Perspective on Beating Angola and China

Before too many more comrades get over-eager in satirizing the concern some observers -- like me -- have with Team USA's Olympic performance to date, let's try to place the squad's two opponents to date in a bit of perspective.

In that dreadful march to bronze in Athens in 2004, the United States found itself in Angola's group. As you'd expect, Larry Brown's team -- woeful as you want -- beat Angola by 36 points. (This morning, the Americans claimed a 21-point victory over Angola.)

In the 2006 FIBA World Championship -- the tournament in which the United States again finished third, despite remaking the program from the ground up under the guidance of Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski -- the Americans played China in the prelim round. Team USA won by 31 points, the same margin seen in Sunday's Olympic opener.

To suggest that laughers against Angola and China can ever be considered assurance of redeemed American dominance is to ignore the very recent history which indicates otherwise. I personally think Team USA in 2008 is better than its two previous incarnations (ignoring the odd years here). I think that mostly has to do with the development of LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Deron Williams, four players who averaged age 21 in 2006.

We'll see very soon whether the Greeks or the Spanish can challenge Team USA in the group round, or whether Lithuania can strike down the Americans in an elimination game. In the meantime, perhaps we should avoid being shrill in our assessments of the meaning of a win over a team who would lose to some D-League squads.

UPDATE: For a more eloquent defense of this position, please be sure to see Kelly Dwyer's comment here and his Behind the Boxscore column from earlier.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-12-2008 @ 5:58PM

KD said...

We can have concerns about their play while still expecting them to take the tournament.

We can voice those concerns without thinking that the team is doomed, and we can have confidence in the team without thinking that the squad is going to win in a cakewalk.

There is room for nuance in our analysis.

I hope.

8-12-2008 @ 6:02PM

Ziller said...

Amen.

8-12-2008 @ 6:29PM

Matt said...

This is a great post and KD made solid comments.

Frankly, we do expect the US team to win, but that's not entirely the point. This team has been given the label "Redeem Team" as if it is expected to steamroll the competition a la the Dream Team, whether it be Angola OR Spain. The names on the front of the other team's jerseys aren't supposed to matter.

I will likely watch this US team beat all comers, but I expected them to play much better than they have. At this point it's probably worth asking which NBA player has performed as expected or better. The only guy I can point to with certainty is Dwyane Wade.

Who knows, maybe we expect too much out of an all star team. There were no foreigners who played on the Celtics this year. I'd kill to see how they would represent the US.

8-12-2008 @ 6:59PM

"This team has been given the label "Redeem Team" as if it is expected to steamroll the competition a la the Dream Team, whether it be Angola OR Spain. The names on the front of the other team's jerseys aren't supposed to matter."

I haven't really heard much of that, from any source. Then again, I don't watch Around the Horn or SportsCenter, so that could be the prevailing sentiment amongst the talking heads.

I haven't heard much of that, though, Matt.

8-12-2008 @ 8:17PM

Interesting KD. Henry Abbott (which I hadn't read prior to making my post) chose to make the clear cut distinction between the two teams today in his post. His thoughts don't come from nowhere.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-33-167/The-Dream-Team-is-Not-the-Model.html

8-12-2008 @ 7:08PM

Rob Mahoney said...

The parallels are definitely interesting.

There's no reason these arguments have to be absolutes, but the primary problem I have with a lot of the Team USA analysis out there is this bizarre deification of Spain/Argentina/Lithuania/Greece and defecation on the American crew. This team has plenty of flaws (and that's part of the reason why so many people are still interested), but the other national teams have more than their fair share of problems, too.

8-12-2008 @ 8:28PM

David said...

It's important to remember that the foreign teams have played together for years and that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN A SINGLE ELIMINATION 40 MINUTE GAME.

NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND CAN THINK THAT IN AN NBA PLAYOFF FORMAT THAT ANY COUNTRY WOULD BEAT TEAM USA IN MORE THAN 1 GAME LET ALONE WIN A 7 GAME SERIES!!!!!

TEAM USA'S DEPTH WOULD PREVAIL.

ONE GAME MAY MEAN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOLD AND BRONZE IN THE OLYMPICS BUT EVEN THE FOREIGN TEAMS KNOW THEY'D LOSE A 7 GAME SERIES TO TEAM USA

8-12-2008 @ 10:27PM

Martin said...

The three point shot plays a far more dominating role in international basketball than in U.S. basketball. In part because the three point line is closer in, and in part because the foreign teams are not as enamored with slam dunks, which no matter how spectacular, only count for two points. However, every year the American team goes with the superstars instead of bringing in a couple of dead eye outside shooters, and every year, some foreign team gets hot and plays against a cold shooting U.S. team and the upset occurs. (The same frequently happens in the college ranks during March Madness.) The public does not understand that every game's outcome is based, in part, on luck, and in basketball that largely revolves around who's hot and who's not. There are a lot of excellent shooters on the foreign teams, and the U.S. team needs to carry a couple of three point specialists as well, if for no other reason, than to open up the interior for our more talented and athletic big men.

8-13-2008 @ 1:02PM

Jesse said...

Point blank USA needs at least 2 more STEADY 3 point shooters to come in the game at anytime they want to zone us and the main one should be Ray Allen. I cannot for the life of me understand why would could not convince Ray to come, cause in my opinion if you add him to this roster its unbeatable by any team in the world. It's gonna suck if we dont bring home the gold again and the main reason could be because one of our champions over here didnt play for us....