last night after so little play over the past 2 years. That expectation was correct.

Show me, sure. I'm ok with that but I came away feeling pretty good about last night overall.

 

My expectations are not the same thing as my hopes. My hopes are that he's even better than the MVP guy we had, and quickly rounds into form. My expectations are that against NBA competition, he may put up a 9 PER for 20 games or more, like last year. Or maybe it'll last all year. He hasn't shown that he can come back all the way, and 2 years of rust is a lot of rust.

 

So your expectations for Rose are only defined for the first month of the season and they're pretty low. Fair enough.

My expectations for Rose are higher. By the time he has 5 games under his belt, Rose will not have a single-digit PER at any point in the 2014-15 season. I think the international experience is going to clear out most of DRose's rust. The preseason schedule will clear out just about all of the rest of it. I expect a superstar-level season.

 

20 games is roughly 1/4 the season. Or more.

From what I saw last year, he seemed there physically, but he didn't seem to really be getting better at basketball as the games wore on.

My expectations going into last season were pretty high because the Bulls went 4-1 in preseason and he looked dominant. I'm not so sure international ball and preseason this year will work any better than preseason ball did for him last year.

My hopes are your expectations. I would rather err on the good side (he does better than I expect) than on the wrong side.

 

That's the "glass half empty" orientation, I guess.

Actually, our hopes are the same...that he's better than he ever was.

 

Rose has admitted his game suffered last year by pressing to do too much and says he has learned a lesson. I hope that is true.

 

Sean Cunningham @News10Sean

Along with DeMarcus Cousins, who has banged up knee, DeMar DeRozan, Andre Drummond and Gordon Hayward did not play tonight

 

Glass half empty says "get your DJ Augustin early and have him ready." Try to do even better than DJ in the first place.

Glass half full says "Kirk. I'll play these."