Team USA (CONFIRMED: Evans is in)

[rpa]

Come on now. I might agree with your point about practice, insofar as much of it will be spent getting him used to playing with the other guys. But at the same time I don't think this is going to interfere with him putting up a thousand jumpers a day, either practicing with the team or on his own. Isn't it at least slightly better that he should be shooting these jumpers while surrounded by the countries best players and coaches, rather than doing it in a gym by himself?

I don't think being around those guys matters right now. In a few years? Maybe.

As for the other part of your argument: there are only so many hours that Evans can spend playing/practicing. If X number of those hours are taken up by things that AREN'T helping him improve then, to me, it's a waste. So while he can do both, he's going to be spending less time working on his jumper than he would have had he not been on the team.

You expect me to believe that one summer of jump shooting in the gym is going to have made anyone on that list of potential Hall of Famers significantly better? Jordan? Lebron? Melo? Many of the guys on this list were rookies of the year, so the idea of them being better "sooner" is laughable, they were all fantastic from their first day on the court. And what's better than heading to the Hall of Fame anyway? Double plus good hall of Fame? Triple plus good Hall of Fame?

I don't see how "better sooner" is ridiculous to you. What's the biggest difference between Lebron now and Lebron then? Answer: outside shooting. His FG% has seen a healthy increase pretty much every year up to what he's shooting now (50% overall). Had he spent that summer after his rookie year taking nothing but jumpshots (instead of playing/practicing with team USA) maybe he's shooting 50% last year, or the year before, or even the year before that.

[wiltchamberlain]

Come on now. I might agree with your point about practice, insofar as much of it will be spent getting him used to playing with the other guys. But at the same time I don't think this is going to interfere with him putting up a thousand jumpers a day, either practicing with the team or on his own. Isn't it at least slightly better that he should be shooting these jumpers while surrounded by the countries best players and coaches, rather than doing it in a gym by himself?

I don't think being around those guys matters right now. In a few years? Maybe.

As for the other part of your argument: there are only so many hours that Evans can spend playing/practicing. If X number of those hours are taken up by things that AREN'T helping him improve then, to me, it's a waste. So while he can do both, he's going to be spending less time working on his jumper than he would have had he not been on the team.

You expect me to believe that one summer of jump shooting in the gym is going to have made anyone on that list of potential Hall of Famers significantly better? Jordan? Lebron? Melo? Many of the guys on this list were rookies of the year, so the idea of them being better "sooner" is laughable, they were all fantastic from their first day on the court. And what's better than heading to the Hall of Fame anyway? Double plus good hall of Fame? Triple plus good Hall of Fame?

I don't see how "better sooner" is ridiculous to you. What's the biggest difference between Lebron now and Lebron then? Answer: outside shooting. His FG% has seen a healthy increase pretty much every year up to what he's shooting now (50% overall). Had he spent that summer after his rookie year taking nothing but jumpshots (instead of playing/practicing with team USA) maybe he's shooting 50% last year, or the year before, or even the year before that.

So you're saying that it's realistically possible that not playing one summer in 2004 could have improved Lebron's game as much as the last three years has? That's absolutely insane. Or are you just saying that it's theoretically possible? By that logic can't I say that it's possible if he had not played in the Olympics that he could've stayed stateside, eaten some bad shellfish and died of food poisoning? What exactly is the point of you bringing up something that is by definition impossible to measure, namely what might or might not have happened?

I've given you facts, players names and ages. You've given me speculation on what might, maybe, could possibly have happened.

[RoyalCourtJestr]

Wades' midrange was pretty average when he came into the league, no reason Tyreke can't fix that.