r/nba•
filipstine

What's your Team USA lineup?

The finalists were announced quite a while ago, but I think enough time has passed in the season for us to determine the best possible Team USA lineup for the London Olympics. Here are mine (with some rationale):

C - Dwight Howard

There really isn't any argument here. Almost everyone puts Bynum and Howard as the top 2 centers in the league, and for the minority who think Bynum is better (ahem, Shaq), you're SoL, since Bynum isn't even a finalist.

F - Kevin Love

F - Lebron James

I have Lebron at the 3 and Love at the 4. Barkley calls Love the best PF in the world, and it's not hard to disagree with him. He's second in the league in rebounding, and he's averaging about 25-24 points/game. He's pretty much the only reason the Wolves have some hope for finding a playoff spot.

It's quite obvious why I have Lebron starting, since he's my MVP this year and he's likely to be the best basketball player in the world as far as talent and athleticism goes.

G - Kevin Durant

G - Chris Paul

Obviously, Paul is playing the point. Choosing the starting spot for point guard was incredibly difficult because we have so much talent in this position. If anything, I see a lot of argument coming for the point guard position because we have players like Rose, Westbrook, and Deron Williams. Still, when you have this much talent in your starting lineup, you need a player who can distribute the ball better than anyone else in the league, and that's Chris Paul. Plus, we need someone to counter-flop all the Euro players.

Kevin Durant is listed as a guard, and, again this is a bit difficult because of all the incoming talent. I can see Coach K going with Kobe or Dwayne Wade in the starting 5 for some veteran leadership, but Durant is easily the best scorer in the league. He can be put in as a forward, too, if Coach K wants to go with a smaller lineup.

Bench

LaMarcus Aldridge - F/C

Kobe Bryant - SG

Derrick Rose - PG

Dwayne Wade - SG

Russell Westbrook - PG

Deron Williams - PG

Blake Griffin - PF

In the 2008 gold medal game, despite the amazing performance by players like Carmelo, Wade, and Lebron, all the players deferred to Kobe when Spain was getting close. This may be my Laker fan bias, but you can even ask Bill Simmons (the king of hating the Lakers), and he'd agree. This year, I see that role going to Durant or Derrick Rose.

Posted Mar 24, 2012, 10:58 PM UTC

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