THE Team USA Thread(KOBE hits gamewinner in open run!)

I am not american, but love to see this team play. I think Team USA needs a balanced team, with great players, vets, young ones, defenders, shooters, etc.

My roster would be:
C: Amare, Bosh, Oden
PF: Duncan (if available, if not Boozer), KG, Howard
SF: James, Prince, Melo
SG: Kobe, T-Mac, Redd
PG: Paul, Kidd, Hinrich

Questionable calls?
I think Redd, but like having a great pure-shooter on the team.

Team USA may be stacked with young talent when they head to Beijing in 2008 but I remain wary of any gold medal , mainly because the game is called differently in international basketball and there are rule changes. In addition , as many of you have said above , there are chemistry issues which don't affect other teams , which have been playing together for a longer time. I wouldn't be surprised if Team USA ended up winning the bronze or silver...they are good for sure , but gold medal good?

U must not be talking about the Athens team, or the 2002 World team because those teams lacked talent if anything.

The Athens team didn't really have NBA players, but the 2002 team had a crapload of talent, and I bet you can't name any other world team in 2002 that had more talent than a lineup that consists of Tracy McGrady, Elton Brand, Baron Davis, Shawn Marion, Reggie Miller, Paul Pierce, Ben Wallace, and Jermaine O'Neal.

I meant the Athens 2004 team
They had all NBA players on there except 4 Emeka Okafor.

After that 2002 team lost to Serbia and Montenegro it was like they fell off of the face of the earth or something. I didn't kno Mcgrady, Wallace, or Baron Davis was on that roster.
The 2003 team was a much different story, though.

Look at the '92 dream team

I haven't really read anything in this thread but this is a stupid thing to say. International basketball wasn't at the level it is now 15 years ago.

I don't disagree, though I still think the original Dream Team would be dominant today. I don't buy into the whole "they only won because everyone was in awe of them" idea which has come up in recent years. It was still 11 of the best players in the history of the game and Christian Laettner and for all the talk of not being able to co-exist, they didn't have any problems.

Perhaps the main difference is that most of the players on that team had been members of successful teams thus far in the NBA careers, with several players already being key members of championship teams or teams that at least went deep into the Playoffs at some point. Even Laettner was considered to be one of the best players coming of college at the time and had been in a successful program at Duke.

Like every1 said.. 92 and 96 dream team were the best team by far..
Dream Team I
C - DRobinson, Ewing
PF - Barkley, Karl Malone. Laettner
SF - Bird, Pippen, Mullin
SG - Jordan, Drexler
PG - Magic, Stockton

Robinson and Ewing are great defensively, they can just play defence and run the floor..
Barkley, Malone are good team players, good shooters, and runs the floor again..
Bird, Pippen very good team players..
Magic, Stockton, 2 of the best passing PGs ever..
Jordan, Drexler, Mullin can really shoot the lights out and put the ball in the basket..

Basically.. they have a dominating scoring SGs and a very good offensive PF that will prefer their hands on the ball...
THey are playing with like 2 players that need the ball consistently (PF, SG)

Great team... great defenders.. great chemistry.. i don't think i will doubt at all they win the gold metal if they were playing against today's international competition...


2nd best team of all time, dream team 3.. 1996 olympics

C - Hakeem, Shaq, David robinson
PF - Karl Malone, Charles Barkley
SF - Scottie Pippen, Grant Hill
SG - Mitch Richmond, Reggie Miller
PG - Gary Payton, Anfernee Hardaway, John Stockton

Again.. this team consist of dominating scoring centers and scoring PFs...
Incredible lineup at center.. incredible shooting with richmond, reggie, stockton..
Versatility with pippen, hill, hardaway, barkley, GP


A team today composed of the BIGGEST SUPERSTARS are the following.

C - Duncan, Dwight, Amare
PF - Garnett, Boozer, Bosh
SF - Lebron James, Melo, Pierce
SG - Kobe Bryant, Dwade, Tmac
PG - JKidd, Billups, Chris Paul

I think the preferred lineup on this team is
Duncan, Garnett, Lebron, Kobe, Billups..
Here we have 2 shooters in Kobe and Billups.. Do it all players in Duncan, Garnett, Lebron...

I believe we have pretty weak shooters on this team.. compared to what they had in years before, Bird, Mullin, Stockton from the 92 team.. then Richmond, Reggie, Stockton in the 96 team.. now we only have Kobe, Billups.. Both could be inconsistent.. I guess we can add Ray Allen and Redd to the roster.. I prefer Redd cuz he is a decent defender.. but to me.. he is still only a limited dimensional player.. not a huge driver/slasher/passer.. But i guess we don't need that...

I think the best team, would be 1 , with less superstars, more defenders and shooters..

C - Duncan, Dwight, Camby
PF - Garnett, Boozer
SF - Lebron, Battier, Prince
SG - Kobe, Redd, Allen
PG - Kidd, Billups

Can you imagine a lineup of Duncan, Garnett, Lebron, Kobe, Kidd?!? Wow.. that rivals Robinson, Barkley, Bird, Jordan, Magic..

Duncan > Robinson, Garnett > Barkley, Lebron = Bird, Jordan > Kobe (slightly), Magic > Kidd..

Then you shooters in Billups, Redd, Allen, Studs like Dwight, Boozer, Amare...

@ Air Zoom Kobe I thinking LeBron made the All Defensive 2nd Team
LeBron's just as bad a defender as Melo. Also some people who think Melo will come off the bench at 8th or 9th position seriously miss judge how well he can play and how he was the only player from team USA to make the All World 5
I dont care if they have Kobe or T-Mac this year, it's not gonna happen, especially seeing he's tri captain...

:lol: @ Air Zoom Kobe I thinking LeBron made the All Defensive 2nd Team
LeBron's just as bad a defender as Melo. Also some people who think Melo will come off the bench at 8th or 9th position seriously miss judge how well he can play and how he was the only player from team USA to make the All World 5
I dont care if they have Kobe or T-Mac this year, it's not gonna happen, especially seeing he's tri captain...

Man my bad on dat lebron

But team USA started training camp on the 19th . I don't remember when the 1st game will be.

The players that are Participating are:


Carmelo Anthony
Shane Battier
Chauncey Billups
Chris Bosh
Kobe Bryant:)
Tyson Chandler
Kevin Durant
Kirk Hinrich
Dwight Howard
Lebron James
Jason Kidd
Mike Miller
Adam Morrison
Tayshaun Prince
Michael Redd
JJ Redick
Luke Ridnour
Amare Stoudemire
Deron Williams


Players that are INJURED and CANNOT PLAY THIS YEAR

Gilbert Arenas
Mike Bibby
Carlos Boozer
Bruce Bowen
Elton Brand(THANK GOD!!)
Allen Iverson
Antawn Jamison
Richard Jefferson
Joe Johnson
Shawn Marion
Tracy Mcgrady
Brad Miller
Greg Oden
Lamar Odom
Jermaine O'neal
Chris Paul
Paul Pierce
Luke Ridnour
Dwyane Wade


Don't tell me this team isn't stacked. U could have talent off of the injured players ALONE!

^^^IT SHOULD BE ONE HELL OF A TEAM!!

http://www.usabasketball.com/seniormen/index.html


dis is da website

Im calling it now. Tyson Chandler will be an absolute BEAST in competition. Between him and howard, we may be looking at 25 boards per just for those two.

What team USA needs is good outside shooting and good defense obviously.

So lineup out of the participating should be

C Stoudemire
PF Howard
SF Melo
SG Kobe
PG Billups/Kidd

Strong defense at virtually every position but the SF. With a slimmed down Kobe, Kobe can probably lock down every international perimeter player now.

Unfortunately Duncan will be playing for US Virgin so we can't have the 2 best players in the world on the same team.

What team USA needs is good outside shooting and good defense obviously.

So lineup out of the participating should be

C Stoudemire
PF Howard
SF Melo
SG Kobe
PG Billups/Kidd

Strong defense at virtually every position but the SF. With a slimmed down Kobe, Kobe can probably lock down every international perimeter player now.

Unfortunately Duncan will be playing for US Virgin so we can't have the 2 best players in the world on the same team.

I'd start Bron over Melo. Melo would play more though.
I didn't know Duncan was playing for the Virgin Islands!

What team USA needs is good outside shooting and good defense obviously.

So lineup out of the participating should be

C Stoudemire
PF Howard
SF Melo
SG Kobe
PG Billups/Kidd

Strong defense at virtually every position but the SF. With a slimmed down Kobe, Kobe can probably lock down every international perimeter player now.

Unfortunately Duncan will be playing for US Virgin so we can't have the 2 best players in the world on the same team.

I'd start Bron over Melo. Melo would play more though.
I didn't know Duncan was playing for the Virgin Islands!

And you call yourself an NBA fan

What team USA needs is good outside shooting and good defense obviously.

So lineup out of the participating should be

C Stoudemire
PF Howard
SF Melo
SG Kobe
PG Billups/Kidd

Strong defense at virtually every position but the SF. With a slimmed down Kobe, Kobe can probably lock down every international perimeter player now.

Unfortunately Duncan will be playing for US Virgin so we can't have the 2 best players in the world on the same team.

I'd start Bron over Melo. Melo would play more though.
I didn't know Duncan was playing for the Virgin Islands!

And you call yourself an NBA fan

WUT??? lol

I knew Duncan wasn't born in the Actual US. He played for Team USA before. That's what caught me off guard.

THE Team USA Thread (Please read. Training Camp started)

Your thread title screams "Whore!"

Unfortunately Duncan will be playing for US Virgin so we can't have the 2 best players in the world on the same team.

Is this a joke?

No it was a guess because I saw that the virgin islands are participating as well.

THE Team USA Thread (Please read. Training Camp started)

Your thread title screams "Whore!"

I consider myself owned.


EDIT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JtV6fljIJc
Kobe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTt7vmYlKE0
Kevin Durant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ZJMhDaUWw
Lebron James

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keEfGX7N6Ug
Mike Miller

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N03s3aT1m2U
Jason Kidd



This team will win gold IF they have all of their players healthy: True or False??

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When the summer comes this is arguably the best time of the year. Team USA Basketball is about to be at it's peak. They've got great players on they're team. Even their BENCH has loads of talent. They could be at the point that the dream team was at but Colangelo doesn't really seem to care about the quality talent at this point.

i wanna note that no team ever will touch the original dream team. those guys could win gold in any era vs any comp without even trying. that was a team full of players who never had to play with each, they just played basketball the way it was supposed to be played so chemistry was never an issue.

Kobe bryant hit the gamewinning 3 over Tayshaun Prince for team Blue. Lebron James got stripped on a drive in the closing seconds. No foul was called and team blue escaped with a win, 105-104.

What team USA needs is good outside shooting and good defense obviously.

So lineup out of the participating should be

C Stoudemire
PF Howard
SF Melo
SG Kobe
PG Billups/Kidd

Strong defense at virtually every position but the SF. With a slimmed down Kobe, Kobe can probably lock down every international perimeter player now.

Unfortunately Duncan will be playing for US Virgin so we can't have the 2 best players in the world on the same team.

Didn't you make a highlight reel thing of Kobe on Team USA??? 26 points, 6 Steals, 5 assists, right???

Mike Miller will easily nail a spot on the team outplaying Redd and Reddick. I like the fact that he wasn't afriad to jack it up from three like he usual is at times.

Maybe he should, 5-15 on 3's? I don't think he'll easily beat Redd for a spot, you're making it sound like Redd's just a HS kid.

Miller probably learned it from his new coach who told players that if they passed an open three, they'd be benched.

Didn't you make a highlight reel thing of Kobe on Team USA??? 26 points, 6 Steals, 5 assists, right???

Yes, in my Kobe channel.