“The
Supreme Team”©
Did the Lockout Ruin the Greatest Basketball Team Ever Assembled?
We have
repeatedly heard the story of Coach K touting that there will never be another
Dream Team. To a certain extent, he is
right. There will probably never be a team to do quite as much for its sport as
the Dream Team did for basketball. It
helped influence the evolution of the game to what it is today, with the Dirk’s,
Ginobli’s, Gasol’s, etc. Like us, these
dudes were kids watching the Dream Team go around the country signing
autographs while beating teams by 60 points.
Many of these guys patterned their game like that of the players they
saw in Barcelona. Ultimately, this is why
the game is so paired today. However, I
believe in the saying that “records are made to be broken.” Invariably, the records of players and teams are
eventually surpassed. Before there was
MJ, there was Oscar Robertson. Before
there was Shaq, there was Kareem. No one player or team is bigger than the
game. It evolves. It transcends. It gets
better. And that is what the 2012 USA basketball
team was going to be…the best basketball team ever…the Supreme Team.
How the lockout impacted
the Supreme Team
The
belief that the lockout had nothing to do with the rash of injuries to the NBA
is irrational. Teams were playing 8
games in 11 days! Basketball is not made to play like baseball. A medical degree
is not necessary to make the following observations: players sit during the
offseason; when the offseason lasts longer, players sit longer; after getting a
sudden call to training camp, which is sliced in half, the player’s body is called
upon to do things it normally would not do in the shortened timespan. Players push their bodies to the limit
because games are more valuable with the shortened season. Consider Derrick Rose, who would have been
played a huge role on the Supreme Team.
He had leg injuries ALL YEAR. Then
there is Dwight Howard, the NBA’s best center.
He pulled a disk in his back. Guess
what? The first things that hurt when the
body is fatigued are the back and the legs.
One thing about which there has
been little to no conversation is that most of the finalists, who made it
through the season, made a commitment to the USA to play in the Olympics. But did Jerry Colangelo ponder the
lockout? Players are not only drained,
but many are now becoming disgruntled about having to train and play. Dwayne Wade even mentioned getting paid to
play. That may sound preposterous to some, but the fact that he potentially may
have to play basketball for an entire year straight could sound preposterous to
him. I’m not blaming anyone for the lockout because both sides agreed to it,
but to say it did not affect the players both mentally and physically is
ridiculous.
Wait; Who is the Supreme
Team?
Considering the USA Basketball
Finalists Roster, it would be little doubt as to how Coach K and Jerry
Colangelo would have constructed the 12 member “Supreme Team.” I have
thoroughly deliberated the issue of Rajon Rondo, LaMarcus Aldridge or Blake
Griffith not being on the “Supreme Team.”
To start, Blake Griffith’s athleticism is an asset, but he brings little
of anything else to the table. The
opposite is true of LaMarcus Aldridge; he has a fairly fundamental game but is
not athletic, and does not rebound that great for his size. The hardest person to leave off this list is
Rondo. He is an exceptional talent;
however, his lack of shooting is a liability.
In addition, every point guard on the Supreme Team has an element of his
game. Derrick Rose is more athletic; CP3
throws dimes just as well. Westbrook is a better defender…and they all can shoot. In view of Rose’s injury, I expect Rondo, James
Harden or Ray Allen to take the last guard spot in London. I also expect Tyson Chandler or Anthony Davis
to take Dwight Howard’s place. Of course,
these changes make the playing team the almost supreme team… thanks to the
lockout.
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Supreme Team Players
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2011-12 NBA Stats
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Guards
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Chris Paul
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19.8 ppg, 9.1 apg, 2.5 stls, 50% fg,
40% 3pt
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Deron Williams
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21.0 ppg, 8.7 apg, 1.2 stls, 40% fg,
30% 3pt
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Russell Westbrook
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23.6 ppg, 5.5 apg, 4.6 reb, 45% fg, 31%3pt
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Derrick Rose
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21.8 ppg, 7.9 apg, 3.4 reb, 43% fg, 31%3pt
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Dwayne Wade
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22.1 ppg, 4.6 apg, 4.8 reb, 1.7 stls,
1.3 blks
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Kobe Bryant
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27.9 ppg, 4.6 apg, 5.4 reb, 43%
fg 1.7 stls,
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Forwards
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Lebron James
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27.1 ppg, 6.2 apg, 7.9 reb, 53% fg,
2.0 stls
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Carmelo Anthony
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22.6 ppg, 3.6 apg, 6.3 reb, 43% fg,
33.5% 3pt
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Kevin Durant
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28.0 ppg, 3.5 apg, 8.0 reb, 50% fg,
38.7% 3pt
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Forwards/Centers
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Chris Bosh
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18.0 ppg, 7.9 reb, 49% fg, 0.9 blks
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Kevin Love
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26.0 ppg, 13.3 reb, 45% fg, 1.0 stls 37%
3pt
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Dwight Howard
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20.6 ppg, 14.5 reb, 57% fg, 1.5 stls,
2.1 blks
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First,
if there was a game, played on a neutral court, it would be extremely
competitive. But I ask you to take your
Jordan Brand goggles off for a second.
There are not many weaknesses on the Supreme Team. The Dream Team is made up of 11 Hall of Fame
players true enough, but most of these players were not in their prime at the
start of the ‘92 Olympics. Magic
actually retired in ’91. Larry joined the Dream Team but retired right after.
Clyde Drexler was on the downside of his career as he played a season low in
games after returning from the Olympics. This team would have been really old
if it wasn’t for Christian Laettner skewing the statistics. Compare that with Kobe Bryant’ skewing of the
Supreme Teams’ age; Kobe is 34 years old.
In fact, the average age for the Dream Team was 29, while the Supreme
Team’s age would have been 26.5, a huge difference in basketball years. So the youthful exuberance category would
definitely go to the Supreme Team…if there was no lockout.
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Dream Team Depth Chart
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Point Guards – Magic Johnson, Scottie
Pippen, John Stockton
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Shooting Guards – Michael Jordan, Chris
Mullin, Clyde Drexler
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Small Forwards – Charles Barkley, Larry
Bird
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Power Forwards – Karl Malone, Christian
Laettner
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Centers – Patrick Ewing, David
Robinson
*Bold = Led in Playing time
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The
biggest weakness one could say about the Supreme Team relates to 3-point shooting. But is
it a weakness? The Dream Team did just fine shooting 36% percent in its 8 games
on the road to the gold in 1992. The
Redeem Team shot 37% percent from three in its 8 games and it did just
fine. The Supreme Team would be
replacing the combined 38.7% percent 3-point percentage of Michael Redd, Jason
Kidd, and Tayshaun Prince with Kevin Love and Kevin Durant. Love hit 37%
percent from the longer three point line in the NBA this year. Durant was third
in the league in three pointers made while shooting 38.7% percent (good for 38th
in the league), which is remarkable considering the amount and type of threes
he shoots. Furthermore, this number
would only go up because of the shorter 3 point line on the international court. A concrete example of this would be Lebron
and D Wade, who combined to shoot 47 percent from the three point line as
members of the Redeem Team.
Finally,
one must also remember that when the Dream Team played, their competitors were
fans, happy to be playing on the same court as the Dream Team. However, the Redeem
Teams’ statistics, such as points per game (-11 off from the Dream Team), PPG
differential (-15.9) and opponent’s ppg (-4.9) is pretty remarkable considering
the all-time high globalism of the NBA. One
would anticipate that these numbers would only go up with the Supreme Team, in
view of the facts that the NBA’s top 5 scorers of 2011 as well as the 2010-11
defensive player of the year are playing on the squad. This is in no way an article bashing the
Dream Team; rather, it is an article not waiting on the future to recognize a
historic team…if there was not a lockout.©
