Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Bogut the Flying Dump Truck is Back!

Hopefully Andrew Bogut’s most significant flaw will not be that he tends to hang dangerously on the rim after dunks. At 7 feet tall and weighing 260 pounds, the 26-year-old Australian has the frame of a bulky center yet runs and finishes off the break like a small forward. The result and risks are comparable to driving a dump truck as though it were an Audi. As a result, a lot of the time Bogut needs to hold on to the rim just to slow himself down, land property and avoid crashing into the stands. But as you’ll see in the video of Mr. Bogut taking one of the nastiest spills of the decade last spring, this can sometimes be a very dangerous tactic.

A man that size should not be flushing two handed dunks at that speed.  The fall dislocated his right elbow, broke his right hand and severely sprained his wrist. He’s lucky it didn’t do more; he’s lucky he didn’t break his neck. Remarkably, recovery time was only six weeks and while Bogut missed the rest of the season and the payoffs, he’ll be ready for the 2010/11 season.

This is good for beer swilling Milwaukee Bucks fan. Last year Bogut averaged 15.9 points, 2.5 blocks and 10.2 rebounds. His 175 blocks ranked second in the league behind Dwight Howard and Bogut was selected for the All-NBA third team. The Bucks finished with a 46-36 record and made the playoffs for the first time since Bogut was drafted 1st overall in 2005. And even without their focal center for the playoffs, the Bucks managed to take the Atlanta Hawks to seven games in the first round. So things are looking good for the Bucks, and on top of the fact their star center won’t be using a motorized wheelchair to get around this summer Bucks management has been extremely active, signing free agents John Salmons, Drew Gooden, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Keyon Dooling and Earl Boykins.

One thing Bogut does need to improve, apart from not hanging on the rim like an obese trapeze artist anymore, is his 15-footer.  With underperforming low post skills and the fact he’s almost unstoppable on the move; a short-range jump shot would really open up his game, possibly putting him at an All-Star level. Just please Mr. Bogut be careful. 

Monday, August 30, 2010

Old School Dennis Rodman Mix

US Over Slovenia: Surprisingly Relevant

As expected, the US men’s basketball team tromped Slovenia by more than 20 yesterday, winning 99-77. A few things stood out from the game, mainly: The Americans are having trouble adapting to the austerity of FIBA rules, their defence remains extremely effective and Kevin Durant is by far the team’s most bankable player. Most importantly though is that despite winning by 20, Team USA is not a polished product and not a sure bet.  

In comparison to the rest of the world, the NBA is a hyper-athletic league in which size and strength play much more definitive roles. Regulations have evolved to accommodate players’ athleticism and referees now tend to allow a variety of offensive half-steps from ball carriers. But unlike the NBA, FIBA is much less a business for eyeballs and highlights than it is a pure competition. Rules are thus adhered to strictly. Sunday’s game illustrated that when a player like 6’6”, 210-lbs Andre Igoudala catches the ball running at full speed, a dribble must come before his first step. Team USA’s disturbing proclivity to turn the ball over on Sunday illustrates that big, wiry NBA players aren’t used to this. In the first and second quarters, the US had 25 possessions with twelve turnovers, while only scoring twice. Meanwhile, slanted Slovenian twits in the stands complained of numerous other uncalled traveling violations, even going so far as blowing whistles they’d smuggled in. So it’s clear the US is struggling with the FIBA’s purism. To win they’ll most certainly have to adapt, because while Team USA may get away with myriad turnovers against bootlicking countries like Slovenia, they won’t against better countries in the later elimination rounds.

Positives for Team USA included its defence and another great performance from Kevin Durant. The US easily converted Slovenian offensive weapons into grumbling pick scramblers of no consequence. Slovenia’s best player, Bostjan Nachbar summed it up best, admitting "I had to expend a lot of energy just getting the ball". He was guarded by Andre Iguodala for most of the game.  Kevin Love led with 11 rebounds in a limited 13 minutes, telling a reporter afterwards, ‘That’s what I do. That’s how I make my money’. Once again, Kevin Durant led the way for the US with 22 points on 8-for-13 shooting, with many of his points coming on the break. Rudy Gay finished with 16 points for the Americans, while Russell Westbrook and Andre Iguodala each had 11. 

Team USA plays Brazil today at 2:30PM, which should be an interesting and foretelling match considering the South American country’s size and talent.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Old and Young

US Over Greece: Irrelevant

Team USA’s win over Greece in its final exhibition game before the FIBA World Championships was a good, solid win but far from the kind of reassurance the US really wants. That’s because no matter how many games the US wins, reassurance that the NBA’s most hyper-athletic players will bulldoze international teams is gone.

This can be difficult to accept. Looking at Team USA rosters since 1992, it’s damn near impossible to imagine anyone beating them, let alone teams 95% comprised of players no one’s ever heard of. But they do, and for awhile now international basketball competitions have been unfamiliar waters for the wading US fan.

To get a good sense of this year’s US national team and what they’ll face at this year’s World Championships, it’s worth looking at where the US has stood internationally over the last twenty odd years.

A rule change by FIBA in 1989 first allowed the US to put NBA players on its national teams. The result was three generations of Dream Teams, three gold medals and a Gulf War type dominance throughout the 90s. For a decade, it was a warming novelty to watch Mike, Larry and Magic, and then Pippen, Malone and Olajuwon teach the planet how good America was at basketball.

But three Olympics of dunks, superstars and special edition Nikes led to an international mushrooming of basketball popularity. By 2000, global competition had increased so dramatically it was like a zeitgeist change. Athens would mark the first stumbling blocks for Team USA and the beginning of things to come. In a preliminary game against Lithuania, the US won 85-76; it was the first time a team of NBA players had won by a single digit margin. Facing Lithuania again in the semi-finals, the margins continued to shrink and the US squeaked by with shocking 85-83 win. And while the US would go on to win the Gold over France, it was the end of the Dream Team era.

For the 2002 World Championships, superstars, like Bryant, O’Neal and Kevin Garnett turned down spots, and the US placed an unbelievably low 6th place, despite being stacked with NBA players. American basketball culture nervously laughed, reassuring itself of flukes and overconfidence, telling itself OK, we’ll really try now.

But there would be no sigh of relief at the 2004 Athens Olympics. On a team with Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson, the US walked away with a very un-American Bronze in basketball. In Beijing, the US finally managed a victory, but by low margins, and it was very strong, well coached team, and almost paranoid team that had been prepping for over two years.

Unfortunately, the team the United States is sending to Turkey this Saturday is significantly weaker than the 2008 Gold Medal winner. Other than Kevin Durant, there are no superstars, and while purposefully athletic and lithe, they’re small. And with every candid video of Mike Krzyzewski coaching, my opinion of him lessens. He’s speaks in platitudes and sounds like closeted military general addressing a T-Ball team.

The NBA’s almost best handing a loss of no consequence to a small, bankrupt country whose national obsession is soccer warrants nothing more than a brief sigh of relief. Especially since the Greeks rested several top players, including “Baby Shaq,” Sofoklis Schortsanitis.

One might think the last ten years of underachieving has alleviated the pressure from Team USA and that now it’s just about competing, but it’s not. The Americans are still expected to win. On a team with Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay and Derrick Rose going against players most NBA fans can’t pronounce, let alone have actually heard of, it’s tough not to.