USA Men's Basketball Team 2021 Olympics [Tokyo]

I think it's a combination of a lot of things:

- Not enough time together
- Disinterest
- Looking down at your opponent
- Too many ball dominate players
- Not enough defenders, including a rim protector


Kevin Love seems like a wasted roster spot.

Also,

 

They finally win a game and then it all falls apart.

- Beal off the team due to covid
-Grant in quarantine because of covid
- Love done because of injury
- down to 6 players until finals are over and the replacements come in
- had to cancel the game vs Australia


Happy for McGee, but DAMN that's some random replacements. Did they pull them out of a hat? What about Trae?

 

Trae, Jaylen Brown, Zion, Butler, Tobias, John Collins, Rozier, Jarrett Allen, Wood, Brogdon, Turner, PG, Morant, Towns, Randle, McCollum, Covington, Fox, DeRozan, Westbrook.

Did they all renounce?

 

The “Dream” is over?

 

Ja and Wood would have been better choices to replace Beal and Love tbh.

 

the germans have bombed pearl harbor.

 

man, nba teams murder mcgee in the pick and roll...some of these other countries ran much better bigs into the ground on simple pick and roll action in the past.

mcgee is a super weird choice for international competition, imo. too slow on the perimeter, too weak to deal with brute post players.

 

I think they just wanted a big body to put out there. He can still decently protect the rim.

 

i suppose. i think people have a strange way of valuing mcgee, tbh. he had his best years (and those really weren't even that good) playing pretty carefully chosen roles on teams with a lot of talent elsewhere. and i guess the olympic team is thinking that this is the same kind of situation, but i don't think it is, simply because the international game isn't the nba. you can't have a zero on offense in international competition, imo. in the nba, teams can get away with it (one player at a time, and for short minutes).

the current olympic squad, with beal out, looks pretty weak to me. now, the foreign teams are sort of out of some of their respective golden ages, but i still think the game is different there, and you need a huge talent advantage to overcome other countries' continuity advantages/familiarity with the style of play.

 

I highly doubt the ones currently in the Finals will join the team .

They shouldn't for their health's sake.

Same for Giannis

 

I can talk myself into rostering McGee... not over 10 other bigs who can do that but at a higher level. But I can get there. He has championship experience. He's one of the best teammates and bench cheerleaders in the entire league. He's a decent lob and put back threat. And maybe they're hoping he'll give them someone who can block and maximize the international non-goaltending rules.

Just going off the list above, I think Collins and Allen say no because of free agency. I think Zion is a worse fit than McGee. Towns? Had a rough year and probably needs to get away from basketball. Randle? Should have gotten the spot initially over Love. Wood would've worked, too. Couple other guys off the top of my head...Lopez or Turner would've been good options.

But the Keldon Johnson pick? Absolutely not. There's 60 more deserving perimeter guys. I don't care who was busy or who didn't want to come in this late in the process. If no one else wanted in, Trae did (he posted the Isiah meme). End of search. Team USA should be the best we have to offer, not someone I've never heard of. I will be the first to admit, I don't know the league like I did 10-15 years ago. I can't rattle off 10 deep on every team any longer, BUT there's never been someone on Team USA that i couldn't pick out of a lineup. Pop just wants to use this time to have his kid go against the real roster in practice to expedite his development. That shouldn't be what this platform is used for. That's bull s***.

 

Not only can Dame not get help on the a Blazers. But the look on his face here, doesn't look like he thinks Team USA is exactly surrounding him by talent.

Just a poorly timed photo. Everyone loves JaVale. Funny nonetheless.

 

Rough final 4 minutes for us. Without Holiday, we come up empty in the 4th (props to him for coming off the plane to nearly winning this one for us) . Awful execution when we were down 2 and forced 3 straight 3s. Clank. Clank. Clank.

We've got a rough road ahead of us.

 

3 Horsemen of the apopsicles kicking our a** this year …. no gold for the US. Covid, late finish to NBA season and players more concerned with free agency this off season. Maybe Coach K was better than grumpy old Pop for this too?

 

Well at least we're playing Iran and Czech Republic for the remainder of pool play. Those should be easy wins and will guarantee us to be in medal round.