Team USA: Looking Bright in the Future

So this is supposed to be about the NBA and I think it's legitimate to say that since all 12 players on Team USA are from the NBA this is a legitimate post, besides it's not every year that the Olympics happen, so I'll continue to do my random speculation for those interested parties. For those of you that have read long enough, sometimes I really don't know what I'm talking about so feel free to stop reading if ever that's the case that arises. For the previous Olympics and for the past few years in recent international basketball history, USA has fallen, since the Dream Team of 1992 and 1996 it was always kind of assumed that the US was sort of the best at basketball. Clearly that has not been proven true since Team USA has summarily been beaten by various international teams falling to third a number of times. Greece, Germany, Argentina, Russia, etc... the international competition is getting stiffer, and the game just doesn't translate well from NBA to the international forum. As great as Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury were as individual players they couldn't carry their game over to the international game, a significant difference from the traditional NBA play.

However, this year looks to be different, the floor leaders are there, they've added age and experience with Jason Kidd and arguably the best player in the league in Kobe Bryant to their roster. This year is the year that they'll take it all, right? Even with Germany boasting a front line of Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman, even with Manu Ginobili joining Andres Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto, Walter Hermann, and Luis Scola on the Argentinian national team, even with the Chinese duo of Yao and Yi, Team USA is the stronger team, on paper, in the NBA. Here's what the starting five I think will look like for Team USA, it's the same starting five as the 2007 FIBA qualifier:
PG- Jason Kidd
SG- Kobe Bryant
SF- LeBron James
PF- Carmelo Anthony
C- Dwight Howard
Off the bench we have:
PG- Deron Williams, Chris Paul
SG- Dwayne Wade, Michael Redd
SF- Tayshaun Prince
PF- Carlos Boozer
C- Chris Bosh
Or at least something along those lines. All in all expect the lineup to look a lot smaller, with LeBron and Prince moving more to the PF positions and maybe Kobe slipping to an SF position, as well as Boozer playing as a C. As good as Chris Paul is, you can't teach size, and international play is much more physical and bigger, especially in the backcourt, thus Jason Kidd is there to run the helm as the team trains up Deron Williams as his next replacement. Paul will get his play, but Coach K likes big guards so I see him going with Williams and Kidd more often. Tyson Chandler was to be the reserve, but I believe he has something of a toe infection that will keep him from going, we'll see who they opt to take instead. However, with only one true center in Dwight Howard, size may be an issue against larger lineups like China or Germany. A lot of European big men have range so I don't see that as a huge problem, having Boozer and Bosh on them is more like the PF position in the NBA anyway. Originally the tossup for the last roster spot was between Prince and Chandler, I'm more inclined to like Prince more here because he presents an additional perimeter threat, and he is one of the premier perimeter defenders in the league. I stress a lot about perimeter because if you look at a lot of the international NBA stars they are all premier perimeter players, and a lot of European play thrives on perimeter based offenses. As far as perimeter offense Team USA only really has Michael Redd, you can count Kobe and Prince, and potentially Carmelo Anthony is now a legitimate 3 point threat with the shortened international line, however, it's not ideal. I think the plan is for points in transition, they'll be running the break (courtesy of assistant coach Mike D'Antoni), it'll be fun, and I think that if they stay tenacious on defense, then they have a solid shot of taking the gold.