Yega1979

Why is it that NBA scrubs like Charles Smith can dominate the European league, but when you pit 5 NBA all-stars against another European team, they play neck and neck?

The answer is obvious. Watch how many passes per possesion for team USA vs European team. For team USA you'll see between zero and 2 passes, but the Europeans at least 4-5 per play, they move without the ball and run actual offensive sets.

AUNDRE

thats why USA is undefeated

Im tired of people saying that they suck.... dont watch it and shut up then

beamer05

It doesn't matter how many all stars we have.. we're going to 'struggle' a bit since we don't play together as much as some of these euro teams. That's the problem, but we're working on it.

LamarButler

I dont see why Team USA should run a lot of offensive sets. These guys will flourish as long as they have the freedom to use their talent IMO. You really dont have to worry about any ballhogs on the team, so why not?

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Damian Necronamous

Teams like Spain, Italy, Serbia-Montenegro, Brazil and certainly Argentina have been playing together for years in more than just the Olympics and WC. They have much better chemistry than Team USA and know each other much better on the court.

There isn't much we can do about that. We just scrap our team together a month or so before the competition starts and hope that we can beat them with shear talent alone.

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wastro

An undefeated USA squad most certainly does not "suck." Let me guess, are you expecting the same kind of dominance that the original Dream Team enjoyed in 1992? Well, here's a hint: ain't gonna happen!

It's simple. Back in '92, opponents were HAPPY to be squashed by Team USA. They'd approach the team before and after games and ask for autographs and pictures. They were in AWE of that team, and no squad ever again will assemble the same kind of talent.

But then ... the rest of the world stood up and took notice. Basketball has EXPLODED worldwide in the last fourteen years. So the talent gaps are closing, and a country like Argentina is fielding a team that's been together for SEVEN years. Ignore talent for a moment -- any team playing together for seven years is going to play well together. Imagine the chemistry!

So, now the rest of the world is catching up, and it deserves repeating: Team USA has played together for about a month. It's not about being wildly talented -- if you can't put that talent together, find the right mix of players and maximize the strengths of everyone involved, then you just won't win.

Case in point? The 2004 Los Angeles Lakers. Remember how every pegged them as the de facto NBA Champs when Payton and Malone signed? And how a Detroit team with near flawless chemistry made them look like ... oh I don't know ... the 2004 Team USA squad?

And yet, it's not right that I compare that failure to Team USA 2006, which is so far undefeated!

Gone are the days of USA dominance. The world's catching up, and their brand of basketball doesn't mirror the half-court pick-and-roll sets that have become common place in the NBA. Not just that, but give the guys time to adjust to the international game and the referees!

It's a different world. Save all the "Team USA sucks again" talk until they get run off the court over and over.

ebott

The big thing they're doing with USA basketball is that it's all young guys that will be together for a while. It's not just the best players we can get right now.

I expect with the team we have we will win the world championships. Now peep this. The same team will be together in two years for the Olympics. They will be practicing together for that event for the next two years. They will be dominant in the Olympics.

Wanna know something else? The same team will be together again for another two years for the next world championships. We're going to need to come up with another word that's more powerful than dominant.

jdiggidy

The 92 team also played old school style ball. There really wasn't much flash with that team. You had several players that understood every facet of the game. This team just knew how to ball.

Not everyone on the 2006 team fully understands how to ball. Battier, Heinrich, Wade, and Lebron are the only guys that you could MAYBE say understand the game like Bird, Magic, Stockton, and Malone.

Perfection

Jordan, Bird and Magic are three of the best players to have ever played the game, not to mention HOFers like Malone and Stockton that were with them.

I think our talent right now is comperable to our 92' team (well, maybe) but they played with a bit different style (better defense) and the competition isn't anywhere the level it is right now.

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Samuel

I stopped reading after I read this.

Yega1979

The European teams are not real teams either, they are an all-star team of players from that country, just like team USA. They are also being drawn from a much smaller population that the US, so the fact that we're only putting up 10 point wins is not very impressive at all.

If these guys can play our all-stars so closely, why are they not in the NBA?

It should be clear to everyone who watches the game how little team USA passes as opposed to the Europeans. They really suck as team, and we should try to put together a group of real basketball players instead of this brain-dead idiots...oh wait, most of our intelligent players are from Europe..

Ed O

What is there, objectively, to indicate that Team USA sucks?

As to why teams can compete:

-- different rules: the ints grow up playing FIBA rules, and the Americans don't;

-- different skill sets are valued in international ball: zone defenses, shorter three point line, different tendencies of the games being called (more perimeter/hand check fouls called, fewer interior/body blow fouls called) all add up to a different player succeeding in FIBA rather than the NAB;

-- different sized basketball: I'm certainly not a professional basketball player, but I know that even when I was playing in high school and college IMs, whenever I'd pick up a women's basketball (smaller, lighter) and tried to shoot with it I wasn't nearly as good, and then when I went back to a men's ball I was messed up. The FIBA basketball can be up to 30.7" in circumference, while an NBA basketball can be no more than 29.875" in circumference (across the grooves; with the grooves is 29.75" limit).

http://usabasketball.com/rules/rules.html for reference.

Ed O.

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"In the end, it all comes down to talent. You can talk all you want about intangibles, I just don't know what that means. Talent makes winners, not intangibles. Can nice guys win? Sure, nice guys can win -- if they're nice guys with a lot of talent. Nice guys with a little talent finish fourth, and nice guys with no talent finish last."

-- Sandy Koufax

ryanjend22

true story.

soonerterp

I don't think they suck at all. In fact it is the ONLY -- EVER -- team coached by Mike Krzyzewski that I have ever cheered FOR.

But yeah, what I saw of the game early this morning (I fell asleep before halftime while USA was losing) was a lot better ball movement for the Italian team. USA looked rattled and disoriented. Of course then in the 2d half Carmelo Anthony went nuts ... now if he hadn't gotten hot there possibly would have been a different outcome.

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