This is mostly all on the USA BBall Olympics Selection committee.

Why can't any NBA'ers shoot anymore? strange...

im sorry but i put this on the shoulders of the coaches again.

im sorry but if you look at this team the strength is in the athletiscm and power.

when you have Carlos Boozer, Amare Stoudemire and Emeka Okafor play a COMBINED 13 minutes

and let steph iversen jefferson control a ton of minutes you are not going to play as well. The NBA game is has and will always be predicated on power inside. We have to make up for our outside shooting by powering the ball inside continuosly to open up better shots if they need to kick out.

When i saw the starting line up of duncan odom jefferson stpeh and iversen i knew we were in trouble from the start of exhibition 1.

remember these NBA coaches have just as big ego's as the players. when larry brown says play the right way he expects that they will adhere to playing in your face D and having it work every time. it wont because its impossible to sustain and how the international game is called.

Bottom line 2 of those 4 guys HAVE to be on the floor at all times---we should ONLY take a small % of 3 point shots and the rest continue to pound inside--opportunistic on breaks and pounding the glass. we havent done that, we are arrogant+sloppy. the rest of the world can scre off by the way becase if put a line up of

C SHAQ
PF Wallace
SF KG
SG McGrady
PG Kobe
C Duncan
PF Boozer
SF Carter
SG Allen
PG Hamilton we would win every game by 20+

I would love to say the same thing, but no matter who the coach is, how can a team of these players loose. I mean you have Duncan, Iverson, Marbury on it. Thats some of the top players right there. The rest are not bad either. The only way I can explain this is with lack of effort. And the fact that all of the NBA players you listed refused to play for there country is just pathetic.

If you say that the Puerto Rico team had minimally less talent then us, then fine, I just can't agree with that. This team has by far more talent then any other team out there. It is a matter of opinon of course, but in my opinon they just don't try hard enough, because with all that talent, they should be blowing teams out, at least the wosrse teams, such as Puerto Rico. This was not even Argentina, Lithuania, or the Yugos.

Posted by simrud:

I would love to say the same thing, but no matter who the coach is, how can a team of these players loose. I mean you have Duncan, Iverson, Marbury on it. Thats some of the top players right there. The rest are not bad either. The only way I can explain this is with lack of effort. And the fact that all of the NBA players you listed refused to play for there country is just pathetic.

i agree with that... the effort and game plan is awful. we have to play to our strengths, but we cant try to dunk over everybody, like jefferson and wade try to do. just wont work.

by the way, i went to an ivy league university and now an ivy league med school.

IMHO the problems that the US team are having is exactly what awaits the Knicks this season. Both teams are put together very poorly with too many me-first players who don't play well within the confines of a team. Their players can't function without the ball on offense which causes stagnation with players just standing around waiting for someone to make a one on one move.

On defense there aren't enough players willing to play defense much less learn to play team defense where they help each other. That's going to be a huge problem for the Knicks this year, especially if they don't sign Dampier.

It isnt just lack of fundamentals and teamwork, Team USA does not have any leaders period. I dont care if it is Iverson spewing obsceneties during press conferences somebody has to step up and lead this team!

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by islesfan:

IMHO the problems that the US team are having is exactly what awaits the Knicks this season. Both teams are put together very poorly with too many me-first players who don't play well within the confines of a team. Their players can't function without the ball on offense which causes stagnation with players just standing around waiting for someone to make a one on one move.

On defense there aren't enough players willing to play defense much less learn to play team defense where they help each other. That's going to be a huge problem for the Knicks this year, especially if they don't sign Dampier.

LOL! I was wondering how long it would take you to create a connection between USA's bad game today and the Knicks' future. I thought you'd be quicker than this

There is one huge difference netween the Knicks and Team USA which is why I think Team USA will be fine this year. Team USA does not have Allan Houston.

hahahahahahahaha @ Silverfuel

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by islesfan:

IMHO the problems that the US team are having is exactly what awaits the Knicks this season. Both teams are put together very poorly with too many me-first players who don't play well within the confines of a team. Their players can't function without the ball on offense which causes stagnation with players just standing around waiting for someone to make a one on one move.

On defense there aren't enough players willing to play defense much less learn to play team defense where they help each other. That's going to be a huge problem for the Knicks this year, especially if they don't sign Dampier.

LOL! I was wondering how long it would take you to create a connection between USA's bad game today and the Knicks' future. I thought you'd be quicker than this

I'm glad to see that you can see the similarities as well.

Maybe its just me, but I think this loss will benefit the team and its players in the long run.