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The final selection for the USA Olympic basketball team was named and there were not really any surprises:

“…Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were among the 12 players selected for the squad. Completing the team were Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.

“It was a very difficult selection process,” USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said during a news conference. “When you have as many outstanding players as we have in this country — to select a group of 12 is obviously going to leave out a number of outstanding people.”

link: US selects James, Bryant to lead Olympic basketball hopes in Beijing

The one possible weakness that other teams might exploit is the lack of three point shooters. There is Michael Redd, Kobe Bryant and possibly Carmelo Anthony to force other teams out from the zone defense. Teams will try to pack the lane with the zone defense so the outside shooting is crucial. It would be reassuring to have another ‘Ray Allen type’ of shooter who can score over the zone. And yes, even a shooter like Ray Allen can go into a slump as the recent NBA playoffs showed. However, the international teams would chance being beaten from long range than with anything close to the basket. Any Lakers fan or Celtic fan will verify how effective that defense is.

Catherine Forsythe

Tags: basketball, Olympics, shooters, Team USA, zone defense

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