Wednesday, September 17, 2014

FIBA World Cup All-Tournament Team

The all-tourney team: Faried, Irving (USA), Teodosic (Serbia), Batum (France), Pau Gasol (Spain).  That's a good five.  I think I would've taken Harden over Kyrie but Kyrie was clearly the MVP of the gold medal game, so I think its reasonable to include him.  

Other guys that caught my eye: Dieng (Senegal), Gular, Asik (Turkey), Blatche (Phillipines), Pekkonen (Finland), Ayon (Mexico), Saric, Bogdonovich, Tomic (Croatia), Dragic, Dragic (Slovenia), Baynes (Australia), Bjelica (Serbia), Diaw, Diot, Huertel (France), Siebutis, Valanciunas (Lithuania) and frankly Spain's entire roster was killer (until they played France).  A lot of NBA names in there, I would've preferred to find more new talent but these guys want to play in the best league in the world and they all deserve to be there.

Kenneth Faried was the overall MVP of Team USA and the tournament in general.  He balled out every single game, was the glue of the team, the indispensable dirty work guy, turned every moment into an opportunity, endless energy.  He had a great tournament.  I thought it would be Anthony Davis or even Derrick Rose but it was Faried.  Kudos to that guy. 

Steph Curry might've been that glue guy but honestly USA never really needed him to step up in that way; Curry played great but he never had to get to hero level.  I thought Demarcus Cousins and Klay Thompson were great off the bench.  Anthony Davis was fun to watch (but, like Curry, never needed to kick into that extra gear, so he didn't shine the way he might have).  Kyrie Irving was solid, great when he needed to be.  James Harden did all that was asked of him, thought he played well from beginning to end.  Rudy Gay contributed well.  I thought physically Derrick Rose looked great but his game was rusty: he didn't shoot well, his rhythm always seemed a little off.  A triumph in its way to see Rose looking healthy but his game has a ways to go.  DeRozan and Plumlee did well in their spots.  

Andre Drummond was the only one that made me wonder why he was there.  In the end it didn't matter but in those games where USA got off to a slow start, I couldn't help but think that Korver or Parsons might've been better choices than Drummond.  Oh well, USA ended up win every game by 400 points, so gold medal for Drummond.

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