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Brazil national team: Guards

Brazil National team is one of the most talented teams in the world. No joke. Which only makes it more mind blogging they have failed to achieve any significant sucess with it. Everybody has to take the blame for it at some point, and it will probably be the head coach if they fail this time. But enough of coaches.

Alex Garcia - guard/forward - 1,91m - 27 years - Universo/BRB (DF): Alex is one of the brazilian located best players for a number of years. Decent outside shot, great atleticism, very good slasher. Good passer. Not selfish. Always plays hard and fearless. Very good defensive player. Could ve sticked on the NBA if it wanst for injuries. Won everything that could be won aroun here while on COC´s team.

Welington dos Santos (Nezinho) - guard- 1,86m - 26 years - Universo/BRB (DF): Alongside Alex and Renato, won everything on COC´s team. Very streak shooter, a very ofensive minded for a point guard
(selfish) , but always played defense. Also a winner. Not very consistent. But also one of the best local players. Not my personal favorite.

Marcelo Huertas - guard- 1,91m - 23 years- Joventud de Badalona (EspanHa): Very young and a bit too inexperienced at this time. Very talented and ofensive minded, but tends to comit too many mistakes. Had visions of playing in the NBA early in his career, and maybe he can still make it, but will have too polish his game a lot. Fearless, a bit to his fault. A little bit out of control (more than Barbosa), very quick with decent atleticism and great ball-handling. A good shooter and can put some ofense of the dribble. Can play some defense.

Valter Apolinário da Silva (Valtinho) - guard - 1,97m - 30 years- Unitri/Converse (MG): Best brazilian point guard, period. Unfortunatly, the team he played for no longer exists, and he´s currently unemployed. Had been out for a number of years of the national team because of divergences with Brazilian Basketball confederation, or CBB on Brazil, directors. Plays great defense, always hits the open guy and know when to pick his spot and attack. Very unselfish, often too a fault, as he is a great shooter, but passes the open shot to often. Is not asked to score and could care less about it. Scores a bit more when playing for teams in Brazil. Commits very few mistakes.

Marcelinho Machado - guard/foward - 32 years - 2,00m - Zalgiris Kauras (Lituânia): Arguably the national team most talented player, and I´m including all brazilian NBA players on this equation. And also the source of biggest frustration on the national team. Longest ternured national team player of the current group and team captain. Amazing shooter with the feet set. Can shoot down an opposing team by itself, but most unfortunate, shoots Brazil teams with himself a good portion of the time. Awesome passer with outstanding court vision, but as he as shoot-first, second, and third, you tend not to see his passing a lot of the time. Seems to have growed up a little and is not the "bad-shot" machine he was some time back there, but is still propense to try to shot a 3 pointer from like NBA 3 point line with 2 guys all over him. Average athlete. Decent ball-handling. Average defender. Tends to pump-fake his defender from 3 point line in hopes of getting the guy on the air and jumping on him to get to the line. As he tries this to often, a good deal of the time he will end with forced 3 point shot. Very cluth, shoot down quite a lot of opponents at the 4° quarter buzzer and has a knack for coming with key defensive plays as the seconds wound down. Always had a "personal agenda" when playing on the national team, and firmly believes he ofense should run through rim instead of our bigs. Has always been accused for being selfish and trying to do too much, and is usually the player that most often takes the blame.

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don't agree
There's no way machado is the most talented brazilian player. Basketball is more than shooting jump shots.

by Bruno on Sep 1, 2007 2:50 PM MDT   0 recs

Thanks for the info, Sephirot!
Thanks for telling us a little more about the other players on the team besides Leandro. It's nice to have some background about them, especially from the perspective of someone who lives in Brazil, and sees them play on a regular basis. Thanks for taking time to put this together for us.

by TexSUN on Sep 1, 2007 5:25 PM MDT   0 recs

Marcelinho
Is a very average player, and far from being the most talented brazilian player. Alex and Valtinho are WAY better than him. And I won't even say anything about LB. Valtinho and Splitter are the only players of the brazilian team, besides Barbosa, that I would like to see in the Suns.
Walk on, walk on With hope in your heart And you'll never walk alone You'll never walk alone

by Nobs on Sep 2, 2007 9:54 AM MDT   0 recs

I dont know if you have seen him play before
But he was asked to play 4 fiddle to the other guys, behind Barbosa, Nene and Splitter and that when he´s was during his entire life "The Man". His biggest flaw has always not being able to play on a system and being too trigger happy. Even though he was never a remarkably great athlete, very few players will ever possess the assortment of skills that he has possessed for like what seems, forever.

Let one remember that talent hardly equates only to physical talent, as is widely believed among scouts and a lot of fans.

What´s the expression? "You cant teach size". But certainly you cant teach a guy about being clutch, leadership, court vision and other things that are innate from person to person. Scouts tend to label a guy that is only big an can jump like the next dominant big man. "Now if he just learn everything else, he will dominate the league for the next 10 years." How unreal is that? And in the end, everybody expects the guy to learn everything and them more.

Machado had all this along with some real skill. Awesome passer, court vision, leadership, clutch, awesome shooting, a knack for scoring. He never had that explosive first step. But neither had Larry Bird. But he also had flaws he was never able to shake it off. It happens with the best of them. Kobe will never be the leader that D-Wade is right now, a lot of years younger than him. He just wanst born with it.

by Sephirot on Sep 2, 2007 5:14 PM MDT to parent up   0 recs

Kobe vs. Machado
Sounds like Machado has a little in common with Kobe, huh? Well, other than the obvious difference in athleticism. I thought there were times when Machado was the best (and most consistent) player on the floor for Brazil in this tournament, but also there were times when he definitely seemed to have a case of Kobe-itis. I guess you have to take the good with the bad. It did look like he could hit shots from all over the floor, and was pretty decent at setting up others too when he wanted to be. BTW, are you going to also give us a Forwards and Centers diary?

by TexSUN on Sep 2, 2007 8:00 PM MDT to parent up   0 recs

I will post
But I should have done it sooner. I´m working this sunday, so it became a little hard. I will try to post it tomorrow. And yes, you could make a case that Kobe suffer from Machado-its, as he´s a bit older than him XD. But Machado almost surely suffer from the Oscar curse.

by Sephirot on Sep 2, 2007 8:47 PM MDT to parent up   0 recs

Yeah,
I do follow his career, he's one of the most well known faces in this brazilian squad. He's not just trigger happy, he's WAY trigger happy. And, ok, he can hit the 3's, but sometimes he doesn't, and he keeps on trying, and that just kills the team. I've seen it happening over and over again. Indeed, he's fairly talented. But if at the age he is he can control himself, hey, talent just won't help. He'll never be the great player he could have been.
Walk on, walk on With hope in your heart And you'll never walk alone You'll never walk alone

by Nobs on Sep 3, 2007 4:44 PM MDT to parent up   0 recs

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