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Picking A Starting Five From The 27 USA Basketball Minicamp Participants

With USA Basketball announcing its 27 participants for their summer minicamp, the collection of young talent is hugely impressive.

We asked our followers on Twitter the question of “Who would comprise your ideal starting five from this pool of players?”

Paul George received the most overall votes with 90 out of 100 responses.

Kyrie Irving was second with 78 votes, while DeMarcus Cousins was third with 60 votes.

George and Irving are the only players from this group to have a career All-Star appearance.

Kawhi Leonard and Kenneth Faried finished fourth and fifth with 41 votes and 40 votes respectively.

First Team

PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Paul George
SF: Kawhi Leonard
PF: Kenneth Faried
C: DeMarcus Cousins 

The next group of players were Greg Monroe (36), Klay Thompson (34), Anthony Davis (26), Damian Lillard (14), John Wall (11) and Larry Sanders (11).

Second Team

G: Damian Lillard
G: John Wall
SF: Klay Thompson
PF: Anthony Davis
C: Greg Monroe 

Harrison Barnes (9), DeMar DeRozan (8), Ryan Anderson (6), DeAndre Jordan (6), Jrue Holiday (4), Chandler Parsons (4) and Bradley Beal (4) were in the next group 

Third Team

PG: Jrue Holiday
SG: DeMar DeRozan
SF: Harrison Barnes
PF: Ryan Anderson
C: Larry Sanders

Andre Drummond, Taj Gibson, Derrick Favors, Mike Conley, Ty Lawson, Kemba Walker, Gordon Hayward, Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller each received three or fewer votes.

Thanks for all of the replies!

How Many Players Teams Acquire At Each Trade Deadline On Average

We pulled our Team Transactions Data over the previous 10 Trade Deadline periods to examine the levels of activity in period leading up to the deadline.

The below is an annual average of the number of players acquired by each team (click on any of the below links to see a year-by-year infographic).

Sacramento Kings: 2.7
New York Knicks: 2.3
Houston Rockets: 2.2
Oklahoma City Thunder: 1.8
Cleveland Cavaliers: 1.7
New Orleans Hornets: 1.7
Denver Nuggets: 1.6
Memphis Grizzlies: 1.6
Charlotte Bobcats: 1.6
Atlanta Hawks: 1.5
Brooklyn Nets: 1.5
Milwaukee Bucks: 1.5
Portland Trail Blazers: 1.5
Chicago Bulls: 1.4
Golden State Warriors: 1.3
Boston Celtics: 1.2
Orlando Magic: 1.2
Los Angeles Clippers: 1.1
Phoenix Suns: 1.1
Washington Wizards: 1.1
Dallas Mavericks: 1.0
Minnesota Timberwolves: 1.0
Toronto Raptors: 0.9
Philadelphia 76ers: 0.8
Utah Jazz: 0.7
Indiana Pacers: 0.6
Los Angeles Lakers: 0.6
Miami Heat: 0.6
Detroit Pistons: 0.5
San Antonio Spurs: 0.5

The following are the collective breakdowns by year:
2003: 14
2004: 36
2005: 48
2006: 44
2007: 22
2008: 45
2009: 45
2010: 51
2011: 51
2012: 29 

Team-By-Team Top Position Needs

We recently conducted team-by-team polls on RealGM to determine which position represents the greatest offseason need as we enter the draft and free agency.

There were 13 teams that voters indicated center was the greatest position of need, followed by eight teams needing upgrades at point guard, seven teams requiring a shooting guard and two teams where small forward is most important. Power forward didn't rank as the single most important position for any of the 30 teams.

Atlanta Hawks - Center  
Boston Celtics - Center  
Brooklyn Nets - Point Guard  
Charlotte Bobcats - Center  
Chicago Bulls - Shooting Guard  
Cleveland Cavaliers - Shooting Guard  
Dallas Mavericks - Point Guard  
Denver Nuggets - Shooting Guard  
Detroit Pistons - Center  
Golden State Warriors - Small Forward  
Houston Rockets - Center  
Indiana Pacers - Point Guard
Los Angeles Clippers - Shooting Guard  
Los Angeles Lakers - Point Guard  
Memphis Grizzlies - Shooting Guard  
Miami Heat - Center  
Milwaukee Bucks - Center  
Minnesota Timberwolves - Shooting Guard  
New Orleans Hornets - Center  
New York Knicks - Point Guard  
Oklahoma City Thunder - Center  
Orlando Magic - Center  
Philadelphia 76ers - Center  
Phoenix Suns - Point Guard  
Portland Trail Blazers - Point Guard  
Sacramento Kings - Center  
San Antonio Spurs - Center  
Toronto Raptors - Small Forward  
Utah Jazz - Point Guard  
Washington Wizards - Shooting Guard

The Pain Of Mike Miller's Heat Tenure Erased

Mike Miller's Game 5 explosion was almost entirely unexpected when he played approximately 10 meaningless minutes over the previous three games and continued to suffer from a variety of physical ailments.

2012 SEC Power Rankings

Kentucky was as dominant statistically in SEC play as they were when watching five minutes of any of their 16 wins.

2012 Big East Power Rankings

Syracuse finished the regular season with a 17-1 record and were predictably significantly better than any Big East rival.

2012 Big 12 Power Rankings

It was Kansas, Missouri and Baylor atop the Big 12 for a large part of the season, but Bill Self’s Jayhawks eventually pulled away as they have in each of the past eight campaigns.

2012 Big Ten Power Rankings

The Big Ten was incredibly close at the top, with a three-way tie in the standings and also in our statistical rankings.

2012 Pac-12 Power Rankings

Washington won the regular season championship, but were ranked fifth statistically in a conference that was bunched together in the top half.

2012 Mountain West Power Rankings

San Diego State, New Mexico and UNLV were the three best teams in college basketball west of the rockies.

2012 Conference USA Power Rankings

Memphis was revealed as being overrated as they went through a difficult non-conference schedule, but absolutely raked their Conference USA competition to become a sleeper.

2012 West Coast Conference Power Rankings

Saint Mary's, Gonzaga and BYU were atop the WCC both in the standings and power rankings.

2012 WAC Power Rankings

Nevada won the WAC, but New Mexico State had a better purely statistical output.

2012 Summit League Power Rankings

Oral Roberts went 17-1 in regular season play, but were a surprisingly distant second in the statistical rankings.

2012 Sun Belt Power Rankings

Denver lost five times compared to just two losses for Middle Tennessee State, but there were virtually identical statistically.

2012 Southwestern Athletic Power Rankings

Mississippi Valley State comfortably won the regular season championship with a 17-1 record.

2012 Southland Power Rankings

Texas-Arlington had a hugely impressive 15-1 record, but 11-5 Lamar was superior statistically by a somewhat narrow margin.

2012 Southern Conference Power Rankings

Davidson finished four games ahead of Wofford and Georgia Southern, and were similarly strong statistically.

2012 Patriot League Power Rankings

Bucknell won the Patriot League by just one game, but were comfortably out ahead of Lehigh statistically.

2012 Ohio Valley Power Rankings

Murray State went 15-1 in conference play and were appropriately ranked statistically, doubling up the second ranked Southeast Missouri State.

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