2014 FIBA World Cup Champions!

[superdave]

Underperformed:
-Derrick Rose: no one thought there was going to be this much rust, including CDu. Rose played well on certain plays, but he just didn't justify starter or even 6th man minutes. He isn't a good shooter, and that really limited his performance.

I was glad to see Rose make the team, play significant minutes and begin to shake the rust off. He was league MVP a few years ago and is potentially the best player on the best or second best team in the East for the next few years. The league needs Rose to get back to form. I feel like he and Kyrie could have a fun rivalry and some playoff showdowns going forward.

Hopefully this summer experience showed Rose what he needs to do to get back to that level.

[Billy Dat]

It's easier to have a point of reference for who did well and who didn't, so I'm playing "who exceeded / underperformed against expectations?" game

Exceeded Expectations:
-Kenneth Faried: this one isn't even close. Faried was supposed to be the high energy guy who helped gel the team together. No one expected him to be a top scorer. If Faried can learn lock-down D, he'll be an amazing second banana in the league.
-Kyrie Irving: Tourney MVP, starting PG (and it wasn't even close between Kyrie and Rose), 26 points in the final... LBJ just got a little more optimistic
-Rudy Gay: Gay came in as the replacement for George and Durant. No one expected Gay to really do much. And, while his stats didn't pop, I feel that Gay did an amazing job as a spread 4 who played really good D.
-Boogie Cousins: the big man rebounded, defended, and kept his cool for every play except one. He and Kyrie also destroyed Serbia in the first half.

On Par with Expectations:
-James Harden: the best offensive player on the team didn't disappoint. Too bad his defense did, though
-Anthony Davis: played very well. I was going to place him in the "underperformed expectations" list because expectations for him were so insane, but he played amazing. His O, D, and rebounding were near the top for Team 'Merica.
-Klay Thompson: he did two things very well - shoot the 3 and defend. Easy to see why Thompson is one of Coach K's favorite players

Underperformed:
-Derrick Rose: no one thought there was going to be this much rust, including CDu. Rose played well on certain plays, but he just didn't justify starter or even 6th man minutes. He isn't a good shooter, and that really limited his performance.
-Stephen Curry: Curry loved to foul, probably because his D isn't good to begin with (but at least he's trying! Unlike Harden). His shot was highly variable from game to game. Curry never really seemed to put it together.

I didn't rate Plumdog Millionaire, Drummond, or DeRozan because they just didn't play enough.

I agree with all of this save for Klay Thompson who I think should be in the exceeded expectations category. I think his excellent 2 way play and leadership on the second unit was vital. I have read several writers saying that he was a huge coach favorite (all the coaches).

I also changed my opinion on the quick shots taken by Curry and Thompson and others. I was a big critic, but then I read a lot of Team USA coverage from basketball minds that I respect, like David Thorpe for instance, who said that while those quick shots seem like bad ones, they are vital to creating the quick pace that Team USA wanted. That pace, even if it didn't pay off early in the form of those shots falling, wore those other teams down which showed in the second half beatdowns that we were handing out.

[CDu]

I was glad to see Rose make the team, play significant minutes and begin to shake the rust off. He was league MVP a few years ago and is potentially the best player on the best or second best team in the East for the next few years. The league needs Rose to get back to form. I feel like he and Kyrie could have a fun rivalry and some playoff showdowns going forward.

Hopefully this summer experience showed Rose what he needs to do to get back to that level.

I agree. Rose didn't play great. He was clearly rusty (especially on finishes around the rim). But he played and was clearly physically fine. He showed the old explosive athletcism. I think it is a matter of timing now.

Would I have liked for Rose to immediately be his old elite self? Absolutely. But that would be an unrealistic hope. The important thing was showing he was healthy, showing he hasn't lost the athleticism, and getting game reps. He certainly accomplished all three of those.

So while his results weren't great, I actually think his yournament was a huge success. He can build off this as he gradually gets the timing back. This gives him a headstart on the season ahead. All he needs to do is stay healthy and get the timing back by next Spring. Step 1 in that process was, in my opinion, a success.

[awhom111]

A 30 minute special will premiere on NBATV tomorrow night at 8:00pm EDT and will be repeated endlessly I am sure. Either it will be an informative documentary or another unfair recruiting advantage.

[BobbyFan]

As a follow-up to Wojnarowski's hatchet job on K, here's a piece by Kevin Draper on Woj himself: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1...ets-his-scoops It's hardly surprising, but a very interesting read nonetheless. Some excerpts:

If you look closely at his columns and talk to people in the NBA, you discover that he mixes his reporting and opinion writing in improper ways, rewarding sources with flattery and punishing the uncooperative with nastiness. In fact, it often appears as though Adrian Wojnarowski lets his sourcing dictate not just the topic but also the tone of his writing. In private, NBA reporters complain endlessly about Wojnarowski’s methods. Some of it is undoubtedly professional jealousy, but his body of work shows they also have a point.

If you pay attention, you can draw the lines between Wojnarowski's stories and tweets to figure out how he reports. On July 2 at 10:31 p.m., Wojnarowski posted a piece about Los Angeles Clipper Jamal Crawford’s desire for a contract extension. It contains quotes from Crawford’s agent Andy Miller, blatantly attempting to negotiate for a new contract through the media. Less than 30 minutes later, Wojnarowski broke the news that Kyle Lowry—another Miller client—was going to re-sign with the Toronto Raptors. He even had time to get a quote from Lowry about re-signing, which almost never happens in the hyper-competitive breaking news world, where two minutes means the difference between first and irrelevant. Nine days later, after another Miller client signed a new contract, Wojnarowski tweeted “Great success story, great contract for agent Andy Miller.”

With Detroit sliding down the standings, Wojnarowski broke nearly every significant—and insignificant—Pistons story for a half-decade: the Allen Iverson trade, the Amir Johnson trade, drafting Austin Daye, signing Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, hiring John Kuester, trading Aaron Afflalo, signing Chris Wilcox, signing Ben Wallace, drafting Greg Monroe, signing Tracy McGrady, Rip Hamilton arguing with John Kuester, drafting Brandon Knight, hiring Lawrence Frank, re-signing Tayshuan Prince, re-signing Rodney Stuckey, trading Ben Gordon, signing Josh Smith, signing Chauncey Billups, signing Brandon Jennings, signing Josh Harrellson, and firing Mo Cheeks. While Wojnarowski was busy breaking news about the team, he wasn’t busy analyzing it: Between 2008 and 2012, Wojnarowski didn’t write a negative piece about Dumars or the Pistons, despite the fact that they had transformed from a perennial contender to an also-ran. Instead, Wojnarowski penned several sympathetic profiles of Dumars, including ones that covered his completion of his college degree and another wholly about his defensive skills as a player in the 1980s.