You putting things too much into a box here.
Yes we want tough gritty players players with fire and passion... But I don't think that you have to play in the Olympics to be tough, gritty, fiery, passionate players. I don't remember Charles oakley ever playing in the Olympics.
We want the guys to stay healthy, spend time with the team and coaches, and work on their game with teammates and coaches.
I'm ok with them playing in the olympics but I would just prefer that they don't. Also the Olympics don't resemble nba basketball all the closely so I'm not so sure it would help that much. (DL mentioned this today as well.... About the international game being way different than the nba game)
In an ideal world, I would see a team spending most of the summer together to become a better team. But the schedule is really tough for NBA players. Gameday in every two days? Sheeesh. I would want to use the summer to get away from everything too. But some special players actually sacrifice anything to get better. I feel like Rudy is one of them. Success comes with this kind of ideal hardwork and there is no reason for the guys not to work out harder to achieve good things.
This season there were two major problems.
1) Injuries
2) Inability to close out games.
And no, I'm not gonna count the ref calls. I never appreciated anyone that does put them into account when the team loses too.
For the 1st problem, maybe they need to change some staff, maybe they need to reconsider their training schedule, maybe they need to take care of their players lives during the offseason. But this looks like this is becoming a trend and action needs to be taken by the Jazz.
For the 2nd one, it mostly gets better with experience. But the Jazz do lack the effort of making the shots when it matters the most. And this has been a major problem for the team ending in the record they have had. This one is Quin's problem I believe. But aside from that, the Jazz desperately need a real PG that has court vision, can run the court 35-38 minutes a game with keeping the pace up and always dishing it to the open while creating space. This would take a lot of burden from cutters and wings and Hayward would contribute a lot more.
Don't underestimate Olympics btw. Some intense stuff can go down in there in the most unexpected times. Cy has it more than many other American posters here when it comes to Euroballers and that game's mentality so he takes into account that for many athletes that are non US players, NT does mean the exact same thing with fire and passion. Nationalism stuff. But the intensity level changes from team to team, player to player.
I get what you're saying though. And I do agree with your point. There is no necessity for a player to commit to his NT for him to be called a passionate and fired up player.
