Team USA's Top Five Players

Any stock broker, single guy at the bar, or college quarterback can tell you it's good to have options. Such was the case for this post. The beginning of the NFL season and the end of the FIBA World Championship have provided an endless amount of things to talk about. In fact, I narrowed it down to a few ideas:
1) The amount of times Fran Frashcilla said "feast or famine" in one broadcast. I can imagine a broadcast journalism professor shouting at the TV, "Redundancy, Redundancy!"
2) The Cold War 2.0: How much the US and Russia still hate each other. The US gets mad when Russia takes credit for the 1972 Olympic gold medal in basketball. Russia gets mad when the US takes credit for Carly Patterson's 2004 Olympic All Around Gold Medal. There's still monkeys up in space somewhere. When will it all end?
3) Russian national team coach David Blatt's facial contortions. Furthering my point that international basketball not only has the strangest looking players of any sport, but coaches as well.
4) They say the camera adds ten pounds. Does HD add five years to Brett Favre's appearance?
Ok, so I like lists. A lot. I also was talking about options earlier. Team USA has 11 first or second options on their respective NBA teams, and one third option (sorry Tyson Chandler). So in an effort to tie all of this together, if I had the option, here are the top five players on Team USA I would take to build my team around.

Number 5: Rudy Gay - Before this tournament I would have said Danny Granger, but what Gay has done in this tournament is undeniable. So much so, that Granger has been relegated to the end of the bench. Gay gets overshadowed in Memphis because Zach Randolph helps with the scoring load. He also happens to be overlooked in FIBA play because he's playing behind Durant.
Here's what I love best about Gay's tournament: he's shooting 58 percent from the field, compared to his career 45 percent in the NBA. If there's one knock on Gay is that he needs to develop a more consistent outside shot. He's shown he can do that in FIBA play, let's see if it translates to the NBA. If it does, Gay will average 20 points a game and battle for one of the last All-Star spots in the West.

Number 4: Andre Iguodala - Iguodala may be the best player the casual NBA fan has never heard of. He averaged 17/6/5 last year. He's just a notch below the elite guard-forward guys such like Wade, LeBron, and Kobe.
What has hurt Iguodala through out his career is that he's never played with a playmaking point guard that can create opportunities for him. Louis Williams, Allen Iverson, Andre Miller were all shoot first point guards. Jrue Holliday will be handed the reigns this year, but he seems to be pretty offensive minded as well. Too often Iguodala has been isolated and forced to create his own shot, which has led to some bad shots, and a not-so-impressive shooting percentage. The talent is there, he just needs to be surrounded by players that can bring it out.
I also love Iguodala's durability. He's played all 82 games in five of his six NBA seasons. If I'm building a team, I want a guy I can count on to be out there every night.

Number 3: Russell Westbrook - I admit, I'm placing Westbrook this high based off potential. While he still needs work on his shot and needs to his limit his turnovers, he's entering his third NBA season and will turn 22 later this year.
Westbrook fits the new mold of point guards. He's big, fast, athletic, and has ability to get to the basket at will. If he continues to improve it's not inconceivable to see him developing into a Chris Paul type of point guard that is an elite player on both ends of the floor.
The big difference right now is that Westbrook is nowhere near the shooter Paul is. He's entering his third year, which is normally around the time guys start to improve their shot. Derrick Rose improved his shooting considerably from his second to third year.
The good thing is that with Durant around, Westbrook will never be expected to carry the scoring load.

Number 2: Derrick Rose - Is Rose this high on the list because he plays for the Bulls? Yes. But I mean that in a objective way and not a homer-pick kind of way. The fact that I've been able to see about 85 percent of Derrick Rose's NBA games allows me to comment on the types of things that don't show up in the stat book.
For instance, what's the biggest knock on Rose? He only averages 6 assists a game. The line of thinking as that the elite point guards average around 10 or more assists per game. And if a point guard doesn't average his 10 then he's either not elite, or a dreaded "score-first point guard."
While his stats may suggest otherwise, Rose is in fact an elite, "true" point guard. His lack of assists have more to do with the incompetence of his teammates than anything he's done. Rose's game is penetrating and then either kicking it out to a teammate or finishing the drive. He's also improved his shot to the point where teams can't play off him like they did in his first two seasons.
Team USA's style of play doesn't utilize is skill set and he has still managed to play very well. At this point, he has better body control and his a better finisher at the rim than Westbrook. They both have a similar skill set.
Rose also has the experience of putting an entire team on his back early in his NBA career and carrying them to the playoffs. Last year's Bulls team had no business being in the playoffs, and the 2008 Bulls had no business taking the Celtics to 7 games. Replace Rose with any other point guard besides D-Will, Paul, or Nash, and the 2009 team doesn't make the playoffs, and the 2008 team is eliminated in 5 games.

Number 1: Kevin Durant - Everything that needs to be said about Kevin Durant has already been said. He's the best scorer in the game at age 22. He should have been drafted before Greg Oden. He's a humble and hardworking guy. The only thing left for him to do is win a couple of MVP awards and NBA Finals trophies.
Here's my attempt at a fresh take on Kevin Durant and the number 3 player on this list, Russell Westbrook. Durant (2nd overall) and Westbrook (4th overall) were drafted in the 2007 and 2008 drafts, respectively. Very rarely do teams get back to back top 5 picks, and when they do (Bulls, Grizzlies, Clippers, T'Wolves) they fuck at least one of the picks up. The selections of Durant and Westbrook will be only the 4th successful back to back top 5 picks for a team in the last 20 years, and the first since 1992-93. Here's the 3 other duos:
1990-91 - Derrick Coleman (1st overall) and Kenny Anderson (2nd overall). During their 4 years together Coleman average 20 points and 10 rebounds for the last three years with the Nets that were not marred by injuries. Anderson averaged 17 points and 9 assists a game. The Nets would never make it out of the first round of the playoffs.
1991-92 - Larry Johnson (1st overall) and Alonzo Mourning (2nd overall). During their 3 years together Johnson averaged 18 points and 9 rebounds and Mourning averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds a game. The farthest Charlotte would get is to the second round of the playoffs.
1992-93 - Shaquille O'Neal (1st overall) and Penny Hardaway (3rd overall, drafted by Golden State and traded to the Magic). During their 3 years together, Shaq averaged 27 points and 12 rebounds a game, while Penny averaged 19 points and 7 assists a game. The Magic would be the the most successful of the duos, reaching the 1995 NBA Finals, and the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals.
It's hard to imagine Durant and Westbrook matching the play of O'Neal and Hardaway. The Magic duo was one of the greatest of all-time. However, you'll notice a pattern amongst these three duos. The Magic were the only duo unaffected by injuries, and consequently advanced the furthest in the playoffs (Penny's string of injuries would begin the year after Shaq bolted to LA).These duos also spent no more than four years with each other, not enough time to build a championship winning chemistry.
If Durant and Westbrook and can stay healthy and remain in Oklahoma City, they may experience something none of these duos experienced, an NBA Championship together.