Hoops

What will Team USA do for the Olympics?

"Consistency. They need a bunch of guys who are committed to the national program, who they think will play for 6 or 8 years. It's an attitude first check. "

That was the key to their success from 2008-2016. Look at the number of guys who played multiple tournaments, giving them a large pool of really talented guys (and some good role players) who knew the FIBA game, playing under the same coach and in the same system each time:

Anthony 6
James 5
Wade 3
Bryant 3
Howard 3
Paul 3
Williams 3
Durant 3
Chandler 3
Bosh 2
Irving 2
Thompson 2
Cousins 2
Westbrook 2
Iguodala 2
Love 2
Harden 2
Davis 2

"Consistency. They need a bunch of guys who are committed to the national program, who they think will play for 6 or 8 years. It's an attitude first check. "

The issue with this is I think most of the US players do it for the experience of playing for your country once, not necessarily long term. That's how it feels to me anyway.

Agreed

Part of the problem was not having any true leaders with the presence of mind to effectively steady the ship when it was sinking.

A few suggestions for what they need with roster composition:

- Glue guys. PJ Tucker's withdrawal was a huge blow.

- Consistency. They need a bunch of guys who are committed to the national program, who they think will play for 6 or 8 years. It's an attitude first check.

- One or two veteran leaders on the program. Could even be retired players. Barbosa and Varejao were still playing with Brazil. Scola was All Star 5. Those guys are true veterans.

USA also didn't have any real closers apart from Kemba, the rest were young guys who haven't had a huge amount of experience at the pinnacles of basketball, and even Kemba there most senior player does not have that experience.

Adding only Curry and Green would mean Gold for USA.

But, we shouldn't let this distract from how disappointing they were.

They were still the most talented team and still lost 3 games if you count the warm up vs Australia, plus a lucky win against Turkey where they got out of jail.

Question is why- why did they lose 3 (almost 4) games to less talented teams?

Sure, go get some superstars and blow everybody else out of the water. But maybe more productive to work out what they did wrong.

I read somewhere yesterday (can't remember where) that the 5 committed are Curry, Green, PG13, Harden and AD.

The timing of the Olympics should help a little. They'd basically be in camp right after the NBA Finals wrap, and done and dusted early enough for them to get an actual break before camp.

You know, add just those two guys to this existing squad and I think they take the gold just been. Felt like the team lacked a top dog, which Curry would be, plus a spine/PF, which is Draymond.

It's confirmed that Curry and Draymond Green have committed