Building Team USA

The Olympics suck. They mattered back when integration across racial lines was scarce. Americans' best chance of seeing international competition centered around the Olympics and only the Olympics every two years. Now we see it virtually every day whether it's Roy Halladay pitching to Carlos Gonzalez, Michael Pietrus guarding JJ Barea, or Zdeno Chara hitting Claude Giroux. The novelty of international competition has been virtually eliminated. There are only two events that I am excited to watch during the 2012 games in London: the basketball tournament and whatever Usain Bolt is doing. Debating Team USA is one of my favorite meaningless arguments to have with my buddies. The way that I approach this argument is to discuss it in Space Jam terms. That is, assume that aliens have landed on this planet with the best basketball team you've ever seen and a Team USA loss would result in the annihilation of the planet, what does your roster look like? Let's get to it.

Right now the roster is at twenty and will need to be pared down to twelve.

Starters are overrated in basketball. Your best five are the ones on the court at the end of the game. Let's start there in our construction of Team USA.

Guards
Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant
Forwards
LeBron, Durant, Dwight Howard

Dwight is out there to rebound, play defense, and set picks for Chris Paul and Kobe. LeBron is out there because he's the best basketball player alive. Durant is out there because he's the best scorer alive. CP3 is out there because no one runs an offense as efficiently as he does. Kobe is out there because well, he's Kobe. I think the spot most people will take issue with is point guard, especially people from Chicago and whatever city Deron Williams will be playing in next year. The reason I want CP3 and not the other two out there simply comes down to style of play. Derrick Rose is basically a miniature version of LeBron James. Well we already have LeBron out there so playing his clone will slow ball movement and make it easier for opposing defenses to trap and force turnovers. Deron Williams would be a better fit than Rose but ultimately he's a scorer first. With Kobe, LeBron, and Durant on the floor, Team USA's crunch time lineup already has enough scorers.

Derrick Rose, Deron Williams, and Dwayne Wade are the remaining "no-shit sherlock" selections as they will undoubtedly play important roles off the bench for Coach K. D-Will can play Chris Paul's role on the second team while Wade and Rose provide scoring off the bench. Because of the incredible scoring depth the United States has in the backcourt, I think this makes Kevin Love a logical selection to fill one of the forward spots on the second team. His inside-outside game is tailor made for international basketball. The other forward spot should go to Carmelo. He's still one of the three best scorers on the planet (behind only Durant and Dirk in my book) and can easily slide over to the four in international play. He's also a logical choice to sub for either LeBron or Durant during crucial stretches if they get in foul trouble.

So now we have ten of the remaining twelve spots filled. Because these last two players probably will not get any meaningful minutes, character comes into play just as much as skill. Sorry Russell Westbrook, but I don't trust you to be happy about being sutured to the bench. You're out of the running. I vote that one of the spots goes to Andre Iguodala. His length and athleticism make him a logical choice to come in and give Kobe and LeBron a breather and guard the other team's best perimeter player if need be. The last spot should go to Tyson Chandler. Chandler has a reputation for being an all-around good guy who can serve as very good Dwight Howard insurance and should lead the teams in high fives distributed.

So there's the Olympic team, but if we're talking about playing for the fate of all humanity? Replace Carmelo with MJ and I'm good. I spent my childhood falling in love with basketball thinking Jordan was superman. You cannot convince me that betting against Michael Jordan's basketball skills when his life on the line is a good idea. If my life is going to be decided by a basketball game, I want to make sure that the greatest of all time has a say in the outcome even if he is just a tad bit past his prime.