USA Basketball Announces 44 Finalists For 2020 Olympic Roster

[marco102]

On 2/10/2020 at 8:45 PM, TheNorthCydeRises said:

I keep telling ya'll that people don't like Trae.  When the Hawks become good, he's going to be really hated like Steph Curry is at times.

Plenty of people do like Trae though. I mean if they didn't, he wouldn't have been first in fan votes, 3rd in player votes and 2nd in Media votes for the all star game. 

People don't like Jimmy Butler.  The players voted him 6th.  That let's you know who's liked and not liked amongst players. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, marco102 said:

Plenty of people do like Trae though. I mean if they didn't, he wouldn't have been first in fan votes, 3rd in player votes and 2nd in Media votes for the all star game. 

People don't like Jimmy Butler.  The players voted him 6th.  That let's you know who's liked and not liked amongst players. 

You're still not getting it.

Trae plays a fan friendly type of game and puts up big numbers.  In the East, he was an easy choice to make.  Among the players, if you simply look at the numbers, they couldn't consciously deny him. 

Also, the way NBA.com listed the choices, they listed them by ppg, which is why Trae was on that top line of East guards. This positioning forced people to look at his numbers, if they didn't know how good of a season he was having already.

This still doesn't mean that he doesn't have a large share of haters.  He has A LOT of them.  And they're pretty vocal about it.  Players. Fans. Media. They make it known that they either think Trae is putting up empty numbers, or that he's just flat out overrated to begin with.

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

6 hours ago, enrique said:

Well there is finally a little Colangelo explanation on why Trae was not invited. 

 

 For those who prefer to avoid reading anything on Yahoo, the money quote on Trae's omission from the invite list is:

 

Colangelo said it was only because they wanted players who had paid their dues with Team USA.

“So, what we decided to do was –  first of all, there were no first-year players on the list. Or second-year players. One three-year player,” Colangelo said. “Basically, because we think you have to earn your keep, earn your spurs, pay your dues, etc. And there’s a lot of good young players, but not for this Olympics. We took the players that we felt had equity. In other words, they had played for us in previous competitions.”

LOL . . this is the same team who basically saw the top 15 - 20 guys in the USA Basketball program straight up bypass the FIBA World Cup, because they don't value that tournament like they do the Olympics.  For the rest of the world though, the FIBA tournament is the big one.

When you look at the team that completely got ran off the court by France in the FIBA Quarterfinals last year, that squad wouldn't even make the playoffs.  Why?  Because they didn't have a legit facilitator or a legit big man to go up against Rudy Gobert.  It was basically the Donovan Mitchell show, with even vets like Kemba Walker playing substandard basketball.

So Colangelo is trying to tell us that he'd rather keep those guys who were "in the program", that also got ran off the court in that tournament, than to bring in young guys like Young, Morant, Ayton, and Zion into the mix?  You're still going to roll with Mike Conley?  Mason Plumlee?  Harrison Barnes?  Marcus Smart?  Joe Harris?  Brook Lopez?  Derrick White?   That's who you rolling with Colangelo?

I would guarantee you that none of those names will make the 12 man Olympic roster. Nor will they make the FIBA World Cup team in 2023 ( if the main established stars opt out of that tournament ).  So WTF is he really doing?

Edited February 20, 2020 by TheNorthCydeRises

[High5]

1 hour ago, marco102 said:

Plenty of people do like Trae though. I mean if they didn't, he wouldn't have been first in fan votes, 3rd in player votes and 2nd in Media votes for the all star game. 

People don't like Jimmy Butler.  The players voted him 6th.  That let's you know who's liked and not liked amongst players. 

Yep. People are just more sensitive to the hate because it's our star player in the headlines for once. It comes with the territory. Unfortunately being a bad defender on a bad team gives people tons of ammo, but they'll always find something to criticize.  

[marco102]

59 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

You're still not getting it.

Trae plays a fan friendly type of game and puts up big numbers.  In the East, he was an easy choice to make.  Among the players, if you simply look at the numbers, they couldn't consciously deny him. 

Also, the way NBA.com listed the choices, they listed them by ppg, which is why Trae was on that top line of East guards. This positioning forced people to look at his numbers, if they didn't know how good of a season he was having already.

This still doesn't mean that he doesn't have a large share of haters.  He has A LOT of them.  And they're pretty vocal about it.  Players. Fans. Media. They make it known that they either think Trae is putting up empty numbers, or that he's just flat out overrated to begin with.

 

You're still not getting it. ALL great players have haters.

I'm captain of the LBJ hate train.  I just don't understand why you seem to think Trae getting hate being different than any other great player getting hate. 

Steph has haters.

KD has tons of haters.

MJ had haters.

Kobe had haters.

Hell even Luka has tons of haters.  I don't see the point you're trying to make.  

Edited February 20, 2020 by marco102

[enrique]

5 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

LOL . . this is the same team who basically saw the top 15 - 20 guys in the USA Basketball program straight up bypass the FIBA World Cup, because they don't value that tournament like they do the Olympics.  For the rest of the world though, the FIBA tournament is the big one.

When you look at the team that completely got ran off the court by France in the FIBA Quarterfinals last year, that squad wouldn't even make the playoffs.  Why?  Because they didn't have a legit facilitator or a legit big man to go up against Rudy Gobert.  It was basically the Donovan Mitchell show, with even vets like Kemba Walker playing substandard basketball.

So Colangelo is trying to tell us that he'd rather keep those guys who were "in the program", that also got ran off the court in that tournament, than to bring in young guys like Young, Morant, Ayton, and Zion into the mix?  You're still going to roll with Mike Conley?  Mason Plumlee?  Harrison Barnes?  Marcus Smart?  Joe Harris?  Brook Lopez?  Derrick White?   That's who you rolling with Colangelo?

I would guarantee you that none of those names will make the 12 man Olympic roster. Nor will they make the FIBA World Cup team in 2023 ( if the main established stars opt out of that tournament ).  So WTF is he really doing?

Perhaps “because we think you have to earn your keep, earn your spurs, pay your dues, etc” is code for getting embarrassed publicly on an international stage

[KB21]

I agree with Colangelo’s philosophy.  All young players should have to earn their keep before being given anything.

[AHF]

24 minutes ago, KB21 said:

I agree with Colangelo’s philosophy.  All young players should have to earn their keep before being given anything.

He gave gifts to vets who didn't earn those spots.  Giving the spots to best 44 candidates would have been the best way to go.  If you weren't going to do it based on merit, then at least explain why.

[KB21]

1 minute ago, AHF said:

He gave gifts to vets who didn't earn those spots.  

And?  The fact is, they are veterans.  They have earned their time through their years put in.

[AHF]

3 minutes ago, KB21 said:

And?  The fact is, they are veterans.  They have earned their time through their years put in.

Should be a meritocrisy.  Not a reward for service time.  If you were rewarding vets for service, you should have included Carmelo Anthony on the list since he is equally likely to ultimately be selected (i.e, 0% chance) but did much more to earn his time than a lot of names on that list.

This is literally the Olympics which is a sporting event where an 18 year old can win a Gold medal over a veteran competitor because it is about being the best and not a UAW shop where the top seniority guy gets it.

[macdaddy]

3 minutes ago, AHF said:

He gave gifts to vets who didn't earn those spots.  

That's the bottom line.  Eliminating young guys was an easy way to get the numbers down and justify putting in guys who have the "credentials" they wanted.  

[KB21]

2 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

That's the bottom line.  Eliminating young guys was an easy way to get the numbers down and justify putting in guys who have the "credentials" they wanted.  

The bottom line is if you want to win, you don’t play young players.  It’s that simple.  Particularly young players who are only a year removed from AAU ball.  You have to coach that crap out of them first. 

[enrique]

3 hours ago, KB21 said:

I agree with Colangelo’s philosophy.  All young players should have to earn their keep before being given anything.

So having Christian Laetner (1992), Grant Hill (1996), Vince Carter (2000), Carmello (2004), D-Wade (2004), Amare (2004), Emeka Okafor (2004), Lebron (2004), Boozer (2004), and Anthony Davis (2012) were all big mistakes? I'd have hated to miss this dunk

I don't know how someone "earns their keep" outside of excelling at their game in the NBA. But then again, I am not an NBA/Olympic coach. I just think it is an incredibly short-sighted approach that should have been stated upfront rather than weeks after.