Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and the rest of Team USA took down the Turks on their home floor earlier today to claim the gold medal in the world championships. This was the capper to a perfect summer for the so-called "b-team," and those guys all deserve a round of applause.
Now that their run is over, you're going to read a lot of, "well, they should've won," stories, but if you look back at the coverage leading into the World Championships, Team USA was hardly a favorite to win the gold. They couldn't shoot, they didn't have the experience, their athleticism wouldn't mean anything against the seasoned European teams. Well, Coach K put together a gameplan based on stifling defense and the offensive prowess of Kevin Durant. A couple months later, they've left the world in their dust.
It was a pleasure to watch this team play and after the fact, I'll admit that I'm glad Andre Iguodala was part of the team (prior to the selection, I said I didn't want him to play due to the added workload). Hopefully, Iguodala can bring some of the lessons he's learned back to the Sixers.
For now, all those guys should be very proud of themselves for the win (except maybe for Danny Granger, who was completely useless to the team). It'll be interesting to see how many of these guys make the Olympic team in two years.
I also didn't want Igoudala to play simply cause he ended last season with a foot problem but I'm glad he gets to feel what it takes to be a champion. I personally would have liked to see Jim more active on the offensive side of the ball but that's not the role Coach K wanted him to play.
Can't wait till October 27 to get here!
Yeah, it was really good to see Andre be a huge part of this team and a guy who was genuinely liked by his teammates and coaches.
Yeah I totally changed my mind about Iguodala playing - I think he's going to take some of this back to the team. And by this I mean professionalism and playing strong. Krzyzewski was really good, put the team together beautifully. The combination of Rose, Durant & Iguodala in the starting lineup was pretty imposing. The Turks couldn't keep up.
So I guess Iguodala learned that having Durant on your team will make it way easier for you to win?
So I guess Iguodala learned that having Durant on your team will make it way easier for you to win?
That's true about everybody else on the team too. On the flip side, I'm sure Durant would say that having Iguodala on his team makes it easier for him to win. No accident that Iguodala was paired with Durant during the scrimmages, and the two of them wound up winning every game they played (2 scrimmages, 4 exhibitions, 9 games in the World Championships).
If someone gave Durant and Westbrook the choice of Iguodala or Jeff Green for a teammate, who do you think they would choose?
Probably Jeff Green because he costs less and can shoot threes semi well.
This tourney just proved what all the people in the "Iggy isn't a franchise guy, he's a natural super glue guy" camp were saying all along.
He deserves to go to a good team and shine doing what he's best at.
This tourney just proved what all the people in the "Iggy isn't a franchise guy, he's a natural super glue guy" camp were saying all along.
The tournament didn't prove anything other than that Iguodala can be an excellent complementary player on a team with better scorers. It wasn't as if he was given the opportunity to be the go-to guy on this team and failed. He's already proven he can be the #1 guy (scoring and otherwise) on a playoff team in the NBA, but on a championship team he'd be more suited to be the #3 or #4 scorer (but #2 playmaker).
Andre Iguodala and Eric Gordon are better players than they get credit for. Playing for crappy teams like the Sixers and Clippers really hurt their profiles.
Final stats for Team USA here (click on "Stats" tab). Iguodala led the team in 2-pt FG% (and overall FG% if you discount the rarely-used Tyson Chandler) and steals. He was the worst on the team in FT%, the only part of his game that wasn't up to par.
Even if these games added miles to Iguodala's odometer, I'm glad he played them, if only so that he could show he belongs with the best of the NBA. To my eyes, there were two key stretches in the U.S. run to the Gold, the 2nd quarter against Russia (when Russia got ahead by 5) and the start of the Lithuania game, when the U.S. came out tentative and Lithuania came out hot. Iguodala was in the middle of the action both times, leading the 12-0 U.S. run that recaptured the lead vs. Russia and playing incredible defense on Kleiza to set the tone for the semifinal game. (Kleiza, one day after getting held to 1-11 for 4 points by Iguodala and Team USA, went off for 33 to lead Lithuania to the Bronze.)
Overall, I think a lot of the U.S. players played well: Durant (of course), Westbrook, Gordon, Odom, Iguodala, and Love. Gay was actually better defensively than I thought, and I think he picked up some of Iguodala's defensive mentality along the way (the two are good friends). I was surprised that Curry wasn't more effective, but I think his (lack of) defense kept him off the floor. Rose was good early in the tournament but poor late, and I'm not so sure he makes the Olympic team in 2012 (Deron Williams and Chris Paul still ahead of him). Billups was mostly awful, jacking up 3 after 3 early in the shot clock; I think the team won in spite of him. Chandler was mostly a fouling machine, and Granger, as Brian said, was useless. Rondo wasn't missed.
Yeah, Granger had a look on his face the entire tournament like "Wow, I'm worse than everyone else on this team, AND I've peaked already." And he's 27, he's actually the third-oldest guy on the team isn't he?
Almost as funny as the look he had on his face on Draft Lottery night when he got #10 as expected and hung his head in shame, realizing the folly of his own winning-streak-in-tanking-time ways.
Poor, poor Danny Granger.
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