Sue Bird and Carmelo Anthony talked about their experiences playing for team USA basketball in a recent episode of Melo’s podcast. Bird claimed that playing for team USA was the most uncomfortable basketball she’s ever played. Do you think the players’ on the men’s team feel the same way?
For the most part, yes. Besides the players with an immediately translatable game (superstar role players) its a CRAZY sacrifice going from 20 shots, unlimited touches, priority looks, etc to rotation minutes and spot looks. My favorite thing to watch in Olympic years is how good the stars are at dirty work. When you’re relied upon to create offense/anchor defense, the odd jobs (boxing out, diving on loose balls, fighting screens) that are crucial to wins aren’t expected of you.
This was actually part of what killed Canada against France yesterday. We didn’t have great bigs on our roster but our players weren’t making up for it by boxing out. You could tell a lot of these dudes are used to playing with actual bigs on their NBA teams and aren’t used to crashing the boards/boxing out, which is part of the reason we lost. Giving up some OREB’s make sense because obviously we’re the smaller team, but we gave up way too many because a lot of our players were just ball watching or running back to the other end.
That’s why I kinda wish they attempted to build the team more from a cohesion perspective. Like, sure - get your top 5-7 guys to be the best guys you can get. But then for the rest - just get elite role players.
Like go get Jarrett Allen, Herb Jones, Draymond maybe? KCP, Aaron Gordon. Plenty of phenomenal guys who don’t need a bunch of touches but do critical things that contribute to winning.
They should’ve got Draymond tbh, he was a part of the previous olympics team, and he has chemistry with KD and Steph
That all makes sense but at the same time how do these guys not understand how to just play ball and help your team win
That’s why KD is my GOAT. Need him to be the guy with the ball in his hands all game? Elite. Need him off ball while another ball dominant player has the ball in their hands? Elite. Need him off the bench to provide instant, efficient offense? Elite.
His defense is nice, too.
He’s not there in terms of accolades or reputation, but I agree that he has a strong argument for best in terms of pure play.
KD not there in reputation? Are you 3 years old?
I mean to be in the GOAT conversation. You can’t really compare KD to MJ in terms of reputation/aura.
Oh my b. I bought you meant in terms of elite level
Yeah, I can see how that would happen. I was just responding to that commenters first sentence.
If we’re talking Olympic Team USA GOAT there’s an argument to be made
I don’t think there’s an argument. I think he should be undisputed
This is why I didn’t understand the Jaylen Brown controversy at all. The last thing team USA needed is another guy that is used to taking 20+ shots a game and having the ball in their hands. Someone like White who is used to not getting a ton of shots or time on-ball is the perfect fit.
From a Celtics fan perspective, Jaylen never really played point forward until these past 2 years. Yeah he’d take it up sometimes, but between Kyrie, Kemba, Dennis Schoder?, Smart, White and Jrue he never needed to initiate the offense. He also just came off a season with elite defense and great rebounding for his position. White was the perfect fit, but the issue was more of a why wasn’t this dude included in the first place?
Who do you think should be cut for Jaylen? I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like if he got no minutes in a game like Jayson too.
Lebron
Great comment. It’s something most of us don’t realize watching the games.