Team USA Basketball 2016: 'B-Team' Talent?

By Mark Bacon

USA Basketball officially announced its roster for the 2016 Rio Olympics on Monday, and it feels like a B team or, if you’re feeling particularly generous, a B-plus team. Team USA can no longer walk on the court with NBA talent, and be assured of walking away with the Gold. International basketball is catching up with the US, particularly Spain and Lithuania.

True, the Rio roster is led by A-list headliners: Kevin Durant and Paul George, plus a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and perhaps the player best suited for FIBA style basketball, in Carmelo Anthony. But there are just too many big-name no-shows—LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, and Chris Paul among them—to put this group on the same level as the 2008 Beijing team or the 2012 London squad.

Who, exactly, is on the team, chasing USA Basketball’s third straight Olympic gold medal and fifth straight gold at a major international competition under coach Mike Krzyzewski? Here’s the final 12-man roster by position:

PG: Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry

SG: Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, DeMar DeRozan

SF: Kevin Durant, Paul George, Harrison Barnes

PF: Carmelo Anthony, Draymond Green

C: DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan

The good news: This group has everything Krzyzewski will need to win gold—perimeter shooting, elite ball-handlers, versatile and high-energy perimeter defenders, and interior size. The roster is made up of nine 2016 All-Stars, the same number as the ‘08 and ‘12 Olympic rosters, and it includes two Olympic gold medalists (Anthony and Durant), four members of the 2014 FIBA World Cup team (Irving, Thompson, DeRozan and Cousins) and four players with NBA championships to their names (Irving, Thompson, Barnes and Green).

The bad news: The Rio roster simply isn’t the best that USA Basketball has to offer. The top-four MVP vote-getters and four of the five All-NBA First Team selections will be resting this summer, attending to other business, perhaps wishing to avoid the political chaos gripping Brasil currently and ducking the Zika virus.

The point guard position was hit particularly hard, as Curry, Westbrook, Wall and Paul, the NBA’s est floor generals, will all be missing out. There’s also a letdown here given that James and Curry, who just battled for supremacy in the Finals and the unofficial title of “face of the NBA” over the last two years, are both staying home.

The worst news: The trickle-down effect of so many withdrawals led to some serious scrambling and reaching at the bottom of the roster. Barnes, Golden State’s polarizing small forward, has a bulletproof case as the least deserving player to make an Olympic roster under Krzyzewski. In the just completed 2015-16 season, Barnes posted a 12.3 Player Efficiency Rating (PER), which is significantly lower than all of his 2016 teammates (the 11 other selections all have PERs above 18) and lower than every other Olympic participant in ‘08 and ‘12. (The previous low belonged to Tayshaun Prince, who posted a 15.6 PER in ‘07-08 leading into Beijing.) What’s more, Barnes compiled a PER worse than every player selected for the ‘06, ‘10 and ‘14 world championship/World Cup teams with one exception: ‘14 Derrick Rose, who posted a PER of 9.7 while playing just 10 games in the 2013-14 season due to injury. Even in a watered-down field Barnes is out of his depth.

To be honest, USA Basketball has spoiled its supporters in recent tournaments. The 2008 “Redeem Team” Olympic roster was absolutely loaded with James, Paul, Anthony, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard. Same in ‘12, when James, Bryant, Paul and Anthony were joined by Durant, Westbrook and James Harden to form a squad so stacked that Bryant openly asserted it could have beaten the famous 1992 Dream Team. (Pure hyperbole.)

The 2016 roster just doesn’t quite stack up. To be clear, the diminished quality of the 2016 Rio roster is not cause for any panic when it comes to the medal stand. USA Basketball will still enter the Olympics as the overwhelming favorite to win gold. Any other result, frankly, would qualify as a shocking disaster. It will also be curious to see how two members of Team USA, with rather dubious “rap sheets” associated with their style of play—Green and Cousins—will handle FIBA officiating.

Team USA Basketball is leaving more talent at home than it’s bringing to Brazil. Check out this “roster” of players that are skipping the Games:

PG: Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, John Wall
SG: James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard
SF: LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard
PF: Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge
C: Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond

While this group is a loaded with point guards, one can still easily argue that it’s a better roster top to bottom than the actual Rio roster.

Put simply: In an ideal world with 100 percent participation, USA Basketball had a chance to field a roster for the ages, one that would have rightfully drawn comparisons to 1992 and ‘96. Instead, Durant and George will lead a patched-together group that should still win gold in Rio, but one that will leave many wondering about what could have been.

In Cleveland, It's Good To Be King

By Mark Bacon

The Curse succumbed to the legend of LeBron James. The native son who arrived in fame and left in shame has returned to deliver a championship that Northeast Ohio fans went through sporting hell to receive. For James, it's good to be King.

For 52 years, Cleveland experienced consistent misery. The heartache was so familiar that people could condense each agonizing moment into a two-word label. The Drive. The Shot. The Fumble. The Decision. But in place of the city’s professional title drought is now its greatest achievement: A unprecedented rally after trailing the NBA Finals three games to one to an opponent that won more games than any team in league history.

If you aim to soothe a half-century of soul-wrenching aches, this is the way to do it. With a 93-89 victory in Game 7 at Oracle Arena, the Cavaliers became the first team to win the Finals after trailing 3-1. It’s the most unlikely comeback the NBA has ever seen, orchestrated by a 31-year-old superstar who has earned an immovable place among the game’s most revered legends.

A flawed hero to fail the first time, then leave and embarrass and anger the city and come back, older, wiser and a better winner. The James who fell short as a young adult would not be denied as a hardened man.

James’ teammate Kyrie Irving also launched himself into the annals of history, with the flick of a wrist, and smashed a 52-year curse. Irving’s three-pointer with 53 seconds left lifted the Cavaliers to a 93-89 victory in front of a stunned sellout crowd inside Oracle Arena. “History was made tonight,” Irving said. “This was one for the books. Literally one for the books.”

“Just knowing what our city has been through, Northeast Ohio has been through, as far as our sports and everything for the last 50-plus years,” James said. “You could look back to the Earnest Byner fumble, [John] Elway going 99 yards, to Jose Mesa not being able to close out in the bottom of the ninth to the Cavs went to The Finals — I was on that team — in 2007, getting swept, and then last year us losing, 4-2. And so many more stories. And our fans, they ride or die, no matter what’s been going on, no matter the Browns, the Indians, the Cavs and so on, and all other sports teams. They continue to support us. And for us to be able to end this, end this drought, our fans deserve it. They deserve it. And it was for them.”

Winning a championship in Cleveland is equivalent to winning at least three most anywhere else. To put this in perspective: On Sunday, James and his longtime veteran teammate James Jones became the 69th and 70th players to win three NBA titles. Of those 70, only three — three! — players did not collect some of their rings playing for the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls or Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs: James, Dwyane Wade and Jones.

Basically, there have been four dynastic movements in NBA history, and if you weren’t fortunate to board those trains, good luck hogging championships. It’s safe to say James represents a fifth movement. To do it in Cleveland, to do it by beating the all-time great Warriors, to do it in a league in which so few franchises win championships, James has rewritten the first paragraph of his legacy.

In the defining game of his career, James posted a triple-double Sunday: 27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. He was a menace on defense, protecting the rim as if his family lived in the basket. Kyrie Irving, who was brilliant in the Finals, scored 26 points and hit the biggest shot of the game to give the Cavaliers a 92-89 lead.

Last night wasn’t the most well-played game, but it was what you’d expect from a Game 7 of the NBA Finals. It was hard-fought yet imperfect, a competition and not a beauty pageant. In recent history, when the Finals end with a for-it-all final showdown, the games are more battles of endurance than thrilling, free-flowing basketball. This one followed that pattern, appropriately.

After six games decided by double-digit margins, after a series of seesawing control, it was fitting that this game was not a classic as much as it was two wobbly teams continuing to punish each other and doing everything it could to stay on its feet. Neither team led by more than eight. There were 11 ties and 20 lead changes.

When he left six years ago, some fans burned their replica James jerseys. Now, all is forgiven. King James is home. Cleveland is a winner. It's good to be King.

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48 Minutes

By Mark Bacon

48 Minutes. 2,880 seconds. The clock starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The minutes, seconds, measuring a Legacy.

LeBron James will be judged by the final outcome of those 48 minutes. The Legacy of The King. One of the greatest of all time? Or not?

The NBA Finals on Sunday night could cement LeBron as one of the Greatest to ever step between the lines on an NBA court, leading a collection of misfit parts back from the brink of elimination in The Finals.

There have been 10 teams in NBA history -- including the Golden State Warriors -- who have successfully overcome 3-1 postseason deficits to win a series in the sum whole total of NBA PLAYOFF Series.

The Warriors, after rallying from 3-1 down to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference final, now could have the feat done to them by the Cavaliers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday.

If so, the greatest season in NBA regular-season history — 73-9 — will end in disappointment and second-guessing. The Warriors, once up 3-1, now find themselves facing a Game 7 at home on Sunday night.

In a series that have featured more high kicks than The Rockettes, accusations of “rigged games” by an NBA wife, and the reigning MVP throwing his mouthpiece at the son of the minority owner of his opponent’s team, it all comes down to 48 minutes. And the will, determination and talent of one man in particular: LeBron James. He’s carried his team on his broad shoulders to this juncture.

However, with the subtexts of questionable fouls, ejections, suspensions, accusations of cheating and the expected elevated physicality of an NBA Playoff Series, questions remain. Questions that will be answered on the hardwood in the reigning NBA Champions home court.

My best guess is the Warriors will benefit from playing on their home court. With a surely rabid gathering of their faithful cheering them on.

The Golden State Warriors will repeat Sunday evening. Tarnishing the Legacy of King James and his Herculean efforts.

But in 48 minutes Sunday night, anything can happen. It promises to be a well contested contest.

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Warriors Set to Secure 2016 NBA Championship Tonight

No Draymond Green? No problem.

By Mark Bacon

Much as I want to say there's a chance, the truth is the Golden State Warriors will win the NBA Championship this evening. Their record breaking season has propelled them to this juncture, and there is no denying the obvious. They have solved LeBron James, and the rest of the Cavs are overmatched. It also highlights how much weaker the NBA East is versus the West.

The Warriors look to clinch their first-ever back-to-back NBA championships Monday night in Oracle, 9 p.m. ET on ABC. Here's where the series stands after Friday night’s Game 4.

It was very much possible that instead of Cleveland finding adjustments and a solution for the Warriors in game 3, Golden State just had a bad game. If so, there was every reason to think they would play better and win Game 4, effectively ending the series. That's what happened. Though they started off rocky, and the Cavaliers lead by eight points at one moment, it wasn't enough, and the Warriors eventually shot their way to a win.

No team has ever lost after going up 3-1 in the Finals (32-0). Surprisingly, teams are just 13-10 in Game 5's at home after going up 3-1, so there's at least a little hope that Cleveland can push the series back to Cleveland to give themselves a chance at the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history, but in reality, this is done.

The Warriors have led for the majority of the series, dominate in nearly every statistical category, have won all the matchups, figured out / neutralized LeBron James, stymied Kyrie Irving, negated J.R. Smith, and likely have already gotten Kevin Love traded. All that's left is to figure out how many games it takes, where the Warriors stand as an all-time team, and where the Cavaliers go from here.

With Draymond Green out, expect the Warriors to move Iguodala into the starting lineup, with a modified small-ball unit featuring Andrew Bogut at center. Their small-ball advantage is less with Bogut on the floor, but their versatility at 1-4 still gives them an advantage, especially since the Cavaliers will still be starting Tristan Thompson. Mo Speights likely gets more time, and that helps the Cavs, but if the Warriors simply shoot the lights out as they are prone to at any time and especially at home, Golden State can still secure the title.

• The Warriors are 6.5-point favorites in Game 5, the highest they've been favored in this series. Took a while but the books and the public finally gave up on Cleveland
• Teams have never lost a 3-1 lead in the Finals (32-0).
• Teams are 13-10 at home in Game 5 of the Finals after going up 3-1.
• Teams are only 5-7 after losing Game 3 and winning Game 4 to go up 3-1 per WhoWins.com.
• The Warriors have 29 more assists on only six more made field goals in this series. That is incredibly telling.
• Golden State has outscored Cleveland by 60 points from the arc in this series.
• The Cavs have more rebounds, more points in the paint, more second-chance points, and more fast-break points in this series.
• Channing Frye is the only Cleveland rotation player with a positive net rating (plus-5.5 per 100 possessions.)
• Per ESPN, the Cavs are plus-31 with LeBron James on the floor and Andre Iguodala off the court in 44 minutes in this series. They are a minus-48 with James and Iguodala both on the floor, a stunning testament to Iguodala's repeat-Finals-MVP candidacy.

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What's Love Got To Do With It?

By Mark Bacon

The Cleveland Cavaliers are better against the Golden State Warriors when Kevin Love is not on the floor.


In the two games Cleveland have played with Love, they've lost to Golden State by 48 points. In the seven games he has been out over the past two years, they've been a different squad against the Warriors. Without Love, the Cavs competed in almost every contest in last year's Finals, and it just won Game 3 on Wednesday night at home, handing the Dubs their worst loss of Steve Kerr’s tenure 120-90.

There have been whispers that were more like loud murmurs coming from Golden State before this series and after the first two wins that they felt more confident with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in the lineup than they did last year against the bigger, slower team left over after Love and Irving were hurt. The Warriors isolate Love, hunt him down in pick-and-roll situations and hammer him. Speed by him with Curry. Power past him with Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala. Hammer him with bigs. Force help, create space and exploit the matchup.

Without Love, in Game 3, the Cavaliers turned to 35-year-old NBA journeyman Richard Jefferson ... yeah, RICHARD JEFFERSON! ... and their defense improved considerably. Jefferson cuts to the rim are more crisp, and defensively, the Cavs were able to stay home on switches without bringing help. Combine that with a terrific performance from Irving (30 points on 12-of-25 shooting) -- and a horrific Warriors effort that Draymond Green decried -- and we witnessed an absolute demolition of the mighty Warriors.

The Love dynamic has been complicated from the start in Cleveland. Love was pretty much ignored in David Blatt's offense, he struggled with "fitting in" which LeBron James did not take well and there was widespread speculation he might depart via free agency. Instead, after a pool-side talk with LBJ before free agency, he re-signed on a max five-year deal. And began the season with a bang. Then Irving returned ... and the same problems resurfaced. But still, lineups with Love and the Big 2 on the court were dominant. Love contributed multiple 20-plus-point performances as the Cavs blew through the Eastern Conference into the Finals.

But here we are again, wondering how the Cavs are better with a 35-year-old journeyman than the max contract superstar who cost them Andrew Wiggins in a trade that looks worse by the day.) Whatever this means for the future is speculative. A rumored possible trade of Love (long rumored to likely involve Boston), the bigger picture, that can wait.

The Cavaliers face another must-win Game 4. They put the Warriors on their ass in Round 3, but going back to the Bay down 3-1 would spell certain doom. Charles Barkley said on NBA TV on Wednesday night that the Cavaliers need to (and will) start Love in Game 4; that they got to this point with him.

In truth, they don't have that luxury. The Cavs, despite the 30-point margin of victory in Game 3, have zero margin for error. They can't mess around or trust the process. They've found something that works vs. the Warriors and must pound it with a jackhammer. They can't trust and hope on a matchup that has shown no promise.

That's not to say Love should sit entirely. Start Jefferson, deploy Love in situational lineups where he can have success in against the Warriors' bench unit (which have been huge for Golden State and terrible for the Cavs) and worry about the long-term ramifications later. Love might even flourish in a different situation. But what they cannot do is charge back into the face of the Warriors' starters with Love.

In other words, the question is now: Can this great Cavaliers team beat this all-time Warriors team with Love as their third-best player? The evidence says no. That's no referendum on Love's career, nor does it diminish his significant contributions as a passer, scorer and rebounder.

Growing evidence suggests that whatever formula Cleveland needs to beat the Warriors team in four of seven games, Love is not central to that equation.

There's no getting around it. The Cavaliers have been better without Love vs. the Warriors.

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RIP: Muhammad Ali, The Greatest of all Time

Muhammad Ali was OUR Hometown Hero. A Louisville Native. Main Event Sports invites you to share your thoughts, memories and feeling about the three time Heavyweight Champion of the World, Boxer and Humanitarian. Following are quotes from The Champ, in no particular order:

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."

"I'm young; I'm handsome; I'm fast. I can't possibly be beat."

"Don’t count the days; make the days count."

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it—then I can achieve it."

“It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am."

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”

“If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize.”

“Braggin' is when a person says something and can’t do it. I do what I say.”

"I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was."

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."

"A man who has no imagination has no wings."

"He’s (Sonny Liston) too ugly to be the world champ. The world champ should be pretty like me!"

"I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own."

“I’ve wrestled with alligators. I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning. And throw thunder in jail.”

"Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong."