Basketball - Day 7 Game Thread Aug. 12th

[Zombiesonics]

I've never met a group of posters jolly like this at a near "tie" lol.

Here are some things I'd like to see moving forward ; less cousins and more dj+green, more klay, and more kyrie high pnr. Cousins defense is reprehensible when paired with melo n Irving. Lowry might need more minutes too he's a pitbull

[mrcalzone]

I've never met a group of posters jolly like this at a near "tie" lol.

Here are some things I'd like to see moving forward ; less cousins and more dj+green, more klay, and more kyrie high pnr. Cousins defense is reprehensible when paired with melo n Irving. Lowry might need more minutes too he's a pitbull

more klay? he's been awful

[90sgoat]

To be honest, no team if not forced should choose Cousins or Green, two extremely ill behaved primadonnas who probably stink up the locker room with their bad mentality. I also doubt players like Butler, who is a ball dominant shooting guard, exactly what you don't want in FIBA. Lowry is also very overrated when he can't carry dribble. Deandre should not have been there either.

Here's who I would have added instead:

Hayward
Parsons
Paul Millsap
Mike Conley (Rajon Rondo)

4 smart players who are unselfish and can play fast passing oriented basketball.

I forgot to pick centers, but US is very weak there now. I'd take Drummond over both though. And maybe KAT even if young.

[Von Bismarck]

I've never met a group of posters jolly like this at a near "tie" lol.

Most of us Europeans cheered for Serbia which is logical. I ain't even Serbian but they showed that Americans are just human as well.

I expect US team will have a run for the gold.

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

Stats say we had 27 assists on all 27 makes, thats a lie

You get an assist if a guy you assited to hits at least one ft if he shoots and gets fauled after the pass

[Domejandro]

To be honest, no team if not forced should choose Cousins or Green, two extremely ill behaved primadonnas who probably stink up the locker room with their bad mentality. I also doubt players like Butler, who is a ball dominant shooting guard, exactly what you don't want in FIBA. Lowry is also very overrated when he can't carry dribble. Deandre should not have been there either.

Here's who I would have added instead:

Hayward
Parsons
Paul Millsap
Mike Conley (Rajon Rondo)

4 smart players who are unselfish and can play fast passing oriented basketball.

As you suggest roster of...

Mike Conley / Damian Lillard
Khris Middleton / Klay Thompson / C.J. McCollum
Carmelo Anthony / Paul George / Gordon Hayward /
Paul Millsap / Paul George / Chandler Parsons
Jahlil Okafor / DeMarcus Cousins

... Would have terrorized the Olympics. It would have been the perceived "slaughter" everyone seems to expect.

People will likely be confused by my suggested Center rotation, but Jahlil is the ideal center for this style of basketball. This also assumes Towns is not available (he would shift Jahlil to bench and DeMarcus out).

[dalton749]

Lowry should be closin games over Kyrie. He's a better defender, leader, and actual point guard who will use the superstars around him.

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

https://vine.co/v/5hBTYhigz3u

[bb22]

I've never met a group of posters jolly like this at a near "tie" lol.

Here are some things I'd like to see moving forward ; less cousins and more dj+green, more klay, and more kyrie high pnr. Cousins defense is reprehensible when paired with melo n Irving. Lowry might need more minutes too he's a pitbull

A defensive orientated team with Melo, KD, Boogie and Kyrie in the starting lineup is ludicrous. Like many of us have been saying, they need to cut up these lineups and make them more versatile. KD+Melo+Kyrie shouldn't be on the floor together unless it's the last possession and they need a bucket.

[SashAlex]

If not for the FTs in the second half, USA would've lost this game. Serbia played so much better and earned their points in the active game while USA went at the charity stripe a lot more. There were also a couple of fouls called in the USA favour. All in all, a very entertaining game and the USA shown that if they continue to play with no cohesiveness, they will get beaten in an elimination game.

Still, FIBA refs are blind at travels too sometimes.

[Winsome Gerbil]

I've never met a group of posters jolly like this at a near "tie" lol.

Here are some things I'd like to see moving forward ; less cousins and more dj+green, more klay, and more kyrie high pnr. Cousins defense is reprehensible when paired with melo n Irving. Lowry might need more minutes too he's a pitbull

You do realize Draymond and Klay have been maybe the two worst players on the roster thus far, right?

The high pick and roll would be a swell idea, except I'm not sure Kyrie knows how to pass out of it.

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

If not for the FTs in the second half, USA would've lost this game. Serbia played so much better and earned their points in the active game while USA went at the charity stripe a lot more. There were also a couple of fouls called in the USA favour. All in all, a very entertaining game and the USA shown that if they continue to play with no cohesiveness, they will get beaten in an elimination game.

Still, FIBA refs are blind at travels too sometimes.

Yeah, Bogdanovic for example had like 10 step travel near the end, Irving had one double dribble too

[Zombiesonics]

I've never met a group of posters jolly like this at a near "tie" lol.

Here are some things I'd like to see moving forward ; less cousins and more dj+green, more klay, and more kyrie high pnr. Cousins defense is reprehensible when paired with melo n Irving. Lowry might need more minutes too he's a pitbull

You do realize Draymond and Klay have been maybe the two worst players on the roster thus far, right?

The high pick and roll would be a swell idea, except I'm not sure Kyrie knows how to pass out of it.

draymond is very good defensively, i've watched every game ( hard hedge and recover is excellent). and klay, theres this thing called court gravity. Unline you, i tend to eschew small sample size of these past few games and look towards his entire nba season as well as his whole fiba run. he needs minutes because he is a two way player with catch n shoot ability. Minutes shouldn't be allocated based on a few games performances, how logical is that?

kyrie can't pass out of a pick n roll? or kyrie is just unstoppable in a pick n roll so its best for him to just try to finish the play most the time? he can clearly pass out of a pnr, his issues lie on defense. he isn't good, and niether is cousins. you can't start both. facts

[Sedale Threatt]

To be honest, no team if not forced should choose Cousins or Green, two extremely ill behaved primadonnas who probably stink up the locker room with their bad mentality. I also doubt players like Butler, who is a ball dominant shooting guard, exactly what you don't want in FIBA. Lowry is also very overrated when he can't carry dribble. Deandre should not have been there either.

Here's who I would have added instead:

Hayward
Parsons
Paul Millsap
Mike Conley (Rajon Rondo)

4 smart players who are unselfish and can play fast passing oriented basketball.

As you suggest roster of...

Mike Conley / Damian Lillard
Khris Middleton / Klay Thompson / C.J. McCollum
Carmelo Anthony / Paul George / Gordon Hayward /
Paul Millsap / Paul George / Chandler Parsons
Jahlil Okafor / DeMarcus Cousins

... Would have terrorized the Olympics. It would have been the perceived "slaughter" everyone seems to expect.

People will likely be confused by my suggested Center rotation, but Jahlil is the ideal center for this style of basketball. This also assumes Towns is not available (he would shift Jahlil to bench and DeMarcus out).

Okafor is basically the embodiment of everything you guys are complaining about. He's the quintessential iso scorer who doesn't really do anything else to help his team.

While I like some of the individuals, especially Millsap and possibly Middleton, I don't really see anything special about this lineup. Conley's always been kind of "meh" to me. Good player, but it's not like he's an elite shooter/facilitator. Lillard is almost as shoot-first as Irving, with an emphasis on 3s over drives. McCollum's OK. Same with Parsons and Hayward. I honestly don't see them making a huge difference in a setting like this. And I wouldn't let Rondo (mentioned by the poster you cite) practice against Team USA, let alone play for them.

I guess it's easy to second-guess after a couple of mediocre games, and it will be fair game if they don't win the gold. I wouldn't have picked Lowry, Butler and especially DeRozan, who is like the anti-FIBA player. (I would take Millsap over him in a heartbeat.) But there's realistically no way in hell you're going to not take players like Durant, our leading scorer in 2010 and 2012, and Irving, who just had an all-time playoff run. Green, either, probably.

It's a pointless discussion given it's all hypothetical, but there's nothing about that roster that I see dominating anyone.

[Hindenburg]

Durant almost became a Serbian at the end of the game

[Winsome Gerbil]

I've never met a group of posters jolly like this at a near "tie" lol.

Here are some things I'd like to see moving forward ; less cousins and more dj+green, more klay, and more kyrie high pnr. Cousins defense is reprehensible when paired with melo n Irving. Lowry might need more minutes too he's a pitbull

You do realize Draymond and Klay have been maybe the two worst players on the roster thus far, right?

The high pick and roll would be a swell idea, except I'm not sure Kyrie knows how to pass out of it.

draymond is very good defensively, i've watched every game ( hard hedge and recover is excellent). and klay, theres this thing called court gravity. Unline you, i tend to eschew small sample size of these past few games and look towards his entire nba season as well as his whole fiba run. he needs minutes because he is a two way player with catch n shoot ability. Minutes shouldn't be allocated based on a few games performances, how logical is that?

kyrie can't pass out of a pick n roll? or kyrie is just unstoppable in a pick n roll so its best for him to just try to finish the play most the time? he can clearly pass out of a pnr, his issues lie on defense. he isn't good, and neither is cousins. you can't start both. facts

Draymond's hard hedge and recover may be excellent. His I get shot and rebounded over because I'm 3 feet tall isn't so excellent. So far in the tournament:

Cousins 13.8min +45
Jordan 16.8min +36
Green 12.3min +30

and 27 of those +30 were playing mop up in the China blowout. Tonight he was a -4 while both Cousins (+3) and Jordan (+6) were still positives. In fact given that I don't think Cousins and Jordan played any minutes together, combined they were a +9 in 34.5min. The game went down to the wire because we were a -6 in the other 5.5min playing without a big.

[marcush]

Great effort by Serbia, their centers put on a clinic. Tedosic passing was great.

Team USA doesn't look impressive. Not sure these guys are really gelling together too well, like they either haven't accepted their roles or haven't even been assigned.

[juju14]

Klay and green probably tired from playing none stop ball. Klay was doing great in 14 Olympics.

[juju14]

The only reason these gms are close is the usa ylteam hasn't gelled especially with one real playmaker in Green. They are winning on pure talent and power. Klay shot is also off probably from fatigue which makes this team a horrible 3pt team. This team has alot of ball dominate players who can't make the right play. This is the reason 08 had jason kidd and 12 had paul. They needed sumeone to actually run a offense. Running a offense is also important. Its the reason Timberwolves offense drops off cliff when rubio is out.

[Bateman]

These guys simply aren't taking it seriously. There is very little leadership and zero killer instinct.

Poorly constructed "team". Individually, yeah these guys are great. But basketball is a team sport. It's far, far deeper of a game and international clubs, with far less talent, understand this. For some reason this group hasn't figured that out yet.

With no Paul, LeBron, Kobe, etc true leaders, we struggle. Although talented, those guys understood how to get the best out of their teammates. No one on this roster can replicate that.

I wish we would've been beat. These guys need a wake up call.


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