Game Thread Official USA vs Australia game thread

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I’m really hoping Middleton and Booker can get buckets for us.
 
Natebishop3 said:
Your guys have been playing together for years.
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About half of the team Australia put out there have been together for years, the rest are either brand new to the national team, or haven't played much with the senior players. That was only the second game Thybulle has ever played for Australia, but he played great, because he knows how to play his role.

I think most of your players have no idea how to play in a team where they're not the focus of the team. That's why Draymond looks so good out there, because he's a glue guy. Most of your players need to step back, and play their role, whilst some need to step up and take control.

Lift the defensive effort, get stops, push the ball, score easy fast break points. In the half court focus on getting looks for Dame, Durant, and Booker; everyone else be ready to catch and shoot, and know when to cut. You'll easily win gold.
 
handiman said:
Is it too soon to say that Pop has lost the locker room?
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I agree... has to be the coaches fault!

Bad sub patterns
No playing the young guys enough
Not holding players accountable
Too much ISO

What did I miss?
 
I notice Matisse Thybulle has caught Australian off Ben Simmons...

Imagine if Kyrie had decided to play for Australia. He'd have to come off the bench behind Patty, mind.
 
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DUB said:
I think most of your players have no idea how to play in a team where they're not the focus of the team.
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But why wouldn’t that have been the case in 2008 with guys like Kobe and LeBron and Wade and Melo?
 
Rastapopoulos said:
I notice Matisse Thybulle has caught Australian off Ben Simmons...

Imagine if Kyrie had decided to play for Australia. He'd have to come off the bench behind Patty, mind.
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Thybulle moved to Australia when he was 2, and spent his childhood here. His first memories are of Australia. He's a dual citizen. Basketball Australia have been talking to him for years about representing Australia. Brett Brown was the Australian coach at the same time as he was the Philly coach.

Patty goes to another level when he pulls on the national jersey.
 
Natebishop3 said:
But why wouldn’t that have been the case in 2008 with guys like Kobe and LeBron and Wade and Melo?
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't those players make a concerted effort to play more as a team, rather than a group of individuals after the bronze in Athens 2004?

Isn't that why everyone loves Olympic Melo, because he's not Iso Melo?
 
Neil is going to see this and think to himself that perhaps surrounding Dame with more talent is not the answer.
 
agreed that talent is an issue, but roster construction and having the least practice time together of any previous team are even bigger issues.
Natebishop3 said:
But that's how USA has to approach the games. Your guys have been playing together for years. It's the same with every other international teams. Spain, France, etc. Their guys all grew up together in most cases. USA can't match that level of chemistry, so they usually beat it by putting out a team with a staggering amount of talent. I'm not even going to count the original dream team.

2008
Jason Kidd
LeBron James
Dwyane Wade
Chris Paul
Kobe Byrant
Chris Bosh
Dwight Howard
Carmleo Anthony
Deron Williams
Michael Redd
Tayshaun Prince
Carlos Boozer

2012
LeBron James
Kevin Durant
Chris Paul
Anthony Davis
Carmelo Anthony
Kobe Bryant
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kevin Love
Deron Williams
Andre Iguodala
Tyson Chandler

2016 (this team was kinda sketch as well but at least they had legit centers.)
Kevin Durant
Jimmy Butler
Paul George
Carmelo Anthony
Klay Thompson
Kyrie Irving
Kyle Lowry
DeMar DeRozan
DeMarcus Cousins
Draymond Green
DeAndre Jordan

Now look at this team
Dame
Durant
Booker
Draymond
Bam Adebayo
Beal
Jerami Grant
Jrue Holiday
Zach LaVine
Kevin Love
Khris Middleton
Jayson Tatum

I mean... those are good players, but the talent level just isn't as good.
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Wow, Pop & Kerr if they don't win gold with the best players in the world?
 
The team doesn't have a single legit center and only one true point guard.
 
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Natebishop3 said:
The weirdest part about these last two games is that they've been close down the stretch and Dame hasn't taken over.
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Too many chiefs not enough Indians. Or something like that. Feels like nobody knows who the main guy is. Or couple of guys. With the lebron and Kobe or Jordan and magic teams even, while the teams were loaded you still knew without question who the alpha dogs were. It feels like this team is unsure. It should be Damian and KD and everyone else needs to just fill their roles. But those two need to take over.
 
calvin natt said:
Too many chiefs not enough Indians. Or something like that. Feels like nobody knows who the main guy is. Or couple of guys. With the lebron and Kobe or Jordan and magic teams even, while the teams were loaded you still knew without question who the alpha dogs were. It feels like this team is unsure. It should be Damian and KD and everyone else needs to just fill their roles. But those two need to take over.
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It's up to the players to do that. Dame needs to stop taking a back seat. And for whatever reason, Durant isn't carrying like he has in the past. Nobody told Kobe to take over All-star games. He just did it because he wanted to show he was the best. Dame has the same mentality as Brandon Roy. They go to these things and they just coast.
 
DUB said:
Australia has never won a men's basketball medal, either at the Olympics, nor the World Cup. We've finished just outside the medals many times. Given their age, this may be the last chance for quite few of these guys. They're very hungry.
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I'm really surprised Australia's men's basketball team has never medaled. Whenever I've watched international basketball tournaments you guys always seem to be there at the end.
 
Natebishop3 said:
We have a third tier all star team out there. Start listing off the best players in the NBA and most of them aren’t there, either because they don’t want to be or because they’d be playing for someone else. Curry, Kawhi, AD, Harden, Embiid, Jokic, Paul George, etc. literally two players from the All NBA Teams are playing for USA and that’s Dame and Beal. Two out of 15.
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You do understand that Jokic and Embiid are not from the US right? You also understand Kawhi and Davis are both injured right? Now Curry and Harden with Paul George might help a bit sure.
Booker, Middleton and Jrue might help as well as we will see i guess.
 
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Fairly-Hard said:
You do understand that Jokic and Embiid are not from the US right? You also understand Kawhi and Davis are both injured right? Now Curry and Harden with Paul George might help a bit sure.
Booker, Middleton and Bam might help as well as we will see i guess.
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Bam is already playing and apparently NOT helping. Perhaps his heart is with Nigeria.
 
Really wish Dame wasn't playing for Team USA so I could enjoy this more.
 
Fairly-Hard said:
New Jersey is not Nigeria.
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Yeah but his dad is from Nigeria and I've had a lot of friends with immigrant parents and even though when we were really young they didn't always have the most pride in that by the time they matured a little every one of them felt pride in their heritage and because that heritage was so close felt very connected with their parent's native country. Bam obviously wanted to play for team USA because he obviously could have made either but I can see why some might question if he has conflicted feelings about who he would play for and especially might have on the day of the Nigeria game.
 
Natebishop3 said:
And that’s not the point. I’m not talking about the top two or three guys on the team. I’m taking about the overall talent on the roster. The rest of the roster is pretty mediocre compared to past USA teams.
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Yes your right but 3 will not going be on the team that's been playing. But some of the players is not living up to how they can play. Beal was better last game but not to standard what he can do. Tatum as been drinking up the court on both ends. Even Durant hasn't live up how good he really is and there others.
 
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