Ben Taylor, a Sports Editor for the
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The NBA regular season is just winding down. Ahead of us is over a month of playoff basketball, which I think is a lot of fun and am excited for, even if the Cavs have looked rough as of late.
More exciting to me, though, is what awaits us on the other side of the summer: the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Specifically, I find myself enthralled by the possibility of seeing LeBron James and Stephen Curry on the court together at the same time.
Just imagine with me for a moment, if you would, Steph’s ability to stretch the defense combined with LeBron’s nearly unstoppable drives to the basket (when he’s interested in doing that sort of thing instead of settling for ill-advised 3-pointers).
The NBA 3-point line is 23’ 9”, whereas the international line (or at least FIBA’s line, which, as best I can tell, the Olympics use) is 6.75 meters, which translates to 22 feet and change.
This season, Stephen Curry has shot 44.4 percent (245-552) from 25-29 feet, 61.9 percent (13-21) from 30-34 feet, 40 percent (2-5) from 35-39 feet and 28.6 percent (4-14) from 40+ feet.
These distances are all minimally around three feet behind the international 3-point line. His almost limitless range (a cumulative 44.6 percent from 25 feet and up) will generate myriad problems for defenses that are already frequently hapless against Team USA’s dominance (the usual suspects — mostly just Spain, but occasionally others — excepted from this).
Thinking about Steph and LeBron playing together has me wondering: what will the 2016 U.S. Men’s Basketball roster look like? Luckily for me, USA basketball has already narrowed down the field to the final 31 players fighting for a spot on the 12-man roster.
Following this point are my suggestions for the 12-man roster. I am assuming that there will be five guards, five forwards and two centers (since I assume playing small will be a strategy employed more frequently than playing large). Depending on how we want to think of Anthony Davis, this will be one more center than both of the last two Olympic squads.
Since I have watched far less basketball than I wish since entering college almost four years ago, this analysis will be based largely on numbers and partly on romanticized, 2008-2012 versions of some of these players (along with their NBA 2K14 iterations).
We begin with the guards. The current shortlist is Michael Conley, Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson, John Wall and Russell Westbrook. I would suggest cutting this down to Steph, Lillard, Klay, Russ, and Harden.
It’s a point-guard-heavy list. I don’t think anyone could argue against Steph with a straight face. (ESPN now has a “Nothin’ but Steph” option under NBA?) Klay Thompson this season has made the most three-pointers of anyone not named Stephen Curry. Lillard is averaging just over 25 PPG this season to go with nearly seven assists and four rebounds. Russ is an athletic freak of nature; he had a triple-double in a single half against the Lakers recently! He has 18 so far this season, following up on his 11 from last year.
Finally, Harden, whom I cannot stand, is second in the league in scoring behind Steph. He’s also registering 7.5 assists and 6.1 rebounds a game. Despite his apparent unwillingness to play defense, his numbers seem to support putting him on the squad.
(As a note, I had CP3 on this list, but it turns out he recently withdrew from consideration. I would far prefer him over Harden. If I were going with my heart, I’d suggest Kyrie, but I can’t in good conscience do that. Also, I don’t want him getting hurt again.)
Forward is an interesting position. There are a lot of players in consideration for the five spots I have allotted to the position. They are LaMarcus Aldridge, Carmelo Anthony, Harrison Barnes, Jimmy Butler (who could also be considered a guard), Kenneth Faried, Rudy Gay, Paul George, Draymond Green, Blake Griffin, Gordon Hayward, Andre Iguodala, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Love and Kevin Durant.
This list is crazy, and there are 15 people for five roster spots. Zach Lowe’s recent MVP ballot for ESPN.com has Kawhi, LeBron, and Durant at numbers 2-4. He also put Draymond Green, who himself has 13 triple-doubles this season, as defensive player of the year.
Meanwhile, Paul George is having a revival season, Blake Griffin looked good before missing a good deal of time due to injury, Harrison Barnes and Iguodala have been important to the Warriors’ success, and so on.
This is tough, but I’m going to suggest LeBron, Durant, Kawhi, Draymond Green (this hurts as a Cavs fan) and Kenneth Faried. I think Faried is the toughest choice, but I could easily be swayed by arguments for Aldridge in this position. What really sells it for me is the portion of the 2014 FIBA World Cup (of which Kyrie was MVP, which just adds to my emotional pain as I do not pick him for this roster) that I watched.
Faried had a motor that never stopped. I was never very good at basketball, but I prided myself in playing as hard as I could for the duration of my time on the court. Faried has non-stop energy (and he’s actually good at basketball). This attracts me. I say take him. (This should really also be a reason why I like Draymond Green and Joakim Noah, amongst others. But, as we all know, sometimes you hate players you would love on your own team. #DellyForLife)
Finally, we have to choose our two centers from the list of DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond.
To put it quickly, I say you take a flyer on Cousins despite his alleged obstinacy and a flyer on Jordan despite his inability to shoot free throws. Alternatively, take Aldridge as a pseudo-center who can shoot and then just take Cousins. Cousins is having a monster season, with 26.9 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. Jordan is also obviously a great defensive option.
These are my provisional picks. If you want to talk about them, you can find me curled under my carrel whispering, “USA, USA, USA,” to myself while dreaming of a starting lineup of Steph, Russ, LeBron, Kawhi and Cousins. Are those chills I just got down my spine? You bet they are.