This is the idea that John Calipari had in a recent article of the New York Times. The piece discussed the chances of the United States basketball National Team in the upcoming Olympics.
Besides thinking of bringing back College teams,
College players should be put back into the Olympic mix. They were the staple of Olympic competition until 1992, and they bring passion and enthusiasm to the competition. Problem is, college players are no longer strong enough to compete at the Olympic level.
the author is the first one I read in the US press that comes up with changing the rules in the US and adapt them to the European style.
In the United States, it’s time to do the unthinkable: widen the lanes. Widen high school and college lanes to 16 feet, and widen the N.B.A. lane to international dimensions (yes, adopt the trapezoid).
If that changes that much in the playing style of the US teams in the future, I have some doubts. But the fact of bringing up a team that is actually used to play together was one of the changes that USA basketball brought up in the last summer by selecting a group of players that were engaged to compete together with the goal of Beijing 2008.
As this is not possible, John Calipari came up with an ingenious idea.
The answer — for national pride and continuity — is to have some sort of permanent national team. Calipari has an even better idea: send the N.B.A. champion.
His idea would involve identifying a core group of eight or nine players from the championship team, then adding two to three players from the outside.
Well, here I really have some doubts. When I check the roster of the actual NBA champions in their NBA Finals 2007 set, not less than 5 players were Internationals: Tony Parker, Fabricio Oberto, Manu Ginobili, Francisco Elson and Beno Udrih. Realistically, the Spurs without all these players that would be their opponents, would not have a chance of winning it all in my opinion. Maybe I am wrong and Calipari is right, but I have my doubts about this.
And what would USA Basketball replace them with?
Tony Parker with Chris Paul – huge boost
Fabricio Oberto with Carlos Boozer – definitely an improvement
Manu Ginobili with Kobe Bryant/LeBron James (choose yourself) – I would say that is an improvement by all means no matter how great Manu is.
Francisco Elson with Tyson Chandler (maybe not the most flashy guy, but would work perfectly next to Paul for sure) – still an improvement.
Beno Udrih with Deron Williams – big boost in PG position next to Paul.
If you consider that core of Spurs would not do anything, then adding those few extra guys (like author of the aforementioned article states that it has to be done) USA is set for a pretty decent team. Of course, you can argue if guys like Horry or Barry would be benefitial, but they have their role in Spurs, so they hardly would be lost and both of them have a great touch from the distance.
So all in all – I doubt that USA would suffer in such case incorporating few guys in already working system would be fine. Just the question is – how many guys are willing to go through with summer work after 100 game season. So that would be the biggest issue and not the roster stuff when you would replace them anyway.
[...] in a recent article of the New York Times. The piece discussed the chances of the United States …http://www.ballineurope.com/national-teams/send-the-nba-champions-to-the-olympics/NBA Finals Champions – HoopediaNBA Finals Winner of the nba Finals receives the Larry O&aposBrien [...]
The question isn’t necessarily a question of player-for-player talent. It’s about role playing and team chemistry. The European teams play with such fluid continuity, which I feel trumps being able to outrun and outjump them.
[...] current NBA Champions while sprinkling in a few selected players to round out the roster it would. Ball in Europe had a great response to this which I agree with: “When I check the roster of the actual NBA [...]