Patrick Kane
Superstar
There’s no defense in the NBA, the game is completely geared towards offense shining and players being able to put up “big” numbers to secure max contracts. The NBA as a business benefits because aesthetically, players scoring a lot and generating offense is fun to watch for the casual fan. But it’s gotten really bad from a pure basketball standpoint.
We don’t see real defense until the second/third round of the playoffs and there’s 82 games of guys stat padding and load managing. The team with the most NBA players got out rebounded, out hustled, out skilled and just completely outplayed. On Team USA, you have multiple guys who are FIRST and SECOND options on their team (Ant, Ingram, Haliburton, Brunson, Bridges, Banchero) with MAX deals, insanely skilled offensively but ego and being selfish prevented them from making an impact together. None of them took up the challenge to do the dirty work like box out, rebound, strap someone up on the perimeter. In the NBA, guys like Bridges and Haliburton are considered good defensive players but absolutely COOKED by euro leaguers and had Dillon Brooks drop damn near 40 on them.
Granted with guys like Bron, KD, Tatum, Booker its a different story but does the US really need their most ELITE players to beat fringe starters and euro league players? It's not just about team chemistry. Even Canada is a roster with a bunch of G League and Euro League players and this is their first time playing together and they looked decent. The US is filled with an ALL NBA Roster and couldn't beat CANADA. I think the NBA as a league should be a little embarrassed about their display and representation of the game on an international level. Not to mention 4-5 players in the top 10 in the NBA are international players in Doncic, Giannis, Embiid, Shai, Jokic.
I’m still gonna watch but
this FIBA tournament made it abundantly clear the NBA is a watered down version of basketball in 2023.
We don’t see real defense until the second/third round of the playoffs and there’s 82 games of guys stat padding and load managing. The team with the most NBA players got out rebounded, out hustled, out skilled and just completely outplayed. On Team USA, you have multiple guys who are FIRST and SECOND options on their team (Ant, Ingram, Haliburton, Brunson, Bridges, Banchero) with MAX deals, insanely skilled offensively but ego and being selfish prevented them from making an impact together. None of them took up the challenge to do the dirty work like box out, rebound, strap someone up on the perimeter. In the NBA, guys like Bridges and Haliburton are considered good defensive players but absolutely COOKED by euro leaguers and had Dillon Brooks drop damn near 40 on them.
Granted with guys like Bron, KD, Tatum, Booker its a different story but does the US really need their most ELITE players to beat fringe starters and euro league players? It's not just about team chemistry. Even Canada is a roster with a bunch of G League and Euro League players and this is their first time playing together and they looked decent. The US is filled with an ALL NBA Roster and couldn't beat CANADA. I think the NBA as a league should be a little embarrassed about their display and representation of the game on an international level. Not to mention 4-5 players in the top 10 in the NBA are international players in Doncic, Giannis, Embiid, Shai, Jokic.
I’m still gonna watch but
this FIBA tournament made it abundantly clear the NBA is a watered down version of basketball in 2023.
team damn near all NBA players Shai, Barrett, Olynyk, Dort, Brooks, Powell, Nickeil
