Starting Lineup for TeamUSA in Rio?

[Mr. E]

http://www.fiba.com/olympics/2016/news/china-call-on-numerous-veterans-for-rio-campaign

The US National Team will play a pair of friendlies against China on July 24th in Los Angeles and July 26th in Oakland.

[SF_Warriors]

I can be talked into george replacing klay during clutch time, i wish they put another true pg or combo guard on the team instead of DDR. i dont even know if lowry and kyrie are top five nba point guards ( playoff kyrie is sure, but who knows if he has enough gas). thats the teams achilles hill, they are loaded up front.

They should be alright. Kyrie and lowry are both all star PGs
They dont necessarily need to be top five to dominate international play, especially when there are 10 total all stars from this past season on the team, and one DPOY. I am also pretty sure they both are better than any other PG that will be playing in Rio.

But I agree 100% a third string PG would have been a better choice

[Zombiesonics]

I can be talked into george replacing klay during clutch time, i wish they put another true pg or combo guard on the team instead of DDR. i dont even know if lowry and kyrie are top five nba point guards ( playoff kyrie is sure, but who knows if he has enough gas). thats the teams achilles hill, they are loaded up front.

They should be alright. Kyrie and lowry are both all star PGs
They dont necessarily need to be top five to dominate international play, especially when there are 10 total all stars from this past season on the team, and one DPOY.

But I agree 100% a third string PG would have been a better choice

i'm not too worried i mean they are good basketball players, but lets just examine the guard play from 2008 and 2012:

2008: PRIME CP3/Deron Williams/older kidd
2012: PRIME CP3/Westbrook/ and an older Williams but still very good (under 30).

Those two sets of players blow our current pg play OUT THE WATER. i'm sure most would agree.

[Rapcity_11]

What makes Irving a better guy to start over Lowry?

[Zombiesonics]

What makes Irving a better guy to start over Lowry?

he absolutely thrashed intl comp in the fiba world cup in 2014, was named mvp, and he is also coming off a stellar playoff run. Lowry has zero intl experience. The fact that we are discussing whether lowry or kyrie should start is alarming; we should be talking about westbrook and curry. Last time we went to the olympics without the first or second best pg in the nba we took the L.

[Rapcity_11]

What makes Irving a better guy to start over Lowry?

he absolutely thrashed intl comp in the fiba world cup in 2014, was named mvp, and he is also coming off a stellar playoff run. Lowry has zero intl experience. The fact that we are discussing whether lowry or kyrie should start is alarming; we should be talking about westbrook and curry. Last time we went to the olympics without the first or second best pg in the nba we took the L.

Yeah, I guess that's fair. You're underselling Lowry though. He's a top 15 NBA player who's an outstanding fit at PG next to ball dominant wings. Tough to find a guy with his combination of shooting and defense.

[SF_Warriors]

I can be talked into george replacing klay during clutch time, i wish they put another true pg or combo guard on the team instead of DDR. i dont even know if lowry and kyrie are top five nba point guards ( playoff kyrie is sure, but who knows if he has enough gas). thats the teams achilles hill, they are loaded up front.

They should be alright. Kyrie and lowry are both all star PGs
They dont necessarily need to be top five to dominate international play, especially when there are 10 total all stars from this past season on the team, and one DPOY.

But I agree 100% a third string PG would have been a better choice

i'm not too worried i mean they are good basketball players, but lets just examine the guard play from 2008 and 2012:

2008: PRIME CP3/Deron Williams/older kidd
2012: PRIME CP3/Westbrook/ and an older Williams but still very good (under 30).

Those two sets of players blow our current pg play OUT THE WATER. i'm sure most would agree.

Yes, team usas PG combo is most definitely not the cream of the crop as far as NBA PGs go
but when you say achilles heel, it means glaring weakness. I do not see how two all stars as the PG rotation is a weakness by any means. I mean, one guy was a main piece of a championship team, and the other the best player for a 55 win team. Both are great shooters I do not see fit as an issue as well.

[SF_Warriors]

What makes Irving a better guy to start over Lowry?

Irving was on the FIBA world cup team, proven to be very effective at the international level winning mvp for that tourney.
He also has been with team usa for a longer period of time, herego more seniority.

[Mumbles]

I don't think it's underselling Lowry to say that Kyrie was always a lock to be starting lead guard..especially coming off his past two seasons as already mentioned. Only Curry & possibly Westbrook would have challenged Kyrie for the starting spot and I suspect Coach K might have simply moved one of those guys to the 2 to start with Irving. You can go all the way back to the 2012 USA Basketball training camp where Kyrie was making Hall of Famers look silly that team USA slated him as the future of USA Basketball at point guard...the FIBA World Championship in Spain only cemented that notion. And to think that in Summer 2014 some people (mainly Lillard fans) were arguing that Irving should have been cut in favor of Dame.

[SF_Warriors]

What makes Irving a better guy to start over Lowry?

he absolutely thrashed intl comp in the fiba world cup in 2014, was named mvp, and he is also coming off a stellar playoff run. Lowry has zero intl experience. The fact that we are discussing whether lowry or kyrie should start is alarming; we should be talking about westbrook and curry. Last time we went to the olympics without the first or second best pg in the nba we took the L.

The 2004 team had more issues than just at PG:
1) First regarding PG, they didnt even send two..they sent stephon marbury and the backup PG was basically iverson,who was already starting at SG.

2) That team had 4 players total who had been nba all stars up to that point...they had a bunch of future all stars, but lebron, wade, melo had just finished their rookie seasons, and amare/boozer were not all stars yet.
The 2016 team will have 10 all stars and one DPOY on the roster, more than double the amount of all stars the 2004 team had.

3) The 2004 team had no shooters.. Their best shooter was probably marbury followed by AI..2016 will have klay, KD, PG, Irving, Lowry all of whom are formidable shooters

[trevm37]

Irving
PG
Durant
Melo
Green

[SF_Warriors]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTV5Lfy5sAo[/youtube]

usa select team scrimmaging against the bench unit? Starts at 2:22

lowry
derozan
PG
green
DJ

And later they look to be experimenting with a lineup where draymond is the pg. He must be the third string pg throws a sweet lob to DJ tho

[John Murdoch]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTV5Lfy5sAo[/youtube]

usa select team scrimmaging against the bench unit? Starts at 2:22

lowry
derozan
PG
green
DJ

And later they look to be experimenting with a lineup where draymond is the pg. He must be the third string pg throws a sweet lob to DJ tho

Jabari looks in the best shape ive seen him ...also good to see monty williams back out there helping these guys

[John Murdoch]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsIo8c8S1mg[/youtube]

[UcanUwill]

Isn't it alarming that coaching staff decided on final 12 before even playing a friendly? In fact, they decided on roster before training camp... Oh, and, what are their preparation plans anyway, so they are playing China twice, thats petty weak, what else? Other teams played a bunch of games by now.

[anish23]

Kyrie
Klay
KD
Melo
Cousins

What a filthy lineup jesus. I hope cousins gets the nod over DJ because he is just so much better offensively and defensively adequate enough to be a stalwart.

THIS.

[Mumbles]

I said it in the youtube comment section, but the pipeline of basketball talent in this country is insane. I firmly believe that if even the Select Team could train for 2 months, play a few serious scrimmages/friendly competitions they would be a threat to medal if not win Gold. Yeah, they would have to overcome the experience factor of teams like Spain, Serbia..but there comes a time when talent and depth just takes over and Team USA program of continuity has an abundance of it.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esmOkFxTm1M[/youtube]

[INKtastic]

anyone watch the practice today on NBA TV? It's being replayed at 9:30.

[Little Digger]

After the USA shooting drills that closed out practice were over Tuesday — drills where Klay Thompson outshined the other guys in his group — Thompson stayed on the court. He wasn’t leaving until he hit 10 left corner catch-and-shoot threes in a row. He got frustrated with himself when he missed, but he kept working at it. His form refined, he eventually hit the number.

It is that work ethic that has Thompson looking like the starting two-guard for Team USA — and getting the praise of coach Mike Krzyzewski.

“Klay is one of the great, complete players on this planet,” Coach K said. “He’s more than a shooter, he’s an outstanding offensive player who loves to play defense — and never really seems to get tired. He has a great motor.”

“Wow, that means a lot,” Thompson said with some genuine surprise. “Coach K’s words, he’s seen so much basketball it means a lot. He’s a joy to play for, especially how prideful he is to be the coach of the USA — he doesn’t have to do this, but he wants to. That pride of will trickles down to everybody else on this team.”

http://nba.nbcsports.com/2016/07/20/coach-k-klay-thompson-is-one-of-the-great-complete-players-on-this-planet/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs&yptr=yahoo

[76thBearCub]

Doesn't really matter who starts. Coach K could take 2-3 of these guys and use NBA bench players and take home gold.