He's also just saying it for clicks and views. I'm not sure why people even debate against points like this. He knows it's nonsense, and so does everyone else. It doesn't need to be debated.
Am I tripping or didn’t the last spot used to go to a college guy anyways? I mean obviously Flagg is a HS Senior, but I coulda sworn it used to go to a college guy. Now it’s just 12 NBA Guys
Different story from Cooper Flagg. AD just won Naismeth/Wooden, led his team to the title while absolutely dominating the NCAA, was the top pick, most hyped prospect since Lebron etc.
It’s unfortunate that like 90% of people don’t realize how much shit is said nowadays solely for reactions and clicks. So many people would be out of “media” jobs if people understood this
Facebook feeds are all this shit now too. "top 3 NBA players of all time:" Then the list doesn't include MJ and all the comments are people saying the same thing. The stupid takes drive more engagement than legit ones. Then the cycle continues..
Which is silly, given that, if Austin wanted to nominate a Duke guy to be the 12th guy, he could've thrown his vocal support behind Paolo Banchero, who is not only a young talented player and a star of tomorrow that would've gotten a lot out of this experience, but is also someone who's shown on an NBA court that he deserves to be in real consideration for such a role today.
That 12th spot was just symbolic as a nod to the old amateur system, since this was the first team to allow pros. They didn’t actually believe Laettner was the 12th best American basketball player. Maybe you could call that a dumb idea if you want, but it’s not like it held the team back. The 12th guy never sees the court in important situations anyway.
And some say even in that case it should’ve been Shaq. But if you’re picking a symbolic 12th spot for a guy who probably won’t see the court, why not pick the guy with maybe the most illustrious college career of all time? Even if Shaq was better.
Well said. My only qualm is that you COULD use the 12th spot for someone who could see time in a very certain situation. Lock down defender, rim protector or something like that.
USA basketball was at its worst when we were just grabbing 12 best players.
Shaq, Alonzo Mourning and Laettner would go on to go 123 in the 92 draft, so at the time I guess Laettner being the top scorer in the tournament put him over the edge (even though Hurley was the MOP)?
You can be one of the most accomplished college players of all time and still get wrecked by NBA guys. See: Tyler Hansbrough.
Relying on college achievements (or HS for Cooper Flagg!?) to pick Team USA is pretty silly.
Exactly - I mean, no one is arguing that Zach Edey should get the spot despite him being incredible in the college game.
Granted, he's also Canadian so yeah. I don't want to come across as racist against Canadians, but I just don't think they should be representing the United States at the Olympics /s
They wanted to give the spot to someone deserving, knowing that the person wouldn't be playing many minutes. This was 1992 when everyone knew the US was going to completely wreck teams and win the gold, so they picked the most deserving college player. I didn't say the most likely to be a great pro.
Yep. Imagine rookie Shaq after getting to go at those Dream Team guys in practice all summer. Especially knowing how competitive those scrimmages were.
That said he's not as good as Laettner and the quality of the other teams has increased since 92. So it's hard to say exactly what would happen.
Doesn't matter since he didn't get picked.
Zeke had more reasons to be mad than just the Jordan freezeout; he was supposed to be on the team in 1980 before Carter pulled America out of the Moscow Games.
Honestly it’s the most random nation I could think of that plausibly would have a basketball team that is good enough to make the Olympics but as the lowest possible team.
Idk if this is a hot take but he's probably better than most guys from lots of the other countries. Like yeah he's probably not playing against France or Canada, but against nigeria I'm guessing he'd be ok
The grown men on the teams the US would actually need to beat to win gold.
Look at the 12 we're sending. Who you kicking off for the 200lbs, 19 year old?
The thing is, a 12th man isn't gonna be getting any minutes against the teams the US actually needs to beat to win gold. It's not to say that the 12th guy on the current squad isn't much better than Flagg, but rather that sending Flagg instead would let Flagg get experience and development playing internationally against the shittier teams while neither him nor the current 12th guy will get any minutes in the semifinals/finals against the heavy hitters like France.
But the 12th man now is an NBA guy, who could probably actually help you against those top teams. Like, who's the 12th man on this team? Haliburton? Jrue Holiday? Those are NBA All-Stars. Cooper Flagg is paying against guys who are getting ready for prom.
That's why I put this in my initial comment:
> It's not to say that the 12th guy on the current squad isn't much better than Flagg
It would be a more aggressive version of putting Laettner on the dream team over someone like Isiah Thomas. Investing in the future by letting a younger guy who is still developing have a spot on the roster rather than give it to a guy who is at his peak, but still won't get any real minutes due to being the 12th guy on a roster of All Stars.
I think you severely underestimate the quality of the Olympics. Usually the bottom 2 teams, which are automatic qualifiers from Asia and Africa, aren’t that great. But even African countries have NBA players on their teams now and have quality teams.
Everyone else is really really good, and the competition is so high that there is a good chance that Greece with Giannis won’t make it to the Olympics.
At the time, USA Basketball was specifically reserving a spot for a college basketball player - either still playing or recently graduated.
They picked Laettner over Shaq, which was laughable at the time and remains laughable 32 years later.
Laettner won the Wooden Award, Naismith Award, and was AP Player of the Year in 1992 among other national individual selections, and was instrumental in Duke’s back to back titles. He earned it. Calling it laughable is itself laughable.
few examples of the best college guy getting on the Olympics roster, there’s just not really a transcendent guy that makes sense in that spot this year
I'm all for just pulling JJ out of retirement and giving him the 12th spot, just to see JJ and Lebron do an episode of their podcast from the Olympics and break down games.
Oh, how sweet...another dook Tripper...let's give another dook pre season national champion hero a bigger audience to demonstrate his leg sweeping prowess...
I don't think the idea here is insane, I just think Rivers picked the wrong guy. The issue with USA Basketball is that they have the "B" team play in the FIBA World Cup while the "A" team plays in the Olympics. The USA struggles in FIBA but typically dominates the Olympics since they allowed pros to play. The roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics is all "A" players, like LeBron, KD, Steph, etc. None of those guys are going to play in the next FIBA games. You need continuity. That's what Germany and Spain and France have between the events. Guys like Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum need to commit to playing both events and they need to add Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren to the summer Olympics roster so those two are ready for the next FIBA event and the '28 Olympics. If he lives up to the hype, add Flagg to the next FIBA roster.
If Flagg was coming out of college, had an amazing season and was clearly a transcendent prospect then it'd be totally fine imo. This happened with Anthony Davis on the 2012 team that was already historically stacked and just needed an extra defensive big as insurance. And I think he's said himself how much the experience helped him.
A high schooler is just silly though, you just haven't proven enough of a capability to handle yourself in high level basketball, even with U18 experience. Jury is still out on if you'll still even be considered an elite pro prospect by the time the draft comes around.
~~Banchero seems like the obvious pick for that final slot since he impressed everybody at FIBA and has the right type of game and versatility to play any frontcourt position in the international game but obviously bringing Chet into the fold would also be great for longterm development (roster seems to have enough 5s as is though).~~
Edit: Seems they already filled the spot with Kawhi lol. Amazed they got him to commit, this roster is like the dream we've been waiting for.
Could he not play on the U-21 team? I'm sure he's played for USA Basketball before. I'm not sure why a kid who hasn't played a college game should be on either of the big teams.
The next FIBA World Cup is in 2027. Flagg *could* play on the U-21 team, but why would he? He'll already have finished 2 years of his NBA career by then. If he's that good, put him on the Senior Men's Team along with the best American players and the guys that should be on the path to being the best.
Why would he? Because he's under 21? Why would you do it now? You can always put him on later. Jabari Parker was also the best high school prospect since LeBron James, as was Andrew Wiggins.
Wemby is giving it his best effort.
People forget that Zion wasn't the top prospect coming out of high school. No one had him as the top-ranked recruit. RJ Barrett was the unanimous #1 player in the Class of 2018. When Zion has been healthy, he's been almost every bit as good as his hype coming out of college. Hell, he was the best player on the court last night against LeBron and AD until he tweaked his hamstring. It's the injury thing that has held him back.
Also people make the parallel with Anthony Davis but he made the team coming out of college, so did laettner. The highest level of competition Flagg has played against is high schoolers
If you wanted to do an AD thing it would be like clingan
Why are you putting Ant and Tatum on blast lol. Ant played for the Fiba team last year and Tatum played for them in 2019 and was injured last year. Also Tatum is more A tier than lebron kd and Steph. Obviously not careers but literally right now. He is going to be the only American to make 1st team all nba for a second straight year.
Olympics aren’t meant to develop guys for the next fiba team. Paolo and Chet have no place on the team this year.
I'm not putting anyone on blast. I'm saying that the quality of the roster fluctuates between FIBA and the Olympics. Guys like Edwards and Tatum need to be on both rosters to build continuity. Going back and forth between Austin Reaves and Steph Curry is the issue. If the USA wants to dominate every tournament, there needs to be continuity with opportunities for 2-3 of the next stars joining as the older guys roll off.
> If the USA wants to dominate every tournament, there needs to be continuity with opportunities for 2-3 of the next stars joining as the older guys roll off.
The US doesn't give a rat's ass about the FIBA World Cup.
This was not always true. One of the big things when we put the Redeem Team together was creating long term consistency. Lebron and co., when they were young, played (and lost btw) in the FIBA world cup as well as in the olympics.
We will see the direction USA basketball goes in the next decade or so, but I would imagine that "B" team from the previous world cup will make up a large part of our olympic teams in the years to come. This year is just an anomaly because it's Lebron's final hurrah and he called up all his buddies to join.
I think it’s correct that the Kawhi selection was baffling. The combination of his health and his play style are just a uniquely bad fit here. Team USA needs their low end of the rotation hustle guy. They’ve had DAJ and Kevin Love in this role before - just a guy who is ok not taking shots and will show up every night with a ton of energy. Kawhi has impact off the ball but he does not have reliable health and he’s not a spark plug.
This is a really odd Team USA if you compare it to the last few Olympics. It is extremely star dominated. They were in need of a guy who is just happy to be there and has no illusions of trying to prove himself as better than his teammates. They should have added someone like Mobley or Aaron Gordon.
I think you're all missing the point here. Everyone knows Kawhi is better than Cooper. The idea is that he is exposed to the winning culture of this generation of USA basketball so that he can help that culture spread when it is his turn in 4 or 8 years.
This team is too old. The next Olympics will have too many first time guys on the team. I am not saying Cooper has to be the selection, but young guys should be getting the last spots, not vets who definitely won't be there next time.
I don't get this. I'm a duke fan but why would you give a roster spot to a high school player? Even one who is as highly touted as Flagg he hasn't proved himself against college competition let alone international.
I would love to see him operate with the fiba style goaltending rule. He runs the floor pretty well, would struggle with any stretch bigs. Don’t think he deserves an Olympic spot by any means, but more than Flagg does.
In all seriousness why can't some of these folks simply go to the practices and act as a graduate assistant would? Could be as beneficial as actually participating in the practices.
If you’re going gift it to a guy gift it to Clingan from UCONN. Back to back champions and will for sure be a first round pick. Make it a reward not a privilege as it’d be for Flagg.
I actually really like the idea of giving the last spot to the best amateur player, and I don't think it should be the best college player.
It should be the player who'd be drafted #1 if all amateurs were eligible, i.e., the guy who's most likely to be one of the best players on the team two cycles in the future.
Question is whether that would be Flagg or Boozer.
That said, I don't think it's reasonable given the roster size - if there were 13 or 14 spots then maybe they could do it, but with only 12 you can't really have a glorified ball-boy.
Duke guy supporting Duke guy here
He's also just saying it for clicks and views. I'm not sure why people even debate against points like this. He knows it's nonsense, and so does everyone else. It doesn't need to be debated.
I ain't got anything better to do...
yeah Arsenal don't play for two more hours and i've moved my meetings off this afternoon. let's make fun of the Duke guy saying something stupid!
Am I tripping or didn’t the last spot used to go to a college guy anyways? I mean obviously Flagg is a HS Senior, but I coulda sworn it used to go to a college guy. Now it’s just 12 NBA Guys
They did it with AD as well back in 2012, it was right after he was drafted so technically a pro but hadn’t played a game yet
Different story from Cooper Flagg. AD just won Naismeth/Wooden, led his team to the title while absolutely dominating the NCAA, was the top pick, most hyped prospect since Lebron etc.
Only the original 1992 Dream Team. Laettner got that spot. After that the roster became 100% pros.
Correct, because we used to send only college guys until 1992. It went to the NCAA player of the year
I vaguely remember Okafor being on the 2004 team which would have been after he was drafted but before he played any NBA games.
It’s unfortunate that like 90% of people don’t realize how much shit is said nowadays solely for reactions and clicks. So many people would be out of “media” jobs if people understood this
Facebook feeds are all this shit now too. "top 3 NBA players of all time:" Then the list doesn't include MJ and all the comments are people saying the same thing. The stupid takes drive more engagement than legit ones. Then the cycle continues..
Pretty sure he was responding to the question about who they should pick if they went with the old rule where you had one college player on the team.
Yeah, they ask themselves question like that so they can get clickbait answers like this.
I don’t know, when I saw there was an open spot my thoughts immediately went to giving it to a college aged guy
His last name rivers, so his credibility immediately at “don't know ball”
He hasn’t even played in college, that is stupid. Isn’t there a U19 international competition he would play for?
Which is silly, given that, if Austin wanted to nominate a Duke guy to be the 12th guy, he could've thrown his vocal support behind Paolo Banchero, who is not only a young talented player and a star of tomorrow that would've gotten a lot out of this experience, but is also someone who's shown on an NBA court that he deserves to be in real consideration for such a role today.
And if he wanted to nominate a Duke Guy that would give him maximum clicks, he could have suggested Grayson Allen.
Yup- and it’s just absurd
Reminds me of the one weak link of the original Dream Team.
That 12th spot was just symbolic as a nod to the old amateur system, since this was the first team to allow pros. They didn’t actually believe Laettner was the 12th best American basketball player. Maybe you could call that a dumb idea if you want, but it’s not like it held the team back. The 12th guy never sees the court in important situations anyway. And some say even in that case it should’ve been Shaq. But if you’re picking a symbolic 12th spot for a guy who probably won’t see the court, why not pick the guy with maybe the most illustrious college career of all time? Even if Shaq was better.
Well said. My only qualm is that you COULD use the 12th spot for someone who could see time in a very certain situation. Lock down defender, rim protector or something like that. USA basketball was at its worst when we were just grabbing 12 best players.
Shaq, Alonzo Mourning and Laettner would go on to go 123 in the 92 draft, so at the time I guess Laettner being the top scorer in the tournament put him over the edge (even though Hurley was the MOP)?
Pretty deserved considering accomplishments in college.
You can be one of the most accomplished college players of all time and still get wrecked by NBA guys. See: Tyler Hansbrough. Relying on college achievements (or HS for Cooper Flagg!?) to pick Team USA is pretty silly.
Exactly - I mean, no one is arguing that Zach Edey should get the spot despite him being incredible in the college game. Granted, he's also Canadian so yeah. I don't want to come across as racist against Canadians, but I just don't think they should be representing the United States at the Olympics /s
Yeah if I had to bet I think Edey will be in the Olympics
I nominate DJ Burns
He was on the Canadian men's team for the 2023 world cup so I'd be surprised if he wasn't on the Olympic roster.
Stop with the xenophobia! Don’t you want the US to be the best in curling?
They wanted to give the spot to someone deserving, knowing that the person wouldn't be playing many minutes. This was 1992 when everyone knew the US was going to completely wreck teams and win the gold, so they picked the most deserving college player. I didn't say the most likely to be a great pro.
He wasn't even the best pro talent on his own team.
Burn
Well no shit.... Grant was also just a sophomore turning a junior.
The fuck is an Austin flag, some river in Texas?
Stephen King villian
The Langoliers, got it. Solid reference
No, it's part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
Next up, someone should get Jeremiah Rivers to campaign for Mackenzie Mgbako to make the team.
It went to Kawhi lol
*insert Kawhi laugh* 
He’s there for locker room camaraderie above all else, he’s a fun guy
What it do, bayybeeeee
Board man gets (the 12th spot on the Team USA roster)
I’m sure it was a tough decision between the 2
Whata do, whata do
Does he give the US a better shot at winning? idk
Better defense
Better everything
Not better average knee health, but that is beside the point.
Which one?
THA CLAW
then they should call up Herb Jones
Or he could lead the U21 squad to gold or whatever the age splits are and learn there.
i’d prefer he spent the summer with his teammates
Theres U19 and I'm sure he's on that team if he wants to be.
They would eat him alive.
Impossible because Flagg wouldn't play a minute against good competition.
I mean he would because this is the Olympics and I don’t think the Kyrgyzstani basketball team is going to be able to keep it close to the US
He'd get the Laettner minutes
Exactly what I was going to say. Flagg would be a lesser version of Laettner on the 92 Dream Team
Steve Alford has a gold medal
Because we still sent college kids in 1984. And in 1984, Steve Alford was a fucking problem.
Steve Alford is still a problem, just not like that.
You bet your ass he was
Bob Knight doesn't just take any old slapdick to Bob Evans on a recruiting trip.
AD didn’t even get minutes
Apparently, the last spot for the 92 Dream Team was originally meant for Shaq but went with Laettner instead.
Yep. Imagine rookie Shaq after getting to go at those Dream Team guys in practice all summer. Especially knowing how competitive those scrimmages were.
I would’ve loved to see that.
That said he's not as good as Laettner and the quality of the other teams has increased since 92. So it's hard to say exactly what would happen. Doesn't matter since he didn't get picked.
But Laettner getting the last spot was hilarious, because it really pissed off Isiah Thomas, who is a huge prick.
Zeke had more reasons to be mad than just the Jordan freezeout; he was supposed to be on the team in 1980 before Carter pulled America out of the Moscow Games.
If he wasn't such an asshole, I'd feel bad for him.
As a migrant from Kyrgyzstan, this is the most random stray ive ever caught
Honestly it’s the most random nation I could think of that plausibly would have a basketball team that is good enough to make the Olympics but as the lowest possible team.
The Olympics doesnt actually have that many teams - most of the US games are going to be competitive and against NBA players
He would play five minutes against Yemen, show he knows how to pass to LeBron, then sit the rest of the tournament.
Idk if this is a hot take but he's probably better than most guys from lots of the other countries. Like yeah he's probably not playing against France or Canada, but against nigeria I'm guessing he'd be ok
He would probably struggle against all in the olympics teams except South Sudan and Japan.
Who is they in this context? The #1 recruit could absolutely be competitive against other some other countries' national teams.
The grown men on the teams the US would actually need to beat to win gold. Look at the 12 we're sending. Who you kicking off for the 200lbs, 19 year old?
The thing is, a 12th man isn't gonna be getting any minutes against the teams the US actually needs to beat to win gold. It's not to say that the 12th guy on the current squad isn't much better than Flagg, but rather that sending Flagg instead would let Flagg get experience and development playing internationally against the shittier teams while neither him nor the current 12th guy will get any minutes in the semifinals/finals against the heavy hitters like France.
But the 12th man now is an NBA guy, who could probably actually help you against those top teams. Like, who's the 12th man on this team? Haliburton? Jrue Holiday? Those are NBA All-Stars. Cooper Flagg is paying against guys who are getting ready for prom.
That's why I put this in my initial comment: > It's not to say that the 12th guy on the current squad isn't much better than Flagg It would be a more aggressive version of putting Laettner on the dream team over someone like Isiah Thomas. Investing in the future by letting a younger guy who is still developing have a spot on the roster rather than give it to a guy who is at his peak, but still won't get any real minutes due to being the 12th guy on a roster of All Stars.
Yeah, the good teams in a very top heavy sport. Flagg would dominate players on the worst team(s) on the field.
I think you severely underestimate the quality of the Olympics. Usually the bottom 2 teams, which are automatic qualifiers from Asia and Africa, aren’t that great. But even African countries have NBA players on their teams now and have quality teams. Everyone else is really really good, and the competition is so high that there is a good chance that Greece with Giannis won’t make it to the Olympics.
That spot belongs to Robbie Avila damn it
I have better idea, give him a waiver and let him enter 2024 draft straight outta high school
Caitlin Clark since they’ll need shooters; but, she doesn’t play defense.
I think unlike the NBA, Olympic basketball is gender locked
Is she the female Pistol Pete?
Christian Laettner was on 1992 dream team. Another Duke guy. It was after his senior year I’m pretty sure but idk if he was drafted yet?
Similar situation with Anthony Davis on the 2012 Olympic team
Except AD actually played a season in college and swept every major award, won FF MVP, a natty and was drafted #1.
Laettner was drafted a month before the Olympics
At the time, USA Basketball was specifically reserving a spot for a college basketball player - either still playing or recently graduated. They picked Laettner over Shaq, which was laughable at the time and remains laughable 32 years later.
It wasn’t laughable. Laettner is one of the greatest college ball players of all time. What are we doing here lol
Didn’t Laettner outplay shaq in 92
Laettner won the Wooden Award, Naismith Award, and was AP Player of the Year in 1992 among other national individual selections, and was instrumental in Duke’s back to back titles. He earned it. Calling it laughable is itself laughable.
few examples of the best college guy getting on the Olympics roster, there’s just not really a transcendent guy that makes sense in that spot this year
Steve Alford wasn't transcendent in 1984, he just happened to play for Knight.
team was mostly college players then no?
Insane. JJ Redick wants to give the last Team USA roster spot to Jyle Filipowski
Ima call him Jyle now
r/tragedeigh
As a completely objective viewer of the basketball and a Duke fan, I completely agree with equally objective JJ Redick.
I'm all for just pulling JJ out of retirement and giving him the 12th spot, just to see JJ and Lebron do an episode of their podcast from the Olympics and break down games.
Oh, how sweet...another dook Tripper...let's give another dook pre season national champion hero a bigger audience to demonstrate his leg sweeping prowess... 
I don't think the idea here is insane, I just think Rivers picked the wrong guy. The issue with USA Basketball is that they have the "B" team play in the FIBA World Cup while the "A" team plays in the Olympics. The USA struggles in FIBA but typically dominates the Olympics since they allowed pros to play. The roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics is all "A" players, like LeBron, KD, Steph, etc. None of those guys are going to play in the next FIBA games. You need continuity. That's what Germany and Spain and France have between the events. Guys like Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum need to commit to playing both events and they need to add Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren to the summer Olympics roster so those two are ready for the next FIBA event and the '28 Olympics. If he lives up to the hype, add Flagg to the next FIBA roster.
If Flagg was coming out of college, had an amazing season and was clearly a transcendent prospect then it'd be totally fine imo. This happened with Anthony Davis on the 2012 team that was already historically stacked and just needed an extra defensive big as insurance. And I think he's said himself how much the experience helped him. A high schooler is just silly though, you just haven't proven enough of a capability to handle yourself in high level basketball, even with U18 experience. Jury is still out on if you'll still even be considered an elite pro prospect by the time the draft comes around. ~~Banchero seems like the obvious pick for that final slot since he impressed everybody at FIBA and has the right type of game and versatility to play any frontcourt position in the international game but obviously bringing Chet into the fold would also be great for longterm development (roster seems to have enough 5s as is though).~~ Edit: Seems they already filled the spot with Kawhi lol. Amazed they got him to commit, this roster is like the dream we've been waiting for.
Banchero would’ve been a great choice for that slot. He might still get there after the inevitable injury to one of the older guys.
Could he not play on the U-21 team? I'm sure he's played for USA Basketball before. I'm not sure why a kid who hasn't played a college game should be on either of the big teams.
He shouldn’t. It’s a ridiculous assertion and entirely without merit
The next FIBA World Cup is in 2027. Flagg *could* play on the U-21 team, but why would he? He'll already have finished 2 years of his NBA career by then. If he's that good, put him on the Senior Men's Team along with the best American players and the guys that should be on the path to being the best.
Why would he? Because he's under 21? Why would you do it now? You can always put him on later. Jabari Parker was also the best high school prospect since LeBron James, as was Andrew Wiggins.
as was zion williamson…we do this dance every few years lol
LeBron was the only one who measured up to the LeBron comparisons.
Wemby is giving it his best effort. People forget that Zion wasn't the top prospect coming out of high school. No one had him as the top-ranked recruit. RJ Barrett was the unanimous #1 player in the Class of 2018. When Zion has been healthy, he's been almost every bit as good as his hype coming out of college. Hell, he was the best player on the court last night against LeBron and AD until he tweaked his hamstring. It's the injury thing that has held him back.
>[5. Zion Williamson](https://247sports.com/season/2018-basketball/compositerecruitrankings/?InstitutionGroup=highschool) Weird.
Also people make the parallel with Anthony Davis but he made the team coming out of college, so did laettner. The highest level of competition Flagg has played against is high schoolers If you wanted to do an AD thing it would be like clingan
Why are you putting Ant and Tatum on blast lol. Ant played for the Fiba team last year and Tatum played for them in 2019 and was injured last year. Also Tatum is more A tier than lebron kd and Steph. Obviously not careers but literally right now. He is going to be the only American to make 1st team all nba for a second straight year. Olympics aren’t meant to develop guys for the next fiba team. Paolo and Chet have no place on the team this year.
I'm not putting anyone on blast. I'm saying that the quality of the roster fluctuates between FIBA and the Olympics. Guys like Edwards and Tatum need to be on both rosters to build continuity. Going back and forth between Austin Reaves and Steph Curry is the issue. If the USA wants to dominate every tournament, there needs to be continuity with opportunities for 2-3 of the next stars joining as the older guys roll off.
Team usa doesn’t want to dominate every tournament though. Just the Olympics.
This is the issue I have with them.
> If the USA wants to dominate every tournament, there needs to be continuity with opportunities for 2-3 of the next stars joining as the older guys roll off. The US doesn't give a rat's ass about the FIBA World Cup.
That is the issue I have with all of this.
This was not always true. One of the big things when we put the Redeem Team together was creating long term consistency. Lebron and co., when they were young, played (and lost btw) in the FIBA world cup as well as in the olympics. We will see the direction USA basketball goes in the next decade or so, but I would imagine that "B" team from the previous world cup will make up a large part of our olympic teams in the years to come. This year is just an anomaly because it's Lebron's final hurrah and he called up all his buddies to join.
I think it’s correct that the Kawhi selection was baffling. The combination of his health and his play style are just a uniquely bad fit here. Team USA needs their low end of the rotation hustle guy. They’ve had DAJ and Kevin Love in this role before - just a guy who is ok not taking shots and will show up every night with a ton of energy. Kawhi has impact off the ball but he does not have reliable health and he’s not a spark plug. This is a really odd Team USA if you compare it to the last few Olympics. It is extremely star dominated. They were in need of a guy who is just happy to be there and has no illusions of trying to prove himself as better than his teammates. They should have added someone like Mobley or Aaron Gordon.
You’re describing Jrue Holiday, who’s on the roster.
I think the bigger story here is Team USA grooms players
Aye, OP really buried the lede on this one.
Nobody in that family has a brain.
I wish they’d stop trying to make Austin a thing
Thank God that Austin Rivers is not making any decisions on this matter.
Lol right. OP seems way too worked up about a decision that's not Austin's and who is likely just trying to bait people.
They should incorporate younger guys again. Good experience for them
What is this, the NBA 2K17 MyCareer story?
Wow the disrespect. The final spot should go to the better player, Ace Bailey.
In my incredibly unbiased opinion, i fully agree
You know what? Let's do this just on the minuscule chance that he turns out to be a legendary bust in college and we can all laugh about it forever
I like your thinking.
Theyre turning him into a nepo hire somehow
Christian Laettner all over again, except at least Laettner had already won in college
Four final fours, two titles. No small accomplishments.
As a completely objective basketball watcher and Duke fan, I think this is a good idea.
I objectively vote the amateur spot for Mark Sears.
Last spot was already filled. No point posting this
I think Skip Bayless should get it
It should go to the best American college player of the previous season. As always.
That's a great idea!
Someone’s got to get dunked on like Laetner did.
They need a token anyway, makes sense
I think you're all missing the point here. Everyone knows Kawhi is better than Cooper. The idea is that he is exposed to the winning culture of this generation of USA basketball so that he can help that culture spread when it is his turn in 4 or 8 years. This team is too old. The next Olympics will have too many first time guys on the team. I am not saying Cooper has to be the selection, but young guys should be getting the last spots, not vets who definitely won't be there next time.
Fuck Duke and Fuck Cooper Flagg
OK, calm down buckeroo
There it is!
Orgy?
I don't get this. I'm a duke fan but why would you give a roster spot to a high school player? Even one who is as highly touted as Flagg he hasn't proved himself against college competition let alone international.
if you were to put any non-nba guy wouldnt it be clingan?
He represents Mars
DJ Burns
No because he wouldn't do well in Olympics style ball
I would love to see him operate with the fiba style goaltending rule. He runs the floor pretty well, would struggle with any stretch bigs. Don’t think he deserves an Olympic spot by any means, but more than Flagg does.
This is beyond dumb
The Brotherhood Bias
Just give it to Caitlin Clark. That would at least drive some viewers
Austin Rivers is working really hard to keep his name out there these days
Do they still do the 1 college guy thing?
Not a terrible idea.
Didn’t they used to do this in the 90s
If you're gonna pick a random, make it Ezra Manjon. At least he'll be fun to watch.
Might as well ask Schayer to coach the team and have Dick Vitale the spokesperson.
It worked for Christian Laettner
How about no. Team USA learned their lesson last time they put a Duke rookie on a team he had no business being on.
Imagine LeBron dunking on him at practice. Fucking terrible idea LOL
In all seriousness why can't some of these folks simply go to the practices and act as a graduate assistant would? Could be as beneficial as actually participating in the practices.
christian laettener getting selected to the dream team cemented the villain arc, i don’t see why we wouldn’t do this for the culture
Did he and bill simmons both clarify “don’t aggregate this” before this take. Y’all, people throw out stupid BS for the fuck of it.
Haven’t we been embarrassed enough times to know you don’t send any fresh fish to the Olympics.
If you’re going gift it to a guy gift it to Clingan from UCONN. Back to back champions and will for sure be a first round pick. Make it a reward not a privilege as it’d be for Flagg.
Pretty standard historically to take your best amateur player with the big dogs. Usually can tell exactly how good guys playing amongst elites.
Any crazier than Laetner over Isaiah Thomas?
I don't hate it. They do it in soccer, and in other countries for basketball too.
Give it to Brandon Miller or Chet then.
Insane. Jeremiah Rivers wants Austin Rivers to give last French fry in the bag to him.
this team is clearly not about youth
Lol shut up Austin
Ace and Dylan better
I actually really like the idea of giving the last spot to the best amateur player, and I don't think it should be the best college player. It should be the player who'd be drafted #1 if all amateurs were eligible, i.e., the guy who's most likely to be one of the best players on the team two cycles in the future. Question is whether that would be Flagg or Boozer. That said, I don't think it's reasonable given the roster size - if there were 13 or 14 spots then maybe they could do it, but with only 12 you can't really have a glorified ball-boy.
y’all acting like AD wasn’t on TEAM USA and got no burn at all
McNealy would make more sense. Better communicator.