Hey Team USA, you can't develop and win at the same time! (Or so I've heard)
Hey Team USA, you can't develop and win at the same time! (Or so I've heard)
The U.S. men's basketball team just took a punch in the mouth at the hands of France.
Wait…did Team USA just lose a basketball game to France in Olympic play?? Oh hell naw. HELLL TO THE NAWW NAWW.
I woke up at 5AM to witness this monstrosity and immediately started drinking Hennessy shots after its tragic conclusion. Is it going to affect my basketball analysis at all? Absolutely not, because all I have to do is follow the formula for understanding hoops I recently learned from some vocal Golden State Warriors fans on social media.
YOU CAN’T DEVELOP TALENT AND WIN GOLD AT THE SAME TIME.
But before we get into that, here’s a quick commercial break from our DNHQ YouTube team. I’ll be right back.
Hey, psst! Wanna check out our new and totally rad YouTube channel? All the cool kids are doing it. For this next vid I was inspired by trade talk around Andrew Wiggins for Bradley Beal.
I started by drinking some Hennessy and creating an instrumental I felt encapsulated the vibe of Wiggins Island. Then I found every 2021 clip I could of these two max contract legends battling it out in the trenches. Voila!
Check it out and spread the word: just say NO to trading Wiggins.
YOU CAN’T DEVELOP PLAYERS AND WIN AT THE SAME TIME
Mark Jackson knew this. That’s why in crunchtime he allowed the veteran Jarrett Jack to hunt for buckets instead of feeding young Steph Curry and Klay Thompson when the Warriors first got good in 2013.
Sure Jackson’s coaching heir Steve Kerr installed the greatest offense in modern NBA history and overcame horrific physical pain to lead the team to three titles in five straight Finals attempts, but what about the last two years? Are you gonna quote that tired line about Klay Thompson being the first domino to fall in back-to-back injury seasons from hell? Please, and don’t you dare start mentioning how over NBA history it’s been nearly impossible to win a title after losing an All-Star who is the second best scorer on the team.
Wake up! Kerr was too focused on developing inexperienced projects instead of winning, if you catch my drift. The Warriors are wasting Steph Curry’s prime if they’re trying to teach young guys on inexpensive contracts like James Wiseman and Jordan Poole how to play!
So with that in mind, it’s clear where we can point the blame at this so-called Olympic roster of Team USA. Of all the players on the roster, why are Kevin Durant and Draymond Green the only ones with Olympic gold experience?? If you think you can just add unproven players to this level of competition, you’re wasting Durant’s international hoops prime. How long before KD demands a trade to Nigeria or Australia in order to force the USA basketball committee to upgrade the roster?
And then you have dudes like Keldon Johnson and JaVale McGee on the depth chart. Look I get it, Bradley Beal and Kevin Love couldn’t participate because of health issues…but USAB responded by adding two guys who can’t help them! No disrespect to McGee who is a Warriors legend and Johnson who was a hero at University of Kentucky. But Team USA is just punting the tournament away when they could have picked from the entire pool of American players.
You telling me LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony weren’t available? *checks notes* Oh wait, actually it appears Bron wasn’t available; but my point still stands. Just because the players I want to come weren’t able to come doesn’t mean that USAB is off the hook for not bringing them!
This is the type of attitude that comes from the top. Remember when Coach Kerr said the team wouldn’t chase wins by playing Curry 46 minutes per game? Yeah and then they didn’t even make the freakin’ playoffs. I mean, they DID have the 8th seed but whatever. SMH check out this quote from his mentor, Team USA coach Gregg Popovich after Nigeria beat our ass earlier this summer:
“In a way, I’m kind of glad it happened,” Team USA Coach Gregg Popovich said. “That means nothing if we don’t learn from it. It could be the most important thing in this tournament for us. ... Everybody expects us to win every game. That puts some pressure on you. For a new group, in tough circumstances, I thought they did a good job of not getting down, not blaming anybody and just playing. That will go a long way.”
Wait, did he just say he was GLAD the team lost? HMMM if you can’t see it…although I guess you could say Popovich deserves the benefit of the doubt since he for sure mastered winning while developing new talent with his Spurs. Bleh.
BONUS: Stop running complicated offenses!
Did you hear this report that Team USA is frustrated with running Popovich’s offensive schemes?
Hmmm where have I heard about a coach stuck in his ways who won’t change to the modern game and his personnel?
ADAPT OR DIE! Let these players hoop, man. Check this quote from Jayson Tatum after they lost that game to Nigeria:
We’re making strides. None of us had ever played with each other,” the Boston Celtics forward said. “[At times], we reverted to NBA [isolation], one-on-one [basketball], and that’s not going to get it done.”
Whoa. That quote directly contradicts my presupposition of the players wanting to play more iso, so I’m just going to ignore it. Nobody wants to be passing it around all day, cutting and screening ETC. Just roll the rock out and let these guys ball! Instead Popovich is stunting their growth, look:
Okay that just looked like a bunch of millionaires clanging wide open threes. BUT that’s probably because they couldn’t toggle their brains out of that San Antonio offense to seize their own shot opportunity.
Editor’s note: We’re pretty sure these thoughts don’t reflect sober Daniel, please take them with a grain of salt.
Hey Dub Nation HQ. I have a longer (pre-draft) piece you might enjoy, you got my email. Hit me and I will send it to you.
Does anyone believe the report that Curry, Klay & Dray met with brass en masse and expressed their desire to trade all future assets for a win now all nba player?
One, I can't believe Klay would ever forfeit a day on his boat for a meeting like that.
Two, that report makes it seem like the Warriors are desperate to appease their superstar which would make any future trade seriously bad in terms of exchange of value. Other teams smell blood in the water and feel like they can fleece the Warriors because their stars have them scrambling. A report like this will only decrease the value that the Warriors could get back, this decreasing what they could put on the floor with the mid career core. Curry, Klay & Dray are smart guys. Do we think they are going to do something that hampers the FO ability to make the team better?
Three, how long has the Lacob-Meyers-Kerr-Steph-Klay-Dray (Looney!) group been together? I would say it's pretty safe to assume that THESE GUYS are talking all the time. There isn't anyone in this group that needs to call a house meeting because someone ate their yogurt. You don't accomplish what this group has accomplished by not being connected.
Four, I am not saying that these guys didn't get together and chat. What I am saying is that whatever was said about what was said in the meeting was CRAFTED by the whole lot. It is not in any team's interest or any player's interest to broadcast to the world what the FO intentions are. The Davion MItchell win now story and all in for Curry prime years story are wonderful cover for their real intentions: DRAFT THE BEST PLAYERS OF NEED.
Five, if said meeting took place, my guess it went like this: Players: Yes, draft the best guys you can, but we need a couple more solid vets that we can rely on on this team. Your talking about Jae Crowder and Marc Gasol, any two guys who have been around the block a few times. We don't need to trade Wiseman, 7, 14, Paschall, Poole and 3 future firsts to get a couple solid vets to compliment this group.
Six, Oh Crap! I forgot you can't win and develop at the same time. My bad, erase all that.