The best lineup is going to be AD, Lebron, Curry, White, and Holiday but I don't think Kerr would have the balls to do this. Edwards reads on offense and defense are way off, Embiid is a disaster, Tatum seems to disappear, Booker is hit and cold
Was hoping Lebron and AD would have less of a load with all the talent on tbe team but they really are the best two out there. KD coming back might help but everyone else really looks lost out there
Bron is simply unreal. Putting the team on his back and singlehandedly beating a really good German squad in the final 4 minutes. Poor Dennis. That's abuse. This run is going to be a really nice bow on his legacy. Can his superstar teammates show up though... just a little? Seems he can't go to any team without having to drag his teammates along too, even if they're the best the world has to offer. We don't need him doing this every game unless we're trying to get him used to the heavy lifting he's going to have to do back in LA. At least one blowout would be nice. AD has shown up too but has to wait for Embiid to get his token minutes before he gets to do his thing
It makes no sense that Bron is in the best shape after an entire NBA season, played with that amount of games. He ain't human.
KD has always fared well in international play, I think he's going to help that starting unit quite a bit. I think the best lineup will end up being Curry/Holiday/LeBron/KD/AD. I do think Brown could have excelled in that Holiday role too, I think he's more comfortable blending in with other good players than Ant is right now.
https://x.com/esidery/status/1815729915540419063 Looks Durant isn't going to help a lot and he injured more serious than they telling .He was supposed to play like 2 weeks ago
No .... other teams and training staffs just have the same problems every year as the Lakers .... likely. Whims of the injury gods.
yeah like others i'm worried that LeBron/AD are going to play a little TOO much in the olympics and then be "worn down" to start the season. They both played almost 82 games last year so yeah this is concerning...I thought they wouldn't play that much given the talent on the team. This also shows me that either Ham was a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE coach or that Jeanie/Rob have truly wasted two top 10 players primes the last couple of years. Either way, Im annoyed
Team USA is "struggling" because players don't have a specific role on the team and almost every perimeter player wants to dominate the ball and probably can't do anything else at a high level This is why AD has been great , he's focusing on defense and rebounding without worrying about his touches on offense . He's showing he's one of the very few very good to great 2 ways player in this league
You can't ask AD to spend so much energy on the defensive side while having to score 25+ on the other end for the Lakers . This is why he often runs out of gas in 4th quarters . But yeah not surrounding AD with at least multiple solid defensive players after 2021 is a huge mistake
yeah, and unfortunately i think the plan is still to go offense first and leave the d to AD alone. that has not been successful.
It just doesn't compute. How an organization can look back to what won us the title and then be reminded of it during this Team USA run and STILL be like, eh... he's got it. He can do anchor a bad defense AND be a top 5 guy on offense. He doesn't need anyone. That's b******* and if AD was wired differently, he'd be in front of our 5 man/woman front office demanding every year they that they do better. Now I get, we're not in a position to get anyone of the level of a Team USA defensive star even if we were willing to hand over all our assets. But there's no attempt to try to replace any of what worked. No AC replacement. No KCP replacement. No D12 and McGee replacement. No Danny Green (yuck) replacement... you can squint and say that was supposed to be Prince but the rest of the roster and coach can't be what it was for him to be that. No Kuz replacement, who could (wasn't always) be a bit of a defensive Swiss army guy at times. No playoff 'Do replacement.
yeah, and i'm not saying there's just one blueprint or anything, but the idea that a similar configuration couldn't possibly work again is so weird to me. all because marc gasol got hurt or something? because most teams play 4 and 5 out, we ignore that we beat teams like that playing two non-shooting bigs and just being a great defensive team?
Yeah. It really doesn't make sense and I don't see how anyone who took even a casual look at how things played out then and now wouldn't be able to see this.
I see it a different way. They made the WB trade, it was terrible, and the Buss family basically said we're done with AD and Lebron Well have a good team to make money and fill the stands and use our good draft department to get some talent in the margins but no trading future 1sts anymore
