Big question for Tues-Wed: Who is the final cut for Team USA? Rondo, Granger, Love DNPs vs. Spain are clues. Decision by Thursday expected.
Twitter / Chris Sheridan: Big question for Tues-Wed: ...
Chris Sheridan is wondering what we're wondering, and places significance on the DNPs logged by Rondo, Granger and Love Sunday. As Citizen madglove pointed out, the playing time issue may be overstated. We'll get a least one more datapoint on Wednesday versus Greece, followed quickly by that last cut.
over 1 year ago
Steve Perrin
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The only way I see Love getting cut is if his injury he suffered in camp is still hindering him
Love seems like a player Coach K would love, no ego, good passer, good rebounder, and he has a decent mid range shot. I think the team can survive without Love but I would think you would to save him for insurance. I would rather cut Granger IMO.
"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right"unknown
honestly
I haven’t seen Granger do anything in the games vs. France, Lith, and now Spain. I think he should be the final cut.
by Cay.Clipper1 on Aug 24, 2010 1:51 AM PDT up reply actions
Hmm...
if its based on playing time, then Love is for sure out. He has very few mins logged in all the games combined. But then again granger has only logged 10 or so mins in the past couple games but i still think that is more than love. But love’s game fits so well in FIBA. Surprised if he gets cut.
Love
Love has had two minor injuries. He had a sore leg that limited him in early games, then he banged his head vs. Lithuania and the held him out of Spain. The net effect is that they have basically not seen him in game action. Not sure how that will affect the final decision.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
by Steve Perrin on Aug 24, 2010 12:51 AM PDT up reply actions
Why is there not a legit
center in the US team? Kaman should have been asked since he didn’t go to zee Germans!…Sofo gonna crush them in the paint!
Roger Sterling: To my knees, Don. They're bringing to my knees!"
Kaman not an option
Once you play in an official competition for one country, you forfeit your eligibility to play for another country. He’s officially German as far as FIBA is concerned.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
by Steve Perrin on Aug 24, 2010 12:49 AM PDT up reply actions
Plus Chandler is a legit center.
Against Sofo will be another story. It’s almost funny that we didn’t get to see Sofo shine in summer league because that style of play does not suit his style of play. The international game does and I think regular season NBA would have to. I still wish we signed him. Has he signed with a team in Europe yet Steve, cause we do need another C.
But we can't be misled
If he does indeed pound us and make life extremely hard for Team USA, it doesn’t necessarily mean we lost out on an NBA star. He’s been playing with this team for years and has great chemistry with the players from Olympiakos. Also, if he had played for us, he’d probably get minutes similar or less than Craig Smith got last year, and we’ve seen that he plays very differently when getting limited touches/not being the focus of an offensive set. On Greece he gets both whenever he’s on the floor, so it’ll be a completely different story.
Just curious
but how have we “seen that he plays very differently when getting limited touches/not being focus of an offensive set.” Everything about summer league ball is different, they don’t do the pick and roll well like in the NBA to begin with and that’s one of his strong suits.
That's true
I meant more that if he played with the Clippers, he would have to be a role player like Craig Smith, and he seems more suited to being a guy that you run plays for. Summer League was definitely a bad medium for sampling, for sure. I would have liked to see him play pre-season :(
Minutes are probably overstated, but maybe they're not?
This team is VERY young, has no International basketball experience, and have not played at all together as a team. Isn’t it possible Coach K is more concerned about getting the players who will be playing when the games count more time now then be worried about who the last man on the team will be? The starters played alot of minutes against Spain because the game was close and he wanted to see how his go-to-guys (Durant, Rose, Billups) would step up. EJ played more minutes when he was making plays and less when he struggled when he came in versus Spain. Won’t this be how Coach K works the bench in the real games? If you make plays right away your going to get more time because if you don’t, there is somebody else who can. What positive is there to not giving any minutes to Rondo and Granger if there locks for the team? Shouldn’t they be out there to get experience with the rest of the team? I understand if there are injuries but even then if your not 100% right now, your no help to the team.
Also, what if instead of trying to cover our weakness (Size) they intend to embrace our strength (quickness). Maybe Coach K will play small alot and make the big teams change their game to ours instead of the other way around. Maybe they can press alot which will shorten the amount of time the bigger teams can get into their sets to work the ball down low. I hope the US goes with this strategy because I think it gives them the best chance to win along with insuring EJ has a spot.
I agree
I think the minutes are significant. For EJ, he got to play a lot of minutes early on, and when it was clear he wasn’t getting it going (and that Spain wasn’t a slouch team), Coach K gave minutes to the players that were producing immediately. Since EJ got his chance early on, I can deduce that Coach K still has confidence in him, but that he just felt EJ wasn’t having a good game. Not much to worry about from one bad game since they’ve been raving about his consistency in camp.
For Rondo and Granger, this should worry them more. Coach K didn’t even want to find out if they were having a good game. It may be that he was just trying to get a look at the 3 “bubble” guards, but it also may be that he didn’t even want to bother seeing what Rondo and Granger would bring to the game. That’s a little hard to believe though. As well as Rose played at the end of the game, he wasn’t too effective earlier on when Rubio kept picking him.
I think EJ didn't play much because Coach K wanted to give Curry/Westbrook a fair chance
Rondo is super safe. Cutting Love could kill us if we have any crucial moments where we need to secure the rebound.
I’m starting to think Curry should get cut if a guard has to go. We can’t afford the Navarro’s of the world to dominate us with those floaters in the lane, we need committed defenders (EJ/Westbrook).
But yeah, Rubio is for real. I never realized how long his arms were! He seems to have filled out a bit too.
Yeah Rubio is good
he just needs a more consistent mid range and outside game and he will be ready.
"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right"unknown
by bestclipfan on Aug 24, 2010 10:33 AM PDT up reply actions
Now he is officially cut
http://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/status/22017827574
"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right"unknown
by bestclipfan on Aug 24, 2010 10:49 AM PDT up reply actions
I heard he withdraws??? WHat in the world?
by RockyMountain on Aug 24, 2010 11:22 AM PDT up reply actions
Yeah it is really a withdrawl
he has some family issues to take care of, I think he missed a couple practices earlier because of the family issues.
"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right"unknown
by bestclipfan on Aug 24, 2010 11:31 AM PDT up reply actions
He did have a death in the family
But yeah, this seems more like he’s pissed about a DNP.
Quote from Rondo:
“I think I’m on the bubble. Just looking at the obvious — I got a DNP last game. That pretty much speaks for itself.”
And from the same ESPN article:
“[Rondo’s] DNP-CD (did not play — coach’s decision) Sunday was his first since his rookie NBA season.”
In the end, it was a good cut because I think expectations were a little high for Rondo. He’s very similar to Westbrook, but Westbrook’s not in consideration to be a starter on this team. This cut takes out all the ambiguity. We know we start Rose at point, and Westbrook can come off the bench.
Rondo has withdrawn from the team...aka he got his feelings hurt in the game vs. Spain.
Rondo just never seemed to run the offense how coach K wanted and Rondo just didn’t look like he connected with any of the players. When the team was gathered together at mid-court after the games he was always standing to the side. When a player on Team USA made a good play he would sit with his hand on his face.
He may have “family matters” to tend to, but he never was a good fit for Team USA.
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