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Originally Posted by Bayliss
But the US team is still flawed. They still rely on crap to get it done. The US team needed a couple of workmanlike big men and they needed a few shooters. Guys like Nick Collison as a big and Mike Miller as a shooter is what the team needs. LeBron is essentially the point guard for the team, and that is fine. But if you are going to have him dominate the ball, the team needed a couple of shooters to get the pass off of him. Also, having only Dwight as a true big may hurt them. If he gets in foul trouble, Bosh and especially Boozer are huge dropoffs defensively. And from what I've seen, the US still thinks that the first wide open shot is a good one. Way too little ball movement. Carmelo Anthony is sucking the life out of their offense. With their athleticism edge at every position, they should full court press the ENTIRE game. No reason not to do it. They could be the Kwntucky Wildcats albiet Olympic version.
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That's good stuff. The thing that sticks out to me is shooting. Deron and Paul need to mainly stick to penetration/layups for their primary options. It might not be available to them all the time, but I think their perimeter shooting might be a little sketchy. Kobe went 1/7 behind the line today, I doubt the performances will be that ugly the whole way through, he had some open shots and they just didn't go in. Melo just doesn't do anything for me, unless he is taking his man into the post and muscling it in.
LeBron is going to do anything and everything it looks like...minus on the ball lock-down defense. He showed he can be a help-side defender for sure. It looks like he is definitely trying to send a message to the team and the world that he wants this badly and can be the star of stars.
The defense just needs to be smart, they're athletic enough to stay in position...just don't be greedy. They don't need to gamble and try to steal, just take it right when it's there and don't over-reach. The 3-ball is going to be something they have to watch carefully. I'm sure teams will make that their weapon of choice if it's available to them. I agree that the full-court pressure should be used pretty heavily.