Group D consists of Italy, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Senegal, China, and the USA, and is headlined by no less than 15 current and a number of future NBA players competing in just one group.
Games will be conducted in Sapporo, Japan from August 19th to 24th.
Read more about the 2006 FIBA World Championship tournament at the informative official website Fiba2006.com
USA
The Stars:
LeBron James, 6-8, Small Forward, Cleveland Cavaliers, 21 years old
Jonathan Givony
The golden boy of American basketball over the past 4-5 years, LeBron James has never ceased to amaze with his ability to build up incredibly high expectations and then consistently live up to them. James was the most hyped high school prospect in history and has followed that up by becoming an NBA superstar from day one at age 18. Now comes a new challenge for this basketball prodigy, restoring the fear and respect that his country once garnered in the eyes of International basketball.
James will be expected to do a little bit of everything for his team. Whether its playing anywhere from the 1-4 positions for the US, being an outstanding scorer, defender, playmaker and role model and taking the responsibility of team leader on his shoulders, hell be scrutinized greatly by every basketball fan in the world for every minute hes on the court.
Despite the gigantic expectations, James has the natural talent and tools to once again live up to them. Were talking about one of the most gifted athletes in the world, showing incredible explosiveness, a body of a 25 year old NFL linebacker, exquisite fluidity, coordination and body control and one of the deadliest first steps in professional basketball.
Hes more than just an outstanding athlete, though, being possibly the most skill all-around wing player in the world at the moment. LeBron would be Clevelands starting point guard if his natural unselfishness didnt take away so much from his scoring at the position, not to mention the defensive problems it causes when considering the type of minutes he plays. Hes a fantastic ball-handler who is nearly unstoppable in terms of creating his own shot at getting to the basket, as his 10+ free throw attempts per game would attest. If, as often happens, the defense collapses on him as he penetrates the lane, hell use every bit of his 6 feet, 8 inches to survey the floor and find the open man unselfishly with his excellent court vision.
Despite the fact that he already averaged over 31 points per game in the NBA last season, James could still become an even better offensive player. Whats unfortunate for the US is that his biggest weaknesses are all exactly the type of problems that have plagued the team in the past. Hes an incredibly streaky outside shooter who is particularly average (37.3%) in the area from 17-23 feet. When forced to the right side of the floor, he becomes quite a bit more mortal, which is a weakness that many NBA teams have attempted to exploit. Although he cant be expected to drive to the basket on 100% of his possessions, his pull-up jump-shot off the dribble is still inconsistent, particularly when going right.
Because he is so incredibly talentedand also in no small part due to what Clevelands coaching staff has encouraged him to do--James has a tendency at times to try and do too much on the floor. This could be an issue for Team USA if his jumper isnt falling for him at times, something that isnt the rarest occurrence in the world. It will be interesting to see just how much offensive responsibility James decides to take on his shoulders in terms of how dominant he is with the ball in his hands, as there is a fine line between him being too trigger happy with the type of tough, contested shots he takes (which often fall), and being too passive in terms of creating for others.
LeBron is most productive in one on one/isolation situations in which he is able to use his athleticism, ball-handling skills and outstanding instincts to get his man off balance and either pull-up off the dribble or make his way to the basket, but so are the other mainstays on Team USAs perimeter, particularly Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony. James has been asked to be more of a natural leader for the Americans despite his tender age, and it will be fascinating to see how this evolves on the floor, since this isnt known as his biggest strongpoint at this stage of his career. There is no doubt that the US will be in great hands, but well only know how hell handle himself on this foreign stage when the crucial elimination games kick off.
Carmelo Anthony, 6-8, Small Forward, Denver Nuggets, 22 years old
Jonathan Givony
Although we initially planned on writing about the bigger NBA star Dwyane Wade for this portion, Carmelo Anthonys increasingly important role in the preparation games and the fact that he led the US in scoring in those matches has changed our mind going in. Anthony has built up quite a rapport with Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has repeatedly praised him in the media for his perimeter shooting, defense, attitude and work ethic. Hes ran plays for him accordingly, and there seems to be a pretty good chance that Anthony will end up being Team USAs leading scorer when its all said and done.
In terms of skills, there is very little doubt that he has the natural talent to do that on any team he plays for. Offensively, Anthony is an absolute load to matchup with. He is equally good at creating his own shot from the perimeter and bulldozing his way through the lane as he is setting up shop on the block and punishing players down low. He has an excellent combination of size, strength, footwork and outstanding touch, and has some of the best pure basketball instincts for putting the ball in the net that youll find here in Japan. Melo is terrific at using his body to punish his matchup and draw fouls, and will regularly get to the free throw line and finish as his 709 attempts from the charity stripe and 81% accuracy from there will attest. Take away his angle to the basket and hell calmly step back and pull up from a mid-range jumper, send a shot-blocker his way and drop a gorgeous tear drop softly off the rim.
Anthonys weaknesses are just as clear as his strengths are, but thankfully for the US they can all be minimized depending on how willing he is put in the proper effort and mesh with his teammates. As the Denver Nuggets clear-cut go-to guy offensively, on a team that boasts terrific role players who arent known as great scorers (Andre Miller, Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, Greg Buckner, etc) entire defenses will revolve their entire game plan to stopping him. This causes Anthony to take way too many tough, contested shots that kill his shooting percentages, but on an abundantly talented Team USA this shouldnt be the case if Coach K has his way.
Still, there are plenty of reasons for concern regarding Anthonys perimeter shooting ability, beyond his tendency to repeatedly take off-balance contested shots that would get most NBA players benched. After reviewing the same advanced scouting statistics from the 2005-2006 season that NBA teams use, we see many head scratching figures that make us wonder whether hes suited to be Team USAs #1 option. Anthony hits only 41% of his catch and shoot jump-shots when left unguarded, as well as 41% of his total shots from 17-23 feet out. From beyond the NBA 3-point line anyone can see that he only hit 37 of his 152 attempts, or 24%. When being contested, his jumper surprisingly stays stable at 39% on all of his total shots from the perimeter. Looking at his mechanics, its a bit difficult to figure out why, as he has a very pretty release and follow through with a nice high arch and plenty of elevation off the floor.
Beyond his perimeter shooting woes, there are also concerns about his ability or willingness to stay in front of his man. Anthony has never been known as a defensive stopper, but has actually put in quite a bit more effort than we can remember from him in the past during the exhibition games the US played so far. If he maintains that same level of intensity the team will be in good shape, but it remains to be seen whether or not that will happen since we never saw that part of his game consistently even when the Nuggets were fighting for their lives in the playoffs. It goes without saying that a player with his natural gifts should pull down more than the 4.9 rebounds he averaged per game.
Anthony has developed a reputation for being at best a selfish player, and at worse a head case. Coach K, George Karl and his former head coach at Syracuse and current assistant on Team USA Jim Boeheim have all disputed that notion in the past. Much of it has to do with the way he carries himself on the basketball court, showing concerning body language, complaining incessantly to referees, taunting his opponents and pouting when things dont go his way. He clashed with Larry Brown at the Olympics in 2004 and was involved in a number of embarrassing off the court incidents which he should have known to stay clear of.
Team USA and Coach K are taking a big risk by not only inviting him to the team (hes still yet to make an allstar game), but by giving him what appears to be a very prominent role. This is a great chance for Anthony to prove them right and truly join his 2003 NBA Draft counterparts LeBron James and Dwyane Wade amongst the NBAs elite. This World Championship should also tell us quite a bit about the maturing process hes obviously been going through over the past three years since being drafted. If it works, were talking about a player that is nearly impossible to match up with considering his talent and the caliber of teammates surrounding him. If it doesnt, Anthony will continue to attract a legion of doubters about his place as a bonafide star in the NBA.
The Upside:
Chris Paul, 6-0, Point Guard, New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, 21 years old
Wojciech Malinowski
With well known NBA names all over the US Team roster, it's hard to decide who's your typical upside player. With LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony looking like the "faces" of Mike Krzyzewskis team, Chris Paul is a guy that can emerge as a surprising leader during the World Championships. He comes off a sensational rookie season with New Orleans Hornets, averaging 16.1 ppg, 7.8 apg, 5.1 rpg and 2.24 spg and leading his new team to a 38-44 record, which was a 20 win improvement compared with the 2004-2005 season. Paul's efforts were rewarded with the Rookie of The Year Award, with CP3 coming only one vote short of being an unanimous pick.
So now, after 2 successful years at Wake Forest and an impressive rookie campaign in NBA, Paul is ready for another challenge. US National Team will need his explosiveness, ability to beat opponents off the dribble and heady decision making with the ball. With NBA level defenders struggling to keep Paul from driving to the basket, it's hard to imagine that somebody could succeed and stop him from doing so in Japan.
There are many players on the USA roster who will benefit greatly from playing with Paul - guys like Bosh, Howard or Brand will have a lot of opportunities to finish drive and dish plays created by him, while Brad Miller and Antawn Jamison should convert most of the pick and pop situations. This was a key play for the Hornets this past NBA season, with David West and PJ Brown nailing plenty of jumpers off the CP3 passes. It will be interesting to see how much Coach K decides to take advantage of this facet of his team.
Just like 2 years ago during the Olympic Games in Athens, many opposing teams will try to bother USA team with various types of zone defense. Since there is no Ray Allen type pure shooter on the team, Paul and his teammates will rely more on beating the first line of the zone, finishing from mid-range if defense won't react, or making defense collapse, kicking out the ball and keeping the opposing defense in constant movement.
Another way to score against zone-minded opposition will be of course in offensive transition. In both cases Paul will be an important factor for his team, with his court vision and creativity, as well as his good nose to finish around the rim.
On the defensive end he should be very useful if Mike Krzyzewski will continue to apply full court pressure or any other type of extended defense, where the athleticism and length of US players will be tough to overcome for their opponents. Paul's ability to disrupt the passing lanes with his quick hands and impressive quickness should lead to plenty of steals and easy points in transition. Defense is still currently the weakest point of his game, so nobody should be surprised if opposing point guards will look for their chances to go straight at him.
But even with all Paul's recent success and awards, there are still a few questions about his game translating to a FIBA competition. Skip Prosser's Wake Forrest and Byron Scott's Hornets played a lot of up-tempo basketball, and they struggled from time to time when opponents were able to slow them down. Top teams like Greece or Spain will frequently try to change the pace of the game, as well as make plenty of defensive adjustments, so it will be interesting to see how Paul will response and if he will be able to adjust to a different type of game than he played over the last 3 years.
He will also have to adjust to a different role, no longer can he be a top star on his team, with LeBron, Wade and Carmelo hell be much more of role-player rather an offensive catalyst, so the question is can he be effective in this role too? We'll see soon, but we wont be too surprised if it will be Paul who emerges as a leader for this US Team. During the last minutes of the USA - Brazil friendly game it seemed that he was the one who motivated his teammates and kept them focused, so it's clear that his leadership skills can be seen in Japan too.