I don’t understand why people think starting LB is so important. What evidence does anyone have that starting a player gives the team a better shot at winning?

If Barbosa proves more productive per minute than Rich, then give him more minutes through out the game. On the same note, if the match up dictates, you could in theory start LB against a smaller 2. But if the 2 is small enough, wouldn’t you want J-Rich posting him up?

In the case of a Grant Hill or an older player like him, it makes sense to keep them in a starting role since once an older player warms up he needs to keep playing otherwise he may stiffen up. But Barbosa is different.

So why does anyone give a crap who starts the game or ends the game, as long as they getting consistent, quality minutes?

I noticed that 15 min for Dragic meant 7 min/game of 3 guard backcourt. Entirely possible, but I don’t think that will happen so often, so I shuffled the time around according to my own idiosyncratic preferences:

Nash: 34
JRich: 31
Hill: 24
Stat: 40
Frye: 26

Dragic: 0
Barbosa: 31
Dudley: 14
Amundson: 10
Lopez: 20

Clark: 10
Tucker: 0
Griffin: 0

team is tough!

Congrats to Spain on global sporting domination!

Hard to saw what happens next season. Jerry Colangelo is still in charge of Team USA and the players seem to be taking it seriously again.

Spain finally won it’s first Eurobasket gold medal, after 6 silver medals. Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez (I will never forgive Sarver for giving him away 2 years ago) got to the All-Eurobasket team. The Spaniards deserved to win it all and I’m really happy for them.

Slovenia got to the Eurobasket semis for the first time in its history. The Slovenians were always known as a team of big-time offensive talents and weak defensive abilities, who have always came short of winning a knockout game. Their losing reputation became even more embarrassing two years ago, as they blew a 12 point lead with 4:30 to go and once again failed to get past the quarter-finals.
This year, Team Slovenia got a new coach named Jure Zdovc and looked like a different team. They played great offense as always, but were also a tough team – defended, hustled and was clutch.
I considered Slovenia the 2nd best team of the tournament, and thought they could actually give Spain a legit fight in the finals, but their injury list just kept getting longer and longer:
PG Beno Udrih was out for the tournament as he got injured in a friendly game.
PF Matjaz Smodis (who I think was by far the best European PF until he got injury prone) was included in the roster and was shut down because of his back issues.
PF Uros Slokar (ex-Raptor) got a blow to his elbow and was out for a while, but came back injured for limited minutes in the knockout games.
SG Domen Lorbek got a blow to the neck and was slightly injured but kept playing.
SF Bostjan Nachbar has a swollen wrist, and his sweet shooting stroke was definitely hurt.
PG Goran Dragic has strained ligaments in his knee, and was shut down (despite conflicting reports about playing him in the knockout games).
PG Jaka Lakovic had twisted both left and right ankles but did not stop playing, since there was no other PG available.

Despite all those injuries, Slovenia gave all they could until they had absolutely nothing in the tank. Lakovic, once considered a soft player and a choker, played 124 minutes in 3 straight days (he was fouled out at the semis against Serbia with 1 minute left in overtime) although his both twisted ankles were twisted. He could barely move his feet and his injury could have gotten much worse, but Lakovic stayed on the court.
While the team was almost crippled, all active players elevated their game to another level – hit big shots, defended and gave the tournament’s biggest fight. The Slovenians weren’t willing to accept a loss at any cost, and only a foul problem (since there were no available ball-handlers or centers) allowed Serbia to eventually win the game.
Team Slovenia have never shown that kind of toughness and passion. You could tell they wanted to win so badly,

Of course, our beloved Suns are considered a big-time offensive team, but also weak defensively and mentally – just like Team Slovenia was until the 2007 Eurobasket. Goran Dragic was a part of Team Slovenia in both 2007 and 2009. He was a part of the change and you could tell that he also looked energized and more confident, especially in that Spain game (he was responsible to a huge 4th quarter comeback).
Dragic is considered as our future PG, although I don’t think he should be (coach Zdovc also doesn’t think so – Dragic was the backup SG until Udrih’s injury). Whether he will ever become a starting NBA PG or not is beyond me, but I believe this summer’s experience will make him a tougher player. He won’t be another soft Slovenian product (such as Sasha Vujacic, who was thrown out of the team because his lack of defensive effort), but a hustle player who is willing to sacrifice in order to get the win. While Dragic still has room to develop, the mental part has definitely improved.

He doesn’t seem to have that kind of attitude but I guess in Spain he’s the biggest fish in the pond. When I talked to him at the all star game he seemed very….not like a super star.

It was actually Rudy Fernandez that was mobbed by the Spanish press and kind of acted like a Prince

He still has a decent upside and will be getting a lot more shots/minutes while playing in his natural position (Navarro will probably retire or start declining).