Tuesday, August 17, 2004

WANTED: Point Guard and Shooter

Where is our point guard?

Jason Kidd declined to play in these Olympics. Not to mention he’s had injury problems this past year.

Gary Payton is old. Mike Bibby declined. Stevie Franchise isn’t there. Neither is Baron Davis. Sam Cassell has a career altering injury. Damon Stoudamire isn’t allowed to travel across national borders.

Tony Parker is French. Steve Nash is Canadian. Carlos Arroyo was on that Puerto Rican team that beat us.

Skip To My Lou a.k.a. Rafer Alston is available. So is Krik Hinrich, Jeff McInnis, Jamaal Tinsley, Mike James, Tony Delk, Jason Hart, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Terry, Tyronne Lue, Andre Miller, Antonio Daniels, Chucky Atkins and Derek Fisher.

Stephon Marbury [Knicks] is in Athens. What about Chauncey Billups?? Ya know…the MVP of the 2004 NBA Finals?? Or White Chocolate, Jason Williams?? If we’re gonna have our guys throw behind-the-back passes during this competition….then let an expert do it.

                                       

Odd that these are most of the starting point guards for the 30 teams in the NBA next year. The only one in Athens is Marbury…who functions more as a scoring guard. A lot of the names thrown up here aren’t great distributors either. But Billups has shown an ability to both lead his team, be a tough defender and a pretty good shooter. All things missing from Team USA.

Where are all our shooters?

I know that a Richard Jefferson is considered a popular up-and-coming player. So are some of these other guys. But, a team isn’t just made up of the 12 best players in the NBA. You got to consider what your team needs and work from there.

Anthony Peeler, Brent Barry, Fred Hoiberg, Brian Cardinal, Aaron McKie, Casey Jacobson, Mike Finley. All of these guys were in the top 11 in 3-point shooting last year. None, that I am aware of, were asked to be part of this Olympic team. Of all of the “star” players that were invited to attend, only Ray Allen cracks the top 20.

Stick two of these guys on this team….and it may be a little different story. One thing…if this guy starts hitting…then these foreign teams can’t play zone. If they can’t play zone….then the athleticism of this team can take over. I mean…couldn’t you have two of these guys on the team and dump Emeka Okafur and Shawn Marion??

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You touch on the key point.  We sent an all-star team, not a group of players who were likely to function well as a team.  This has been a problem with the Dream Team concept since the beginning, but this team has highlighted it.  I can remember that 1992 was a coming out party for John Stockton.  Sure, he was already an established player, but he had a startling impact on that team because he was a bona fide point guard who was in no hurry to shoot.