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2024 Paris Summer Olympics - Death Squad

Esque

By Esque
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SimonBolivar

SimonBolivar 10958

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1 minute ago, Derka said:

the last six mvp awards have gone to foreign born players, the top 5 players in the league are from serbia, slovenia, greece, cameroon, and canada, a list that doesn’t even include france’s victor wembanyama, and the usa just had to come back from down 17 in an olympic semifinal came against serbia. what in the fuck have you been watching?

Well that'd be great if this were the Ryder Cup. USA will have the deepest pool like always and will be favored. It won't be easy of course.

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Machinator
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BigOrange1
BigOrange1

those Steph explosisons are much more fun when he's on the team you're rooting for lol.

aggie08
aggie08

That was still insanely cool though. The three best players of their generation, and they all came through when it mattered, and we needed all of it to win. Steph with a patented Curry flurry to

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Mitch Cumsteen

Mitch Cumsteen 18549

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4 minutes ago, Derka said:

the last six mvp awards have gone to foreign born players, the top 5 players in the league are from serbia, slovenia, greece, cameroon, and canada, a list that doesn’t even include france’s victor wembanyama, and the usa just had to come back from down 17 in an olympic semifinal came against serbia. what in the fuck have you been watching?

All of this is true, but that talent is spread out among all different countries.  Of the 24 players in any single game, the US will still almost certainly have 12 of the best 14 or 15. The concentration of talent is typically too much to overcome. 

That said, the one and done format, the shorter 40 minute FIBA game and the shorter 3 pt line makes the margin of error so much smaller. The fact that they only get a couple of weeks to play together is another problem -- it's just hard to develop chemistry in that short of a time.

I think the US will still be the prohibitive favorite in 2028, but it wouldn't be any sort of cataclysmic upset if they come up short. They are going to get got, eventually. It's a matter of when and not if, but I think it's going to be a long time before they aren't still considered the best and most talented team in the Olympics.

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Derka

Derka 6195

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^^^ this is basically what i’ve been saying. the world will be better, we will almost assuredly be worse, and yet this year’s team was seriously pushed in both the semifinals and the gold medal game. the global teams are also usually better “teams” with more chemistry and way fewer lineup/minutes questions. 

also, who are the leaders in 2028? Ant? Embiid? has either of them won anything by 2028? i don’t see Tatum as any sort of leader. same with booker. who are the alphas that demand the ball in the crucial moments like our veteran trio did this year? anyone who thinks that 2028 will be a cakewalk is going to be in for a surprise.

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aggie08

aggie08 21504

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17 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:

No one thinks 2028 will be a cakewalk. We will still be the betting favorites. That is two separate things. 
 

and yes, Anthony Edwards in 2028 could easily be the alpha male on the roster. 

We may only be slight betting favorites in 2028 depending who we send (and who says yes). Y'all remember we sent Javale McGee, Zach Lavine, Jerami Grant, and Keldon Johnson in 2021 (obviously some pandemic-related dropouts). Dray and Dame were past their prime. Thankfully KD--and, to a lesser extent, Tatum--bailed us out.

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Derka

Derka 6195

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top 5 big men: russell, wilt, hakeem, duncan, kareem (jokic making a strong run, shaq also just outside this group)

perimeter players: mj, larry, magic, lebron, steph 

at this point steph is probably top 10 of all time, defintely the best shooter ever, and one of the most influential and transformative players ever. he’s an all time, all time great.

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Baboontyme

Baboontyme 2812

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1 hour ago, Derka said:

^^^ this is basically what i’ve been saying. the world will be better, we will almost assuredly be worse, and yet this year’s team was seriously pushed in both the semifinals and the gold medal game. the global teams are also usually better “teams” with more chemistry and way fewer lineup/minutes questions. 

also, who are the leaders in 2028? Ant? Embiid? has either of them won anything by 2028? i don’t see Tatum as any sort of leader. same with booker. who are the alphas that demand the ball in the crucial moments like our veteran trio did this year? anyone who thinks that 2028 will be a cakewalk is going to be in for a surprise.

Ja Morant bro

Just finished watching an hour ago. Can't come down off of this adrenaline high. As a great coach and broadcaster once said a dozen or so times per game, mama, there goes that man. Just incredible. 

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cmontexas

cmontexas 3271

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1 hour ago, Baboontyme said:

Ja Morant bro

Just finished watching an hour ago. Can't come down off of this adrenaline high. As a great coach and broadcaster once said a dozen or so times per game, mama, there goes that man. Just incredible. 

Morant Edwards Tatum and Paolo. Flagg should be ready too

I can see old gray hair KD going for 5

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Derka

Derka 6195

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sometimes you watch a sporting event, and as you’re watching it, it maybe as the day unfolds you realize that you’re watching something truly historic. steph’s 4Q heroics today was that, especially/exclusively because of how hard team usa had to work to come back and beat serbia. everyone knew coming in to take nothing for granted. the last time i remember experiencing an event/day like today was the argentina vs france world cup final. none of us will ever forget today. this was some all-time classic shit here. steph, kd, and bron playing together managed to somehow exceed expectations over these last two games. just unreal.

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Baboontyme

Baboontyme 2812

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Honestly as a basketball fan, it doesn't get much better than the past few days. I was talking in the other thread about how I don't dislike any of these guys, and though I did not like Bron for many years, I have absolutely come around on him and can appreciate him for how incredible he is. I would root for a Curry or KD team over his every day but I don't dislike him by any means. It was just so fucking awesome seeing all 3 of them play together and feed off of each other and do superhero stuff. I remember the Dream Team quite well but it didn't take the kind of work this team put in over the past couple of days because they played against like 6 NBA players the entire Olympics. 

The thing that makes this one feel so good is that I feel like everyone was pulling in the same direction from a fan standpoint. This country is so polarized, and even fandom is so polarizing... It was kind of cool to feel that way. Other than Portnoy. Fuck that douchebag.

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statsman

statsman 5470

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8 hours ago, Fastbreak said:

I wonder how many sads KD has felt about leaving Steph.  To leave an all-timer to go in with Kyrie, Harden, Beal is kind of a bad career choice.

To recall that time- there was that early season game, with Curry injured and the Warriors down a point vs. the Clippers. KD was on fire. Green was bringing the ball in the last seconds. KD called for it, Green ignored him and forced a missed shot and KD was pissed. Green didn’t like Durant’s reaction and cussed him out, calling him a bitch and said the team didn’t need him. He emphasized that KD wasn’t an original Warrior and would never be a real one. That was when Durant decided he was leaving. 
 
(Curry is leader of the Warriors because of his play, and because Green happily concedes leadership to him. Green was not willing to make that same concession to KD, nor pay him the same respect he gave Thompson.)
 
The season ended as it did, with the torn Achilles. Durant left for Brooklyn. KD just doesn’t live in resentment or drama, and wasn’t willing to keep a beef with Green going. The two repaired their friendship, with KD deciding it was Kerr’s fault, really (this was a stretch of logic, but it was made to allow him to get to a peace and comfort of mind). 
 
The whole thing could have been avoided, but it would have required maturity from Draymond Green, so…

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Pam Cummings

Pam Cummings 9641

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That kind of is on Kerr. KD is a better player than Green. Kerr should have let Green know that if it came down to it, they'd choose KD because that was what's best for the team. They'd have been better off getting rid of him instead of letting KD walk.

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statsman

statsman 5470

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Kerr and Curry both talked to Green, trying to get him to say the minimal words required to put the issue to bed. He refused. KD wasn’t going to force it. 
 
Every superstar is different. Jordan would have focused his anger on Green until he was destroyed. LeBron would have exhibited a superior indifference. Durant just wanted to be done with it, without having to back down. 
 
It’s too bad. If he had not been injured, Durant was going to work out his frustrations on the field in the 2020 playoffs. Remember his explosion on the Clippers?

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Fud

Fud 9552

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I've been thinking about the future of the US Olympics team, because there's a good chance we won't see this level of talent (three all time top 15 players, plus three more current top ~10 players in the world in Embiid, Ant, and Tatum, and several more top fifteens in Booker, AD, Haliburton, etc, plus Holiday who's been a excellent national team player) again for a very long time

I think there are three ways to build this next team out 

1) Just put the best and most senior NBA players on the roster, and plan on out-talenting everyone. This team is built around Ant, Tatum, Booker, and Embiid plus other elite shot creators like Brown, Brunson, Kyrie, Mitchell, Fox, Zion, etc. It's not necessarily all iso ball, but it's much more static than we see most of these national teams play. Probably a lot of post-ups, pick and rolls, and 5-out iso dribble drives

2) Prioritize players who can both catch-and-shoot threes at a high level and also defend. This past gold-winning team shot 46% from three across the tournament, and I thought that shooting ability was ultimately the biggest reason for sweeping the tournament. Even if you're a bit of a ball stopper/surveyor but supreme shot creator, if you can catch and shoot at a high level, it's fine. That's past team did have some defensive holes, with the most obvious one being Steph but also Embiid's inability to close out on three point shooters. This team isn't necessarily just taking the best NBA players, but just a bunch of players who don't have weaknesses within FIBA ball. The biggest question is which players can be your offensive hubs in four years? This strategy leaves out Tatum (shooting) and Embiid (defensive switching), small guards who'll get picked on defensively, and any other non-catch and shooters

3) A hybrid of the two, with a couple of primary offensive hubs surrounded by role players. This is the strategy of the recent gold-winning team, but without the three all-timers 

I prefer option two, but I don't see them going that way, and it'll probably be one or three

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billfromlaketravis

billfromlaketravis 11480

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Curry’s shooting will be impossible to replace. He bailed the US out against Serbia and again in the gold medal game. I pray Reed Sheppard is somewhere in the same galaxy as peak Steph in 2028.

I dislike almost everything Bron does off the court, but he’s a tremendous leader and closer on Team USA.

They’re going to have tear it down and rebuild. Meanwhile, France should only keep improving. 

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Fud 9552

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3 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Curry’s shooting will be impossible to replace.

I don't really agree. The US can field a team of about 8-10 players who can knock down open or mildly contested FIBA threes at a 50% clip plus a few more who can do it at a 40% clip

Steph is the best shooter of all time, but the US can still fill the court with nothing but good FIBA three point shooters 

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Fud

Fud 9552

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1 hour ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Probably need to hope you can get as many world cup players on the 2028 Olympic team as possible.

Can’t go into World Cup with 12 guys then 9 different guys for the Olympics

Ideally sure, but that's probably not reality. The all-NBA types would rather have the summer off than play in the World Cup, especially if they're coming off of deep playoff runs 

 

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