Cleveland Cavaliers Season Preview 2017-2018

Derrick Rose, Jose Calderon, and Isaiah Thomas are all point guards. All have been floor leaders before. What gives now for these three? Playing time on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Can Rose, Thomas, and Calderon balance each other out for point guard duties?

Also, you’ve got J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert back as well as Kyle Korver. They’ve got to make sizable contributions to the basketball squad in order for Cleveland to get back at Golden State. Dwyane Wade has joined them. You need Wade to be healthy to be at his best.

Then, you’ve got Lebron James, Jae Chrowder, Kevin Love, and Channing Frye. These four players have to compete at a high level to beat a team like the Golden State Warriors. Rebound, score, play defense, be dirty a bit and rough up the interior Warriors bigs.

At center, you got Tristan Thompson, Jeff Green, and Ante Zizic. Can’t nobody give up an interior body in the paint. Got to get those rebounds and play defense and be prepared to catch the basketball to put in the basket.

Overall, Cleveland can play with the best of the NBA. They just need to be competitive more.

Grizzlies trade Rudy Gay to Toronto in three-player deal

The Memphis Grizzlies send Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors as Tayshaun Prince and Ed Davis and Austin Daye are traded from Detroit to Memphis and Jose Calderon leaves the Raptors for the Detroit Pistons. What a trade! Why did the Grizzlies do this? Apparently, they’re trying to clear cap room and make more money for Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. I think the biggest reason why the Grizzlies are doing this is because of money.

U.S.A. Basketball

It seems the U.S. basketball program is intent on making its players going to represent basketball players from this country based on talent and athleticism. If that is the case, the Americans will have trouble defending bigger players whose basketball talents lie in the areas of length and size. They will keep running against the world’s best basketball players and if that is the case, the world will take their bigs and take it down low against the Americans where they lack the size against the world. I think the U.S.A. basketball program should rethink organizing and retooling a reinvented basketball team based on length and size. If I were to organize a team against a Spanish team that has the likes of Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, and Jose Calderon, I would like to have a defensive-minded and solid distributing point guard in Rajon Rondo. I would like to have Rondo match up against Jose Calderon. What about Pau Gasol and Marc Gasol, you say? Greg Monroe and Lamar Odom. The Gasol brothers gave the Americans a bunch of headaches and the Americans didn’t like the Gasol brothers patrolling the lane. What about Brazil? Leandro Barbosa against Ty Lawson. The quicker Barbosa is a lot to handle for Lawson. Nene? I’d put the lighter Kevin Durant who is my favorite bench warmer on Nene. Durant on the perimeter will open up the paint for Odom and Monroe, whoever is the 4 or 5. Whatever the thinking the U.S. basketball program has about athleticism, it’s working against the world’s best basketball players, however it has trouble defending and keeping the world’s big post players from scoring the basketball on the inside. They might want to rethink about going with length and size, if that’s what they want to see in their own best basketball players.

The world vs. USA basketball

Non-USA Basketball Team U.S.A. Basketball team

PG Tony Parker PG Rajon Rondo
SG Leandro Barbosa SG Joe Johnson
SF Andrea Bargnani SF Tayshaun Prince
PF Dirk Nowitzki PF Paul Millsap
C Zydrunas Ilgauskas C Greg Monroe

Bench Bench

PG Jose Calderon PG Ben Wallace
SG Manu Ginobli F/C Kevin Durant
SF Carlos Delfino SG/SF Anthony Morrow
PF Tiago Splitter F/C Kevin Love
C Andris Biedrins SG/SF Rudy Gay
PG Patty Mills PG Ty Lawson
SG Marco Bellinelli G/F Josh Smith

Team World Basketball

If I were to construct a basketball team to play against the Americans, here’s who it would be: Tony Parker would be the point guard here. I like how he’s structured and wired to play his best basketball. Make layups. I also like Leandro Barbosa’s speed here too. Barbosa has a good shooting mechanic. At small forward, I’d put Andrea Bargnani, my guy from Italy. I like having a big guy who is seven feet at small forward. It creates mismatches for opposing forwards. Bargnani can put the ball on the floor if he is being guarded by a slow forward. Dirk Nowitzki is my starting power forward. No questions asked. Nowitzki is a shooting dynamo. You can’t stop Dirk from making his shots. You can only hope to contain him. Zydrunas Ilgauskas is a fabulous center who can make jump shots. At 7-3, you can’t defend his jump shot.  On the bench, I have Jose Calderon as my backup point guard who is a heady playmaker and offers steady floor leadership. Manu Ginobli is next on my list. I like Manu’s aggressive drives to the hoop. I like Carlos Delfino here. He is a good shooter and sometimes a willing passer. Then, I’ll have Tiago Splitter manning the power forward and center positions with his rebounding and shot blocking. Andris Biedrins is my backup center and will be relied upon for defense, energy, and rebounding. Patty Mills and Marco Bellinelli fill out the roster with their shooting. Luol Deng is a good option here because I like having Deng on my world basketball team. His all-around game will support his teammates on the offensive and defensive end. Ersan Ilyasova will help my team with his hustle and defense and shooting ability. Serge Ibaka will help here also with his defense and shooting ability. J.J. Barea from Puerto Rico will help my team get points at this point guard position. Then, lastly Kelenna Azuibuike will score points from his reserve shooting guard position. How about that? This is an all-European and African and South American basketball team.