Tokyo Olympic Basketball Tournament Discussion

[Zukkoyaki]

Jrue and Draymond showing how important role players are to team building and success.

[Chuck Diesel]

Run it back for the 2022 AmeriCup!

[BoatsNZones]

Jrue and Draymond showing how important role players are to team building and success.

The true cogs to championships after you find the superstar, and there are only a few of them in the NBA. But calling them "role players" is heavily undermining their dominance. That's a term best kept for 3pt specialists.

[Sedale Threatt]

We should be thankful the rest of the world skipped a ton of their elite as well.

Put everybody at full strength and I will be more than happy enough to take our chances. It's just that people have been saying this all tournament and I'm done biting my tongue. "If you take KD off this team..." Lol, so we can't have any of our super elite players? It's like saying Argentina wouldn't have won the World Cup without Maradona. Yeah, no sht. That's how it works.

Well no ****. We are the overwhelming favorites. We had MORE than enough theoretical talent to win this tournament with ease as is. Fact remains that if the other nations brought their best, we probably would have lost at some point with this squad. I'm just glad that they did not as well.

We were the overwhelming favorites, and we won. Expecting us to completely roll the field hasn't really been a thing for a good 20 years now. Even the dominant 2008 and 2012 teams, with elite top-level talent, won coin flip games that could have gone either way against a great Spanish team. I guess because we're so good some people are always going to want to grade us on a curve, but as somebody who has been watching these competitions religiously since the 2006 World Cup, it's a totally different game. There's never going to be another Dream Team and international play has improved by light years.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

We can't do much without KD.

Save us KD

KD needs to ignore these scrubs on his team and take over.

France 16 of 27 from the free throw line. So bad.

Thank you Kevin Durant. Greatest player in Team USA history.

KD was the difference.

Good thing France didn’t shoot 22-27 free throws.

[HiDef]

Jrue making defense cool again. Don't think I've felt this way watching a perimeter defender since Roberson or Tony Allen.


Edit: also big ups to KD. Hell of a game.

[Pennebaker]

Lol at Europe, have they done anything since the Renaissance?

USA been running things since 1776 and will continue to do so. Go argue with your mother

Technically they created the USA since the Renaissance.

[Mamba81p]

Put everybody at full strength and I will be more than happy enough to take our chances. It's just that people have been saying this all tournament and I'm done biting my tongue. "If you take KD off this team..." Lol, so we can't have any of our super elite players? It's like saying Argentina wouldn't have won the World Cup without Maradona. Yeah, no sht. That's how it works.

Well no ****. We are the overwhelming favorites. We had MORE than enough theoretical talent to win this tournament with ease as is. Fact remains that if the other nations brought their best, we probably would have lost at some point with this squad. I'm just glad that they did not as well.

We were the overwhelming favorites, and we won. Expecting us to completely roll the field hasn't really been a thing for a good 20 years now. Even the dominant 2008 and 2012 teams, with elite top-level talent, won coin flip games that could have gone either way against a great Spanish team. I guess because we're so good some people are always going to want to grade us on a curve, but as somebody who has been watching these competitions religiously since the 2006 World Cup, it's a totally different game. There's never going to be another Dream Team and international play has improved by light years.

I think the international play regressed in the last 7-8 years. There is no team as good as that Spanish team from 2006-2015. Serbia is the only one that has the potential to become as good as they were.

[threethehardway]

Put everybody at full strength and I will be more than happy enough to take our chances. It's just that people have been saying this all tournament and I'm done biting my tongue. "If you take KD off this team..." Lol, so we can't have any of our super elite players? It's like saying Argentina wouldn't have won the World Cup without Maradona. Yeah, no sht. That's how it works.

I think if the USA actually cared about being the best at basketball at Olympics, nobody would stand a chance. We would identify the best basketball players in high school, and put them through the Team USA program, have them play in every international tournament, all the way up to when they turn pro and have them play for Team USA for two Olympics at least. But America doesn't do that.

We literally wait until the last minute and a put a bunch of guys together, have them do some boot camp at Vegas and then win gold medals.

The USA put out the worst team possible this year and the rest of the world still loss. KD was looking like it was his MVP year, that's how bad this Team USA was.

[Sedale Threatt]

Well no ****. We are the overwhelming favorites. We had MORE than enough theoretical talent to win this tournament with ease as is. Fact remains that if the other nations brought their best, we probably would have lost at some point with this squad. I'm just glad that they did not as well.

We were the overwhelming favorites, and we won. Expecting us to completely roll the field hasn't really been a thing for a good 20 years now. Even the dominant 2008 and 2012 teams, with elite top-level talent, won coin flip games that could have gone either way against a great Spanish team. I guess because we're so good some people are always going to want to grade us on a curve, but as somebody who has been watching these competitions religiously since the 2006 World Cup, it's a totally different game. There's never going to be another Dream Team and international play has improved by light years.

I think the international play regressed in the last 7-8 years. There is no team as good as that Spanish team from 2006-2015. Serbia is the only one that has the potential to become as good as they were.

I'm speaking broadly. Some people think we should just be able to roll out the ball and beat teams by 30 like we did back in the 90s, and it's just not like that anymore.

[Chuck Diesel]

For real though, has anyone checked on Mirotic? Hope he’s alright…

[threethehardway]

I'm speaking broadly. People think we should just be able to roll out the ball and beat teams by 30 like we did back in the 90s, and it's just not like that anymore.

I think America should be able to beat people by 30 still. In theory, we created the sport, we call ourselves the best league in the league in the world, we have the best players in the world, why the hell NBA scrubs and rejects from Europe should be able to keep up with our players?

Unless there's Luka Doncics playing against us, we should win by 15 points on average.

If I was in charge of Team USA, I would be telling my players and coaches, if a guy like Ricky Rubio averages 10 in the NBA, he shouldn't be getting 20 against our guys when we supposed to be the best in the world.

The World wants a dominant USA team. American basketball fans want a dominant USA team. Nobody wants to see the world catch up to the USA in the Olympics.

I don't care what the rules are, I don't care where it's played, a team full of American NBA players shouldn't struggle to beat anybody in basketball unless they are a generational talent.

Thank God for KD.

[Chuck Everett]

These games would not have been close if Lillard was even close to what he is billed. He was absolutely terrible on both ends of the floor.

[TimRobbins]

I'm speaking broadly. Some people think we should just be able to roll out the ball and beat teams by 30 like we did back in the 90s, and it's just not like that anymore.

If you bring back Jordan, Magic, Pippen and David Robinson, you will beat teams by 30. Not with Durant as the only real All-NBA talent. If you had Curry, Harden, AD and KAT on this team, you would have EVERY game by 30 or more.

[Mamba81p]

We were the overwhelming favorites, and we won. Expecting us to completely roll the field hasn't really been a thing for a good 20 years now. Even the dominant 2008 and 2012 teams, with elite top-level talent, won coin flip games that could have gone either way against a great Spanish team. I guess because we're so good some people are always going to want to grade us on a curve, but as somebody who has been watching these competitions religiously since the 2006 World Cup, it's a totally different game. There's never going to be another Dream Team and international play has improved by light years.

I think the international play regressed in the last 7-8 years. There is no team as good as that Spanish team from 2006-2015. Serbia is the only one that has the potential to become as good as they were.

I'm speaking broadly. Some people think we should just be able to roll out the ball and beat teams by 30 like we did back in the 90s, and it's just not like that anymore.

With a team like the Redeem team, playing together for 3 years, they would roll out everybody now. The only team that stood their ground in 2008 and 2012 was Spain. That team was more like an exception, that has no equivalent in today's game.

[Goomba3666]

There were some HILARIOUS overreactions after the first exhibition games. Lol. You can really tell who actually watches basketball and who just catches the highlights or statsheets.

[Chuck Diesel]

Team USA has tournaments in each of the next three summers (AmeriCup, World Cup, Paris Olympics.) Phenomenal opportunity to build roster continuity with a core group and then bring KD in as an Olympic ringer for his 4th gold medal.

[Goomba3666]

Oh - and the fact that KD is doing ALL OF THIS after an achilles injury is pretty much a Cinderella story.

We need to really appreciate this dude while he's here. We'll never see another like him.

[lambchop]

Well no ****. We are the overwhelming favorites. We had MORE than enough theoretical talent to win this tournament with ease as is. Fact remains that if the other nations brought their best, we probably would have lost at some point with this squad. I'm just glad that they did not as well.

We were the overwhelming favorites, and we won. Expecting us to completely roll the field hasn't really been a thing for a good 20 years now. Even the dominant 2008 and 2012 teams, with elite top-level talent, won coin flip games that could have gone either way against a great Spanish team. I guess because we're so good some people are always going to want to grade us on a curve, but as somebody who has been watching these competitions religiously since the 2006 World Cup, it's a totally different game. There's never going to be another Dream Team and international play has improved by light years.

I think the international play regressed in the last 7-8 years. There is no team as good as that Spanish team from 2006-2015. Serbia is the only one that has the potential to become as good as they were.

This. To me the countries that are actually good at basketball had more formidable teams years ago, like Greece, Argentina and Spain. Those were their golden generation teams. Now there might be better individual players who can emerge as actual NBA stars (speaking of international ball in general), but those teams arent nearly as strong overall.

And, yea, a full Serbian squad can definitely be compared to those teams.

[NaturalThunder]

I think America should be able to beat people by 30 still. In theory, we created the sport, we call ourselves the best league in the league in the world, we have the best players in the world

Sure, we created the sport, but how does that correlate to "we should beat people by 30"? Just because we created the sport doesn't meant other countries haven't spent the last 30 years catching up with their basketball training and overall interest. The '92 Dream Team, Michael Jordan, and David Stern really globalized the sport about 30 years ago and we're really starting to see the impact now.

why the hell NBA scrubs and rejects should be from Europe should be able to keep up with our players?

Because basketball is a team sport. For the past 16/17 years now, the world has shown us that they can somewhat hang with the U.S. in basketball. This isn't some new revelation. The days of Team USA simply "showing up", the ball being rolled out, and cruising to a 20-30 point win pretty much every time have been long gone for awhile now.

If I was in charge of Team USA, I would be telling my players and coaches, if a guy like Ricky Rubio averages 10 in the NBA, he shouldn't be getting 20 against our guys when we supposed to be the best in the world.

I can't believe Popovich didn't try this strategy. Pop: "Hey guys, I don't know if you know this or not, but that Rubio guy doesn't usually score too good in the NBA. Why aren't we stopping him?"

At the end of the day, simply telling players something doesn't change how the game is played and the end result on the court.

The World wants a dominant USA team. American basketball fans want a dominant USA team. Nobody wants to see the world catch up to the USA in the Olympics.

How do you know the world wants a dominant USA team? On what are you basing that assumption?

I don't care what the rules are, I don't care where it's played, a team full of American NBA players shouldn't struggle to beat anybody in basketball unless they are a generational talent.

In 2008 the U.S. "only" beat Spain by 11 in the gold medal match. In 2012, we eked out a 5 point win against Lithuania in the preliminary round and a 7 point win against Spain in the gold medal match. In 2016, we beat Australia by just 10 and beat both Serbia and France by just 3 in the preliminary round. In the knockout stage, we edged Spain by 6 in the semi-finals. Point being, there's plenty of evidence since the 2004 Olympics that the world has caught up to the U.S.A in basketball. You're going to be waiting a long time if you expect the U.S. to just show up and beat everyone by 30+. Those days are long gone.