Oh, for a three

[Noah Evans]

In coach k's defense, it was pick your poison. A team of great atheletes is
always going to play better man to man. And even if the US had switched to
zone they would have been destroyed by Greece's outside shooting. I don't
think it was as simple as stupidity.

The problem is more deeply rooted, the NBA game thrives on isolations
because of the way the game is structured. The rules against zone defenses,
especially the defensive 3 seconds rule puts players with individual skills
at a premium. Couple that with players who have more power than their
coaches and you have a recipe for a system where the best individual players
can completely dominate their respecitive teams.

That's not a recipe for success in international basketball.

On 9/5/06, Berry, Mark S <berrym at battelle.org> wrote:
>
> Once again, bad roster construction. But what about Coach K? You sit
> there and watch your team get beaten on the pick and roll over and over
> and over and never consider switching to a zone?
>
> Everyone involved with USA basketball assumes these other teams are
> going to faint in the face of pressure defense applied by our superior
> athletes. It doesn't work that way against the good teams.
>
> I wonder if they're ever going to learn.
>
> Mark
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: celtics-bounces at igtc.com [mailto:celtics-bounces at igtc.com] On
> Behalf Of Kestas
> Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 11:15 AM
> To: The Boston Celtics Mailing List
> Subject: Re: Oh, for a three
>
> gene kirkpatrick wrote:
>
> >Looks like coach K needed his boy, J. J.  Or even our boy, G Money.  No
> one could get hot and hit shots for the super athletic U. S. of A.  It's
> tough when it's a one game and gone system, but I thought we had it
> figured out this year.  Still, it sounds as if defense was the bigger
> concern for our guys than 25% and 33% on threes in successive games.
> Cheers, Gene
> >
> >
> Greece played a near-perfect game from about the middle of the 2nd
> quarter, and basically dominated Team USA from that point on. The Greek
> guards and swingmen just killed our guys on the pick-and-roll, and the
> much-discussed (before several recent NBA drafts) and little-used (by
> Greece) "Baby Shaq" played a key supporting role, scoring 14 in 17
> minutes (he totally looks and moves like Shaq). Another little-used
> reserve,  the  near-Celtic Dimos Dikuodis got some run towards the end
> and also chipped in with some hustle plays. Team USA unleashed a fury of
>
> three-point attempts to dig themselves out of a 15-point hole in the
> fourth, but in vain (9 for 28 total). I thought Brad Miller and Jamison
> would've helped in this game, but they stayed glued to the bench.
>
> Bob Ryan has a good column about this in today's Globe:
> http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2006/09/02/us_team_not_as_good_as_
> gold/?page=full
>
> On a positive note, Argentina didn't show up in the second half today,
> Ginobili sat the entire 3rd quarter, and Team USA got the bronze.
>
> Kestas
>
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