We always talk about what our young guns like Kuminga/Moody have to add to their games, but why not play the same game with our grizzled vets? There are plenty of examples of older players adding/expanding to their game so why not them?
Klay: Post Game, he can't get as much seperation running off ball but he is 6'7 and a great shooter. Why not add this to his game a la Livingston so he can manufacture some points every once in a while.
Curry: You're perfect.
Dray: Add a floater to your game and utilize that more consistently. You've lost athleticism as you've gotten older and its made it more difficult for you to finish inside. Use a floater/push shot to get some easy buckets like Richaun Holmes.
Looney: You're not a grizzled vet, but I consider you one. One a very low frequency, you shot 42% on shots from 10 ft - 3PT. Lets see how you can do with a bit higher frequency and up that PPG.
Those two could set a precedent for how future stars approach international competitions, imo. Both coming off the bench. I just want one minute of Steph/LeBron/Klay/Dray/KD
While I like Klay, it's a tough argument for him to make the team ahead of Tatum, Booker, Ant, Levine, Brown, Butler, (and probably a few other wings I'm forgetting).
Even if you are looking for just a pure shooter, then Bane might be a better choice.
Just rewatched Warriors-Celtics finals game 4, where the Dubs turned it all around in Boston. My takeaways for what it took to get that pivotal win, and might take to get a 2024 chip:
+ Wing rebounding! Wiggs got his career-high, 16 boards that night--if JK and MM go in a winning playoff rotation, it'll probably be because their extender arms have been activated.
+ Defense in numbers! Dray had a rough night but still a pest. Loon, Wiggs, GP2 gave all the hard grit you'd expect. Who stunned me were Klay--physical, focused, craftily chasing down Brown cross court to force an out-of-bounds TO--and especially Bjelica, who got key minutes and broke Tatum's spirit 1:1 in three possessions in a row in a key stretch of Q3 (IIRC). Hoping we can get something close from Saric, plus Wiggs, GPII and Klay back in shape, plus growth from Moody + JK, to get our team defense back in Tatum-busting, Q4 lockdown shape.
Funnily enough, last night I watched a Thinking Basketball piece on another pivotal game four, where the Warriors were down 1-2 at LA just last year. Another very close game that the Warriors couldn’t quite pull out this time, which I believe was the swing game in the series.
With how Game 6 went it’s easy to forget how close they were to making the WCF. I believe they would have won a game seven at home, but who knows. Game four at Boston and game four at LA are reminders how thin the winning margin is, and that the team isn’t really that far from seriously contending again.
I think no one questions that the NBA is the best league with the best players.
This is more about a country declaring itself "world champions" of something or other when no one else in the world asked it to. It is cloying embarassing self-declared pomposity, all this greatest-this greatest-that business. I think this is what Greg Popovich - someone who knows more about basketball than just about anyone else - was alluding to when he said that the winner of the NBA is, rightfully, the "NBA Champions".
Many other regions in the world are by far the best at particular sport, you don't see em going around declaring that the winner of the some league or regional championship "world champions" to the extent that the US of A does. The most ridiculously annoying is when you hear commentators going on about the Superbowl "World" champions. We just need to get over ourselves already.
It's really that simple. A league can have most of the best players and still not have won any world championship. Those are two different things. I looked it up. American football called its championship the world championship in 1902 and the year after that baseball decided it had a World Series.
The World Series terminology goes back to the 1880s (I wrote more about this at DNHQ a week or two ago). It was a legitimate term to a point in the early 20th century, since baseball had not yet caught on in any significant way outside of the USA. But there was that point, which was that with segregation, Major League teams might not be the best in the USA; the best Negro League teams might have been better.
I've just invented a latest greatest American sport called "who can type the fastest comments in their undies on DubNationHQ" and until a worthy challenger comes along, American or otherwise, am declaring myself the World Champion.
Don't disagree. But the Super Bowl winner may as well be crowned the world champion, because is any other country stupid enough to play concussionball, I mean USA football? Yeah, the Aussies and Kiwis and UKers play rugby. But no padding. Its the "padding" that gives American concussionball players a false sense of invulnerability such that they launch themselves at opponents, and can do real damage with their speed and weight (250-380 pounds) combined with their hard plastic weapo, I mean pads. Concussionball has an injury rate of 100%.
NFL athletes are superhumans, simply incredible, but yes, the American football culture that celebrates how hard someone gets hit is a tad troubling... Rugby can be a brutal sport but it's been called the gentlemen's sport, at times inaccurately to be fair, for a reason. Incidentally, the ongoing Rugby World Cup has been great so far!
“An all-star cast of characters was recruited to help Curry in pursuit of that goal, including McIlroy, Michelle Wie West, Curry’s swing coach Alex Riggs and his former teammate (and fellow avid golfer) Andre Iguodala.”
*probably going to wait to announce his retirement on his podcast in 3-4 weeks when people are paying more attention to hoops (for maximum dramatic effect).
Probably so. But it doesn't seem dramatic when it's pretty obvious he's done, whether he wants to be or not. It would be dramatic if a team actually signed him.
For years though we used college players as amateurs but so many people wanted to win and complained (screamed) that it was not truly representative of the best USA talent.
So went to the Dream Team concept.
That had its moment, but it is getting harder and harder to maintain now.
I still think it would be fun to see a team built of younger American players, maybe with college, or G-League veterans, or from the Elite teams, etc. who would be willing and could stay together for several years with a dedicated coaching philosophy.
Hey, the result might not be that far from removed from this year's FIBA World's Championship. It might also be more interesting for basketball fans to follow.
Disagree. After winning a GOLF tournament, he needs to add a gold medal to his legacy. We're witnessing an all-time great in his prime so let him show the world in the Olympics just how great he is.
In my view, without Bob there is no dynasty. The question going forward now is, without Bob, will there be additional titles. I think the second sentence is strong evidence in favor of the first sentence.
To paraphrase NBA players: "The NBA is the best league in the world, so the Larry O'Brien IS the world championship; because if the USA *hypothetically* put its best players out there and *hypothetically* practiced together and *hypothetically* sacrificed for the team and *hypothetically* could learn to play FIBA rules and *hypothetically* didn't get injured and *hypothetically* figured out how to counter some great international squads and *hypothetically* played defense and *hypothetically* rebounded and *hypothetically* generally tried and *hypothetically* their contracts permitted it, they would be the best.
Uh. Sure! And if I were *hypothetically* 7 feet tall and *hypothetically* skilled, I'd be in the NBA.
None of the last 5 NBA MVPs are American… the 2023 FIBA WC MVP is an NBA player. Tell me more about how Americans not winning the FIBA WC is somehow relevant in this argument of whether the NBA has the best basketball players on the planet, many of whom come from countries other than America, as noted above.
"because if the USA *hypothetically* put its best players out there" This misses the point. The Larry O'Brien winner is not the best USA team, it's the best NBA team, and that's not the same thing. The NBA is loaded with international talent, and most top NBA teams feature non-USA as well as USA stars (the Dubs included, with Wiggs).
Well, putting the hypothetical into practice, most NBA players care about the Olympics, and the USA has a pretty good record there, where they do put out their best players and play defense and rebound and so forth. So, it isn't just pure theory. I think the trick is finding a way for players to care about the FIBA WC, but I really don't see that changing ever. For me, I'm like, yay, go USA, but also am enjoying a lot of good competitive games and not losing it if the USA doesn't win gold every single time.
Only Andrew Wiggins (#22) days left until training camp. I hope anyway, now I'm seeing conflicting dates, but nba.com still says Oct 2nd so I'm sticking with that.
Was rewatching some AW highlights, starting with THAT DUNK ON LUKA!!! and man, I'm not saying I forgot how good he can be, but I do tend to remember rusty and then hurt Andrew from the end of last season more than almost-finals-MVP Wiggs. Hoping all his family concerns are behind him and he can just ball out again in '23-'24.
And, I think a lot of people jumped from "He shouldn't have started in the all-star game" right to "He didn't deserve to be an all-star", which is just wrong, he was pretty, pretty good that whole year. Here's some evidence:
And, to be more topical, I agree with JZAlvarado that adding Wiggs and Murray to that Canada team will be good. But, I thought they were prioritizing people that made the multi-year commitment, so I think someone needs to decide to drop out for them to get a spot. Would be crazy if Wiggs wants to play and they can't add him based on their approach.
absolutely - seems like a great person too - thoroughly enjoyed her run. To be critical, she needs to develop a real net game to really be a consistent #1 player!
The women's game has never been very "net heavy"... out of 157 points in the Final, she was only at the net 10 times (winning 7 of these), and her opponent only 21 times... I'm sure there are more impactful parts of her game she's working on.
Tennis appears to be going through changes where the last decades “baseline heavy” play is evolving into more net and drop shot usage. US open courts surface were also made slower than before favoring more net play. Alcaraz is great example of the next step in tennis combining Federer + nadal like abilities . Coco is young enough to also add net play to her game and will be especially useful if she wants to win wimbledon - IMHO
Men’s game has historically favored bet play far more than the women’s game… I’m not exactly sure why, but it’s how it’s been. Men’s game has had relentless serve and volley players like Edberg, and players far more aggressive to get to the net. Women’s game has generally not. Wimbledon and other grass courts are where there’s a bit more incentive, but they’re not too common, so maybe you brush up on your net play in the month ahead of Wimby, but generally it’s not a major part of the game…
Congratulation to Team Germany, still early here so I haven't watched the game yet but that was an impressive result, Serbia is no slouch.
Looks like as expected many fans are freaking out about Team USA, with many comments like "Kerr and Grant Hill are embarrassments and have to go". From a quick read, my headline would be "Team USA, missing 3 of their top 7 players - two starters and a key sub - still manage to take the game to overtime". Hey, sports are like that. I hope it is nothing serious for the sick guys. I also hope it isn't just the "My agent doesn't want to get hurt in a game that doesn't seem too important" flu.
Anyway, the squads will look a lot different for the Olympics, but man, there will be some good teams there, take this Serbia team and add the consensus best player in the world to it as an example. Hoping that we can get some good big men on the squad, I wonder how much impact a healthy Chet would make if he decides to play - I think he was pretty successful playing in the youth FIBA contests.
It's also the last day of the WNBA season, so every team plays today with some playoff seeding on the line, to see who gets to lose to the Aces and Liberty in the first two rounds before those teams meet in the finals.
Oh, and that game with the funny shaped ball has a bunch of matches today as well if that's your jam.
Fair. And since no reasonable person is likely to downgrade Pop’s career achievements significantly based on that Olympics, I’d assume/hope the same sense of proportionality will be extended to Stevie K when all is said and done.
2). Ill take Canada with Wiggins and Murray even with most of USAs ‘A’ team combination (unless Curry and Draymond are involved). Dort, Wiggins, and an engaged Brooks would be an absolute terror defensively.
3). This was a massive failure by Kerr, Grant Hill and Team USA. A Gold Medal would have been a slight overachievement. Silver and Bronze holding par but they absolutely shat the bed mentally in Overtime.
I dont care so much to have all the superstars playing. Need more versatility and physicality from the roster though. Ill take Halliburton, Bridges, and Reaves and punt everyone else (as much as I enjoy watching Ant go supernova)
In fairness, it was a too-small roster to begin with, and v Canada they were without all three of their best players over 6’-6” (JJJ, Banchero, Ingram). Kind of impressive they kept it as close as they did.
But yeah … roster needed more size and physicality to be sure. Add a couple of guys from the AD/Bam/Loon/Dray/BroLo/Turner/Timelord/MitchRob/Jarrett Allen group and this team (even without Steph, KD, LeBron, Kawhi, PG, Booker, et al.) probably gets Gold.
We always talk about what our young guns like Kuminga/Moody have to add to their games, but why not play the same game with our grizzled vets? There are plenty of examples of older players adding/expanding to their game so why not them?
Klay: Post Game, he can't get as much seperation running off ball but he is 6'7 and a great shooter. Why not add this to his game a la Livingston so he can manufacture some points every once in a while.
Curry: You're perfect.
Dray: Add a floater to your game and utilize that more consistently. You've lost athleticism as you've gotten older and its made it more difficult for you to finish inside. Use a floater/push shot to get some easy buckets like Richaun Holmes.
Looney: You're not a grizzled vet, but I consider you one. One a very low frequency, you shot 42% on shots from 10 ft - 3PT. Lets see how you can do with a bit higher frequency and up that PPG.
What would you guys want the OG's to add?
I’ve always complained about Klay’s lack of rebounding.
I want Klay & Dray to start going to Joga
Sources - LeBron James, Stephen Curry interested in Team USA: https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/38378132/sources-lebron-james-stephen-curry-interested-team-usa
Those two could set a precedent for how future stars approach international competitions, imo. Both coming off the bench. I just want one minute of Steph/LeBron/Klay/Dray/KD
One minute? That’s the closing lineup.
💯. But prob swap Booker or Bridges or Kawhi in there for Klay… and AD for Dray wouldn’t be bad either…
I hope not. :)
While I like Klay, it's a tough argument for him to make the team ahead of Tatum, Booker, Ant, Levine, Brown, Butler, (and probably a few other wings I'm forgetting).
Even if you are looking for just a pure shooter, then Bane might be a better choice.
Wanted to like this comment, but then there’s the “Bane is a better pure shooter” slander, which is unacceptable.
Bane has a better career 3P% and TS% 🤷🏼♂️
not a better shooter generally, but probably a better option for Team USA in 2024
True... and also illustrative of what is wrong with judging purely by stats
OK... let's see how it goes this year.
Just rewatched Warriors-Celtics finals game 4, where the Dubs turned it all around in Boston. My takeaways for what it took to get that pivotal win, and might take to get a 2024 chip:
+ Steph, deity-level maniac. 43pts, 10 rebs, constant fury.
+ Wing rebounding! Wiggs got his career-high, 16 boards that night--if JK and MM go in a winning playoff rotation, it'll probably be because their extender arms have been activated.
+ Defense in numbers! Dray had a rough night but still a pest. Loon, Wiggs, GP2 gave all the hard grit you'd expect. Who stunned me were Klay--physical, focused, craftily chasing down Brown cross court to force an out-of-bounds TO--and especially Bjelica, who got key minutes and broke Tatum's spirit 1:1 in three possessions in a row in a key stretch of Q3 (IIRC). Hoping we can get something close from Saric, plus Wiggs, GPII and Klay back in shape, plus growth from Moody + JK, to get our team defense back in Tatum-busting, Q4 lockdown shape.
Funnily enough, last night I watched a Thinking Basketball piece on another pivotal game four, where the Warriors were down 1-2 at LA just last year. Another very close game that the Warriors couldn’t quite pull out this time, which I believe was the swing game in the series.
With how Game 6 went it’s easy to forget how close they were to making the WCF. I believe they would have won a game seven at home, but who knows. Game four at Boston and game four at LA are reminders how thin the winning margin is, and that the team isn’t really that far from seriously contending again.
So this business about "World Champions".....
I think no one questions that the NBA is the best league with the best players.
This is more about a country declaring itself "world champions" of something or other when no one else in the world asked it to. It is cloying embarassing self-declared pomposity, all this greatest-this greatest-that business. I think this is what Greg Popovich - someone who knows more about basketball than just about anyone else - was alluding to when he said that the winner of the NBA is, rightfully, the "NBA Champions".
Many other regions in the world are by far the best at particular sport, you don't see em going around declaring that the winner of the some league or regional championship "world champions" to the extent that the US of A does. The most ridiculously annoying is when you hear commentators going on about the Superbowl "World" champions. We just need to get over ourselves already.
It's really that simple. A league can have most of the best players and still not have won any world championship. Those are two different things. I looked it up. American football called its championship the world championship in 1902 and the year after that baseball decided it had a World Series.
Morocco was not consulted.
The World Series terminology goes back to the 1880s (I wrote more about this at DNHQ a week or two ago). It was a legitimate term to a point in the early 20th century, since baseball had not yet caught on in any significant way outside of the USA. But there was that point, which was that with segregation, Major League teams might not be the best in the USA; the best Negro League teams might have been better.
I've just invented a latest greatest American sport called "who can type the fastest comments in their undies on DubNationHQ" and until a worthy challenger comes along, American or otherwise, am declaring myself the World Champion.
Well, second World Champion. I was reigning champ after my victory last year. But I commend you, young padawan.
You only won because the game was rigged. Massive fraud all around.
Don't disagree. But the Super Bowl winner may as well be crowned the world champion, because is any other country stupid enough to play concussionball, I mean USA football? Yeah, the Aussies and Kiwis and UKers play rugby. But no padding. Its the "padding" that gives American concussionball players a false sense of invulnerability such that they launch themselves at opponents, and can do real damage with their speed and weight (250-380 pounds) combined with their hard plastic weapo, I mean pads. Concussionball has an injury rate of 100%.
NFL athletes are superhumans, simply incredible, but yes, the American football culture that celebrates how hard someone gets hit is a tad troubling... Rugby can be a brutal sport but it's been called the gentlemen's sport, at times inaccurately to be fair, for a reason. Incidentally, the ongoing Rugby World Cup has been great so far!
Is Iggy retired officially and I missed it?
Or did golf.com out Iggy retirement: https://golf.com/lifestyle/steph-curry-launches-golf-channel-show/
“An all-star cast of characters was recruited to help Curry in pursuit of that goal, including McIlroy, Michelle Wie West, Curry’s swing coach Alex Riggs and his former teammate (and fellow avid golfer) Andre Iguodala.”
*probably going to wait to announce his retirement on his podcast in 3-4 weeks when people are paying more attention to hoops (for maximum dramatic effect).
Probably so. But it doesn't seem dramatic when it's pretty obvious he's done, whether he wants to be or not. It would be dramatic if a team actually signed him.
Oh, happy Sunday, we have a new troll onsite ... Peter.
Fortunately, he's pretty small.
Whose Peter?
Thanks for the heads up and thank you to the people who used the site “Report” feature to flag him. I have deleted all his posts.
I just wish these trolls could be more creative.
yeah. this guy reads like an angry 15-year old.
FIBA results with NBA salaries....
Best performances per salary: Germany, Serbia, Lativa, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Greece, Jordan, South Sudan, Japan, Egypt
Worst performances per salary: USA, France, Australia
1. germany 9+5+8+2 = 24m
2. serbia 3.5+3+1 = 7.5m
3. canada 8+22.5+4.5+24+15+5.5+12 = 91.5m
4. usa 23+24+5+13.5+27+4.5+13.5+7+26.5+13+11.5+3 = 171.5m
5. latvia 17m
6. lithuania 15.5m
7. slovenia 40m
8. italy 3m
9. spain 2m
10. australia 1+4+5+2+11.5+6+6.5+10.5+2 = 48.5m
11. montenegro 18.5m
12. puerto rico 0m
13. brazil 0m
14. dominican republic .5+36m = 36.5m
15. greece 2m
16. georgia 2m+2m = 4m
17. south sudan 2m
18. france 11m+41m+19m = 71m
19. japan 2m
20. egypt 0m
21. finland 17m
22. new zealand 0m
23. lebanon 0m
24. philippines 11.5m
25. mexico 0m
26. angola 2.5m
27. ivory coast 0m
28. cape verde 0m
29. china 9m
30. venezuela 0m
31. iran 0m
32. jordan 0m
All the plans I've seen to win in Paris involve sending ~$400m of NBA salary to compete. I'd love to see USA try to be competitive per $.
I agree.
For years though we used college players as amateurs but so many people wanted to win and complained (screamed) that it was not truly representative of the best USA talent.
So went to the Dream Team concept.
That had its moment, but it is getting harder and harder to maintain now.
I still think it would be fun to see a team built of younger American players, maybe with college, or G-League veterans, or from the Elite teams, etc. who would be willing and could stay together for several years with a dedicated coaching philosophy.
Hey, the result might not be that far from removed from this year's FIBA World's Championship. It might also be more interesting for basketball fans to follow.
I imagine several of us are imagining our Olympic team next summer. Here are my candidates which would be available now.
Steph, Booker, Halliburton, Young, Lillard, McCollum, Fox,……maybe CP3
JJJ, Tatum, George, Butler, Williams, AD, Dray, deRozan, Randle,…..maybe Embiid or James
No on Steph. I dont want to put any more miles on his body
Disagree. After winning a GOLF tournament, he needs to add a gold medal to his legacy. We're witnessing an all-time great in his prime so let him show the world in the Olympics just how great he is.
#YES
In my view, without Bob there is no dynasty. The question going forward now is, without Bob, will there be additional titles. I think the second sentence is strong evidence in favor of the first sentence.
To paraphrase NBA players: "The NBA is the best league in the world, so the Larry O'Brien IS the world championship; because if the USA *hypothetically* put its best players out there and *hypothetically* practiced together and *hypothetically* sacrificed for the team and *hypothetically* could learn to play FIBA rules and *hypothetically* didn't get injured and *hypothetically* figured out how to counter some great international squads and *hypothetically* played defense and *hypothetically* rebounded and *hypothetically* generally tried and *hypothetically* their contracts permitted it, they would be the best.
Uh. Sure! And if I were *hypothetically* 7 feet tall and *hypothetically* skilled, I'd be in the NBA.
None of the last 5 NBA MVPs are American… the 2023 FIBA WC MVP is an NBA player. Tell me more about how Americans not winning the FIBA WC is somehow relevant in this argument of whether the NBA has the best basketball players on the planet, many of whom come from countries other than America, as noted above.
*hypothetically* this post would be full of straw men. :-)
"because if the USA *hypothetically* put its best players out there" This misses the point. The Larry O'Brien winner is not the best USA team, it's the best NBA team, and that's not the same thing. The NBA is loaded with international talent, and most top NBA teams feature non-USA as well as USA stars (the Dubs included, with Wiggs).
Well, putting the hypothetical into practice, most NBA players care about the Olympics, and the USA has a pretty good record there, where they do put out their best players and play defense and rebound and so forth. So, it isn't just pure theory. I think the trick is finding a way for players to care about the FIBA WC, but I really don't see that changing ever. For me, I'm like, yay, go USA, but also am enjoying a lot of good competitive games and not losing it if the USA doesn't win gold every single time.
And, “hypothetically”, didn’t contract some mysterious illness.
Only Andrew Wiggins (#22) days left until training camp. I hope anyway, now I'm seeing conflicting dates, but nba.com still says Oct 2nd so I'm sticking with that.
Was rewatching some AW highlights, starting with THAT DUNK ON LUKA!!! and man, I'm not saying I forgot how good he can be, but I do tend to remember rusty and then hurt Andrew from the end of last season more than almost-finals-MVP Wiggs. Hoping all his family concerns are behind him and he can just ball out again in '23-'24.
Here are highlights from those playoffs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN2PKqVm4PE
And, I think a lot of people jumped from "He shouldn't have started in the all-star game" right to "He didn't deserve to be an all-star", which is just wrong, he was pretty, pretty good that whole year. Here's some evidence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zjdr2yFnUg
And, to be more topical, I agree with JZAlvarado that adding Wiggs and Murray to that Canada team will be good. But, I thought they were prioritizing people that made the multi-year commitment, so I think someone needs to decide to drop out for them to get a spot. Would be crazy if Wiggs wants to play and they can't add him based on their approach.
Nice! I had forgotten how ridiculous those dunks were.
OT: I don't really know why it hits me so hard, but I'm just so happy for Coco!
absolutely - seems like a great person too - thoroughly enjoyed her run. To be critical, she needs to develop a real net game to really be a consistent #1 player!
The women's game has never been very "net heavy"... out of 157 points in the Final, she was only at the net 10 times (winning 7 of these), and her opponent only 21 times... I'm sure there are more impactful parts of her game she's working on.
Tennis appears to be going through changes where the last decades “baseline heavy” play is evolving into more net and drop shot usage. US open courts surface were also made slower than before favoring more net play. Alcaraz is great example of the next step in tennis combining Federer + nadal like abilities . Coco is young enough to also add net play to her game and will be especially useful if she wants to win wimbledon - IMHO
Men’s game has historically favored bet play far more than the women’s game… I’m not exactly sure why, but it’s how it’s been. Men’s game has had relentless serve and volley players like Edberg, and players far more aggressive to get to the net. Women’s game has generally not. Wimbledon and other grass courts are where there’s a bit more incentive, but they’re not too common, so maybe you brush up on your net play in the month ahead of Wimby, but generally it’s not a major part of the game…
Thats real good tennis knowledge right there.
Congratulation to Team Germany, still early here so I haven't watched the game yet but that was an impressive result, Serbia is no slouch.
Looks like as expected many fans are freaking out about Team USA, with many comments like "Kerr and Grant Hill are embarrassments and have to go". From a quick read, my headline would be "Team USA, missing 3 of their top 7 players - two starters and a key sub - still manage to take the game to overtime". Hey, sports are like that. I hope it is nothing serious for the sick guys. I also hope it isn't just the "My agent doesn't want to get hurt in a game that doesn't seem too important" flu.
Anyway, the squads will look a lot different for the Olympics, but man, there will be some good teams there, take this Serbia team and add the consensus best player in the world to it as an example. Hoping that we can get some good big men on the squad, I wonder how much impact a healthy Chet would make if he decides to play - I think he was pretty successful playing in the youth FIBA contests.
It's also the last day of the WNBA season, so every team plays today with some playoff seeding on the line, to see who gets to lose to the Aces and Liberty in the first two rounds before those teams meet in the finals.
Oh, and that game with the funny shaped ball has a bunch of matches today as well if that's your jam.
Kerr and the coaching staff, like Popovich who finished 7th at the World Championships, will be judged by his team's Olympic performance.
Fair. And since no reasonable person is likely to downgrade Pop’s career achievements significantly based on that Olympics, I’d assume/hope the same sense of proportionality will be extended to Stevie K when all is said and done.
I liked the Olympics way more when professionals were banned from it. Remember Cassius Clay?
Weltmeister!!! 🏀🏀🇩🇪🇩🇪❤️❤️
It is unreal. I still cannot believe it. Was für Kerle!
1). Dislike Dillon Brooks so much.
2). Ill take Canada with Wiggins and Murray even with most of USAs ‘A’ team combination (unless Curry and Draymond are involved). Dort, Wiggins, and an engaged Brooks would be an absolute terror defensively.
3). This was a massive failure by Kerr, Grant Hill and Team USA. A Gold Medal would have been a slight overachievement. Silver and Bronze holding par but they absolutely shat the bed mentally in Overtime.
I dont care so much to have all the superstars playing. Need more versatility and physicality from the roster though. Ill take Halliburton, Bridges, and Reaves and punt everyone else (as much as I enjoy watching Ant go supernova)
I love Dillon Brooks. He's got a real sense of humor and plays with force. No one on Team USA played like that, not even Anthony Edwards.
In fairness, it was a too-small roster to begin with, and v Canada they were without all three of their best players over 6’-6” (JJJ, Banchero, Ingram). Kind of impressive they kept it as close as they did.
But yeah … roster needed more size and physicality to be sure. Add a couple of guys from the AD/Bam/Loon/Dray/BroLo/Turner/Timelord/MitchRob/Jarrett Allen group and this team (even without Steph, KD, LeBron, Kawhi, PG, Booker, et al.) probably gets Gold.
Team USA just giving Kerr practice for when he gets hold of this year's GSW roster
There's no "D" in Team USA
I would take Banchero too but otherwise yeah.
SGA wow!
Reaves has such a knack to feel contact and sell the foul lol