US Team Report Card, LeBron v. Kobe, and OMG!-Please-Don't-Let-That-Be-OKC's-New-Logoness

1. Basketball freelance writer extraordinaire David Friedman has written a couple of gems:

a) A detailed report card of each U.S. Olympic Team player's 2008 performance. Not surprisingly, Dwayne Wade (.671 from field, .471 3-pters), LeBron James (led Team USA in steals and blocked shots, ranked second in scoring and assists and shot .602 from the field, including .464 3-pters, but only made .458 FTs), and Kobe Bryant (1st in threes made but made .583 FTs) earned A's.

Chris Bosh's A-grade numbers stirred the pot a bit, though. We knew the 4th pick in the celebrated 2003 NBA draft class was good but who knew he would become the Americans' most effective post weapon in FIBA play?

Chris Bosh (17.3 mpg, 9.1 ppg, .3 apg, 6.1 rpg, two steals, six blocked shots overall)

Bosh led Team USA in rebounding and field goal percentage (.774) and he ranked second in free throw percentage (.862). He was perhaps the most pleasant surprise; Wade's performance was more a matter of him getting healthy than anything else, but Bosh supplanted Howard as Team USA's most effective big. Bosh not only played very well in the paint at both ends of the court but he also did a great job of helping to defend on the perimeter against screen/roll plays. His emergence relegated Boozer to mop up duty and further reinforced a theme that I emphasized all along, namely that Team USA did not need another big on the roster; USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo was right to bolster the team's size and defensive flexibility on the perimeter, fully realizing that Team USA would only play one traditional big at a time.

b) A comparison between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant based not primarily on statistics or vague evocations of "teamwork" and "killer instinct" but an analysis of the two towering talents' skill sets - shooting, passing, defense, footwork/fakes, ballhandling, and rebounding.
Somewhat surprisingly, the comparison is a draw or in Bryant's favor in all skills except passing. Friedman admits that LeBron's hyperathleticism/"beastliness" makes up for current skill deficiencies:

There is not a huge gulf between Bryant and James at this point. It seems that most of the people who believe that James is already better than Bryant fall into two camps: fans who are speaking from the heart more than the mind and stat heads who strictly look at (certain) numbers without considering any context. If you talk to NBA executives, coaches, players and scouts their evaluation will generally resemble the one that was offered above; it may differ in certain specific details but people who look at the game from a technical, objective standpoint realize that Bryant’s skill set is more well rounded than James’ skill set at this point. James’ size and athletic ability mitigate those skill set factors to some extent, so one could make a case that James is better than Bryant in that sense but I’d have to see an improvement in James’ shooting and/or a greater decline in Bryant’s athletic ability to agree with that take.

3. Well, it looks like my home state of Arkansas now has NBA teams in four of its surrounding states (Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and now Oklahoma). Woo-hoo! Six years ago, this number was one.
Oklahoma City's new team mascot and logo has been kept "under-wraps" until the lid was taken off recently.
Is this possibly the lamest professional mascot/logo of all time? I dare say it was dreamt up by a Stepford Wife on one of her less creative days...

Dream Team vs. Redeem Team

It may be the most entertaining water-cooler talk two basketball fans could imagine. What would happen if what most consider the greatest basketball team ever constructed - the 1992 Dream Team - took the hardwood against the most impressive international basketball team the world has seen in the last 12 years - years in which the caliber of play abroad has skyrocketed and blowing out a squad as good as the 2008 National Spanish team by more than 30 points (as the Redeem Team did) did not seem possible?

The question has been debated online over the days following the USA's 118-107 gold-medal victory. Per my friend's request (that's right, Sean), I've decided to chime in.

The following italicized passages are reasons that Jack McCullum believes the Dream Team would beat the Redeem Team and my counterarguments in

The best all-around player on the '08 team was LeBron James, with Kobe a close second. (During the NBA season, I reverse that order.) The best all-around player on the '92 team was Jordan. And Jordan, at that time, was a better player than either James or Bryant, offensively and defensively. To a large extent, teams draw their identity and their strength from their best player.

But I feel that James and Bryant could beat any two players that the Dream Team could have put together, like Jordan and Pippen, Jordan and Magic or Jordan and Bird (especially the older, hobbled '92 version of Bird). Cumulatively, the top two players from this year's team are better than the top two players from the Dream Team.

The '08 team could not begin to match the Dreamers on the interior. Not only did the '92-ers have two classic centers in Patrick Ewing and David Robinson -- that's two more classic centers than the '08 team had -- but Barkley and Karl Malone could also supply post-ups and rebounding. Dwight Howard was a force at times in Beijing, but against the Dream Team, he'd have three fouls before Coach K could look around for a replacement. Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer would play their tails off, but they would get pounded inside.

This was the same supposed downfall that pundits felt would afflict the Redeem Teamers. Yet Boozer hardly played and the team still won gold undefeated with only Bosh and Howard as center-types. What happened?

Thick-as-hell small forwards in the NBA who made the conversion to FIBA power forwards happened.

For the Redeem Team, James and Caremlo, who weigh in the 240-260 range, were athletic , powerful and versatile enough to man both the wings and interior for the Redeem Team. Against the '92ers, LeBron would be strong enough to guard Karl Malone - both are 6-8ish and 260 pounds - and cause all types of problems for the more slow-footed man on the offensive side. Carmelo has the bulk to guard Barkley. True, Robinson and Ewing are together bigger than Howard and Bosh and would give the Dream Teamers a slight advantage at center, but I don't believe the '08er are deficient in the paint as pundits make them out to be, given Carmelo and James' ability to contribute there. '92 wings Mullin and Pippen were physically no where near as ready to bang inside.

The '08 team is deeper at the point with a combination of Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Deron Williams, particularly since John Stockton was limited by a leg injury in Barcelona and could provide only minor backup help for Magic. But that's irrelevant. Any number of players besides Johnson (Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin and Clyde Drexler) could initiate the U.S. offense, which was more versatile than the Beijing team's.

Stockton's injury would have given the Redeem Teamers the decisive edge on the perimeter, primarily because of'08ers' superior defensive versatility. Players in 2008 tend to be stronger and more athletic than players in 1992 because of more effective training regimes.

Who would guarded Paul/Deron Williams from the '92 team? An older Magic would not have looked very spry running after the two speed-demons. So Jordan or Pippen would have been put on them. So Magic has to switch off to guarding a Wade - who is just as quick - or Kobe or LeBron, all of whom would have spelled trouble. Meanwhile, Jordan/Pippen would be using valuable energy running around trying to keep up with Paul/Williams that they could have allocated to the offensive end.

Given, the Dream Teamers backcourt would have been taller, but I don't think the points from a few post-up fade-aways could trump the havoc raised by the Redeem Teamers' speed. Johnson, Bird, and Mullin are all significantly slower than Wade, Paul/Williams, Kobe, LeBron and Carmelo and I think that in the end this would spell foul trouble for the '92 perimeter players. It would be a fascinating game of attrition, as Coach Daly would have to judiciously apportion the time that Jordan and Pippen spent chasing down the point guard speedsters.

P.S. ESPN.com interviewed the Dream Team Coach Chuck Daly and Daly, as would be expected, declared Magic would have his way with the smaller guards. When asked how Magic would do defensively, he said Magic would use the same spacing techniques that he had against the Lithuanian guard Sarunas Marciulionis.

Sarunas was quick, yes, but his microwaved maple syrup doesn't compare to Paul's molten lava.

I imagine Drexler would see a lot of Wade, some Kidd and a little Kobe.

I would favor the Redeem Team by 1 point in an actual match-up because of the above reasons and also because you cannot the discount the possibility that the 12th men would play a role in game between two extremely deep teams. Prince/Boozer are much, much better 12th men than the circa '92 inexperienced Laettner, who earned his roster spot by dint of his college performance. Booz, Carmelo, Howard and Bosh would eat poor Christian alive whereas everybody on the Redeem Team could be a contributor in crunch-time and wouldn't embarrass themselves on the defensive end as Christian would do. Redd could guard Mullin and Prince could guard Bird or Magic in a crunch.

Stockton's injury and Mullin's and Laettner's relative slow-footedness give the Redeem Team a quicker, and defensively more versatile, team.

Finally, as Chris Mannix argues, let's not forget that the Redeem Team has practiced and played in tournaments for 3 years under international rules and would understand the nuances much better than the Dream Team, which first practiced together the summer of 1992.

The actual numbers, as taken from Chris Sheridan's article, favor the Dream Team but this is to be expected - their competition was so much inferior.

Dream Team vs. Redeem Team
1992 2008
W-L 8-0 8-0
PPG 117.3 106.3
Opponent PPG 73.5 78.4
PPG differential +43.8 +27.9
FG pct 57.8 55.0
Opponent FG pct 36.5 40.3
3-pt FG pct 40.0 37.7
Opponent 3-pt pct 30.5 29.9
FT pct 72.6 68.0
RPG differential +13.5 +5.6
Assists per game 29.9 18.8
Steals per game 22.1 12.5
Blocks per game 5.9 3.9

Wonder how a best-of-7 series would turn out? Go here to find out from the number-crunchers at whatifsports.com.

Couch Blogging

Tonight, I sat down with all four quarterfinal games recorded on my DVR, feeling a tad bit like that boy from "A Christmas Story" as he opened his presents, feverishly anticipating his Red Rider BB gun.

I am going to do try a "DVR-enhanced" live running commentary blog on the games...

Spain blew out a very young Croatia team, but that outcome was expected, considering Croatia was missing one of its best players. The other three games interested me more.

China-Lithuania

The first thing I noticed when I stopped my super-fast forward DVR function halfway through the 1st quarter was that the Chinese crowd sounded like it was cheering at the end of a close game. And really, this is the most important basketball game that the team has ever played. It will not get another chance to play a major international tournament in China for probably at least another decade, so it's do or die for the Team Red against the Lithuania. Making the semifinals and earning at least a chance would be a big, big deal in Beijing. Lose in the quarterfinals and they've done no better than their 7th place finish in Athens.

It is 1:24 left in the 1st quarter and Yao Ming has yet to shoot the ball, color commentator Skipper Jones says. Yet China still leads 15-14. This bodes well for them.
Yi Jianlin, though, has 6 points and 5 rebounds - a magnificent start for the New Jersey Net. He misses a 5-foot gimme with 5 seconds left in the first.

2nd Quarter
9:31 - Yao scores his first point on a free throw after being fouled on a 3-point attempt! He misses the next two and looks fatigued, though.

A few minutes later, Lithuania hits a 3 pointer, out-hustles the Red to an offensive rebound for a put-back and scores a fast-break lay-up to take a 25-20 lead. It'll be interesting to see if this is the beginning of the end.

5:00 - Wang Zhu Zhu looks old as sin. He turned the ball over on a drive and (dropped) a dish to the Green and White on one possession. The next time he had the ball, he was stripped of his lollipop and kicked out of the candy store, leading to a Lithuanian dunk.

Did anybody else notice the NBC NBA theme song leading into the commercial breaks? I understand USA is owned by NBC, but linking the Olympic games so blatantly seems a bit ridiculous. Conversely, you could argue that there's no way NBC would even be airing a non-USA Olympic basketball game without the participation of foreigners in the NBA and the interest these athletes have generated both in their home countries and the American viewer.

Siskaukus, the "Baltic Scottie Pippen," cans a wide-open three from the wing to put Lithuania up 41-30 heading into half. From what I've seen, I'd say China has a better chance of soon fielding a 100m sprint champion than coming back from this game. Time to FF it.

End of the 3rd quarter: Jasikevicius drains a three to put Lithuania up 70-53. Make that Jon Stewart has a better chance of being invited to George W. Bush's birthday party than China does of winning this one.

"Saras" Jasikevicius scores 23 points to lead the Green and Yellow to 94-68 triumph.

China did well to make it into the quarterfinals but it is obvious that, although they are the best team in Asia, they have to be more aggressive and deep at the guard positions to compete with the better European teams. With the interest the NBA has shown in China (the NBA tentatively plans on installing 800,000 rims around the nation), progress will be made before London 2012.

U.S.A. vs. Australia

Wow. I have just happened upon the Aussies' averages for their last three wins (including a blow-out win over previously undefeated Lithuania) - all victories. Check it:

Points - 102.3
Field goal % AND 3-pt FG % - 53 %
Point Differential - 28.0

Of course, Lithuania wasn't playing for anything and was probably reserving their strength for the medal round. Also, the numbers are inflated by the Aussie's wallopin' of weakest team in the tourney - Iran. I predict the US wins by 32, partly because the Aussie point guards outscored the Americans 24-5 in the exhibition game and I expect Chris Paul and Deron Williams to show they're just a tad bit better than that.

1st Quarter
Kobe get out the kleenex and erases a Brad Newley tear-drop and on the other end jab-steps his way to a deuce, putting the U.S up 9-3. He's good.

5:18 - Patrick Mills, the Aussie PG, hits a sweet step-back three. One Aussie three later and the US is only up 15-12.

3:00: Australia misses three consecutive lay-ups on two consecutive possessions. C'mon guys. If you're going to pull a colossal upset, you gotta do better than that. Still, only down 17-21 are the Down-Underers.

04:5 - Wow. Patty Mills just blasted by Chris Paul (not an easy guy to make look slow) and threw in an angled, off-balance 8-foot runner. Aussies down 24-25. So far, he is the point guard - not Jose Calderon or J.R. Holden - that has given the US the most trouble in these Olympics.

2nd Quarter
8:45 - Mills redux. He stole it from Deron Williams and outraced everybody to the rim for a dipsy-doo layup. I can't help cheer for the fiesty lil' guy. Aussies down 28-30.

7:20 - Australia only has 3 turnovers at this point, which has done a spectacular job of taking care of the ball against the US. The US goes small, with LeBron as a post player, and a couple of turnovers later, Uncle Sam is up 37-30.

6:02 - D-Will scores a lay-up off off of an offensive foul and right on cue Doug Collins points out the US is up 39-32 because they have a 10-1 offensive rebound edge.

A little later: Wait a minute. Maybe they're ahead because LeBron is a beast. You don't often see someone strong enough to bull into a defender with such force that the poor chap's still sliding after the ball's gone through the hoop. LeBron did that. And stared the dude down even as he slid away from him.

Right before half the game shifts. Kobe grabs an offensive rebounds, spins, fades to Shanghai and scores. Australia then misses its 3rd consecutive three point attempt, and D-Will hits a trifecta with a second left to put the US up 55-43. Still, the Aussies should be happy they're only down by so much after being hammered 31-14 on the boards.

It's late and I gotta go to bed. FF time.

Halfway through the third, the US is up by 25 points, 69-43. As Doug Collins put it, they have learned to "have patience in delivering the knock-out punch."

As I FF through the second half, I notice Andrew Bogut look progressively more beat up. Finally, he can no longer play. With 6 minutes left in the game, I see him hobbling over to the Australian bench on one foot. They are down 70-101. After a shaky first-half, my prediction is looking good.

The drama increases as the numbers in the upper left corner zoom downwards. I am practically on the edge of the couch as the US's lead oscillates from 25-32 points. Finally, the final score emerges from the smoke: 116-85.

A 31-point win!

Sooooo close!

Russia v. US

This 89-68 victory was the least impressive of the US's exhibition victories so far. Russia was tall, tough, experienced and able to minimize the Americans' fast break points while outrebounding them 12-4.

Some sights -

1. There's no doubt David Blatt, Russia's head coach but born and raised in the US, has officially gone over to the dark side, sartorially speaking. If his open-collar, flaming-font red Russian shirt tucked into tight designer jeans doesn't scream "Euro Trash," it's only because the outfit's far too hoarse.

2. It is both amazing to note and indicative of the US's obscene stable of talent that Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest scorers in NBA history and at 29 still in his prime, was only the US's 6th leading scorer at the game's onset. Admittedly, part of the reason for this relative paucity of points is Kobe's single-minded dedication to defense for this team. His 12 points in the third quarter, however, showed how important Kobe's offense still is for his team. The 8 point deficit they faced with 3 minutes was the closest they had been late in an exhibition game so far. Kobe's timely drives and perimeter shooting, as well as a couple of 3s from Redd, helped expand the US's lead to a more comfy 18 going into the fourth quarter.


3. It just occured to me with 4 minutes in the first quarter as Dwayne Wade speedily slithered to the basket for a deuce that Wade's new bald pate makes him look like a bigger, less surly version of Nick Van Exel.