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The NBL has traditionally had its fair share of bad publicity, thanks in part to poor management and a serious lack of on-court talent.…
As London beckons for world basketball's elite, Olympic glory is on the minds of many. On the men's side of things, we have already…
Despite the absence of formidable big man Andrew Bogut, our Australian Boomers are a serious threat to take out a medal at the upcoming…
Brett Brown likes to get his troops out in a press so you can definately expect to see it.
You don’t think Peter Crawford is a sharp shooter? He hit nearly 3 three’s a game this season on 40% shooting and averaged a touch over 2 three’s a game last season also on 40% shooting. He flat out drops bombs from outside. For the past 10 years the guy has been averaging over a three a game on around 40% shooting, if he isn’t a sharp shooter I don’t know who is.
Even without Bogut, the Boomers are a medal chance in London
Correction I meant to say that the 2008 Olympics were the first international tournament the US had won since the 2000 Olympics.
Why USA's Dream Team won't win Olympic gold
It wasn’t just the 2004 olympics but ill cover them in my reply.
USA are not invincible. In the 2002 World Championships they lost to Argentina, Yugoslavia and Spain to finish 6th. In the 2004 Olympics they lost to Italy in a warm up game before the tournament then lost to Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina eventually finishing 3rd. In the 2006 World Championships they lost to Greece in the semi’s eventually finishing 3rd.
It wasn’t until the 2008 Olympics that they finally won an international basketball tournament again for the first time since the 1996 Olympics and even then you can consider them lucky because when they faced Argentina in the semi Ginobili went down injured early on and was out the rest of the game. USA won the game by 20 points but if you don’t include the 1st quarter score they only outscored Argentina by 1 point, all that without Ginobili. Then in the final Spain gave it to USA without there starting point guard Jose Calderon as he was out injured. I dont want to take anything away from USA though, it was the best they had been for a while.
Now onto the most recent of tournaments the 2010 fiba world championships and i must say USA were extremely lucky to avoid Spain, Greece and Serbia all teams I was preparing to put a lot of money on if they had faced USA. When they all popped up on the opposite side of the bracket in the knockout stages I was seething. However despite dodging in my opinion the 3 strongest teams they still looked shakey against Brazil only beating them by 2 points and Russia beating them by only 10. Those teams were not very strong, Brazil had no Nene or Anderson Varejao who went down injured the game prior to playing USA, you would have expected the US to have done better. In the end they beat Turkey who were lucky themselves to get to the final. Spain knocked out Greece, Serbia knocked out Spain and the Refs knocked out Serbia in the semi’s when they faced turkey.
Why USA's Dream Team won't win Olympic gold
Spain beat USA in the 2002 World Championships. Greece was the team that actually beat them in 2006.
Why USA's Dream Team won't win Olympic gold
I believe they will get knocked out in the quarters or semi’s by someone like Greece (if they qualify), Australia or Spain. The size of those teams combined with their three point shooting ability will be too much to handle. That is of course if Australia sort out there three point woes.
Why USA's Dream Team won't win Olympic gold
That is a big loss for team USA because in my opinion Bynum is the best post up American in the NBA. He has way more moves down low than dwight. I just wish Kobe would give him the ball more often.
Why USA's Dream Team won't win Olympic gold
Good points but the full court press was easily beaten by the stronger teams in the 2010 world championships. Full court press’ in international play are rare to see between two strong teams, usually what you’ll find is a stronger team when facing a weaker team will play a press to force turn overs and blow up the score so they can empty there bench. I remember USA tried applying it to brazil and brazil smoked it every time.the final score in that game was 70-68 in favour of USA, Brazil missed a shot on the buzzer that would have won the game.
Why USA's Dream Team won't win Olympic gold
I seriously do believe the USA will not medal. Just to address some of your points.
Lack of size is a big issue, Tyson Chandler as far as I’m concerned is wire thin. I believe players such as Marc Gasol 120kg, Aleks Maric 125kg, Ioannis Bourousis 122kg and Sofoklis Schortsanitis 156kg will all have their way with him down low. Countries like Spain, Greece, Australia, Lithuania and Brazil all have the ability to man handle the USA inside. Also worth mentioning is that if USA are forced to have to play Tyson Chandler big minutes this will affect their offence in a negative way.
As for three point shooting it is a big issue for them. They really need to be able to spread the floor so they can open up gaps to attack and drive into. So they need at least 3 guys on the court who can knock it down consistently at all times. I wouldn’t classify Kobe or Deron as three point shooters, they are scorers not shooters. They cannot be trusted to hit it consistently because less than 35% isn’t good. That might be a good number in the USA but it isn’t a good number anywhere else in the world. As for Chris Paul yes he has shot about 37% from three over his NBA career however he doesn’t take that many and has made 0.9 per game over his time in the league. He only takes it when wide open which has lead to him having a decent percentage.
Onto the Spanish Squad, you are forgetting a lot of big name players. Their front court isn’t just the Gasol brothers and Ibaka don’t forget the possible inclusions of Fran Vasquez, Felipe Reyes and Alex Mumbru. As for what they bring to the perimeter throw in Sergio Llull of Real Madrid who has allways been consistent for them. Replacing Rubio is no problem with the likes of former NBA point guards Raul Lopez and Sergio Rodriguez waiting for another call-up.
As for the inclusion of Bynum, I am 100% behind that but he isn’t part of their 18 man preliminary squad. He is the only American who has a back to the basket game. If he was in the team I probably would not have wrote this article.
Why USA's Dream Team won't win Olympic gold
Adrian, I agree when you say Boomers are a medal chance and I agree when you say there is no reason why we can’t beat Greece however I believe you are underestimating the Greeks by saying “It’s a much weaker team than in the past”. This might be the Greek in me coming out but I couldn’t disagree with that statement any more. I’ve watched plenty of Greek basketball through sports channel Eurosport which had the rights to Olympiakos and Panathinaikos games as well as Greek Channel ERT. I also try to catch as much Euroleague action on ESPN as possible so I think I am in a good position to discuss the makings of the Greek squad seeing as I’ve seen a lot of the players I am about to mention play.
They will go into the Olympics with at least four of the players that were a part of the team that beat USA back in the 2006 World Championships in Vasilis Spanoulis, Sofoklis Schortsanitis, Nikos Zisis and Antonis Fotsis. Those four will be joined by members from the bronze winning 2009 Eurobasket side in Ioannis Bourousis, Nick Calathes, Georgios Printezis, Kostas Kaimakoglou, Stratos Perperoglou and NBAer Kostas Koufos. The remaining two positions are up for grabs but expect Ian Vougioukas who is a key member for Euroleague 2011 champions and current final four fmembers Panathinaikos and Kostas Sloukas of Greek table topping and current Euroleague final four members Olympiakos to make up the rest of the squad.
Most of the above mentioned players are members of either Olympiakos and Panathinaikos who are two of Europes most powerful clubs. The few players who are not members of either of those teams are competing for top clubs in Italy and Spain which are the two strongest leagues in Europe. Schortsanitis and Koufos are the exception however as Schortsanitis plays in Israel for Maccabi Tel Aviv which is one of the worlds most famous basketball clubs and Koufos who is a key role player for the Denver Nuggets.
Saying that the Greek squad will be much weaker is far from the truth. This in my opinion is Greece’s strongest squad since the 2006 World Championships and perhaps rivals even that great team. Coached by Ilias Zouros who is the current coach of Anadolou Efes of Turkey, I have faith he will be able to get us to our first Olympic medal. If the turks can trust him coaching one of their biggest clubs he obviously has the goods.
Draw gives Boomers Olympic medal hopes
As much as I feel it will ruin the matchday experience, if the NRL have to do it, they have to do it. They have to get a big pay up otherwise they will risk falling further and further behind the AFL.
Game changes see NRL poised for its billion dollar payday