LA not playing for Team USA

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THE HCP

THE HCP

NorthEastPortland'sFinest
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Just got the tweet! Sorry no link!
 
Yea, after all, why play for team USA when it might improve your game......
 
I heard he declined because he was affraid the coaches might want him to post up and rebound.
 
Kevis Durant has been guaranteed a roster spot, but he'll be there.
 
hasoos said:
Yea, after all, why play for team USA when it might improve your game......
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Disappointing to be sure. Unfortunately, that's been Aldridge's MO. So much for the "hardworking" version of Rasheed Wallace.
 
No Surprise There. LMA Aldridge sucks, I would much rather have Sheed, Kevin Love, or how about Luis Scola represent our country
 
I think we forget the injuries Aldridge suffered at Texas. We've been lucky with his health as a Blazer. It would be cool to have he and Roy on the Olympic team, but if I had to choose, I'd rather have them healthy and rested for our season.

It may also be that he looked at the roster and figured he wasn't going to make the team, so why put himself through the work?
 
Yes we all know how much playing for your national team helped Rudy over the summer. Hell that was my biggest complaint. The Euro guys play all year round and don't have time to work on their game. I would much rather have LMA working out every day on his weaknesses than playing for Team USA.
 
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hasoos said:
Yea why practice basketball between seasons at all. You might get injured!:ohno:
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Agreed. Work out, stay in shape, but take time off from competitive basketball in the off-season. Plenty of that during training camp, exhibition season, regular season and playoffs.
 
hasoos said:
Yea why practice basketball between seasons at all. You might get injured!:ohno:
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Yea, Team USA tryouts is th eonly place to practice basketball in the offseason.
 
I should be dissapointed, but actually, I feel overjoyed. LMA just gave a big FU to everyone, and I'm loving it.
 
RR7 said:
Yea, Team USA tryouts is th eonly place to practice basketball in the offseason.
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At that intensity it is. All of the players who took part in USA basketball talked about how taking part helped their game, because they didn't understand how hard some players in the league work until they took part. Why do you think Wade, Bosh and Lebron are together? They are together because of TEAM USA and their experience there, and the fact they are sick of playing with players who don't do what it takes to win.

If Lamarcus is so good at practicing and improving his game on his own in the off season, then why have his stats essentially been flat since he entered the league, and some of the numbers, have even declined during his career. The only thing that has increased for Lamarcus, is his number of minutes on the court.

All of that tells me, that he is not serious about improving his game. Decent player? Yep. What you want in order to get to the top? Not even. The best Lamarcus is now, is a #3 scorer on a good team.
 
hasoos said:
At that intensity it is. All of the players who took part in USA basketball talked about how taking part helped their game, because they didn't understand how hard some players in the league work until they took part. Why do you think Wade, Bosh and Lebron are together? They are together because of TEAM USA and their experience there, and the fact they are sick of playing with players who don't do what it takes to win.

If Lamarcus is so good at practicing and improving his game on his own in the off season, then why have his stats essentially been flat since he entered the league, and some of the numbers, have even declined during his career. The only thing that has increased for Lamarcus, is his number of minutes on the court.

All of that tells me, that he is not serious about improving his game. Decent player? Yep. What you want in order to get to the top? Not even. The best Lamarcus is now, is a #3 scorer on a good team.
Click to expand...

I am not sure who will be there that would help his game. Maybe chasing Durant around the perimeter
 
hasoos said:
At that intensity it is. All of the players who took part in USA basketball talked about how taking part helped their game, because they didn't understand how hard some players in the league work until they took part. Why do you think Wade, Bosh and Lebron are together? They are together because of TEAM USA and their experience there, and the fact they are sick of playing with players who don't do what it takes to win.

If Lamarcus is so good at practicing and improving his game on his own in the off season, then why have his stats essentially been flat since he entered the league, and some of the numbers, have even declined during his career. The only thing that has increased for Lamarcus, is his number of minutes on the court.

All of that tells me, that he is not serious about improving his game. Decent player? Yep. What you want in order to get to the top? Not even. The best Lamarcus is now, is a #3 scorer on a good team.
Click to expand...

So if he took part, he might make friends with other players, and decide to join forces together to put him on a better team? Yeah, I'd hope he wouldn't go then. Bosh has pretty much flat lined. And now he's a #3 scorer on a good team. What did Team USA do for Bosh? It got him to talk to Wade and Lebron, and get him on a good team. The only mention I heard of someone seeing another raise their game was Lebron mentioning it about Kobe. But then Lebron went and bailed on personal improvement for joining up with Wade and Bosh, to make things easier on him.

Yeah, I don't give a shit about Team USA. I don't want a bunch of our guys playing year round. I want their focus to be on Portland.
 
RR7 said:
So if he took part, he might make friends with other players, and decide to join forces together to put him on a better team? Yeah, I'd hope he wouldn't go then. Bosh has pretty much flat lined. And now he's a #3 scorer on a good team. What did Team USA do for Bosh? It got him to talk to Wade and Lebron, and get him on a good team. The only mention I heard of someone seeing another raise their game was Lebron mentioning it about Kobe. But then Lebron went and bailed on personal improvement for joining up with Wade and Bosh, to make things easier on him.

Yeah, I don't give a shit about Team USA. I don't want a bunch of our guys playing year round. I want their focus to be on Portland.
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Nice post, agreed completely.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Yes we all know how much playing for your national team helped Rudy over the summer. Hell that was my biggest complaint. The Euro guys play all year round and don't have time to work on their game. I would much rather have LMA working out every day on his weaknesses than playing for Team USA.
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Weak excuse in my opinion. I guess I fall on the patriotic side of things. It's a chance to play and represent your country. Injury be damned as far as I'm concerned.
 
Fuck patriotism. Injury be damned? Tell that to Paul Allen. Team USA isn't paying their salaries, he is. I don't want a guy getting injured to try to tough it out for Team USA to get a gold medal. I'll get much more joy out of the Blazers winning than I will USA winning, personally.
 
hasoos said:
If Lamarcus is so good at practicing and improving his game on his own in the off season, then why have his stats essentially been flat since he entered the league, and some of the numbers, have even declined during his career. The only thing that has increased for Lamarcus, is his number of minutes on the court.
Click to expand...
You keep saying that, but I'm not so sure it's true...

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/lamarcus_aldridge/career_stats.html

Other than his rookie year, which could be argued as a low-ish usage outlier, his FG% has gone up a decent amount (and is almost back to the rookie %). His 3PT% has gone up each year, and his FT% went up 3 straight years before dipping slightly last year. Rebounding has been fairly steady but improved slightly (total and per minute) last year. Assists and steals have trended up slightly, and turnovers have dropped steadily.

Aside from transforming himself into a monster rebounder, I'm not quite sure what you're expecting... 18 pts and 8 rebounds a game from a 2nd or 3rd option, high efficiency player is pretty damn good, in my opinion. Sure, I'd like to see him be even better, but he's anything but in a rut as you suggest.
 
I don't mean it as a screw the US. I love my country. I just don't see playing an olympic sport as some patriotic duty. Especially when you are paid to play elsewhere. I don't get this big sense of pride seeing our overpaid professional athletes win gold medals, and start chanting to myself USA. USA. I don't. Sorry. My basketball pecking order starts with the TrailBlazers, not Team USA. That's where my priority is at. And that's where I want my players' priorities at. Not with Team Spain. Team France. Team England. or Team USA.
 
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