I think they need to learn to play the mid range game, and to be able to shoot the three.
Otherwise everyone will keep playing zone and they will keep on losing.....

Mark Cuban kind of agrees with you, except possibly suggests that the international game should change to NBA rules!:
http://www.blogmaverick.com/

"Either we change all levels of basketball in the USA to play by international rules, or we get them to play by U.S. basketball rules.

"I would be willing to bet that if you brought back all the same teams in the final eight and played under NBA rules," Cuban said, "with an NBA ball on an NBA-sized court, we would torch them. The different rules require different skill sets. It's that simple."

That's quite arrogant really. Like saying, come to my pool room, play on my table with my house rules and I'll kick your butt at snooker.

Or, North players saying, come to my home court, with Hillcrest dead spots, Hillcrest sized-court, Hillcrest ring heights.

If they cant play the international game as it is recognised by the entire world bat them are they really the best basketball nation in the world? sure they can play man on man and be more athletic and efficient then anyone else and shoot from an extended three point line.... but is that Basketball as such? shit, if we change it to And 1 rules the And1 players will have a shot. The fact is while the players are amazingly gifted, they havent the skill set to get the gold anymore, make no mistake.... this is the best team they couldve put on the floor.... sure, you may say Kobe or Shaq,.... but as far as "team" goes, they dopnt need anymore guys who can go off for 50 points in a night, that isnt where the problem lies. Internatiomnals woul;;d have a hardtime playing NBA game..... NBA players have a hard time playing Basketball.

I think the NBA should also play defence, this would help at the world stage.

Screw him! Eat a shit sandwich. We're playing basketball. They're playing something else.

Why would a league generating millions and millions of dollars change its rules and style to win a gold medal which they can win simply by not putting a new team together every international event?

IMO, the States won't have to change too much to win the gold in 2008.

They only got beat by 6 to Greece with no reasonable shooters to speak of. Once Kobe is on that team along with either Michael Redd or Adam Morrison the USA will wipe the floor.

I am not really fussed. I think we need to fix up the probs in our own backyard, then perhaps send Alexander Downer and Goorg over to tell George W how to fix the Dream Team.

America need a good centre. The last world class centre they had was Shaq, and he's deteriorated

And they wouldn't change the NBA. 3rd is still a good result. The NBA is the best league by far.

And i'm quite aware skills are more important than dunking, but who wants to work on skills? And i can barely jump. Can you imagine a black dude in america practising his back turns when he could be practicising windmills?

It's a question of what the players really want to be. Amazing athletes who can do amazing things, or winning athletes who can do winning things.

Personally I think the Heat would out perform team USA on the international stage purely because they know how to play together and won't have to adapt to a new coaching style. However what if Dallas won the title, you can't take out Dirk and send them over. Setting precedents like this would cause huge problems down the road.

Eastern Lowlands you make a good point indirectly with regards to the Australian team. Bogy is a great mobile NBA type center, but i do not feel he is big enough {yet?} to battle with the International center body types.

Those guys specialise in the half court game, and have the bulk to do it.

i think it is obvious!! if usa are interested in is $$ then continue the way they are. Butg if they want to win international success then they need to start to play within the international scope and let them play help defence etc. NBA is all about excitement, but for med it is fucked up!! teach theses athletic SOB's how top play proper ball and they mite have a chnce of winning some gold in international comps coz they have the talent to do so

I htink everyones making too big a deal of a USA loss. They lost to Greece, a team that tyhey arent too familiar with and that put up their very best performance on the day. Remember Argentina, the team that Shlacked everyone by like 30 pts/game during the earlier rounds. Team USA dropped them pretty easy in the end.

The U.S need to combine a team of NBA'ers and European based imports.The Euro's would be familiar with the international game and happy to let the NBA'ers be the 'leaders' as such. The equal opportunity crap which prevails at the moment so nobody gets upset doesn't work.

European based imports would play for European based olympic teams....

VC Fan, they would if they had citizenship of that particular European country, but obviously not all of them do or want to have that. One example is ex-NBA player Shammond Williams, who represents the Republic of Georgia on their national team.