Finally! After 8 years of mediocre play by the American basketball teams the USA is poised to win a major international competition. The 2008 US men’s senior national team, nicknamed the Redeem Team, has created quite a bit of attention around itself for not having been made up of superstars. But that isn’t exactly true. The Redeem Team is almost exclusively made up of superstars in fact, but the difference between this years team and previous teams is this years team does not have the superstar attitude which previous teams have had. All but two player on the Redeem Team, Deron Williams, and Tayshaun Prince, have been named to the all-star team at least once in their career and only Chris Paul is not a multiple time all-star.

Having the all-star power on a team is what separates this team from past teams. Take for instance the 2006 team, two players from that team, Kirk Hinrich and Shane Battier, have never and will likely never be all-stars in their careers. The 2006 team was also filled with mediocre all-stars. By mediocre all-stars I am talking about guys who occasionally make it but you would not consider them super-star all-stars. Elton Brand, Antwan Jamison, and Joe Johnson qualify as such.

For as bad as it seemed the 2006 team was, it gets worse.

The 2008 Rocky Mountain revue came to a close on Friday. The revue offered some good insight into the future stars of this league as well as future stars in Europe, the D-League, and China. I’m not going to dive deep into a recap of the Jazz-Mavericks game because it was a boring game with not much new insight.

2008 ALL RMR First Team

George Hill Guard. San Antonio Spurs
Hill lead the League in steals with three a game, and was eight in scoring. He proved that he was a good leader who could run an offense. I liken his game to that of teammates Tony Parker, except Hill is a much better shooter and defender. He did have a few bad moments because he was not use to playing against this level of competition, but overall he did a fine job and should beat out Jacque Vaughn for the back up point guard spot with the Spurs.

Anthony Morrow Guard Golden State Warriors
Morrow, an undrafted rookie from Georgia Tech, was a surprise to many at the revue. He has unbelievable ability to score for anywhere on the court. He lead the RMR in scoring with 21 points a game, while shooting 49% from the field. I expect Morrow has played his way into a contract this year, so expect him in the NBA next season.

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Wilson Chandler had a fantastic game for the Knicks, he looked like he really belonged in the NBA with his performance tonight. He was able to use his big frame to move people out of the way and get some easy shots. Danilo Gallinari had an atrocious game, he threw up brick after brick after brick. The comparisons to Marco Belinelli of Golden State are horrible, Gallinari is more like Bargnani than Belinelli. Except he is a bit more mobile than Bargnani. Mardy Collins had a solid game for the Knicks, he was able to get to the charity stripe on many occasions, but still needs to learn how to take better shots.

Anthony Roberson was on fire today, the guy put on a nice offensive show. Unfortunately, he is completely lost on defense. Half the time he didn’t even try.

JJ Hickson was the man for the Cavs, he has a body like Chandler but a little more athleticism which allowed him to score over guys. I wasn’t much impressed with the Cavs other contract guys; Billy Thomas had a mediocre game and didn’t make a mark on me at all, and Lance Allred hardly even played.

Clay Tucker did a nice job off the bench for the Cavs, he’s an agile player who has some range to his jump shot but struggled on defense a little.

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Dallas- Their free agents are Jamaal Magloire, Malik Allen, Devean George, Juwon Howard and Tyronn Lue. Re-signing Diop was big and if Gerald Green finally plays up to his potential, Dallas looks strong again. All they could use is a true SG but they have many options their if they dont get one. Some FA's they could use-(re-sign Devean George, Yakouba Diawara, Shannon Brown, Jeremy Richardson, Linton Johnson, Ron Dupree, Mo Evans or look overseas at Bracey Wright, Taquan Dean and Keith Langford).

Houston- Their FA's are Dikembe Mutombo and Carl Landry. If they re-sign both their FA's and both their draft picks, Houston is solid. The one and only thing they need is for McGrady and Ming to stop getting injured and miss huge chunks of the season if not all of it.

Memphis- Their FA's are Kwame Brown, Andre Brown and Casey Jacobsen. Okay, to make this easier on me and everyone else, I'll do what they don't need first and that is guards. They have six of them and are all very young. On a side note, I do not like OJ Mayo as a player, he reminds me of Harold Miner without the Jordan comparison.

The Power Forward spot in the 1990s was another one of the decades strong spots. The spot was dominated by two players who earned a total of 3 MVPs in Karl Malone and Charles Barkley. The spot was unusual in that almost every team had an all-star four man on their roster at least once in the decade.

10. Tim Duncan
The Big Fundamental coming in at number ten may be a bit of a shock to some, as he is one of the top two Power Forwards to ever play the game. But Duncan only played three seasons in the decade. But in those three seasons he put himself on the All-NBA team twice and was a two time all-star; there was no All-star game the lockout year. Duncan and the Spurs also won their first NBA championship in 1999.

9.Kevin Willis
Somewhat of an underrated player, Willis was a one time all-star in 1992 and a key contributor on many solid teams. Willis was one of the best rebounders in the decade putting up double digits in the category through most of the early 90s.

In the early to mid 90s the center position was at its apex, nearly all 27 NBA teams had a quality starting center and usually one serviceable back-up. But by the late 1990s the position had crashed nearly to rock bottom. The greats who had once dominated had begun to decline and teams found out that they could start smaller and quicker guys to get an advantage over their aging dinosaur counterparts. But during their reign, some of the 1990s centers were amongst the greatest that ever played.

10. Elden Campbell
A solid but somewhat unknown commodity in the NBA world, Campbell was the Lakers center in the pre-Shaq days. After O’Neal’s arrival he was moved to power forward before being shipped off to Charlotte. He never was an all-star but was a consistent player who averaged around a double-double. He is however helped out by the decline of the center position in the late 90s, as he likely wouldn’t make the list in some decades.

9. Vlade Divac
A teammate of Campbell on the Lakers from 1991-96, Divac is one of the most successful European players to ever play in the NBA. His lone All-star appearance came in 2001 as a member of the Kings, but in the 90s he was considered a solid player who would give you what you needed. He averaged a double-double for three seasons and was a very underrated defender. His defense gets bad rap from the fact that he liked to flop a lot, which earned him the nickname floppy Divac.

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