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Despite a 2-0 start and an average points margin of +26, it's not hard to find problems with Team USA's performance. As you know, neither Angola nor China are among the top teams in this tournament: China stands #11 in the world, and Angola #14. Iran is the only team worse than the U.S.'s first two opponents.As such, the Americans should be winning by 26 against these squads. Spain, Lithuania, maybe the Croats or Greeks -- those teams will perform far better, and the United States will need to be at full-throttle to win easily (which would be the goal, you'd think). And Team USA is not playing at full-throttle.
The biggest blemish is the awful three-point shooting performance. The Americans have hit only 12 of 45 long-range attempts ... despite the much shorter distance compared to the NBA and the stated aim of rebuilding the team as a team with, you know, role players. Two visages of that plan -- Michael Redd and Tayshaun Prince -- have fewer minutes than everyone but Carlos Boozer, the third-string center.
This team is not full of good long-range shooters. Kobe, Kidd, LeBron, 'Melo, Wade, Paul -- all shoot no better than 34% on their careers, and this set of bigs rarely shoots that deep. Deron Williams does have a reliable stroke, and is 2-for-5 in the Olympics. But Redd is the only prototypical three-point shooter on this team (39% on his NBA career, taking 5/game last season) ... and he has played less minutes than Jason Kidd, who is like a -17% shooter for his career. (Slight exaggeration.) Redd's a good teammate, and he practically begged to be on the team. It's worth it on a program-building level to respect his commitment, at the least.
Kobe's not as bad a shooter as he has portrayed (more on him later), but it seems the no-brainer solution to Team USA's shooting woes is to let the good shooter play more. And garbage time doesn't count.
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