USA Basketball Rio Thread

[stevemcqueen1]

Team USA should be built around Wall, George, Cousins, Irving, Thompson, Leonard, Davis, Drummond, and Lillard at the next WC and Olympics. Maybe Hayward and/or Favors too. And Beal if he makes the jump to being an AS. Good three guard rotation in Wall/Irving/Lillard. Wall can guard the 2 and Irving and Lillard can shoot and play off the ball. Particularly Lillard. A group of three bigs that's easily the best in world competition in Davis/Cousins/Drummond. Davis can guard in space too. And the best three and D wings in the NBA in Thompson, Leonard, and George. They'd all be roughly the same age and in their primes. Get them experience with Pop and with each other in the WCs and they will cruise to gold in Tokyo by an average margin of 30+ points.

[strudel forever]

Man Lowry/Butler/DeRozan/Barnes.....what a waste.

Are you nuts? Lowry was damn good, great defense and actually facilitated a smooth team offense rather than the Kyrie Irving Iso ball. George and Lowry consistently blew games open due to strong defense and ball movement.

[Induveca]

Man Lowry/Butler/DeRozan/Barnes.....what a waste.

Are you nuts? Lowry was damn good, great defense and actually facilitated a smooth team offense rather than the Kyrie Irving Iso ball. George and Lowry consistently blew games open due to strong defense and ball movement.

His true shooting percentage was 42%, second lowest on the entire team behind Green. Of actual rotation players he had the worst TS% by a wide margin.

Players with 100+ minutes (the only players who played less than 100 minutes were Barnes, Green and DeRozan). This was through August 21.

Durant 74%
Cousins 67%
Jordan 65%
Irving 60%
George 56%
Anthony 52%
Thompson 48%
Butler 48%
Lowry 42%

He also had the worst offensive rating of any player not playing 100 minutes.

[strudel forever]

Man Lowry/Butler/DeRozan/Barnes.....what a waste.

Are you nuts? Lowry was damn good, great defense and actually facilitated a smooth team offense rather than the Kyrie Irving Iso ball. George and Lowry consistently blew games open due to strong defense and ball movement.

His true shooting percentage was 42%, second lowest on the entire team behind Green. Of actual rotation players he had the worst TS% by a wide margin.

Players with 100+ minutes (the only players who played less than 100 minutes were Barnes, Green and DeRozan). This was through August 21.

Durant 74%
Cousins 67%
Jordan 65%
Irving 60%
George 56%
Anthony 52%
Thompson 48%
Butler 48%
Lowry 42%

He also had the worst offensive rating of any player not playing 100 minutes.

Dude, he probably shot less volume than just about anyone else playing major minutes, so his poor shooting wasn't really a big deal. His job wasn't to score on a team full of 11 other scorers. What matters was his actual impact while leading the team on defense and offense, which he did a very very good job at. Hell, the coaches even called him the team's best team player - a breath of fresh air within a collection of me first scorers.

Look at his impact off the bench with Paul George. Chalk some of it up to being matched up with weaker opposing reserves, but the US bench time and again came in and played like a team. You seemed to have watched the games ... no idea how you could not notice that the defense and ball movement improved dramatically. Lowry was perfect for that team.

[Induveca]

Are you nuts? Lowry was damn good, great defense and actually facilitated a smooth team offense rather than the Kyrie Irving Iso ball. George and Lowry consistently blew games open due to strong defense and ball movement.

His true shooting percentage was 42%, second lowest on the entire team behind Green. Of actual rotation players he had the worst TS% by a wide margin.

Players with 100+ minutes (the only players who played less than 100 minutes were Barnes, Green and DeRozan). This was through August 21.

Durant 74%
Cousins 67%
Jordan 65%
Irving 60%
George 56%
Anthony 52%
Thompson 48%
Butler 48%
Lowry 42%

He also had the worst offensive rating of any player not playing 100 minutes.

Dude, he probably shot less volume than just about anyone else playing major minutes, so his poor shooting wasn't really a big deal. His job wasn't to score on a team full of 11 other scorers. What matters was his actual impact while leading the team on defense and offense, which he did a very very good job at. Hell, the coaches even called him the team's best team player - a breath of fresh air within a collection of me first scorers.

Look at his impact off the bench with Paul George. Chalk some of it up to being matched up with weaker opposing reserves, but the US bench time and again came in and played like a team. You seemed to have watched the games ... no idea how you could not notice that the defense and ball movement improved dramatically. Lowry was perfect for that team.

Total Average Efficiency Rio 2016

Durant - 21.9
Cousins - 13.4
Irving - 13.2
Anthony - 12.2
Jordan - 11.6
George - 14
Thompson - 10.5
Lowry - 9.5
DeRozan - 6.3
Butler - 7.1
Barnes - 5.2
Green - 2.9

I did indeed watch the games, all of them. He looked like a guy who didn't belong on the Olympic squad much of the time, right there alongside DeRozan/Butler/Barnes and Green. Of all players who played more than 100 minutes, he had the worst average efficiency rating.

He was especially brutal vs France, Australia and Spain. He looked overmatched by DeColo / Heurtel / Dellavedova (ouch) and Rodriguez. All that being said, I know he's a great player in the NBA. Just personally don't want him on an Olympic squad, rather have someone a bit taller/more athletic.

[Kanyewest]

Are you nuts? Lowry was damn good, great defense and actually facilitated a smooth team offense rather than the Kyrie Irving Iso ball. George and Lowry consistently blew games open due to strong defense and ball movement.

His true shooting percentage was 42%, second lowest on the entire team behind Green. Of actual rotation players he had the worst TS% by a wide margin.

Players with 100+ minutes (the only players who played less than 100 minutes were Barnes, Green and DeRozan). This was through August 21.

Durant 74%
Cousins 67%
Jordan 65%
Irving 60%
George 56%
Anthony 52%
Thompson 48%
Butler 48%
Lowry 42%

He also had the worst offensive rating of any player not playing 100 minutes.

Dude, he probably shot less volume than just about anyone else playing major minutes, so his poor shooting wasn't really a big deal. His job wasn't to score on a team full of 11 other scorers. What matters was his actual impact while leading the team on defense and offense, which he did a very very good job at. Hell, the coaches even called him the team's best team player - a breath of fresh air within a collection of me first scorers.

Look at his impact off the bench with Paul George. Chalk some of it up to being matched up with weaker opposing reserves, but the US bench time and again came in and played like a team. You seemed to have watched the games ... no idea how you could not notice that the defense and ball movement improved dramatically. Lowry was perfect for that team.

I agree that Lowry was fine.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Thinking back on all the years of reading just how inefficient, mentally unstable, and disruptive Boogie Cousins supposedly is...

Seems the supposed coach killer surely did right by Team USA. 1st in offensive efficiency. 1st in net rating. 3rd in plus minus; but considering his minutes I'm sure he was 1st in Plus minus per minutes played.

I'm just going to pat myself on the back again, mainly because the board is pretty slow this time of year...and because I was right.