USA Basketball: Ready To Take The Next Step

The Dream Team is now the Redeem Team as NBC so aptly put it last night. After years of failure, Team USA is back with a passion. They haven't won a major championship in eight years, but that was only from lack of effort.

Now the US realizes they can't breeze on through international opponents. They must play quality basketball. Representing the country didn't matter for the past eight years, but as the rest of the world has lost respect for the king of the game, this new squad is determined to save face.

They brought in Coach K who, as we all know, takes his commitments seriously unlike Larry Brown. He put together a team that has a little bit of everything: size with Dwight Howard, defensive prowess with Kobe, leadership skills with Jason Kidd, scoring with either Kobe or LeBron, youth with Chris Paul, and a stellar do-everything player in Tayshaun Prince.

The team has its slacker in Carmelo Anthony, but they have so much talent across the board that there are no excuses. They have run through inferior teams like Canada and scrapped through a tougher game against Russia.

We know they can run a fast break offense with ease, but when a team makes them slow it down and play a half-court offense the US can still respond. They proved it against Russia.

They have shooters like Michael Redd and Anthony, which is critical against the zone so often employed by international teams. They have guys like Kidd and Paul who can drive and dish after collapsing the zone.

But most importantly, they seem to be playing team defense, a concept never understood by previous US teams.

Bryant and Prince are hard-nosed defenders, and they seem to be embracing their roles as such. Bryant can also take to the rim and hit jumpers, but his defense will be the most important piece of his game this Olympics.

The bench isn't very deep when it comes to big men. Carlos Boozer is the main backup to Howard, but to me, perimeter shooting will be the key anyway. It all depends how well the US can knock down their jumpers.

If they stay hot, then they can bring defenses out to play them. If they gain the defense's respect, then you'll see more inside feeds to Howard and slashing drives from LeBron and Kobe.

Coach K knows how to make any team function and this is one squad that is too good to lose under his guidance. I predict gold for the US team, which will bring a renewal of pride for American basketball as a championship will once again strike fear into international basketball.