I would disagree with the thought that we have to specialize in only one direction like a club team might. On a NT roster you have 18 roster spots and can take the best 18 USA players without worrying about salary or having to play each of them every night. With 1000 users we can train up a versatile roster that can go in many directions.
I really like the idea of modeling a few players after Finland's bigs and we are getting there with a lot of players in our pipeline for sure. However, I think if we are looking at the country with the best NT roster in the world then it is obviously China (or maybe France the last 2 seasons). Did they lose to Finland in the semis? Yes. Did it take extra effort by Finland combined with a double guess and correct zone defense just to win by 3? Yes.
When we see these teams like China, France, or Israel, we see a ton of 20/20 defense guys that can also play offense very effectively. In fact China normally runs two of these players in their starting lineup. The B3 runner-up this season and the B3 champion last season ran tons of players with very high OD/ID combos. I think our biggest weakness was not having any of these guys that really make our defense more versatile.
Hard agree on donkeys being a thing of the past. Our big's need to be built better so we don't have to rely on a Stanley or a younger unfinished big. In addition to liking the shot blockers that you mentioned, I have a few build ideas in mind from seeing some of Israel, France, and China's top bigs that can score inside and do a lot more.
Also I think 18 IS on guards is too low of a goal long term (if current salary formulas stay). While it might be nice to get the current players there, our future guards need to shoot for 20. Another top NT coach called 18 IS on a wing pretty pathetic.