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?
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.
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.