Can Team USA Return to Glory?

The FIBA Americas tournament will start on August 22nd, in which America must finish in the top two to earn an Olympic spot. This time around the team will have the services of some more stars, possibly Chauncey Billups, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Amaare Stoudamire and the top 2 draft picks, Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. The US Team lost in the semifinals of last year's tournament despite having some serious star power and a specially selected team by Jerry Colangelo, the USA's managing director.

From seattlepi.com:

"The U.S. national team opens minicamp Friday, its first time together since finishing third in the worlds and being forced to play its way into the Beijing Games.

"We had a changeup thrown at us," USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said recently. "Because when we spoke originally about that, the intent was to go out and win the world championships and that '07 would be a down year, just kind of prepare for '08. But because we didn't win the world championships, that changes what we have to do. We have some work to do."

Hopefully this team can find the right mix of inside/outside scoring and point guard leadership to return Olympic Gold to the United States. It almost seemed as if the mix of young stars on the team last time around was showcasing the "1 on 1" style that many say dominates the current NBA game. In the days of the original Dream Team, it seemed as if all the star players on the team could co-exist and play off each other's strengths. As good as Carmelo, Lebron and D-Wade are, these guys seem to be in a constant competition with each other for notoriety and that will always hurt a team effort. I'm not going as far to say as those 3 guys are the reason for Team USA losing either. Foreign basketball players have been more dominant in the NBA than ever before, and especially more so than the days of the Dream Teams.