Team USA needs a better approach to roster building.
Pairing 10 ball-dominant All-Stars may not be the most efficient way to win games
Yeah, I think a big discussion needs to take place on exactly what the designed approach for Team USA is going to be going forward, as the quality of international competition continues to improve its going to become more and more difficult to win based on sheer talent/athleticism advantages that the US holds over the rest of the world.
Since the 2004 disaster, it has become pretty obvious that the ideal way to build an Olympic roster is not to just pick the twelve most talented guys and hope they can figure it out. I was looking at the 2008 Redeem Team roster, and yes, you have your alpha scorers in Kobe, LeBron, Wade and Carmelo. But you also had Kidd and Paul, two true point guards that would be happy not taking a single shot all game, running things, plus bigs in Howard and Chris Bosh that didn't really need the ball that much--and then Redd and actually Carmelo kind of being happy as just off-ball shooters. Tayshaun Prince was there as the glue guy, too.
This team is a lot messier than that team--Holiday and D-White help a lot, but they are not like Kidd or Paul in terms of their ability to set-up teammates and don't quite of the status among their peers as a player like Kidd had at the time of the 2008 team. Their bigs, particularly Embiid, really need the ball a lot on offense. And you just have a lot of other guys, Steph, LeBron, Durant, Tatum, Booker, Edwards, Haliburton--that want to have the ball and make those decisions. And all of those guys obviously possess the talent to just excel in a reduced role as a catch-and-shoot player, but it's hard for those guys to just rewire their alpha hard drives to play on this team.
I think most people would agree that the best version of a Team USA is probably 2 or 3 of the Tatum/Durant/Curry/LeBron/Ant/Booker/Haliburton group, surrounded by star role players, like Jrue, White, Aaron Gordon, Desmond Bane, OG Anunoby, Mikael Bridges, Caruso, etc. I'd probably keep Davis and Bam as my bigs and ditch Embiid.
That version though can't exist as it currently stands, because Team USA still feels like a political pecking order of star status in the NBA, as opposed to trying to put together a cohesive team that can play team basketball and everyone firmly understands their role and their place within the hierarchy of the team. You have to find a way to jam as many of the biggest stars in the NBA as possible on the team and pray it just works out.
They probably still have enough talent to get it done this year, even if they continue turning the ball over a ton and kind of fucking around for huge portions of the game, but it wouldn't really surprise me at all if a team comes out like South Sudan did and makes a lot of threes and capitalizes on mistakes and is able to knockout Team USA.
