SBNBA Olympic Basketball primer

I’d imagine Deng can light it up from FIBA 3 given his consistency on the super-long 2 point shot in the NBA that he takes so frequently. Extend your range by a step Lu and you become about twice as dangerous!

paul and williams on the other hand have been money.

is more worthwhile in international ball?

internationally by numerous analysts and fans. While I haven’t seen too much of him internationally, my rationale for my analysis:

1. No hand-checking rules: Andres is pretty well known for being extremely physical on man defense. While this may cost him in the NBA (as his 4.4 fouls/36 min in the NBA attests to), it’s actually a positive attribute internationally. There’s a lot more leeway given to slapping offensive players around, and so this “weakness” for Noce in the NBA is actually a plus.

2. Short three point line: This one is in response to your “leaving his man too often” comment. In FIBA/Olympics play, guards and wings tend to hang around 20 feet from the hoop- or right at the short three point line. So even if Nocioni leaves his assignment frequently, he has a much better chance of recovering in time. Instead of having to hustle back to a 23 foot three point line, he can come back to just 20 or 21 feet to contest a jumper. 2 or 3 feet is a huge difference.

3. Bulls != Argentina: Feel free to agree or disagree with this, but playing for the 33 win Bulls is vastly different than playing for a defending Gold Medalist. Playing for national glory or playing for Win #34 against the Bobcats? In my estimation, one brings out slightly more inspired/energetic play than the other.

Now can I have some of my credibility back? :)

I don’t expect it to be easy. We might not have as a difficult time guarding three point shooters since not every team will have a center that demands as much attention (and their three point shooting success in the first half was pretty much the only reason they were in the game at that point), but our own looked pretty bad with the zone defense like you said. I just didn’t see a lot to like from today’s game. Maybe the next one will be a better indicator.

Gives them another 3-pt specialist so they just aren’t hoping that Redd happens to be on when they need him. Gives them another big. Kobe and LeBron can defend the wing just fine, and they don’t have to worry about expending injury on defense because the team is loaded for offensive players.

It’d make them bigger and better.

he’ll get a contract bump like Hinrich!

but Marc Gasol did not look good against Greece. Worse, he looked fat and slow.

he didn’t give me fair warning :)

He posts everything in bullet format, so even if you aren’t looking for it, it catches your eye.

The problem is that he just tries way too hard to make NBA players seem interesting. Some of them are, most of them are utterly boring.