Rondo leaves Team USA

[Dybdal]

I dont think Rondo being cut is something that has to do with his game at all, i think Rondo would fill the "leader" roll on the team while on the floor but when your competing with one of the most savy pg's in Chauncy that brings that veteran leadership that coach K needed, it just wasnt his time.

Westbrook and Rose fills a different roll as pointguards, that Rondo dosnt.. so i dont see it as being a sitiuation where Rose and Westbrook were chosen above Rondo, i think its Billups that were chosen instead of Rondo and with good reason.

[guava_wrench]

I don't root for team USA because I find these games meaningless.  I don't care for FIBA never have.  While I want the US to win, I rather watch patch dry than that soft Euroball with no defense.   That being said the skill level of some of those Euros blows away our kids.  Overall they are better shooters across the board.

Why is an NBA game any more meaningful than a World Championship game?

I also don't get the 'soft' label when it is the NBA game that has soft guard play. The guards get smacked around in FIBA games.

[BballTim]

Seems like Team USA will be fine without Rondo.

22 assists in 40 minute game....over 100 points on 55% shooting and 40% from 3 land.

USA may roll in this if they can keep shooting like this and sharing the ball with each other.

It's so much easier to share the ball when people hit shots.

  Sure, they'll be fine if you think they're going to shoot 55% every game and hit 40% of their threes. I didn't watch their game but when I've been watching them their offense has looked pretty disjointed, kind of like what you'd see in a preseason game.

[LB3533]

Seems like Team USA will be fine without Rondo.

22 assists in 40 minute game....over 100 points on 55% shooting and 40% from 3 land.

USA may roll in this if they can keep shooting like this and sharing the ball with each other.

It's so much easier to share the ball when people hit shots.

  Sure, they'll be fine if you think they're going to shoot 55% every game and hit 40% of their threes. I didn't watch their game but when I've been watching them their offense has looked pretty disjointed, kind of like what you'd see in a preseason game.

Yeah, sometimes they look good, other times not so much like they maybe never played together before.

Having Rondo on the team doesn't make them that much more fluid and if Rondo or the rest of the team are cold from the perimeter then they were going to look like the 2002 World team.

[guava_wrench]

Seems like Team USA will be fine without Rondo.

22 assists in 40 minute game....over 100 points on 55% shooting and 40% from 3 land.

USA may roll in this if they can keep shooting like this and sharing the ball with each other.

It's so much easier to share the ball when people hit shots.

  Sure, they'll be fine if you think they're going to shoot 55% every game and hit 40% of their threes. I didn't watch their game but when I've been watching them their offense has looked pretty disjointed, kind of like what you'd see in a preseason game.

They looked disjointed with Rondo in against Lithuania.

[Chelm]

First off, those saying they're happy they don't have to root for Team USA anymore... what about national pride?  This is STILL team USA.  Second, the roster comparison with 2006 is OBVIOUSLY ridiculous.  If Lebron wanted in, the team would be better.  He CHOSE not to.  Not USA's fault.  You think the team would rather have Lamar Odom?  Same with half the team.

Last, I'm no scholar of the sport, but Rondo's lack of an outside shot arguably lost us the championship in my opinion.  If Kobe had to respect his shot JUST A LITTLE (enough to actually guard him), we'd likely have banner #18.  Also, isn't outside shooting even MORE important in the international game, given how much zone is played?

Dude, how about if we didn't get outrebounded by 13 and give up 23 offensive boards.  Anyone who knows anything about basketball will tell you that it's extremely hard to win a game getting outrebounded like that, especially on the offensive glass, and we still almost won. 

14 pts, 10 ast, 8 boards and you're calling out Rondo?  Okay, he can't really shoot but how about Ray Allen hits a couple of his open 3's in that game?  We win, even in spite of our terrible rebounding.  Or how about Pierce doesn't keep isoing Artest and getting completely shut down multiple plays down the stretch.  I'm fine with Artest shutting down Pierce at this stage in his career, lets be realistic, but stop trying to go at him when it isn't working.

Anyways, if Perk wasn't hurt we would of won. We would of kept the Lakers off the glass and won a game that we already almost won with a god awful rebounding differential. It's that simple.  To blame it on Rondo is flat out wrong.  Yes, his inability to hit a jumper is not helpful, but we did just fine in plenty of games with this flaw and that was not what lost us that game.




As for Rondo in FIBA basketball, yes the outside shot is important, but Derrick Rose is not a particularly good shot either.  Rondo brings better passing, far better defense, better basketball IQ, leadership, and experience.  This team has no meaningful experience outside of Odom and Billups now. 

I'm not putting it all on Rondo, but I bet Kobe doesn't get 15 rebounds if he had to guard the perimeter.

The sheer number of offensive rebounds they got does show a gap in our effort, but it also shows that they were shooting horrendously which is probably why the game could be so close with such a discrepancy in that category.

[Snakehead]

First off, those saying they're happy they don't have to root for Team USA anymore... what about national pride?  This is STILL team USA.  Second, the roster comparison with 2006 is OBVIOUSLY ridiculous.  If Lebron wanted in, the team would be better.  He CHOSE not to.  Not USA's fault.  You think the team would rather have Lamar Odom?  Same with half the team.

Last, I'm no scholar of the sport, but Rondo's lack of an outside shot arguably lost us the championship in my opinion.  If Kobe had to respect his shot JUST A LITTLE (enough to actually guard him), we'd likely have banner #18.  Also, isn't outside shooting even MORE important in the international game, given how much zone is played?

Dude, how about if we didn't get outrebounded by 13 and give up 23 offensive boards.  Anyone who knows anything about basketball will tell you that it's extremely hard to win a game getting outrebounded like that, especially on the offensive glass, and we still almost won. 

14 pts, 10 ast, 8 boards and you're calling out Rondo?  Okay, he can't really shoot but how about Ray Allen hits a couple of his open 3's in that game?  We win, even in spite of our terrible rebounding.  Or how about Pierce doesn't keep isoing Artest and getting completely shut down multiple plays down the stretch.  I'm fine with Artest shutting down Pierce at this stage in his career, lets be realistic, but stop trying to go at him when it isn't working.

Anyways, if Perk wasn't hurt we would of won. We would of kept the Lakers off the glass and won a game that we already almost won with a god awful rebounding differential. It's that simple.  To blame it on Rondo is flat out wrong.  Yes, his inability to hit a jumper is not helpful, but we did just fine in plenty of games with this flaw and that was not what lost us that game.




As for Rondo in FIBA basketball, yes the outside shot is important, but Derrick Rose is not a particularly good shot either.  Rondo brings better passing, far better defense, better basketball IQ, leadership, and experience.  This team has no meaningful experience outside of Odom and Billups now. 

I'm not putting it all on Rondo, but I bet Kobe doesn't get 15 rebounds if he had to guard the perimeter.

The sheer number of offensive rebounds they got does show a gap in our effort, but it also shows that they were shooting horrendously which is probably why the game could be so close with such a discrepancy in that category.

Agreed on Kobe but Kobe wasn't the one really killing us on the boards.  He did have 4 offensive boards to his credit, but mostly it was him sagging off on defense and grabbing easy misses.  That's a problem for sure but Kobe's rebounding wasn't what beat us.  Bynum had 4 too, but his were right in the paint and probably lead to direct finishes.  And Gasol had 9, which is what really killed us.  He was all over the offensive glass.  Should of been Finals MVP easily (since they won).  But that's another topic...

They shot pretty badly because we played such great D.  Kobe shot 24 shots and only made 7.  So yeah you're right there, but I don't think it was effort alone.  We were trying it was just we didn't have the length and you could tell Jackson's whole gameplan was "hit the glass" and "get in the paint" as soon as he saw Perk go down.  It was the right move because we didn't have the length or size and Rasheed didn't even have enough to really step in.   Especially not for the neccessary minutes.

Perk in there, we are fine.  We keep their bigs off the glass much better and D them up fine.


And this is why I'm so happy with the frontcourt now.  So much depth.. if we are in that situation now we have Jermaine AND Shaq to step in?  Awesome.  Everything being the same (Perk going down in game 6) we win the Finals with our roster now.