Warning Shots

Yes, the Aussie’s unexpectedly made the “Redeem Team” break the biggest sweat in these exhibition games, but USA’s play against Australia is only one of many alarms set off before opening night. Many questions arise after these exhibition games. Though they’re ranked above all, USA’s flaws have been exposed and will be dissected by hazardous teams such as Argentina and Spain. Not to mention, the critical decisions Krzyzewski has to make before facing China.

Clouds of pessimistic questions hovered over Team USA before they even stepped foot into against Canada on July 25th. Some of them vanished into comforting sunshine, but countless ones arose when USA found themselves leading by a merely 4-points midway through the third quarter against an unsound Australia team who didn’t have their best player, Andrew Bogut playing. At times, USA couldn’t shoot the ball nor defend. Thanks to Wade’s continuing stellar play, USA ended up winning by 11, but Australia definitely held their own against USA. Team USA’s defense was exposed several times throughout the contest, from inside cuts to perimeter defense. Australia’s Paddy Mills scored 13 points off the bench and most importantly, Mills outran Team USA’s defense at times. While the USA team remains positive after the win, unparalleled sports columnists will feast on the game against Australia.

The point guard position for team USA has been one of the steady headlines throughout these exhibition games for team USA. Jason Kidd’s involvement with his teammates throughout the heat of the game has been unavoidably questionable. Kidd, originally named the team’s starting point guard, has played less minutes than his two back-ups, Chris Paul and Deron Williams in all of the exhibition games. Jason has yet to have any noticeable impact into the team’s play. Now, most should take into consideration, this most definitely could be one of Coach K’s strategies for the teams engine. It’s always hard to spark hard criticisms against coaching staff’s game plan considering these “training” games give coaches the freedom to experiment with different strokes. Despite Kidd’s minimal involvement on the court, CP3 and DWill have been maestros at running the stacked offense.

The team’s lack of size have shown their shades of need against these tall international teams. Howard, Boozer and Bosh aren’t expected to make game changing plays, but like any other big men, they’re defensive inside presence is key. The main players that have been nabbing boards for this team though has been Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony. Now ‘Melo’s spot at the power forward position gives no surprise to his numbers and Howard has respectably shared his good source of rebounding, averaging 5.1 with his low minutes. On the other side, players such as Carlos Boozer has averaged only 2 rebounds a game, resulting in him not seeing any action in USA’s last game against Australia. The team’s importance when it comes to their front court could be their back-breaker in the future.

On the positive side, Dwyane Wade has exploded for USA through all these games. He has come off the bench in all of the contests, averaging, 18 points per game, 2.2 assists per game and 2.1 steals per game. His steals have erupted into jaw-dropping dunks. He’s broken down his opponents off the dribble and has taken the ball inside with his patented side-step extremely effectively. Alongside LeBron, Kobe and Melo, Wade is easily in the conversation as USA’s leader, while still coming off the bench.

Team USA faces many historical moments ahead, whether they are good or bad. Any game they take part in will be must-watch TV, especially their match-ups against Spain and Greece in the Preliminaries. Their opener against the host, China is also something critical to witness. USA will finally be in full effect, as will Yao Ming and China.