Minnesota Sports Forum

We lacked size and shooting. I wonder if we played France in a 7 game series if they would still beat us.

USA backed up the loss to France with a loss to Serbia.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/us-mens-basketball-team-loses-again-for-worst-ever-tourney-result/ar-AAHc5Tp?ocid=spartanntp

France got killed by Argentia.

Pop thinks nobody is to blame for USA not winning. Well usually you start at the top. You can't say we didn't have the best talent.

"Some people want to play the blame game. There's no blame to be placed anywhere," Popovich said. "They want to play the shame game, like we should be ashamed because we didn't win a gold medal? That's a ridiculous attitude. It's immature, it's arrogant, and it shows that whoever thinks that doesn't respect all the other teams in the world and doesn't respect that these guys did the best they could.""Some people want to play the blame game. There's no blame to be placed anywhere," Popovich said. "They want to play the shame game, like we should be ashamed because we didn't win a gold medal? That's a ridiculous attitude. It's immature, it's arrogant, and it shows that whoever thinks that doesn't respect all the other teams in the world and doesn't respect that these guys did the best they could."

https://www.espn.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/27611517/pop-team-usa-critics-immature-arrogant

Rubio, Gasol lead Spain to 2nd World Cup title.

You can't tell me we didn't have more talent than Spain. I think we need a dedicated or college coaching staff for international play. It is a different game than the NBA.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27620039/rubio-gasol-lead-spain-2nd-world-cup-title

bleedspeed177 wrote:Rubio, Gasol lead Spain to 2nd World Cup title.

You can't tell me we didn't have more talent than Spain. I think we need a dedicated or college coaching staff for international play. It is a different game than the NBA.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27620039/rubio-gasol-lead-spain-2nd-world-cup-title

The best players for Spain have been playing together for at least 10 years. It's not just about talent but they also have a advantage in that they can't afford to just have half the best player not play. USA can win without some of its top players but they can't just throw some kinda good player together and hope to win. I think it's fair to say this particular year was a bit unique with injuries and guys like Durant and Klay being hurt in the finals not only took them out as possible players for team USA but maybe put more question in some other guys minds about playing.

Meanwhile good for Spain and those guys. They have had a heck of a run the last few years and that is a pretty talented squad over there. It will be interesting to see if they can keep up being the team they have been with some of the guys getting older.

So do you think if next year we go into next year with same roster, but another year playing together we could get it done? We would have the benefit of returning 4 Celtics that would play a full season together and 3 that have played multiple seasons together in the NBA.

bleedspeed177 wrote:So do you think if next year we go into next year with same roster, but another year playing together we could get it done? We would have the benefit of returning 4 Celtics that would play a full season together and 3 that have played multiple seasons together in the NBA.

No. I don't think that's enough continuity and the talent level of this group isn't enough to be sure to get it done. If this group is the best they bring to the Olympics then...unless there is again some sort of drastic injury issues some people are gonna get a ton of heat for players not showing up and the players as well. The USA team it's not about just winning but doing in convincingly. Other teams are basically playing NBA level talent guys even if some of them aren't playing in the league like Spain. A couple of those guys could likely be playing in the NBA right now but don't have interest in just being bench/role players even if they might be quite valuable in their roles.

Also don't forget the fact that other countries most players grow up playing the FIBA style basketball. A lot of the US players may have never played it before. That's not inconsequential.

Small ball doesn't work internationally unless you have a lot of good shooting. This team was constructed both small and with not enough good shooters. Other teams will just gobble up all the misses and dominate the paint. In a down year with a lot of guys taking it off we probably should have sent a more traditional, old school lineup and planned to grind games out. Why did Mason Plumlee and Brook Lopez get on this team over Bagley and JJJ? Where's Zion and Trae Young and D'Lo? Why is a glue guy like Tobias Harris not on this team over Joe Harris and Jaylen Brown? Where's the team building and the recruiting for this team? Barnes, Brown, Harris, Plumlee, Smart, White and Lopez should not be on this team. That's 7/12.

Kemba/Mitchell/Middleton/Tatum/Turner
Fox/D'Lo/Tobias/JJJ/Bagley
Young/Drummond for games where we need beef

At least if that team loses you can chalk it up to getting the next generation a taste of international competition while sprinkling in some vets who won't get a shot at the real team like Kemba, Tobias and Middleton. It made no sense to send the team we did and we got a 7th place finish because of it. Time to get Colangelo and Pop out and bring in new blood that can get guys to sign up.

khans2k5 wrote:Small ball doesn't work internationally unless you have a lot of good shooting. This team was constructed both small and with not enough good shooters. Other teams will just gobble up all the misses and dominate the paint. In a down year with a lot of guys taking it off we probably should have sent a more traditional, old school lineup and planned to grind games out. Why did Mason Plumlee and Brook Lopez get on this team over Bagley and JJJ? Where's Zion and Trae Young and D'Lo? Why is a glue guy like Tobias Harris not on this team over Joe Harris and Jaylen Brown? Where's the team building and the recruiting for this team? Barnes, Brown, Harris, Plumlee, Smart, White and Lopez should not be on this team. That's 7/12.

Kemba/Mitchell/Middleton/Tatum/Turner
Fox/D'Lo/Tobias/JJJ/Bagley
Young/Drummond for games where we need beef

At least if that team loses you can chalk it up to getting the next generation a taste of international competition while sprinkling in some vets who won't get a shot at the real team like Kemba, Tobias and Middleton. It made no sense to send the team we did and we got a 7th place finish because of it. Time to get Colangelo and Pop out and bring in new blood that can get guys to sign up.

I completely agree with your thoughts on the composition of the team and that bigs or guys that can still play against bigs still matter. I would say Joe Harris actually fit what the team needed because he brings shooting. The team we sent had some young guys that were also supposed to be playing with a vet like Lowry...who was hurt and didn't play. I just think it was sort of a perfect storm of things that went wrong. Not having a guy like Klay play is massive.

I always thought it was odd we focused on small ball internationally. I wonder if it makes big guys not want to play on the team.

Brook Lopez didn't get much burn. He struggled and the game should have been perfect for him. He can stretch the floor and has size but doesn't help with rebounding. A guy like John Collins would have been a good player to have on the team. He is a good rebounder and has 3pt range. When you start thinking about NBA players that can play on team USA and you see we don't have a lot of bigs. The international teams dominate there. I know the rules have hampered our guys in the past.