Bring every single excuse about refs, lack of chemistry...

The bottom line is just that international players are getting better and better every year and that the talent base in the nba is slowly eroding cause of lack of fundamentals.

You can hide this lack when the rules favorize one on one situation, which is the case only in the nba. Isolations on international play just don't work and that's why passing and shooting in one hand in is in average better in europe (or other countries), but in the other hand one on one defense is really the weak point of most international players when they reach the nba.

Fact is, your team is young this time. Elite players of the previous dream team had all the fundamentals too, PG like stockton, even SG like Reggie, who were used to play the game "the right way".(I won't even dare to talk about the '92 team)

In this team, wade, Marbury or iverson, guys who should be the floor general are clearly not true PG and are still learning the game, learning how to to forget your ego to let a team succeed... How can you play with that ?

But I have to admit that I have a very strong admiration for those young guys, you had a high chance to be the first dream team to loose in the olymics (I would honnestly be really surprised if they didn't), but unlike a lot of superstars who didn't want to suffer like for instance pierce did, withdrawed from the team. Those young players made the right choice to come and play. Cause only playing games that you know you'll win makes a weak coward out of you.

I honnestly wish them well, and hope that win or loose, they'll earn respect from everybody in the league and on the international scene.

Peace

btw, a good article from marc stein about it :
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/basketball/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=1851615


International exposure: Team USA loses to Italy
The U.S. men's Olympic team ...


By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

Did I say co-favorites?


Judging by Team USA's first exhibition game overseas, that might have been a charitable assessment.


Friday's suggestion in this cyberspace that the Yanks are one of the three best bets for a gold medal in Athens only applies if the 12 players who finally did accept invitations from USA Basketball heed the preachings of Larry Brown and Gregg Popovich. Larry and Pop have been telling these guys for days that the only way they're going to win any kind of medal is with defense. The suffocating team variety.


The most distressing aspect about Tuesday's 95-78 embarrassment is the ease with which the Italians carved up Team USA. Inside and outside, it was just too easy for them.


Now granted, building a world-class team defense doesn't happen in a week, and that's basically as long as this group has been together. So, in fairness, you have to give Brown a little bit more time to get Team USA playing something that resembles a system.


You also have to concede that the Italians, playing loosely against a former superpower that lost its ability to intimidate in Indianapolis, didn't stop hitting once they got hot.


However ...


With its collective athleticism, Team USA shouldn't be overrun by a second-tier team like Italy, on the road or wherever. Never.


Not when Italy had just lost to Germany, which has Dirk Nowitzki -- playing competitively for the first time since April -- and little else you'd recognize.


The Americans have to be honest with themselves and admit that they didn't take the Italians seriously. That's the only conclusion you can draw when, according to witnesses at Cologne Arena, some of Brown's players were hoisting halfcourt shots and looking, uh, less than intense in pregame warm-ups. Then they found themselves in a hole and, as Allen Iverson noted, didn't communicate well enough on defense to mount the necessary comeback.


As one GM told me before the Italy game: "I have serious concerns about that team. No shooting, no passing, no leadership, no international experience, no knowledge of what's at stake and I don't think any respect for the opponents they're going to be facing."


Other than that ...


Right. Defense is the only way Team USA is going to be able to control tempo and get easy baskets. Only by forcing turnovers and rushing the opposition into bad shots -- and rotating religiously to ruffle open shooters -- will Brown's lads be able to offset the reality that there isn't a single Yank you'd expect to make seven 3-pointers in a game like Italy's Gianluca Basile did.


I will continue to say that it was a major mistake leaving Milwaukee's Michael Redd off this squad, which Tuesday's setback helped prove. Team USA combined for only four 3-pointers in this 16-point humbling.


The good news?


This edition of Team USA doesn't have a lot of things, but it does possess just about the two best coaches in the league. Coaches from the top two defensive teams in the league.


With about 10 days left until the Olympics start, at least there's still a little time for some Pistons-Spurs mojo to rub off.


Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.

Hey guys, just got back from vacation yesterday and I was lucky enough to be able to watch the whole Italy vs. USA game yesterday . Even though I'm Italian, I have to admit that the Italian team isn't that good at all. They just played a great game. Italy had a bunch of shooters on fire while our team was playing like crap and turning the ball over ever like crazy. One of the things that pissed me off about team USA was the free throw shooting. Even though we mostly had our fowards at the line, we still can't miss too many free throws (Tim was especially struggling from the free throw line). Another thing that pissed me off was our lack of a good transition game. Team USA has so much athleticism on the floor, why not use it? We should be running teams out of the building with our young and talented players. We weren't pushing the ball at all for fast breaks after rebounds. Instead our offense consisted of passing the ball around the perimiter (and usually missing our shots since we don't have any good pure shooters) or we would just dump it in to Tim who shouldn't have to carry this team. I really don't understand why our guards weren't trying to penetrate instead of just swinging the ball around the perimiter. I really think whoever is playing PG (Wade or Stephon) should attack offensively and use their speed to their advantage. I also agree with Briggs in that we need to adjust the lineup and try to make it bigger. Melo deserves to start since he was probably the only USA player that showed up to play yesterday. I also agree that Amare should start because he played a lot better than Odom did yesterday offensively and defensively.



If our team really wants to win the gold, we better develop a sick defense. Our perimiter defense was horrible yesterday. One of Italy's shooters who was on fire yesterday kept getting open looks. Although, some of the shots he made were just pure luck. The Italian team really just made our defense look helpless. Our fowards have to learn how to box out as silly as that sounds. We were giving up offensive rebounds like crazy. Hopefully a game like this is what we needed to wake us up. We better start playing well if we want a shot at the gold.



[Edited by - s3231 on 08/04/2004 11:13:49]