The Clippers series turned when they stopped allowing Zubac to switch on to him. The Mavs also had Tim Hardaway shooting like Ray Allen for kick outs.We said that about the Clippers tho.
It's impossible to guard him in single coverage. That's just the reality of the situation.
2021 USA Basketball @ Tokyo Olympics
- Thread starter FAH1223
- Start date
mvp_status
Superstar
Meanwhile you got a budding superstar in Trae Young desperately wanting to rep Team USA and he doesnt get picked.
Selection process is just trash
Too many politics involved breh. There’s no reason we shouldn’t at least have Ja and Melo on the select team but we got Keldon Johnson on the team.
Team USA should be grooming guys like Zion, Tatum, Book, Ja, Trae, Melo and etc right now.
Spade
Superstar
Perhaps maybe the Americas needs to form some sort of Summer tournament and play any year outside of the Olympics and FIBA world cup. Because Europe has something like this every year, right? As does Africa. I could be wrong on this. It's clear you can no longer just send your talent and win easily though.
Box Factory
hater
Trae would be pretty useless though, so it's kind of understandable why they wouldn't want him right now
Jrue and Dame are both significantly better than him. He would be the worst 3 point shooter of any of the guards. He'd be the worst defender in the tournament. He's not gonna get any of his bait fouls, and zone and no 3 in the key are taking away his floater
Also zero chance that pop would play a guy as limited as him any minutes
Trae is kind of the embodiment of why the NBA players struggle in FIBA. He would make this team much worse
Yes and no. If the USA sent their very best: As in LeBron, Steph, Kawhi, AD, Harden, PG, etc. then they’d likely win gold regardless because the talent gap would be too wide to overcome. But the more those guys pull out, the more vulnerable the US is.
Every region (Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania) has a major tournament. It used to be every other year but they changed it to every four years. The Americas tourney is supposed to happen next year in early September. The way it’s set up now you have the Olympics this year, AmeriCup in 2022, World Cup in 2023 and Olympics in 2024.
But yeah I had a similar thought. I think they need to have a core group that they commit to as the team, similar to the Aussies or Spain. I know it’s harder for the US to do that because the talent pool is so much deeper but I think it’s just no longer a smart idea to throw together a team a week before competition starts and expect to march over everyone.
BobbyBooshay
Arnold Jackson
Kobe was just a different breed
tremonthustler1
aka bx_representer
Ja and Melo weren't considered because they weren't on the provisional pool of guys they select from, and that's because that's a process that started before they made the league.
It's just funny how cyclical things are.
Swap out those names with Shaq, Kobe, KG, T-Mac, Webber, Kidd, etc.. and this was basically the talking point 16 years ago following the first disaster in 2004. Every talking point you mentioned was brought up, and the USA essentially responded with the 2008 and 2012 teams...
...but the issue/argument is they just threw their very best players together those years, so it was pretty much just the biggest of band aids, instead of finding a long term solution that doesn't require having your top 5 superstar NBA players on the team.
They didn’t really throw the 08 & 12 teams together though.
Coach K came in for 2006. LeBron, CP3, Melo, Bosh, Dwight & D-Wade all played on the 06 team. Then in 07 they added Kobe, Kidd, Deron, Prince & Redd. So by the time we got to the Redeem Team in 08, the only new guy was Carlos Boozer.
Then in 2010, no one from the Redeem team returned so they had to start from scratch with a new squad. So what we saw in 2012 was basically them combining the holdovers from the 2008 squad (LeBron, Kobe, CP3, Deron, Melo) with the holdovers from the 2010 squad (KD, Russ, Iggy, Love, Chandler) plus two new guys in Harden & AD.
For the squad they have in the Olympics this year, majority of them are playing for the first time. KD, Draymond, Tatum & Middleton are the only ones that have played for Team USA before and Tatum & Middleton are the only ones that played under Pop
what are the odds for a US gold medal? This might be the right moment to make some money
already ahead of you b....
How did the US not qualify for the men's 3 on 3? I get that they didn't want NBA players, but they couldn't get any top high school or college players? Retired NBA guys? Any guys from the Big 3? The Professor? The Harlem Globetrotters?
what are the odds for a US gold medal? This might be the right moment to make some money
They were still at -250 last time I checked. I don't trust them enough to take that
SuburbanPimp
Giving game to lames since the 90s
They should have had D fox on the team amongst others. I watch these games and we don't look faster, stronger and that much more athletic than these other teams and that was suppose to be our advantage
mvp_status
Superstar
Trae creates shots for others at the very least. From what i've seen so far, playmaking is sorely needed even if everything you said is true
Pop pissed him and Trae off with Derrick White.