i get WHY we send the professionals (other teams do), i get why we dont send college kids (they suck) but i think a good compromise would be to send an under 23 squad. i think with a fine coaching staff and this roster, it could take the GOLD. Sure there might be some tense moments but its better than these 1000 point blowouts. (starters are negotiable and not really the point - my point is the ROSTER is still good enough to win gold)
STARTERS
PG D. Russell
SG B. Beal
SF J. Parker
PF Unibrow Davis.
C Drummond
============
BENCH
PG J. Clarkson
SG Booker.
SG Z. Levine
SF Jabari
C KATowns
SF MKGilchrist
SF Stan Johnson.
SF B. Ingram
SF J. Winslow
SG KCPope
C Myles Turner
C N. Noel
C E. Okafor.
SF R. Hood
I kinda like that idea. Not sure what the age should be but more competition would be more exciting.
would definetly help level the playing field. HOWEVER I kinda like rooting for a team that is dominating basketball. Being a long suffering knick fan we haven't seen that in quite a while
Unbalanced games are not interesting regardless of who your rooting for.
Every pay good money to see a blow out game? Its better if your team wins, but really, it sucks.
A good game is a well contested game.
Only a championship game 4 thru 7 when your team is winning is a blow out fun. Then its a coronation!!!!
Any NBA playoff team can win Olympics with a big margin.
And any of the NBA teams can compete at the same level as national teams of other countries.
Hopefully world bbal will get better over time as popularity is growing.
All the under 18 kids get smoked in international play. Our best pros are better the theirs... but they are getting better. Lithuania, Spain, Australia, Croatia.... they got players and are well coached.
My theory is you never let your kids beat you. Let it happen organically if it ever happens at all
I'd like to see ALL countries have under 23 for the Olympics.
Be good to level the playing field and new "Stars" could emerge.
would have been cool to see KP6 and perhaps Lithuania have a bigger chance.
I still think USA still wins, but it gets more fresh.
There might be a few less "one and done" big name players who might stick an extra year to play on that big stage.
Likewise, it would be fun to see some kid not well known light up the USA team (in a losing effort of course) and emerge!!
And if we don't win every year, well that happens too!!!! Its not our god given right to win all the time. In fact, it makes "winning" more special.
Just an opinion.
You will never level the playing field. Olympics are big business, not March Madness. People in Rio, like almost everywhere else since '92, love the spectacle of seeing the NBA upper stratosphere up close.
It's been almost 25 years, with one blip. We are simply always going to be incredibly better in basketball for the foreseeable future, no matter what. Precisely because no other country has anything even vaguely comparable to March Madness and everything that leads to for the sport here.
And nobody but nobody wants to be the blip. 2016 is just more of the continuing payback for that Bronze.
Rather see boring 12 time out of 10 than see that abortion we put up in 2004.
ChuckBuck wrote:Rather see boring 12 time out of 10 than see that abortion we put up in 2004.
With Melo, lebron and amare and others on the bench. That's Larry browns play the right way senile ass
truthfully I wish the IOC mandated that the ONLY athletes that would qualify for EVERY event were amateurs. There is something great about watching the young and hungry compete. I know boxing has become irrelevant but I always liked watching to see which competitors would become the next great champion. I feel like the Olympics is a great stage for those types of athletes to announce themselves to the world
What about guys like Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler who grow into stardom at 25 yrs old or other players who miss out on the Olympics because they were injured as a young player?
There's unbalance in all sports throughout the Olympics. I don't think we should lower the standards of our US team. If you are restricting the talent on the US team, and the best players in the world aren't competing, it becomes a lower-level competition in my opinion. I don't like watching the NBDL, and would never go to a game live either. I would get this same feeling about the US team if it was comprised of mostly non-all-stars or a roster of rookies/sophmores.
this suggestion to send an inferior team is ridiculous. this is just as bad as making up for the fact that so many players today cannot hit their free throws in the nba and we are making the game easier for them.
Cartman718 wrote:this suggestion to send an inferior team is ridiculous. this is just as bad as making up for the fact that so many players today cannot hit their free throws in the nba and we are making the game easier for them.
Agreed.
EnySpree wrote:ChuckBuck wrote:Rather see boring 12 time out of 10 than see that abortion we put up in 2004.
With Melo, lebron and amare and others on the bench. That's Larry browns play the right way senile ass
or maybe just maybe marbury and iverson sucked playing together
