The 2020 Summer Olympic games are under a year away and questions are beginning to arise about who will be on the team. A little over a week ago Team USA had its worst outing since 2004 by finishing in seventh place in the FIBA World Cup. Before this summer, the U.S. had won 58 games in a row, winning gold medal after gold medal. Yes, team USA did not bring over their most ideal group of guys, to be clear, they only had two All-Stars on the roster in Kemba Walker and Khris Middleton. However, the U.S. should be competing in the medal rounds at the very least.
Let’s play a quick game of who’s not walking through that door. Kevin Durant nor Klay Thompson will participate due to the major injuries they suffered in the NBA Finals. What about Kawhi Leonard? Although Leonard and coach Popovich are on better terms, I don’t believe he wants to play for him again and will want to rest after a rigorous NBA season. LeBron James would be playing in his fourth Olympics and would likely be coming off a Finals run so, for now, I’d say no. So that leaves guys like Steph Curry, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, and Paul George. Although this would be a very good core of guys, I’m not convinced we would be a shoo-in to bring home the Gold. Team USA’s main focus has always been defense first and loves to use its athletes to wear down opponents over four quarters. With the five guys listed only two of them play defense at a high level. Another issue they may have is rebounding. In the World Cup game against France, Team USA was outrebounded offensively by 40 percent. We are also assuming none of these guys get injured, have other prior engagements or are just fatigued from a long NBA season.
Remember in 2016 although they did win the gold, it didn’t come easy. Team USA had several close calls with Australia, Serbia, and France, despite having Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Demarcus Cousins being on the team. Also, keep in mind many of our young NBA stars won’t be suiting up in a Team USA jersey simply because they are not American. For instance, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokoumpo, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons. I know as Americans we are very prideful and expect to win a gold medal in most Olympic sports especially basketball, but other countries are catching up to us in all sports not just basketball.
For example, Canada has 23 players currently in the NBA none of which are 30 years old yet. So, expect the Canadians to be a force to be reckoned with for the next two to three Olympics. Meanwhile, other countries have many future NBA players, several of them are four to five-star recruits. Jalen Green a five-star recruit in the 2020 class has already said publicly he would consider playing for the Philippines instead of the U.S… Let’s get one thing clear, just because these countries don’t have a team full of NBA superstars, does not mean they are inferior. They are still some of the best players in the world. Many of them have some NBA experience. Most importantly they have chemistry as for the U.S., we have a two to three week period to construct chemistry while overseas teams have been playing together since elementary school.
We are getting to the point now when we play certain countries we won’t have the best player on the floor. Team USA going forward should consider bringing younger guys to the Olympics. At the moment there are no generational talents in these upcoming draft classes. In 2024 we would have to bring a bunch of younger guys with very little to no experience in an Olympic setting. Why not prepare them early, especially if our leagues best won’t suit up this summer and are already in their thirties? Olympic basketball is very different as far as the rules, and style of play. You don’t want to bring a bunch of first-time Olympians over to represent our country and struggle due to being inexperienced, if not the U.S. might have to get used to being off the podium.
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