Cousins Back for Team USA

I just read from Bleacher Report that John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Paul Millsap were just cut from Team USA. I guess that means Cousins may the first cut.
 
Millsap getting cut is a little surprising but I guess someone has to go. Beal not surprising, Wall didn't play at Duke like Kyrie Irving. :)
 
Wouldn't be shocked to see Korver make it....if you want a role player he will knock it down all day from 3.

PG- Curry, D Rose, Lillard
SG- Harden, K Thompson
SF- Korver, Derozan
PF- Durant, Parsons
C- A Davis, Cuz, Drummond

Cut- Beal, Wall, Millsap, Plumlee, Faried, Hayward, Irving

I'm not real confidant on them cutting Irving or Hayward or their boy Plumlee, and I'd find room for Faried. Korver is my dark horse pick but they may cut him and keep a Faried....you don't want to find yourself short of any type of big man.
 
The Milsap cut is one of the dumbest cuts ever, he's perfectly built for international ball and would play well next to any of AD/Cuz/Drummond, seriously the fact Plumelee is on he roster is such a joke and also Irving over Wall is fairly dumb.
 
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Four more to go.

I'd say Hayward/Parsons, Korver are out. Probably Faried or Drummond as well. So that would be one last guy, and I think Cuz definitely makes it.
I think Korver is just about a certainty to make the team. He is the guy they would want on the floor to provide spacing to the big guns. A dead eye from 3 pt range who will play off the ball and shoot the open shots.
 
I think Korver is just about a certainty to make the team. He is the guy they would want on the floor to provide spacing to the big guns. A dead eye from 3 pt range who will play off the ball and shoot the open shots.

Yep. Not sure how much time Korver would actually see, but it sure as hell makes a lot of sense to bring the best off-ball/catch and shoot shooter in the world when everyone else on the team can and does demand double and triple teams.
 
Wouldn't be shocked to see Korver make it....if you want a role player he will knock it down all day from 3.

PG- Curry, D Rose, Lillard
SG- Harden, K Thompson
SF- Korver, Derozan
PF- Durant, Parsons
C- A Davis, Cuz, Drummond

Cut- Beal, Wall, Millsap, Plumlee, Faried, Hayward, Irving

I'm not real confidant on them cutting Irving or Hayward or their boy Plumlee, and I'd find room for Faried. Korver is my dark horse pick but they may cut him and keep a Faried....you don't want to find yourself short of any type of big man.

The floor spacing on that starting unit would be absolutely silly. Actually, it's pretty freaking good throughout the whole team. Offense would literally be as easy as having Harden, Rose and KD collapse the defense and take your pick of what 40+% 3pt shooter you want to kick it out too. Just insane.

That lineup does look a bit lax without Paul George on the opposing teams best wing. I guarentee that's what he was getting prepped for as a starter.
 
Wouldn't be shocked to see Korver make it....if you want a role player he will knock it down all day from 3.

PG- Curry, D Rose, Lillard
SG- Harden, K Thompson
SF- Korver, Derozan
PF- Durant, Parsons
C- A Davis, Cuz, Drummond

Cut- Beal, Wall, Millsap, Plumlee, Faried, Hayward, Irving

I'm not real confidant on them cutting Irving or Hayward or their boy Plumlee, and I'd find room for Faried. Korver is my dark horse pick but they may cut him and keep a Faried....you don't want to find yourself short of any type of big man.

Got a feeling they might take Faried rather than Drummond (hopefully its Drummond, not Cuz). The U.S. NT is positively big man phobic, and fresh out of the big SFs we used to play at PF. Seems likely to me we might go for a more mobile energy guy who could play some natural PF rather than the 3 big centers, despite the obvious move of having Davis slide to his natural PF spot.

Otherwise, your list would be my list I think.
 
I think the front court rotation will be a mix of Cousins, Davis, Drummond, Durant. I'd Use the same 3 4 5 as dude12 and I'd use a backcourt of Rose and Curry. Harden takes on Wades old role.
 
I think the front court rotation will be a mix of Cousins, Davis, Drummond, Durant. I'd Use the same 3 4 5 as dude12 and I'd use a backcourt of Rose and Curry. Harden takes on Wades old role.

we haven't taken more than 1 center in...well basically since Coach K's smallball regime was born. In fact a lot of years we've basically had 2 serious bigs total, normally one of them 6'8" or under, and then some token third stringer. now me? I have Davis and Cousins and Drummond and don't even think twice about it. Some little college ninny coach running the squad for the sake of his little chuckers? Not such a sure thing.
 
Got a feeling they might take Faried rather than Drummond (hopefully its Drummond, not Cuz). The U.S. NT is positively big man phobic, and fresh out of the big SFs we used to play at PF. Seems likely to me we might go for a more mobile energy guy who could play some natural PF rather than the 3 big centers, despite the obvious move of having Davis slide to his natural PF spot.

Otherwise, your list would be my list I think.

ESPN's latest seems to say as much, listing Faried as one of the "locks." It also suggests Plumlee outplayed Cousins during their match up, though...

http://espn.go.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/11311537/breaking-remaining-team-usa-roster
 
DeMarcus had a really good week, an outstanding scrimmage [and he was the] leading rebounder,” said Coach K. “He gives us a big that’s different than Anthony Davis. We are looking at that big position – the five – separate from all the others.

Good to hear K say that, I've been beating that drum since hearing Plumlee was being favored.
 
Wouldn't be shocked to see Korver make it....if you want a role player he will knock it down all day from 3.

PG- Curry, D Rose, Lillard
SG- Harden, K Thompson
SF- Korver, Derozan
PF- Durant, Parsons
C- A Davis, Cuz, Drummond

Cut- Beal, Wall, Millsap, Plumlee, Faried, Hayward, Irving

if i had to guess, i would assume they will keep Irving over Lillard
 
if i had to guess, i would assume they will keep Irving over Lillard

Nah. Lillard is a better 3 point shooter. 3 point shooting is everything in these international teams.

Lillard
Thompson
Korver
Durant
--------

Would be a hell of a Euro team. They would maul from the 3 point line. ha
 
if i had to guess, i would assume they will keep Irving over Lillard
I personally would keep Lillard, he looks like he has that it factor but Irving played at Duke and it wouldn't shock if he was chosen over Lillard but Lillard is better than Irving.
 
You know, floor spacing where EVERYBODY stands out at the three point line isn't much better than floor spacing where nobody has that range. In both cases you make it easy for the defense because they only have to cover part of the court.

Wait what? Who said anything about everyone standing at the 3pt line? So a wide open paint for 3 of probably the top 5 guys in the world (assuming healthy Rose) at getting to the rim is the same as playing with no one who can shoot?

We have guys who can get to the rim at will. We have one of the better PnR bigs in the NBA with Davis. Offense will be as simple as Davis coming to set a pick on KD's man and he either gets to walk to the rim with no help coming, dump it off to Davis, or choose from 2 wide open shooters at the corners if they do collapse on him. Wouldn't surprise me to see this team break scoring records.

The defensive end is where USA might have problems. This roster will be far weaker defensively than the past 2 USA teams. Lacks the elite perimeter defense the other teams had and the proven elite anchor the other teams had.
 
Uh oh. We may need to call back Millsap. We may even need to make a tweak to our style of play. Not good for us, great for the rest of the world.
 
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