After losing their first exhibition game to Nigeria on Saturday, the U.S. men’s basketball team dropped its second pre-Olympics tune-up to Australia on Monday, falling 91-83 to the Boomers. Team USA has now lost four of its last five international contests with NBA players on the roster, dating back to the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
As Joe Vardon of The Athletic writes, conditioning has been an issue for the USA team so far, as has rebounding — the roster is fairly undersized, especially with bigs like Bam Adebayo and Kevin Love playing sparingly.
Reinforcements will be coming for Tokyo, with three players who are participating in the NBA Finals – Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, and Khris Middleton – set to join the Olympic roster once the NBA season ends.
But it’s becoming increasingly clear that the gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world isn’t as significant as it once was, especially when the NBA veterans representing other international programs – including Australia – have spent so much more time playing together.
“We’re not just going to come out here, roll the ball out and beat these teams,” U.S. point guard Damian Lillard said after Monday’s loss. “We’ve got to play the right way, compete, and we’ve got to come out here to win and do everything to give ourselves our best chance to win. If we don’t, we can be beat.”
While Team USA will still be the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal in Tokyo next month, the squad’s first two exhibition games have been a reminder that bringing home the gold isn’t a given.
France and the Czech Republic could give the U.S. some trouble in the round-robin group stage of the Olympic tournament, while Australia, Spain, Nigeria, and Slovenia (featuring Luka Doncic) are among the teams that could be threats to pull off an upset in the medal round.
We want to know what you think. Do you still expect the U.S. to win gold? Have these exhibition losses caused your confidence to waver? Do you believe there are flaws in the way the roster was constructed that could be exposed at the Olympics?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
First……the gap may be closing, but it’s not like Lebron, AD, Curry, Klay, Kawhi, PG, CP3, Zion, Kyrie, and Harden are out there. You put them out there with KD and Dame and then let’s talk about the gap.
2nd, this team is awful defensively. No rim protector, no real rebounders, no lock down perimeter defenders. I know Draymond is a great defender, but the rest of these guys are not.
3rd, they need a PG that can break down a defense off the dribble to create shots for everyone. I love Dame, but he ain’t that type of PG. They need Curry, Kyrie, CP3, Young, Fox, or even Westbrook to get in the lane and create problems for the defense.
Hopefully Jrue, Middleton, and Booker help when they come because the current roster is not a roster that is going to win the Gold. Strangely I think Jrue may help the most since he is a great defender and he can facilitate.
Oh! And shame on whoever thought it was a good idea to put Live on this team. He brings nothing g at this stage of his career. Not a defender, not a rebounder, not a scorer. Waisted spot on a roster that needs some size, rebounding, and defense.
Could have added C. Wood and he would have been very helpful!
Yea I still do, but it’s going to be close and I won’t be SURPRISED if they don’t.
The construction of this team is the biggest problem. They are undersized, they can’t defend and they don’t have a defensive presence.
The loss to Nigeria, I expected b/c of the matchup, and not having Middleton and Holiday. The loss to Australia, with 2 or 3 pieces for Australia that played instead of others is really surprising. To be fair, the lineups team USA have used are questionable, beyond the roster itself, but that still shouldn’t have happened. They’re really missing Holidays defense at the guard spot right now, and Middleton’s defense on the wing. Just need to balance the floor a little better. I think it should mostly be fine, but definitely need to play it like a legit nba team would, instead of thinking about being individual scorers playing together.
….the biggest thing to worry about is a roster of Lillard, Lavine, Beal, Booker, and Tatum on the same team (Tatum not necessarily as much of an issue as the other guys). Most of those guys cant really play together. The most that should probably be on the floor at the same time are 2 of them…
Lillard, Holiday, Middleton, Durant, Draymond/Bam
Beal, Grant, Bam/Draymond, Tatum should be the primary rotation, with Love and Booker being the next guys based on matchup, and then Lavine only if someone gets hurt
Booker needs to be on the floor. The way Beal is playing he should take his minutes. At least Booker competes on both ends and can get into the paint. Beal looks lost out there.
D-Book took a step back this year… not quite as good as he was…
Is this a serious post? He is playing better than ever. It just took time for him and CP3 to learn how to play together since Booker had the ball in his hands so much previously.
And even if he had taken a step back it still doesn’t change the fact that he is a better two way player than Beal, does a better job getting in the paint, or that Beal looks lost with this team. I will admit that Beal is playing better vs Argentina, so that is a good sign, but Booker should definitely get minutes on this team.
Ya it would be either Beal or Booker, on this roster, unless there was no PG, or you do something like Holiday, Beal, Booker, Draymond, Bam, at some point during a game but I dont like that lineup, and I’d also prefer 1 of, Durant or Tatum, or both, than something like that
…and obviously, as that lineup implies, I prefer Beal, b/c at least he is actually a positive on his team, despite being surrounded by terrible defense, and despite having bad years defensively himself. He is just a lot better offensively, and to be honest, most of Booker’s skillset isnt necessarily needed for this roster, whereas they need him to score around their defense, and Chris Paul being more of a facilitator for Phoenix
Booker’s skill set is definitely needed on this roster. They need someone that can get in the paint and play defense on the perimeter. Both of which Booker does better than Beal.
Please tell me how Beal is better offensively.
This season FG%/3pt%/2pt%/eFG%/FT%
Beal- .485/.349/.535/.532/.889
Book- .484/.340/.543/.533/.867
Only difference is that Beal shot 4 more shots per game. And Booker is doing this 3 years younger.
Offensively, Beal has a net rating of 4 points more per 100 possessions, his efficiency has been higher in terms of PER, his offensive box plus minus is 3 points higher and just below elite territory. Defensively, they’re relatively similar, even though Booker has much better defenders around him. He is also proven to be more of a playmaker than Booker. Booker does have size on him, which might be more valuable in the half court, but you have Kevin Durant on this team…
I’m not saying Booker wouldnt play. Im just saying those would be the primary 9 guys I would use first, and then those next 2 would be guys that would play more based on matchups…
I dont think this is some sort of travesty like you’re making it out to be
Also your lineup still leaves some of the same issues I was talking about them having, which is lack of defense at the guard spot. Its definitely doable, although I think there is redundancy with Grant and Draymond in there together, at least with those other guys. I’m having a hard time explaining through text what I’m trying to say about it, but I feel like too many guys need the ball in their hands to be effective in that lineup, with too many ball stoppers in at the same time. I feel like Holiday and Middleton compliment those other guys better, and can both playmake and play off the ball better, whereas Grant is arguably better with the ball in his hands as a playmaker than as a primary catch and shoot guy…and obviously the defense issue at the guard has been important so far, and Holiday and Middleton defends
If I was going to platoon sub I would break it up like this:
Dame, Booker, Grant, KD, Green
Jrue, Beal, Middleton, Tatum, Bam
PG in both groups. Booker could help handle the ball some to allow Dame to play off of it. Two defenders in each group. And two guys that have played together in each group.
Looks like a bronze in Tokyo.