USA Baskeball National Team July 22-25th on NBATV

[keynote]

Watched the entire game. Overall, I thought Wall looked pretty good. He threw a few nifty passes, played solid D (including a few splashy defensive plays), and even hit a corner 3. He had a nice two-handed tip dunk, and one of his patented one-man fast break layups.

OTOH, when he looked to score at the end of the first half, he forced (and airballed) a mid-range jumper *and* a floater. When moved off the ball, he just planted himself in the corner and watched the action. And, in the second half, with the game relatively out of reach, he started to look a little disinterested on defense (especially off the ball).

If Colangelo and K are looking for a role-playing PG who can play D, run the offense, and distribute to Durant & Co. on the wing, then I think Wall would actually be a good fit. He doesn't need to dominate the ball, he'll play solid D on the opposing team's ball handlers, he'll rebound fairly well for his size, and he can hit an open catch-and-shoot J fairly well (his off-the-bounce J still needs work). But, if Colangelo and K want a PG with more of a scorer's mentality, then Irving, Lillard, Jrue, etc. are better fits. Irving in particular is probably the best pure scorer of that generation, and I could see him being one of the primary scoring options on the 2016 squad.

[FreeBalling]

Wall really doesn't look good, the ball sticks too much & his shot definitely doesn't look any better. He's still athletic & lightening fast with good court vision. I like most of his decisions unless he's trying to score himself.

Nice observation of our 80 million dollar man. However, I agree with you assessment.

[hands11]

Wall actually did make several nice plays.

He feed Barnes for a dunk be missed.

Make a nice drive but the ball clips the corner of the rim as he came from the other side. To make up for it, he immediately stole the ball on the inbound.

Feed Klay for a nice shot but Klay missed.

Had a nice block. Played Conely really well on D.

I have no idea why Kembra Walker was on the team and even less idea why he was on the court with Wall.

Wall with Klay or Haywood at SG would have worked better.

[FAH1223]

[jivelikenice]

Wall played better after he got rid of the jitters and was solid for the most part. I don't understand the logic in starting and playing Dion Waiters so much. Thibs should have let Wall start next to Waiters and let him guard Kyrie. I was especially glad to see him his that corner three with such ease. It looked like it was just another shot to him. I think Wall is in the mix IF he has a big season. The National team separates itself based on defense by suffocating international pgs and who out of this young group could do that aside from John?

[W. Unseld]

Whether you think Wall will be great next year or don't that game was not a "hey, look how well Wall did!!" game.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

How the hell didn't Wall start? Lillard and Waiters were a combined 6-24 (2-8 from three) while they're starting counterparts Irving and Holiday shot 12-21 and scored 35 points (while only scoring 14 themselves). Wall is not the type of player to play well coming off the bench and still played pretty well, stop with the hate some of you.

[Dark Faze]

The rotations were garbage. Made no sense not to start Wall.

[Dat2U]

Waiters has no business being there. He's got the talent but the decision making is ghastly and his effort is consistently inconsistent.

Lillard has become overrated in a very short period of time. I don't believe he's among the best 10 PGs in the league yet. He's more like Kyrie Irving lite IMO. A good scorer, so-so decision maker and a porous defender. Guys like Jeff Teague, Kyle Lowry & Jose Calderon are better players and do a much better job of running an offense.

[hands11]

The rotations were garbage. Made no sense not to start Wall.

Tibbs kind of blow it and the score showed.

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2013/07/2 ... breakdown/

Here were the rosters.

BLUE TEAM

John Wall, Damian Lillard, Kemba Walker
Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan, Dion Waiters
Harrison Barnes, Gordon Hayward
Anthony Davis, Derrick Favors
DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe

WHITE TEAM

Kyrie Irving, Mike Conley, Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson
SG ?
Paul George, Ryan Anderson, Chandler Parsons, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Kenneth Faried
DeAndre Jordan, Andre Drummond, Tyler Zeller

Why was Kembra Walker even on the team let alone on the floor. Wall and Lillard would have been more then enough at PG. Wall should have been on Kyrie. Maybe they didn't want that because it might become to heated. Between the teams, they have way to maybe PG. 7 PG ?

The team were split up in a kind of odd way. White had more established talented players. But Blue had enough to get it done.

Should have started gone

Wall, Klay, Haywood, Davis, Monroe
vs
Kyrie, Parsons, George, Faried, Jordan

Wall with shooters and Monroe under the boards could have got it going.

[truwizfan4evr]

John Wall will make the all star team so everyone relax!

[hands11]

Anyone got a link to the box scores for this. I haven't been able to find them anywhere.

http://www.usab.com/mens/national/13_mn ... e_box.html

This link doesn't seem to work.