Olympic Basketball End of an era?

Will the Team USA make it to the metal rounds of the Olympics this year?

1-2 in exhibitions so far with a loss to NIGERIA?

I don’t think the players they will pick up after the NBA finals end will have a significant impact on this team. They need to figure something out.

I don’t follow basketball like I once did…are these the best players in the USA right now or merely the ones leftover after the better players dropped out?

Player NBA Team
Bam Adebayo Miami Heat
Bradley Beal Washington Wizards
Devin Booker Phoenix Suns
Kevin Durant Brooklyn Nets
Jerami Grant Detroit Pistons
Draymond Green Golden State Warriors
Jrue Holiday Milwaukee Bucks
Zach LaVine Chicago Bulls
Damian Lillard Portland Trail Blazers
Kevin Love Cleveland Cavaliers
Khris Middleton Milwaukee Bucks
Jayson Tatum Boston Celtics

From USA Basketball: Full schedule for Tokyo Olympics & exhibitions | NBA.com

Yeah, the rest of the world figured out how to play basketball. The NBA is now the premier international league despite being based in the US.

The solution is to grant US citizenship to the top NBA players regardless of their country of origin. Then they can play for Team USA in the Olympics.

Nigeria has 7 NBA players and a few high level European players. The lost was still not a good look. But I think the blowout lost to Australia was worse especially since Ben Simmons (despite his playoff struggles) decided not to play for team Australia.

Be interesting to see if they turn it on come real pool play and when they add the 3 players currently in the NBA finals.

There are some subtle and not so subtle differences between international basketball and NBA style basketball.

The international version is more team oriented. The NBA is more about 1 on 1 isolation plays. Also, in international basketball, teams play defense.

Gone are the days when the US dominated because the best American players played and easily outclassed the world. Now, Lebron wants to stay home and chill instead of representing his country.

Yeah the world has closed the talent gap for sure and a lot of National teams play together a lot more than team USA but it doesn’t change the fact that team USA has multiple all NBA players on its roster and should be able to overcome some the differences between NBA and international rules/play.

Bradley Beal is out; Jerami Grant in the protocols.

We are missing a lot of players from injury. Maybe all countries are, but there seemed to be a run of playoff injuries to top players. A team constructed from just those injuries might be top 3 in the world (Davis, Harden, Murray, Kawhi, Irving, Brown). Throw in Curry and Klay for some shooting (either Curry really). That’s a lot of talent sitting at home mostly for injury reasons.

Former Wolves star Kevin Love second U.S. player to withdraw from Olympics

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