My Olympic Team - The Point Guards

This is not an effort to further criticize Team USA (that's been done more than enough already), but an attempt to approach the problem in a more positive way. Even if this year's model wins the gold medal, I think everyone would agree that the selection process was greatly flawed and filled with more self-delusion than anything since WMD. So that got me to thinking, what exactly should Team USA look like?

I'm starting today with the point guards, and I figured the best way to go about it is to set up some basic requirements for the position. Let's go through them, one by one.

1. I want point guards who play, and play a lot, the idea being that any player who isn't vital to his own team doesn't belong here. I set the cutoff at 34 minutes, with the next closest player being Rafer Alston. Under ESPN's list of point guards, 16 players are included. They are, ranked by number of minutes:


1 Steve Francis
2 Stephon Marbury
3 Baron Davis
4 LeBron James
5 Damon Stoudamire
6 Gilbert Arenas
7 Jason Terry
8 Jason Kidd
9 Mike Bibby
10 Eric Snow
11 Kirk Hinrich
12 Chauncey Billups
13 Sam Cassell
14 Dwyane Wade
15 Andre Miller
16 Gary Payton

Kidd rejected an invitation, and reports are that Bibby would have as well, so we'll eliminate them. Three of the other 14 will be finalists for our Team USA (we may cut down to two later, when we see the rest of the roster).

2. I want a player who has won a playoff series. This would seem like a simple requirement, right? We want a Court General that has proven he can win something. Amazingly, this cuts our field in half as Miller, Hinrich, James, Arenas, Terry, Francis, and would you believe it, Stephon Marbury, have never won a playoff series.
We are now down to Davis, Stoudamire, Snow, Billups, Cassell, Wade, and Payton.

3. I want a point guard who takes care of the ball. There were 42 point guards who qualified for the assist/turnover ratio championship. Here's where our candidates
ranked:

Snow 5th
Payton 6th
Stoudamire 15th
Cassell 20th
Billups 29th
Davis 30th
Wade 41st

41st out of 42 is too dangerous for me. Wade is eliminated.

4. I want a player who can shoot a three, knock one down with the shot clock running out. Here's their rank:

Cassell 3rd
Billups 7th
Stoudamire 15th
Payton 19th
Davis 22nd

That's out of 28 who qualified, one of whom wasn't Snow. He shot only 18 all year, and only hit two of them. Snow is eliminated. Meanwhile, Payton's .333 percentage, and Davis' .321 make me nervous. Combine Davis's poor assist/turnover ratio with this and you have to start thinking if he's the best man for the job on a team full of superstars. In a sure to be controversial move, we'll eliminate him. Payton might have survived, but his terrible NBA Finals is reason enough to think that the man wouldn't be ready to play again in August.

This leaves us with Sam Cassell, Chauncey Billups, and yes Damon Stoudamire, a surprise finisher. Little known Stoudamire fact - his career three-point percentage shoots up to .393 in playoff games, and he's a good rebounder for a little guy, too. So let's leave it at this:

Cap N Shaq Team USA members - Sam Cassell and Chauncey Billups
Cap N Shaq Team USA altenates - Damon Stoudamire

Tune in soon for the Shooting Guards