USA

[Goldenballer32]

The USA basketball team is dominating everyone they play and there should be no one in their way to a gold medal. Is this the greatest basketball team to ever be assembled and do you think we will see anything like this again in USA basketball history?

[bedjaw]

I think the original Dream Team would take offense to this thread.

[The Guilty Party]

I think the original Dream Team would take offense to this thread.

Agreed and I believe the '96 team might also have something to say about this as well. I will say that this group of player is the best in 12 years though.

[ankle420breaker]

The 92 Dream Team never even called one time out. They were far superior and its not even close.

[bedjaw]

Dream Team II (94') should also be considered. This team ranks 4th; however they are all GREAT. I'm really impressed with this team but the other teams had too much star power. I hope this concept of Team USA becomes the norm.

[The Guilty Party]

I don't think it's much a stretch to think that Iguodala will get a spot on Team USA in London 2012. He'll be 28 and in the prime of his career. He's already a member of the practice squad and seems like a solid replacement for Tayshaun Prince.

[underpressure]

Well, the competition has gotten much better since 1992. The Dream Team would be still dominating but they would not win with such a big margin as in Barcelona.

[UptownPhilly]

^^^ I'm gonna have to agree with underpressure.

As basketball has become more popular internationally, perhaps, in large part to the success of the Dream Team, the competition has become much more difficult.

In the next 4 years, or so these foreign teams will become even better, and teams such as Argentina, China, Germany, etc. wil have become much better.

On one of the wiretaps, Stern was quoted as wanting to expand the NBA's influence further into places such as India, and China. You'll have nations becoming more familiar with the game, and eventually becoming main competition.

The Dream Team would still be good today, but this is another case of comparing two completely different teams of different eras.

[LieCheatSteal]

Don't be so sure that USA is going to win yet. Sure, they've blown away a lot of their competition but they only played maybe one solid team so far (Spain. Greece may have beat the US before but it was more their style that beat the Americans versus their players.).

Argentina and Spain are still going to be pretty tough. I can actually see either of those teams shocking the US.

BTW, this "redeem team" reminds me a lot of a college basketball team with their frantic defensive style and GS State warriors' like offense. Probably because this team is coached by Coach K.

[The Guilty Party]

I don't see either of those teams finishing within 15 points of this squad. We've already seen the US demolish Spain once and I have no reason to think that won't happen again. Argentina is a good team and maybe they keep the game within 20 but they haven't looked all that great this Olympics. They just BARELY beat Greece today and we've seen how the US handled Greece. I'm not downplaying the competition but LeBron, Kobe, and the others simply are too good and too focused to actually lose a game. If this team were infested with players like Vince Carter, Stephon Marbury, and others.... I might think differently.

[Sixerscan]

Dream Team had 10 hall of famers and Mullin (And Christian Laettner...). And most of those guys besides Bird and Magic were at the top of their games.

96 versus 08 would be interesting. 96 definitely has a big advantage down low (Shaq, Admiral, Dream, Malone) but the current team's depth at guard and on the wings would balance a lot of that out. Current team is much more suited for the international game.

[barkley34]

Replace Boozer/Redd with Duncan/KG and that would be an amazing squad. Still not as good as the original dream team though.

[bedjaw]

The difference between today's team and the DT is todays team is filled with the current best players. The DT was filled with all-time greats. Yes the comp is better today but the DT was only together for a month and still walked through the olympics. Today's team, for the most part, have been together for 3 yrs and has trained for int'l competition.

[Wilfried]

This DT has some very strong points:
Pressure D
Atleticism
Speed
Strenght (height)

They also have some very weak points:
shooting (fundamentals)
team offense (fundamentals)
3-point shooting

The original DT had everything. You can't say Jordan, Bird, Magic, Mullin, Stockton, Robinson etc. didn't have great bball fundamentals, and that's the difference (also between NBA nowadays and back than).

If you look at the center position, nowadays they're just great athletic players with a lot of strength and/or speed. But skilled centers like Olajuwon, Robinson, Ewing, ... aren't in the NBA anymore.

And that's something the NBA should be aware about. Nowadays they have to send their very best players, or they don't win it anymore.

[CoachK]

Replace Boozer/Redd with Duncan/KG and that would be an amazing squad. Still not as good as the original dream team though.

Duncan and KG are slightly better than Boozer. Not enough to make much of a difference on this team.

[The Guilty Party]

This team was focused in the 1st quarter and blew Argentina out 30-11. Since then, they've played like crap. Also, I know it's been said MANY times, but there is a huge difference in watching this team being run by Chris Paul then when Jason Kidd is on the floor. I think Paul does a much better job of getting dribble penetration and layups for his teammates.

If they're going to jack up 3's all game long... then put Redd on the floor.

[ChuckS]

[quote] "This team was focused in the 1st quarter and blew Argentina out 30-11. Since then, they've played like crap. Also, I know it's been said MANY times, but there is a huge difference in watching this team being run by Chris Paul then when Jason Kidd is on the floor. I think Paul does a much better job of getting dribble penetration and layups for his teammates."


Everyone says that, and Paul is probably today's preemminent point guard, so likely it is so.

But based upon only the two games I watched, and particularly against Argentina, I saw it differently. Your first sentence also might belie the claim for today's game, as I suspect do the assist totals (I think 7 to 2 Kidd in five less - 16 - minutes). Chris IS and was great at dribble penetration, but most of the time he scored.

Jason started the game when we looked like an unstoppable, well oiled, scoring machine. He also started the third when we retook command. In the second when we could not score against the zone, I thought Paul looked uncharacteristically bad. Almost consecutively when they cut the lead to below ten, (they were leaving him open and) he badly missed a three (which can happen), and he had two turnovers. Our offense was extremely disjointed.

Certainly Kidd is a fraction of what he was, but I do not think he'll ever lose the ability to get the ball inside through traffic. Paul and Williams are the future and we need them, but I do not think today was necessarily Jason's "last hurrah".

[Sixerscan]

The play by play doesn't have substitutions, but I'm pretty sure Kidd came out at or before the TV timeout, when the US was only up 9-4, then when Paul came in for the rest of the quarter was when they went on a huge run. Could be wrong...

This was hands down Kidd's best game of the tournament though. Paul and Williams have outplayed him pretty badly otherwise.

[barkley34]

I ended up missing the game. Most of the other games were on the USA network so I saw semi final mens basketball and set my dvr for the USA channel. Only it was the damn Spain/Lithuania game, team USA must have been on NBC.