Originally Posted by
NYC Duke Fan
Instead of picking a Dream Team or Redeem Team or whatever to represent the US in men's basketball in the Olympics, what about having the team that wins the NBA title represent the US. If that team has a foreign player than another player could be substituted.
Think about it, the US did not blow out Spain with Pau Gasol, and the US having the best players in the world on their team, but the Celtics with Garnett, Pierce ,Allen and other players beat the Lakers with Gasol AND Kobe.
The team that wins the NBA title plays 82 games AS A TEAM.
I understand that it was only one game in the Olympics for a gold medal and it takes the best of 7 to win a title, but I think the proposal has merits.
Any comments
Well, to start, you singled out the Gold medal game to say we didn't blow out Spain with Gasol. In prelims, of course, the US did in fact blow out Spain with Gasol, by 37 (37?). Just like they blew out almost every other team they played. Make no mistake, the US put on a dominating performance in this Olympics. And comparing the Lakers v. Spain for the international game is not as much of a Laker edge as you might think. Sasha Vujacic, Vlad Radmanovic, Luke Walton, Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar, etc. are essentially a wash for Ricky Rubio, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro, Marc Gasol, Jose Calderon, etc.
Second, one of the values of having a team of 12 all-stars is that it's extremely unlikely that they'll all have an off game at the same time. If my starting PF is struggling, I'd rather go to Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, or Tayshaun Prince than go to Leon Powe, PJ Brown, or (god forbid) Brian Scalabrine. Given that this is a single elimination tournament, I want as much depth and support as I can to ward off injuries, bad shooting, etc.
Third, this team was "A TEAM" and has been for three summers. That's been the entire point of the refocused USA Basketball effort - get everyone together playing with each other as a team. And in case you missed it, they did that extremely well over the past two weeks. Were the defensive rotations perfect? No. Were there some miscommunications? Sure. But this was not 5 guys playing one-on-one. This group played very, very high level team basketball.
Fourth, there are substantial differences between NBA ball and International ball that affect team makeup and strategy. Some things that make NBA teams good may not translate, and vice versa.
Fifth, I will happily spot you the Celtics and take Team USA to win one game, best of three, five, seven, what have you. The Celtics would have a decent chance at winning gold. But they would not be a heavy favorite, and they would be extremely prone to that one bad night that is deathly in a single elimination competition.
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