US chooses 19 players for men 's basketball

[shadowgrin]

Looks like it's Tom Thibodeau and Monty Williams now.

Thibs being an assistant is obvious because of defense but Monty?

I guess this means that they plan to use the Unibrow as their key player same way Melo was (scoring-wise) in the 2012 Olympics with D'Antoni as assistant.

[Stress Fracture]

Went to a local Nike store and saw a USA Kyrie Irving jersey. Seems like he's a lock, he's #10 on the jersey I saw.

[shadowgrin]

It's no secret that he's lock for a roster spot considering both his talent and the coach of Team USA.

Looks like Rose is a guaranteed starter along with Harden and Durant since those guys are the 'vets' of the team who have been playing under Coach K for Team USA since 2010 and are undoubtedly familiar with the coach's system.

But Rose coming off the bench also makes sense because he can guide and lead the 2nd unit with his knowledge of the system.

[Stress Fracture]

Bradley Beal, John Wall, and Paul Millsap got cut from the pool.

The dropping of Wall got me surprised a little.

[[Q]]

The dropping of Wall got me surprised a little.

considering that there's 6 PGs that could legitimately make the team?

[shadowgrin]

So much for my guess of Wall being a lock lol

I'll just assume it's the coach K hate for Wall as the reason for the cut since he wasn't even supposed to be in the roster in the first place until Griffin backed out.

[Stress Fracture]

And Durant pulls out of the pool.

[shadowgrin]

So now that Durant chickened out...I'm going with this possible roster....

C Davis / Cousins
PF Faried / Plumlee
SF Thompson / Parsons / Korver
SG Harden / Curry
PG Rose / Irving / Lillard

[Stress Fracture]

That SG spot sure is a small one.

[shadowgrin]

Yeah it's not like players can't play different positions.

I expect Korver and Thompson to play between SF and SG; same with Rose, Curry, and Lillard in the guard spots; Parsons will plays some PF minutes, with Davis and Plumlee at C and PF as well.
Thunder Harden can play PG too but current Harden's lack of defense is a problem against fast players like PGs.

[_Steve_]

Championship secured: Rudy Gay was just added to the roster.

[shadowgrin]

Welp.

I guess Korver won't make the cut.

[Stress Fracture]

Parsons, Lillard, Hayward, and Korver got cut.

[Kevin]

[[Q]]

Bullshit that Lillard got cut. Somewhere shadowgrin is rejoicing. 5 big men is a bit of overkill, even against Gasoft and the Spanish team. Fuck that Coach K Duke bias. Those losers like Plumlee & Thompson won't make the real team in 2016 anyways.

[shadowgrin]

Parsons, Lillard, Hayward, and Korver got cut.

Suck it Q.


Final Team USA roster: (rotation based on my guess)

C Davis / Cousins / Drummond
PF Faried / Plumlee
SF Gay / DeRozan
SG Harden / Thompson
PG Rose/ Curry / Irving

Looks like coach K is worried about size of the opposition to take that many bigs.
I'd expect to see Curry play some SG while Harden and Gay shift to SF and PF when playing small ball.
I don't expect to see Plumlee and Faried be on the floor at the same time since they have similar role of providing 'hustle' in the paint.
Cousins over Drummond because Cousins provides a different playing style to the team, then again Drummond's playing style is similar to Davis minus the offense. Drummond will probably only be used when the team wants to run and Davis needs a rest.

[shadowgrin]

Not really but I do have a message for you in the other thread Q.


It's not just Spain. That many bigs are planned for the entire tournament based on the group they are in.
USA is in group C and Ukraine and Turkey have some size to compete.
In the next round they face a team from group D and most teams from there have size too except for Angola, Mexico, and South Korea iirc and two of those three will be eliminated after the group stage so group D has a lot of size.
In the quarterfinals and semis USA will also play against a team from either group C or D that advanced and those two groups have teams with enough size to last that long in the semis where the USA could meet them.

[[Q]]

I think Davis, Faried, & Drummond would have been enough. Davis & Drummond could dominate any other teams' big men blindfolded. Plus you can play Gay at the 4 and his speed & scoring ability trumps any disadvantages that he'll have

[NovU]

Must be a computer error. I'm seeing somebody named Andre Drummond.

[shadowgrin]

I think Davis, Faried, & Drummond would have been enough. Davis & Drummond could dominate any other teams' big men blindfolded. Plus you can play Gay at the 4 and his speed & scoring ability trumps any disadvantages that he'll have

lol Gay scoring ability, you make a funny Q, he's still no LeBron, Durant, or Melo playing the 4.

Team USA 2004 had Tim Duncan in his prime, a then good Carlos Boozer, Emeka Okafor that was still mobile, an explosive Amare Stoudemire, a near prime Shawn Marion, and a thinner and faster version of Lamar Odom and look what happened to them in the Olympics. They got pick and rolled to death by Leftos' big cousins who just stood there like a brick wall.

[Stress Fracture]

Wow, didn't know Emeka Okafor was an Olympic bronze medalist.