Re: JasikeVICIOUS

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

    You'd think that having Shaq and Duncan reinforce a gimpy 'Zo would
add up to 40 minutes of sheer hell for opponents.  Name one center in
this tournament (Todd McCulloch maybe?) who has an NBA future of any
kind. What's happening so far is a joke, and Rudy T and the players
deserve the blame.

    What amazes me, though, is how these European guys drive fearlessly
around or at NBA All Defensive guys like Gary Payton. They have no fear
and nothing to lose. Sarunis Jaskevisius, the 6-5 Lithuanian point
guard, is the man. Look out for Antoine "Toine" Rigodeau  from France in
the championship game. He is a tall slasher and pure textbook jump shot
guy in the Marciulonis/Petrovic/Ainge mold. But still, Team USA has no
excuse not to beat a team like France by 30-40 points. This is the most
pathetic example of indifferent summer holiday play, crap teamwork and
inept coaching I hope I'll ever see. It is no exaggeration to say that
Team USA has the talent (Garnett, Kidd, Vince Carter and Payton) to win
by 30+ even with Travis Knight as their center.

----------

Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu wrote:

> --- You wrote:
> I don't think the world is catching up, but the way we select the
> olympic
> team is very flawed, and will eventually result in our getting beat.
> Basically, the way they set it up is as a marketing exercise -- an
> all-nba
> team, minus guys with attitudes/tattoos/posses.  But that only results
> in
> having 12 guys who are all used to being the man, who are often
> spectacularly talented by deficient in fundamentals, and who don't, as
> The Rock says, "know their role."  A big reason we struggled the way we
> did
> against Russia and Lithuania is that our guys can't shoot free throws,
> aren't used to zone defenses, and tend to get fouls called on them.  The
>
> obvious answer to this olympics is to have Shaq play at center; but in
> the
> long run, I think we would be better served to put together a
> defensively-oriented team with multiple teammates on it -- guys who are
> used
> to playing together, and who trust each other on offense and defense.
> And
> after the top seven or eight stars, I would add all-star role players --
> a
> big he-man, a shot-blocker, a ball-hawk, a pure outside catch-and-shoot
> specialist.  Anybody else have any thoughts on this?
>
> --- end of quote ---
>
> Interesting. Do you think that a decent (or maybe any) NBA team would do
> better in this situation? NBA teams *have* struggled occasionally -  I
> think the Knicks and the Nuggets had to go to overtime and barely won in
> the early or mid-90s in those McDonalds tournaments. The Hawks *lost*
> to the Soviet Union in 1987, but that was in the offseason, so the Hawks
> may have been somewhat out of shape. On the other hand, the Soviets were
> playing without injured Sabonis.
> As for Shaq's solving Team USA's putative problems, I think he'd be LESS
> effective in international play, because of the wider lane, zones, and
> probably less license for bulling his way through defenders on the way
> to the basket. One would think 'Zo would be the most effective center in
> this situation because he has most of Shaq's game AND a midrange game.
> Kestas