MANILA, September 3 ------ Despite the odds being in Team USA’s favor after their perfect start to the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, head coach Steve Kerr maintained that there are still a lot of adjustments that need to be made for the Americans. Their roster is composed of players who are suiting up in their first major men’s competition, which is why USA’s 12-man lineup is just continuously learning on the fly. “We tried to prepare them for FIBA, but we’re also learning as we go,” said Kerr, who won five rings as a player for the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs.
Among the things that they still need to work on specifically are the traveling and fouling limitations that differ a lot from the NBA officiating that they are used to. “A couple of things. The traveling [violation], we’ve been called for five travels on non-NBA travels,” he said. “What feels like really good footwork to us has been called for traveling, so we have to adjust to that, and also fouling three-point shooters. FIBA, they’re gonna call way more fouls on three-point shots, so we have to adjust to that,” the four-time NBA champion coach of the Golden State Warriors added.
Another thing that the former 6-foot-3 Phoenix Suns draftee added is how they are familiarizing themselves with the opponents that they will face in the coming rounds. Among the recognizable names that they will face in the next round are Montenegro’s Nikola Vucevic, and Montenegro’s Jonas Valanciunas, Donatas Motiejunas, and Mindaugas Kuzminskas. Motiejunas and Kuzminskas previously played for the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, respectively. ‘Familiarity helps,” he said. “The hard part is when you go into a game and there’s a great player who these guys don’t know and he’s got a last name with lots of letters and you have to refer to him as number five or whatever, and our guys aren’t ready for how good this player is. “That’s a huge challenge in this tournament. But when you go against a guy like Vucevic, and Valanciunas and the guys we’re gonna be facing coming up. Our guys know [them],” Kerr Added.
Source: news.abs-cbn.com
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