Olympic Basketball & NBA Off-season Recap

Before we get into writing about football all the time here at BSD, I thought I'd do a quick recap of the Olympic Basketball tournament and the NBA off-season.

Olympic Injuries:

The most interesting impact of the Olympics on the NBA season will be the injuries to two very important players:

Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs - Re-aggravated an ankle injury in his foot. Supposedly should be ready to go come Halloween.

Jose Calderon, PG Toronto Raptors - After trading TJ Ford out of Toronto during the offseason, Calderon was going to be getting substantial minutes this season. Unfortunately, he too got injured during the Olympics. He should be having tests this week to determine the severity of the tear in his thigh muscle.

Olympic Players Making a Statement:

Rudy Fernandez, Guard, Portland - Holy tamale Batman! He had 22 points, five 3-pointers, in only 17 minutes against the US. He kept fouling though, but whenever it seemed like Spain was going to lose the game, Rudy Fernandez kept bringing the team back! Also, just to be clear, he is extremely explosive, as at one point during the game, he dribbled hard to his right, into the paint, and suddenly, out of nowwhere, the 6'6" guard exploded off the ground and dunked over Dwight Howard... while getting fouled! This guy can definitely play, and should be a fantastic addition for Portland who also gets Greg Oden this season.

Marc Gasol, Center, Memphis -Put up 11 points and 5 rebounds in only 23 minutes against the US in the final. Gasol even had a couple of nifty post-up moves during the game. This Gasol is only 23 years old and it seems like he actually could make an impact this year, if he plays like he did in the gold medal game.
He could also make a big impact on the entire world if he and brother Pau decide to accept my offer to star in a new sitcom, "My favorite Gasol." I think it would be really funny to write a sitcom and they can get into mischief, go on double dates together, do home improvement projects, Marc can "borrow" Pau's car for a weekend road trip, they can go to a dance marathon... really the ideas are endless!

Hamded Hadadi (or Hamed Ehadadi according to Yahoo!), Center, Free Agent - After getting clearance from the US government, this Iranian is now a free agent for the NBA and can work in the United States. He's 7 foot 2 inches tall, averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds per game in the Olympic tournament, including a 15 point, 8 rebound performance vs. Andrew Bogut and a 21 point, 16 rebound performance vs. Argentina. According to the Tehran Times in Iran, he is joining the Memphis Grizzlies. It seems kind of strange if this is true, because this means that Memphis will have collected three foreign 7 footers for this season: Darko Milicic, Marc Gasol, and Hamed Hadadi.

NBA Off-season quick recap:
(info courtesy of NBA.com)

Teams that made big additions
Philly - Added Elton Brand
Houston - Added Ron Artest
Cleveland - Added PG Mo Williams

Team that made a lot of moves but thinks they got better
Milwaukee - Added SF Richard Jefferson, SF Joe Alexander (rookie), PG Luke Ridnour, but LOST PG Mo Williams, SF Yi Jianlin, SF Bobby Simmons, SG Desmond Mason

Team that added a player to make the Jason Kidd Trade look better on paper
Dallas - Added Center Desagna Diop, who was traded to New Jersey in the Jason Kidd trade. It still was a bad trade though, as Kidd at this point is not as quick or as effective as Devin Harris, who they gave up.

Teams that stole players from each other, made a lot of moves, but each got worse in the process
Golden State - Added Corey Maggette, PF Ronny Turiaf, PG Marcus Williams, but LOST PG Baron Davis, SG Mikael Pietrus, and SF Matt Barnes.
I think that means they got worse. G Monta Ellis may play PG, though he is more of a SG, though there is some debate of course as to how effective this will be. I say thumbs down.

Clippers - Added PG Baron Davis, C Marcus Camby, SG Eric Gordon (rookie), SG Ricky Davis, PG Jason Williams but LOST PF Elton Brand, SF Corey Maggette, PG Brevin Knight.
I think this means they also got worse. PG Baron Davis will have to make up for the scoring of Elton Brand and Maggette, unless Eric Gordon is really good. Plus, Ricky Davis is the ultimate loser. He's only been in the playoffs twice in his career (with Boston in 2004 and 2005), and each time the team lost.

Team that made a lot of moves to Free up Cap Space in 2010
New Jersey - See the article written earlier this summer. They have a very young team (though since the article, the Nets lost Kristic to Europe, and M. Williams via trade, meaning the Nets only have 15 players now.)

An American-Jewish guy is the Head Coach of the Russian Basketball Team

We all complain about the craptacular journalism on ESPN and other places.

However, in the article that I have linked to here on Yahoo!, we have a display of quality writing, and a great story about the Head Coach of the Russian Basketball Team, David Blatt, who actually played college ball at Princeton under Pete Carril where he obviously learned the Princeton offense!

Beijing 2008 - Basketball and Soccer Mini-Preview

Editor's Note: I am personally excited as the Summer Olympics are about to get underway! The reason for my excitement? It's the one event that BSD has not yet had a chance to cover, since we did not start coverage until the football season began back in fall 2004.

Basketball Mini-Preview
Even if you are upset about the NBA's refereeing issues, Basketball at the Olympics should be a very entertaining and exhilerating event. Anything really is possible for the U.S. team, so by no means am I expecting a gold medal, though the U.S. should certainly be one of the top contenders for the gold medal.

Format: Only 12 teams competing, split into two groups. Top 4 in each group qualify for the knockout tournament.

World Ranks provided by FIBA ; rosters courtesy of Wikipedia.

Group A - the "easy" group

Argentina - World Rank: 2
Top players: SG Manu Ginobili (San Antonio Spurs); SG Carlos Delfino (just left Toronto for a Russian team); C Fabricio Oberto (San Antonio Spurs); PF Luis Scola (Houston Rockets); SF Andres Nocioni (Chicago Bulls)
Argentina again has one of the best teams in the tournament. They won the 2004 Gold Medal, and finished a "disappointing" 4th place at the 2006 World Championships. The good news for them is that they are in the easier Group A, so they should have a better seed for the knockout stage.

Lithuania - World Rank: 5
Top Players: F Linas Kleiza (Denver Nuggets); PG Sarunas Jaskivecius (formerly of the Pacers, now playing in Greece)

Australia - World Rank: 10
Top Players: C Andrew Bogut (Milwaukee Bucks); PF David Andersen (one of the top players in Europe)

Russia - World Rank: 16
Top Players: PF Andrei Kirilenko (Utah Jazz); PG Jon Holden (played at Bucknell, plays in Russia); C Sasha Kaun (played at Kansas and now plays in Russia)

Croatia - World Rank: 20
Top players: PG Roko Ukic (just signed w/ Toronto Raptors)

Iran - World Rank: 33
Top Players: 7'2" Hamed Haddadi (supposedly going to the NBA in the next year)

Group B - includes the top 3 teams from the 2006 World Championships! (Spain, Greece, and the US)

U.S.A. - World Rank: 1
Top Players: Boozer, Carlos; Kidd, Jason; James, LeBron; Williams, Deron; Redd, Michael; Wade, Dwyane; Bryant, Kobe; Howard, Dwight; Bosh, Chris; Paul, Chris; Prince, Tayshaun; Anthony, Carmelo
Only need to say they are calling themselves the "Redeem Team" after finishing 6th at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, 3rd at the 2004 Olympics, and 3rd at the 2006 World Championships.

Spain - World Rank: 3
PG Jose Calderon (Raptors); SG Juan Carlos Navarro (formerly of the Grizzlies); C Pau Gasol (Lakers); SF Jorge Garbajosa (formerly of the Raptors); PF Marc Gasol (Grizzlies); SG Rudy Fernandez (Portland TrailBlazers)
I really think this is still the best team. They won the 2006 World Championships, they have an amazing starting 5 of NBA-caliber talent, and they have not one, but TWO Gasols!!!!

Greece - World Rank: 6
Top players: PG Theodoros Papaloukas; SG V-Span (formerly of the Rockets and Spurs);
All of these guys play in Greece except for SG Nikolaos Zisis. They play great as a team as evidenced by their defeat of the US in 2006. Something tells me the US will be out for revenge when they play on August 14, 2008 during the Group stage.

Germany - World Rank: 9
Top Players: C Chris Kaman (Clippers); PF Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks);
With players like Kaman playing on Germany at the last second by obtaining citizenship in July 2008, I can't really get mad at the player. What irks me more is that the Olympics have such flexible rules that allow Kaman to suddenly show up on the German team just before the qualification tournament. On the women's side, one of the better WNBA players decided to play for Russia after not getting on the US team. Again, I think more anger should be directed to the IOC.

China - World Rank: 11
Top Players: C Yao Ming (Houston); F Yi Jianlin (NJ Nets)

Angola - World Rank: 14
Um.... yeah. This team is in trouble in this very tough group.

Soccer Mini-Preview
Athlete eligibility: 23 and under only, with THREE exemptions per team (anyone of any age, professional or amateur).
Format: 4 groups of 4 teams; top 2 from each group advance to knockout tournament.

Wikipedia provided group info and athlete info . Complete, more expert analysis is available at goal.com.

Group A
Ivory Coast - top players: Kalou (Chelsea), Drogba (Chelsea - but not yet committed to attending Olympics)
Argentina - top players: Riquelme (Boca Juniors), Mascherano (Liverpool), Messi (Barcelona),
Australia -
Serbia -

Group B
Netherlands - winners of previous underage championships, and considered one of the favorites!
Nigeria - goal.com predicts Nigeria to advance over the U.S.!
Japan -
USA - top players: G Seitz, G Guzan (just transferred to Aston Villa); M M.Bradley, F. Adu (Monaco), Jozy Altidore (Villareal), Brian McBride at age 36!

Group C
China - top players: Zheng Zhi (Charlton Athletic), Dong Fangzhuo (Manchester United)
New Zealand - top players: Ryan Nelsen (Blackburn Rovers), Simon Elliott (Fulham)
Brazil - top players: Ronaldhino (AC Milan), Robinho (?)
Belgium -

Group D
Korea -top players: missing due to injury!
Cameroon - top players: Eto'o ; Song (Portsmouth)
Honduras -
Italy - top players: all under 23!