First comes Group play.
Then comes Single Elimination Tournament.
Honestly, this will be a brief diary.
I will point out what I believe to be some of the keys to USA success (a gold medal) in this tournament.
More below the fold:
As all following know, the current iteration of Team USA for this 2010 FIBA competition has no players in common with the 2008 Team USA which won gold in the Olympics.
No LeBron. No Kobe. No Carmelo. No Chris Paul. No Dwight Howard. No Wade. No Chris Bosh. No Deron Williams.
Huge losses in talent. No question about it. Equally important, however, is the loss of time spent building chemistry and learning how to play well together.
A partial list from memory of players on the current team: Kevin Durant (imo now the best basketball player on the planet - cf he shut down Kobe but Kobe could not stop him), Tyson Chandler (our only seven footer), Rudy Gay (slasher), Danny Granger (versatile sf - shoots well, scores almost 25 a game, pretty efficiently), Lamar Odom (6'10" handles the ball as well as a guard, sf / pf he is very versatile), Andre Igoudala (6'7" sf, super athletic, can guard multiple positions), Russell Westbrook ( pg, super quick, consistent mid range game (I have seen it), great athlete, can get to the rim at well, great at ball pressure), Chauncey Billups (pg - tremendous shooter from deep, strong, good defender, great leader, 2004 Finals MVP, Mr. Big Shot), Kevin Love (pf 6'10 not a post up player, can rebound, get the outlet pass out), Derrick Rose (pg, 2nd best player on this team, consistent midrange/3 pt shooter, amazingly quick, can undress any guard in this tournament), Stefan Curry (pg, shooter), Eric Gordon (pg, strong, good shooter, can finish at the rim with contact).
Coaches: Coach K, Jay Triano (replaces D'Antoni who is out with a bad back) - he coached the Canadian national team, Jim Boehim (the great Syracuse coach - there because of the zone), Chris Collins (Doug Collins son), Nate McMillan .
Jerry Colangelo is still running this show.
There are major differences between FIBA play and NBA. These changes mean that the USA team is far from a lock to win it.
- 3 point line in FIBA is only 20'6 vs 23'9" in NBA
- Different ball (this is actually very significant).
- Trapezoid lane (only for this year then FIBA is getting rid of it) - wider paint. Less post up play results from this because of the 3 second rule
- Inconsistent refereeing. The quality of refs is much lower and you just have to know you won't get many calls you should. They allow more contact.
- Only 5 fouls before you foul out.
- 4 ten minute quarters (not 12 minute quarters)
- Single Elimination in the Tournament. Hence, the best team may not win. The European teams feel that they can't beat the USA team twice. So, they play possum in the exhibition games.
- College Zone defense is allowed. The European teams know that they cannot guard Team USA man to man. They must play zone or our guards would get to the rim and collapse their defense every time down the floor.
- Goal Tending is allowed once the ball is on the rim.
- The court is shorter.
Team USA is, imo, a slight favorite to win it all.
This iteration is very young : 1/2 of the team is 22 yrs old or younger.
Keys to winning:
- Team Chemistry - Limit turnovers. Because our players have not played together previously, they will make mistakes (anticipate incorrectly). They may not know where their teammate needs/wants the ball. The other teams have all played together. This is almost as important as talent.
- How will we handle their zone ? Will we settle for jump shots ? How will we do in the half court? Good teams with good guards won't turn the ball over quite as often. So, we won't get as many fast breaks from turnovers. They won't crash the offensive glass. They will foul rather than give up a fast break. We will need to be effective in beating their zones. Placing KD at the free throw line and letting him survey the defense and draw attention is important. Doing the same thing with Lamar Odom is a good idea.
- How will we shoot from distance ? The European teams are good at shooting their 3. We can't have a major point differential on the 3. The new basketball dramatically affects our shooting. This is evident in that our great free throw shooters are struggling at the free throw line. We have sufficiently good outside shooting if we were playing with the NBA ball. Shooters include: Billups, Stefan Curry, Rose, Durant, and Granger.
We need to all remember that exhibition game outcomes have not correlated with the actual tournament games.