Lack of U.S. shooters is sickening

Originally Published: August 6, 2004

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By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
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Aside from the Michael Redd omission, I can't be too critical about the makeup of our Olympic team. The selection committee was hit with so many withdrawals and no-thank-yous that it doesn't feel right to second-guess too much. Those folks had enough trouble just getting 12 players to accept invitations.

Brent Barry was second in the NBA in three-point shooting, hitting 45.2 percent.

I am also prepared to accept the idea of Team USA coming away with a silver (or worse) in Athens. If the old guard of world football can say the United States legitimately outplayed Germany in the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup, and deserved to beat the Germans, I can applaud Argentina or Lithuania or Serbia and Montenegro later this month if they deny us what used to be an automatic gold.

What I will never accept is the fact that, beyond Redd, the names of shooters who could have helped Larry Brown's squad don't quickly pop into one's head. Ray Allen said he needed the summer off for family reasons. Rip Hamilton likewise declined. Allan Houston is recovering from an injury. Reggie Miller is, well, somewhat past it.

And sadly, as Rusty told Danny Ocean in "Ocean's Eleven": "That is the list."

Seriously. You really have to scour your cranium to come up with pure shooters in the Stojakovic/Nowitzki class. If you keep scouring, you're probably naming Brent Barry and Brian Cardinal as the most sensible options after the aforementioned five.

No matter whom you submit as the next few candidates, there can be no debating: We've got a serious shortage of dead-eye marksmen in this country. Sickens me.

There are a lot of things wrong with the development of American basketball players, and I remain convinced that the restrictions on coaches at all levels are a huge slice of the problem. I said so after the Indianapolis debacle two summers ago, and I'll say it again now: Instead of those AND 1 Mix Tape auditions known as the AAU circuit, it would be wonderful if the best 50 or 100 teen prospects could be invited to a camp every summer where each of the NBA's 30 teams has at least one coaching representative. That's how they do it in every other basketball-playing nation around the globe: The most talented kids are exposed to the best coaches at a young age. They don't ignore fundamentals until they get to the pros, like our best kids do.

In the meantime, while I wait for that pipe dream to materialize, I have only one request from all the American NBAers who will be watching their Team USA buddies struggle to overcome a collective lack of shooting, size, chemistry, defensive harmony and international experience.

Go shoot. Now. Take 500 extra jumpers every day before the season starts. Please.

This means you!

There's no rule that says we have to dominate the sport forever ... but it's beyond embarrassing how bad Americans look from the perimeter as a people.

I'm hearing ...

That Karl Malone has told Rudy Tomjanovich if he plays for anyone next season, it'll be the Lakers.

And that Boston's Danny Ainge continues to chase Portland's Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Hard. So hard that the Celtics might soon be landing 'Reef in a trade.

And that the Clippers chose Kerry Kittles, the stately veteran, in a trade with New Jersey over a deal for Memphis' Bonzi Wells.

The Grizzlies' Jerry West apparently tried to peddle Wells to the drowning-in-cap-space Clips to ease his glut of swingmen, but L.A. preferred the maturity Kittles can lend to a young roster. The only irony here is that Kittles is replacing Quentin Richardson ... who was frequently referred to by coach Mike Dunleavy as the Clips' answer to Wells.

That was no small sacrifice by Malone when he told the Lakers to go ahead and use the mid-level exception on Vlade Divac.

The original plan when Mailman signed with the Lakers last summer, according to Laker sources, called for Malone to sign a multi-year deal starting at $4.9 million this offseason. He then would have played only one more season and pocketed a portion of the leftover cash in a buyout as a reward for dropping from $19.2 million in his final Utah season to $1.5 million in his L.A. debut.

With Divac signed, that payday is no longer available even if Malone does choose to come back to the Lakers, instead of signing with San Antonio or Miami.

Before you bash Chris Mullin on the assumption that he grossly overpaid Adonal Foyle and Derek Fisher, be advised of two very crucial caveats.

Fisher got nearly $40 million from the Warriors because Mully is trying to change the culture there. So he paid top dollar to beat out Houston for a veteran of three championship teams.

As for Foyle, who I, like you, previously considered the most overpaid free agent of the summer ... we're all wrong. Turns out the sixth year of Foyle's controversial $42 million deal is a team option. Which means Foyle will most likely never see that money. Which means Foyle's five-year deal is really worth slightly more than $30 million, which means he's only getting slightly above the league's average salary.

Knowing it was going to lose Erick Dampier, and knowing that Foyle can at least block shots, Golden State giving him $30-plus million over five years doesn't sound nearly as unreasonable.

There has been no outright trade demand yet from Jason Kidd, but we repeat: Kidd himself has reached out to the Spurs, Mavericks and Lakers in recent weeks to explore the feasibility of a trade to one of those three teams.

The Spurs and Lakers, at present, aren't willing to take on the remaining $90-plus million on Kidd's contract. The Mavericks want to see how Jason Terry works out and how Kidd recovers from knee surgery before deciding whether to rekindle their interest in bringing 1994's co-Rookie of the Year back to Dallas.

The only thing missing from Denver's offseason is the addition of a perimeter stopper. Kiki Vandeweghe has flanked Carmelo Anthony with two outstanding defenders -- Kenyon Martin and the re-signed Marcus Camby -- but all three (along with Nene) would prefer to guard power forwards as opposed to swingmen.

Minnesota clearly understands the value of a top-shelf perimeter stopper, as confirmed when the Wolves matched Portland's $27 million offer to Trenton Hassell, even though the Wolves are trying to reduce payroll.

With Portland restricted free agent Darius Miles still available, look for Vandeweghe to continue to shop Nikoloz Tskitishvili to teams with cap room (Atlanta, Charlotte and the Clips) in hopes that he can create enough space to make Miles an offer that the Blazers must stretch to match.

Reason being: Miles can be a great perimeter defender when he wants to be, and he's best on a team that already has lots of talent, which Denver does.

Toronto is not going to trade Vince Carter unless it gets a bona-fide ticket-seller in return. Just like Philadelphia wouldn't dare deal Allen Iverson unless it was getting a certain money-maker in return. Because if you're not winning a championship, every team's No. 2 goal is turning a profit. Trading Vince for, say, Stephon Marbury would guarantee that the Raptors do neither.

Strangely, though, Carter's popularity north of the border far outstrips where it is in his home country. Vinsanity's popularity has faded domestically to new lows.

The proof: Toronto is one of only five teams this season with zero games on ESPN or ABC.

The other four: Atlanta, Boston, Washington and the L.A. Clippers.

Houston, Miami and the Lakers have the most ESPN/ABC appearances with 15 each, followed by Detroit, Sacramento and San Antonio with 14. Cleveland sits at 13, Indiana has 12, Minnesota gets 11 and Denver and Dallas will be making 10.

The main reason Avery Johnson hasn't formally signed with the Mavericks yet: Dallas would have 17 guaranteed contracts if the Lil' General were inked.

So, yeah, more roster-shuffling from the Mavs is inevitable.

Or he'll be an assistant coach who isn't on the active roster when the season starts.

The silver lining of a European exhibition tour that is already exposing beaucoup holes in this Team USA?

Copious amounts of Jim Durham doing play-by-play, which I can listen to all day ... and which qualifies as a serious bonus in August.

NBA commissioner David Stern didn't miss the recent suggestion from union chief Billy Hunter that "there could be another lockout" if league owners don't soften their current proposal.

Stern also owns a PDA and thus knows that the prospect of reaching an agreement on a new labor contract with the players before next season -- the original goal -- looks pretty unrealistic.

"With each passing day, the calendar works against us," Stern conceded.

The Commish nevertheless insists that meetings with the union will resume shortly because both sides, in Stern's words, would "like to really know we are (in talks) before the season starts."

At present, if you listen to Hunter, the sides aren't in the same ballpark. The owners want to limit player contracts to a maximum of four years, and Stern -- having watched rampant spending this offseason with teams not expecting the luxury tax to be triggered next July -- is expected to push for a more stringent luxury tax.

The union, as you can imagine, doesn't like the sound of any of that, with only one year left on the existing collective-bargaining agreement.

"We're going to give it a good shot between now and autumn," Stern said. "But it's difficult in this business to manufacture a sense of urgency, so it takes time."

Here's hoping that the NHL's looming lockout scare, which is going to get a lot more coverage in September than it's getting now, sparks plenty of urgency on both sides.

It's bad enough that we have to devote so much time talking about the problems Team USA is having against second-tier European competition. The last word basketball fans should ever have to hear again is "lockout."

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.