My Mistake: USA Basketball

Ok, so we're 3 games into the Olympic Prelims for basketball and the US has been mostly dominating by today's worldwide standards. Although the first halves are pretty competitive, the USA men basically have their Sportscenter way in the last half of games.

Although I stick to the premise of my earlier post on the USA Senior Men's Basketball Team, I have to admit that some of the players have surprised me. Through the first 3 games the USA's best 2 players have been Lebron James and Dwayne Wade.

Lebron has lived up to Skip Bayless' title as "the best driver in the history of the game." He has been active on defense, run the floor, and has 2-5 dunks in every game. He's even hit a few 3's, although I'd rather him shoot them after a few passes, rather than shooting off the dribble with no passes to start the offense.

DWAYNE WADE IS THE MAN!!! That pains me to say it. As stars go, Dwayne Wade has to fall into my Top 5 least favorite. I ripped him for his selection, I didn't like him in the exhibitions (too much out of control penetrations in the lane), but he has easily been the best player for the USA in the Olympics. Today against Greece he single-handedly changed the game and made the best highlight pass to date (steal at midcourt, falling out of bounds, lob alley-oop to Kobe). He's scoring at will from inside and out (Kobe thanks you), and is defending well in the halfcourt (not something he's known for in the NBA).

Here's a few other observations:

Chris Bosh is the USA's best big man and most versatile defender. If he didn't play in Toronto he'd probably be 1st Team All-Defense.

Assuming that USA beats Spain on Saturday, they should spend Game 5 of the prelims force-feeding Kobe Bryant to get him out of his shooting slump. Let him score 50, whatever it takes to get him going. He is the best player in the world (although Chris Paul should have been the MVP), but right now he scares me with his abysmal 3-pt shooting.

Most importantly: Where is Michael Redd????? Greece sits in a zone for the majority of the game, and Michael Redd gets garbage time the last 6 minutes of the game up 25? He's your designated shooter, a specialist, your struggling from the outside against zone, and he sits? How about this other option for Game 5: if you don't like the Kobe scoring idea, how about you give Redd Kobe's minutes for the entirety of Game 5. 1 of 2 things will happen. Either they'll faceguard him which opens up driving lanes for the slashers, or they'll help and he'll score about 25, like he has in every other game he got reasonable minutes.

Coach K...USE YOUR SHOOTERS!!!!