Old Going For Gold: USA Men's Olympic Basketball - Next Up The Main Event vs France (8/10 @ 3:30pm ET)

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

No they aren’t. The Celtics were 95% American. 23 of the 2024 all star sections were American. 10 of the all NBA selections were American. 47 of the 58 draft picks in the 2023 draft were American. 2024 38 of the 58 were American. 16 of the 20 ppg leaders were American.

After it's been explicity stated we're talking about stars of the superstar/MVP-kind, why the hell would you bring up the Celtics, as a team? Or All-Star selections? Or draft picks? Or PPG leaders?

International players only make up a small percentage of the players in the league.

Yeah, no shyt, the majority of the players in the league are American and therefore are going to represent the overwhelming majority of players on championship teams, All-Star selections, draft picks etc.

The majority of superstars in the NBA currently were born outside of this country. That reflects that the track record of the U.S. proving to produce more stars isn't really relevant anymore.

“Other countries” isn’t a team BTW. When we play France we aren’t playing Luka or Jokic we are playing France and their sorry ass guards who can barely run an offense. When we play Serbia we aren’t playing Giannis we are playing a team that can barely function without Jokic on the floor. When we’re are playing Slovenia we aren’t playing Wemby we are playing a bunch of cab drivers being carried by Luka.

The problem with this line of thinking is, do you think the trend stops here for international players dominating the NBA? Do you think we've seen the best that other countries have to offer, and there'll be no more foreign talent that ends up being relevant in the league? Or as more and more international players come into the league that they're going to have a greater representation of what you see on championship teams, All-Star selections, PPG leaders etc.?

That a team like France won't end up having a great guard or wing to partner with Wemby by the time 2028 comes around?

The U.S. is the deepest country in talent and has the most top end talent of any country and the next class with inevitably have its future superstars.

That's not the point of the debate.

It's that the margin is closing year-by-year (again, this is reflected by how international talent is increasingly dominating the league like never before), and the fact that there's likely not going to be a Bron or KD to carry the team next time.

They won by an average of 19 points.

What did they win by in the last two games against Serbia and France? Would they have won those games without Bron, KD and Steph?

We literally won every game in the U-17 World Cup by an average of 50 points

Can you explain to me what the U17 World Cup has to do with what our Olympics squad will look like in 2028? Can you explain to me how a tournament for teenagers, who largely play at an amateur level, has to do with the development of international talent in the NBA?

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

I don't really understand why folks keep try to stamp this point about us having a deeper talent pool than other countries. It's not that relevant when you can only have 12 players on a squad, and a rotation that is likely only going to be 8-10 players.

This isn't war.

We can't send our best 1000 professional players to the Olympics to combat the only 200 professional players another country might have.

What matters most is having 1-2 players who can create runs, in every situation, and a bunch of players who're good enough to play certain roles. This is why superstar talent is what's most relevant here. Superstar talent has anchored our Olympics wins. Superstar talent that is now more widespread across the globe than ever before.

Our talent pool has proven to mean shyt when we needed cats in their mid-to-late 30s to rescue the team from defeat. In the last 30 years we have never relied upon players that old to carry us to Gold. That's an issue if we hope to have a superstar(s) to lead us in 2028.

 

[barese]

But the barometer for world basketball excellence is the Olympics and the Olympics only. We the A side we dictate

That's fine, and nobody denied this, but you are not world champs then.

Germany is lol


You are the best in the world, and Olympic champions.

 

[Mister Terrific]

After it's been explicity stated we're talking about stars of the superstar/MVP-kind, why the hell would you bring up the Celtics, as a team? Or All-Star selections? Or draft picks? Or PPG leaders?

Who are these superstars that are going to be dominate going into the 2028. List them for me.

International players only make up a small percentage of the players in the league.

Yeah, no shyt, the majority of the players in the league are American and therefore are going to represent the overwhelming majority of players on championship teams, All-Star selections, draft picks etc.

So the international teams are NOT producing top NBA talent at a consistent rate yet they are going to suddenly challenge the USA that produces top talent every year?

The majority of superstars in the NBA currently were born outside of this country. That reflects that the track record of the U.S. proving to produce more stars isn't really relevant anymore.

Besides Jokic, Giannis, Luka… who are these foreign superstars you are referring to? You realize they don’t play on the same team?

The problem with this line of thinking is, do you think the trend stops here for international players dominating the NBA?

Only 4 of the 20 all star selections last year were foreigners and only 5 of the 15 All NBA selections.

Can you give your definition of what “dominating” is supposed to mean? The classic interpretation would be having more or at least a plurality of something.

Do you think we've seen the best that other countries have to offer, and there'll be no more foreign talent that ends up being relevant in the league?

I’m sure each European country will produce a couple great players every 30 years. That’s not nearly enough to compete with the USA who produces generational talent every cycle.

Greece outside of Giannis is a bad team. Slovenia outside of Luka is a bad team. Spain had to nationalize an American to have competent guard play. Serbia will have to replace Micic (30) and Bogdanovic (31) who are going to be aging out of the national team. Jokic will be 33 and he doesn’t exactly take care of his body. France will have a great front court but will have to find guards.


We know the U.S. is going to be insanely talented heading into 2028. Yet you are assuming that these countries are going to produce generation talent at multiple positions when they never have outside of a few exceptions.

Spain in 2008. Argentina in 2004. Greece in 06. Lithuania in 04 would have absolutely washed this years field.

What did they win by in the last two games against Serbia and France? Would they have won those games without Bron, KD and Steph?

The U.S. dominated Serbia for 9 of the 12 quarters they played. Serbia was only competitive with Jokic on the floor and was like -100 without him.

France needed generational homecooking to beat a team of intramural Japanese players and Germany for getting how to play basketball for 2 quarters. Were never really in the game against the U.S. until Fornier hit a bunch of uncharacteristic 3’s and the refs swallowed their whistles allowing France to play prison ball for extended stretches. The U.S. weee primarily struggling in the 4th because KD and Bron were playing sloppy basketball.

I like how you point out that the US had to be saved by old men when Fornier and Bogdanovic will be 35 in 2028.

Can you tell me who is going to replace them? I can tell you who is going to replace KD, Lebron and Curry and I’m good with it. Can you do the same for your European dominators?

Can you explain to me what the U17 World Cup has to do with what our Olympics squad will look like in 2028? Can you explain to me how a tournament for teenagers, who largely play at an amateur level, has to do with the development of international talent in the NBA?

U17 dominance shows that the U.S. will continue to produce elite talent relative to its peers.

 

[Big Boss]

This actually goes against your argument.

Four years ago, sure, possibly we had a good idea of who'd be here for the 2024 Olympics, if only in theory that Bron, Steph and KD would still be at a point of their careers where they'd be healthy and willing to play. But what about in 2028? Who are we going to rely on? 70-80% of this current squad won't be there in four years time. Who are the next group of players knocking down the door to anchor the team?

Five players (KD, Bam, Booker, Jrue and Tatum) remained from the 2020 Olympics on this year's run, with the addition of two top-10 players of all time in Bron and Steph. There's not going to be the same level of foundation in 2028, let alone the same quality of players. It's going to be a new crop of players, largely untested on the international level and who have to compete with players on the same standing as them.

You can't possibly know this.

Did you envision four years ago that Jokic would become a 3x MVP and the best player in the world? Did you know he'd turn into the player he would after being drafted in the second round?

Do you know how good the international players will be in this year's draft? Do you know how good all the current international players will be in four years time?

We simply do not know.

Therefore, we can't make any definitive projections about the concentrated level of talent that other countries will have at the next Olympics. It is a mystery to you and I both. There is, however, one thing we can be certain of, and that because there's more international players in the NBA than ever before that exposure will aid them in shrinking the talent and ability margin that American-based players had almost entirely in their favor for past Olympics'.

Unless, of course, you believe all the international players between now and 2028 either won't improve or they're just in the NBA to make up the numbers.

Again - you can't possibly know this. Especially since, as I need to reiterate, there's more international players than ever before getting more exposure in the NBA than ever before.

If someone had told you back in 2018 that no American-born player would win MVP for the next 5+ years, what would be your response?

You would've laughed them off the stage.

The margin of talent we have on other countries is getting smaller and smaller by the year, whether you want to admit it or not. The amount of international players in the NBA will keep increasing and increasing, until it essentially does become a 'world competition'.

I'm not grading those players, I'm specifiying that they are lottery picks, and any number of them could become stars. When was the last time a country other than us had that many lottery picks, especially one that is generational, all on the same timeline? There hasn't been a time when that has happened. It's marking the changing of the times. Just as if all the international players who're not as widely-regarded drafted outside of the lottery, who could become stars too.

You say international teams lean on experience, what experience will Team USA have in 2028? Tatum? Haliburton? Ant?

Wemby will be 24 (with four more years of NBA experience) and all those other aforementioned French players will be in their mid-20s, with the same amount of NBA experience, so I wouldn't exactly be calling them pups. That's not mentioning the likes of Gobert, Ntilikina, Yabusele etc as the vets.

Ant is a dope ass player, but there's levels to this shyt.

We saw how good he was during the pool play, and we saw how good he is when he's hot, but we also saw when his jumper wasn't falling that he crumbled during the knockout games, and played himself off the floor. He couldn't even contribute in other meaningful ways because he ended up losing his bearings. The young buck is only 23, so he should be better for the experience, but he's got a long, long road ahead of him if he ever hopes to be on the same level as Bron, KD or Steph.

You gotta remember that KD at the same age Ant is now, anchored this team to gold every single step of the way back in 2012. Ant could just as easily not become that player that many project him to be, which Team USA could end up being in need of in 2028.

 

[Big Boss]

Next Olympics will be the biggest test yet in the last 20+ years for this squad. It won't be as simple as just throwing a team together.

There'll be no overlap of generational talent (as it now stands) on the team, and countries like Canada and France will have superstars (in their prime), anchoring theirs. It won't be long before Wemby is running shyt, and we don't have anyone who can really match up with him. The greater influx of Euro talent coming through the NBA will shrink the talent advantage we have too.

We saw even an all-time stacked team weren't immune to the powers of the 3-pt shot against Serbia. A team only needs the 3-pt variance in their favor for just ONE game, and it's over. Which is kind of ironic given we needed the greatest 3-pt shooter that's ever lived to bring it home in the last two games.

Facts

 

[Malcolmxxx_23]

Who are these superstars that are going to be dominate going into the 2028. List them for me.




So the international teams are NOT producing top NBA talent at a consistent rate yet they are going to suddenly challenge the USA that produces top talent every year?



Besides Jokic, Giannis, Luka… who are these foreign superstars you are referring to? You realize they don’t play on the same team?




Only 4 of the 20 all star selections last year were foreigners and only 5 of the 15 All NBA selections.

Can you give your definition of what “dominating” is supposed to mean? The classic interpretation would be having more or at least a plurality of something.



I’m sure each European country will produce a couple great players every 30 years. That’s not nearly enough to compete with the USA who produces generational talent every cycle.

Greece outside of Giannis is a bad team. Slovenia outside of Luka is a bad team. Spain had to nationalize an American to have competent guard play. Serbia will have to replace Micic (30) and Bogdanovic (31) who are going to be aging out of the national team. Jokic will be 33 and he doesn’t exactly take care of his body. France will have a great front court but will have to find guards.


We know the U.S. is going to be insanely talented heading into 2028. Yet you are assuming that these countries are going to produce generation talent at multiple positions when they never have outside of a few exceptions.

Spain in 2008. Argentina in 2004. Greece in 06. Lithuania in 04 would have absolutely washed this years field.



The U.S. dominated Serbia for 9 of the 12 quarters they played. Serbia was only competitive with Jokic on the floor and was like -100 without him.

France needed generational homecooking to beat a team of intramural Japanese players and Germany for getting how to play basketball for 2 quarters. Were never really in the game against the U.S. until Fornier hit a bunch of uncharacteristic 3’s and the refs swallowed their whistles allowing France to play prison ball for extended stretches. The U.S. weee primarily struggling in the 4th because KD and Bron were playing sloppy basketball.

I like how you point out that the US had to be saved by old men when Fornier and Bogdanovic will be 35 in 2028.

Can you tell me who is going to replace them? I can tell you who is going to replace KD, Lebron and Curry and I’m good with it. Can you do the same for your European dominators?



U17 dominance shows that the U.S. will continue to produce elite talent relative to its peers.

2024 nba all star
20 Americans and 4 international players

Only issue America will have is getting guys to commit

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Who are these superstars that are going to be dominate going into the 2028. List them for me.

Luka
Jokic
Giannis
Wemby
SGA.

You wanna list the superstars born in this country that'll dominate on that level going into 2028?

So the international teams are NOT producing top NBA talent at a consistent rate yet they are going to suddenly challenge the USA that produces top talent every year?

As above.

If this country is producing the same amount of top talent every year, can you explain to me why they needed a three old ass nxggas to anchor them in the Olympics? In fact, they needed the greatest shooter of all-time to have two B2B outlier shooting performances to beat France and Serbia in the clutch.

Besides Jokic, Giannis, Luka… who are these foreign superstars you are referring to? You realize they don’t play on the same team?

Why would they need to play on the same team, when Team USA will be lucky to have one superstar in 2028?

Only 4 of the 20 all star selections last year were foreigners and only 5 of the 15 All NBA selections.

Can you give your definition of what “dominating” is supposed to mean? The classic interpretation would be having more or at least a plurality of something.

And as I've just highlighted to you, the league is comprised of nearly 400 US-born players (nearly 80%), whereas there's only around 125 international players (20-30%), so it stands to reason there's going to be a greater representation of US-born players for things like All-Star selections.

On the topic of the All-NBA selections -

How convenient you left out the fact that 4 of the 5 players in the All-NBA 1st team are foreigners: SGA, Jokic, Luka and Giannis.

Let's take a look at the US-born players who were selected: Tatum, Brunson, Ant, KD, Kawhi, AD, Bron, Steph, Haliburton and Booker. Given we can rule out Kawhi, Bron, Steph and KD for 2028, that leaves us with Brunson, Ant, AD, Haliburton, Booker and Tatum. Now have any of those six players shown they have what it takes to anchor an Olympic team?

Ant shyt the bed under the brightest lights; Brunson doesn't have the skillset at his size to be that guy; Hali is unproven; Devin was exceptional in the role he played, but it remains to be seen if he is that guy; AD will be 35; and Tatum, well, he's proven he certainly can't be relied upon.

I’m sure each European country will produce a couple great players every 30 years. That’s not nearly enough to compete with the USA who produces generational talent every cycle.

And you wanna point out where the generational talent is for this next cycle?

The fact that foreigners have dominated the All-NBA 1st team this past season, that there's a record-amount of international players in the league (and it's growing year-by-year), in combination with nearly half this year's draft lottery picks being born outside of this country, should tell you that your projection of great players from other countries isn't even remotely close to the climate of the league.

Greece outside of Giannis is a bad team. Slovenia outside of Luka is a bad team. Spain had to nationalize an American to have competent guard play. Serbia will have to replace Micic (30) and Bogdanovic (31) who are going to be aging out of the national team. Jokic will be 33 and he doesn’t exactly take care of his body. France will have a great front court but will have to find guards.

You're viewing this in far too much of a two-dimensional frame.; focussing too much on what you perceive to be the difference in talent. Forgetting that Serbia nearly pulled off an upset by simply getting hot from 3, which was only countered by Steph getting hot from 3, himself. Now, the talent margin between the two teams was astronomical, beyond a margin they'll have over every team in 2028. Players like Micic and Bogdanovic are easily replaceable. The majority of developed nations have those kind of players coming through all the time to play those sorts of roles. The sport is growing globally, so it's not like there's suddenly going to be a dearth of complimentary talent for those countries, especially for the Baltic states and France.

The only thing that is of actual relevance here is, who do we have that'll become the next KD? Or the next Bron? To help counter other nations that have a generational player anchoring their squad.

Because that is what will ultimately be the difference in these one-off games - 3-pt shooting and superstar closers.

Even if we look at your point of contention around the depth of squads, you have Canada who can pretty much run it back with the same squad whilst also adding someone like Edey, much-needed size that they missed during this tournament. They'll have a superstar piece, to go along with all the appropriate role players, whilst also having the advantage of having the same team for an extensive period of time.

In fact, everyone should get off their jokes now about Canada, because if they're heathly and Edey develops into a legitimate big, it's gonna get spooky in 2028.

We know the U.S. is going to be insanely talented heading into 2028. Yet you are assuming that these countries are going to produce generation talent at multiple positions when they never have outside of a few exceptions.

Please enlighten me on how "insanely talented" they'll be for 2028. What did all that insane talent do in this year's Olympics?

The U.S. dominated Serbia for 9 of the 12 quarters they played. Serbia was only competitive with Jokic on the floor and was like -100 without him.

And there we have it.

A country only being competitive when they have a superstar player. The more superstars that other countries can produce in unison with an ever-increasing talent pool that will be available to them means there's going to be more teams who're competitive, and more teams who can win. It almost seems to me like you think I'm trying to give you the impression that Team USA is destined to lose in 2028. All I believe is it'll be their biggest test in the last 20-30 years because there's no Bron, Duncan, Kobe, KD, Steph etc, in combination with the fact that we're now seeing more top-tier talent on international teams.

France needed generational homecooking to beat a team of intramural Japanese players and Germany for getting how to play basketball for 2 quarters. Were never really in the game against the U.S. until Fornier hit a bunch of uncharacteristic 3’s and the refs swallowed their whistles allowing France to play prison ball for extended stretches. The U.S. weee primarily struggling in the 4th because KD and Bron were playing sloppy basketball.

In other words - anything can happen in a knockout game.

The more variables you can control, the greater your chances are of winning. Officiating and 3-pt variance (Fournier was a 40% shooter for most of his career, so I wouldn't call him hitting those shots uncharacteristic, by any means) are largely out of one's control, and as we've seen in the NBA over the last few seasons, if one team is hot behind the arc in any given game, they can beat anyone.

Did you not just witness that we needed the greatest shooter that's ever lived to close the deal against Serbia and France? Who are we going to turn to if we need to fight fire with fire from behind the arc in 2028? Who are we going to turn to help manage a game that goes down to the wire? Who are we going to help get us a bucket when the game slows down?

I like how you point out that the US had to be saved by old men when Fornier and Bogdanovic will be 35 in 2028.

I fail to see your point here.

France and Serbia, respectively, would have replaced both those players by 2028. Why do you keep trying to make out like either of those nations aren't producing more players than they ever have before? I mean, we literally just had a handful of French players drafted in the lottery over the last two years.

I can tell you who is going to replace KD, Lebron and Curry and I’m good with it. Can you do the same for your European dominators?

Let's hear it.



Where that generational talent at?!

U17 dominance shows that the U.S. will continue to produce elite talent relative to its peers.

Well, for starters, that has absolutely no relevance to the 2028 Olympics, because there just as easily could be a generational star or two on that team (like Cam Boozer), and that won't be relevant until 2-3 Olympics from now. It shows that our country has a far greater infrastructure to develop kids/teenagers, which inadvertently adds weight to my argument, because these international players will get the benefit of those resources by developing in the NBA.

I made note to another poster that Jokic only became the best player in the world because he honed his craft in the NBA. If he was still in Serbia, he'd probably be known as a diet version (or fat, depending on how you frame it) of Arvydas Sabonis. Same goes for Giannis. Same goes for Luka. The NBA has been the cheat code for players to develop and with the inundation of foreign talent that comes through, the stronger the other nations will become.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

2024 nba all star
20 Americans and 4 international players

Only issue America will have is getting guys to commit

Only one American in sight and he's still out there trying to find where he left his jumpshot.

 

[Big Boss]

@Gil Scott-Heroin

Speaking all facts

 

[Big Boss]

Luka
Jokic
Giannis
Wemby
SGA.

You wanna list the superstars born in this country that'll dominate on that level going into 2028?

As above.

If this country is producing the same amount of top talent every year, can you explain to me why they needed a three old ass nxggas to anchor them in the Olympics? In fact, they needed the greatest shooter of all-time to have two B2B outlier shooting performances to beat France and Serbia in the clutch.

Why would they need to play on the same team, when Team USA will be lucky to have one superstar in 2028?

And as I've just highlighted to you, the league is comprised of nearly 400 US-born players (nearly 80%), whereas there's only around 125 international players (20-30%), so it stands to reason there's going to be a greater representation of US-born players for things like All-Star selections.

On the topic of the All-NBA selections -

How convenient you left out the fact that 4 of the 5 players in the All-NBA 1st team are foreigners: SGA, Jokic, Luka and Giannis.

Let's take a look at the US-born players who were selected: Tatum, Brunson, Ant, KD, Kawhi, AD, Bron, Steph, Haliburton and Booker. Given we can rule out Kawhi, Bron, Steph and KD for 2028, that leaves us with Brunson, Ant, AD, Haliburton, Booker and Tatum. Now have any of those six players shown they have what it takes to anchor an Olympic team?

Ant shyt the bed under the brightest lights; Brunson doesn't have the skillset at his size to be that guy; Hali is unproven; Devin was exceptional in the role he played, but it remains to be seen if he is that guy; AD will be 35; and Tatum, well, he's proven he certainly can't be relied upon.

And you wanna point out where the generational talent is for this next cycle?

The fact that foreigners have dominated the All-NBA 1st team this past season, that there's a record-amount of international players in the league (and it's growing year-by-year), in combination with nearly half this year's draft lottery picks being born outside of this country, should tell you that your projection of great players from other countries isn't even remotely close to the climate of the league.

You're viewing this in far too much of a two-dimensional frame.; focussing too much on what you perceive to be the difference in talent. Forgetting that Serbia nearly pulled off an upset by simply getting hot from 3, which was only countered by Steph getting hot from 3, himself. Now, the talent margin between the two teams was astronomical, beyond a margin they'll have over every team in 2028. Players like Micic and Bogdanovic are easily replaceable. The majority of developed nations have those kind of players coming through all the time to play those sorts of roles. The sport is growing globally, so it's not like there's suddenly going to be a dearth of complimentary talent for those countries, especially for the Baltic states and France.

The only thing that is of actual relevance here is, who do we have that'll become the next KD? Or the next Bron? To help counter other nations that have a generational player anchoring their squad.

Because that is what will ultimately be the difference in these one-off games - 3-pt shooting and superstar closers.

Even if we look at your point of contention around the depth of squads, you have Canada who can pretty much run it back with the same squad whilst also adding someone like Edey, much-needed size that they missed during this tournament. They'll have a superstar piece, to go along with all the appropriate role players, whilst also having the advantage of having the same team for an extensive period of time.

In fact, everyone should get off their jokes now about Canada, because if they're heathly and Edey develops into a legitimate big, it's gonna get spooky in 2028.

Please enlighten me on how "insanely talented" they'll be for 2028. What did all that insane talent do in this year's Olympics?

And there we have it.

A country only being competitive when they have a superstar player. The more superstars that other countries can produce in unison with an ever-increasing talent pool that will be available to them means there's going to be more teams who're competitive, and more teams who can win. It almost seems to me like you think I'm trying to give you the impression that Team USA is destined to lose in 2028. All I believe is it'll be their biggest test in the last 20-30 years because there's no Bron, Duncan, Kobe, KD, Steph etc, in combination with the fact that we're now seeing more top-tier talent on international teams.

In other words - anything can happen in a knockout game.

The more variables you can control, the greater your chances are of winning. Officiating and 3-pt variance (Fournier was a 40% shooter for most of his career, so I wouldn't call him hitting those shots uncharacteristic, by any means) are largely out of one's control, and as we've seen in the NBA over the last few seasons, if one team is hot behind the arc in any given game, they can beat anyone.

Did you not just witness that we needed the greatest shooter that's ever lived to close the deal against Serbia and France? Who are we going to turn to if we need to fight fire with fire from behind the arc in 2028? Who are we going to turn to help manage a game that goes down to the wire? Who are we going to help get us a bucket when the game slows down?

I fail to see your point here.

France and Serbia, respectively, would have replaced both those players by 2028. Why do you keep trying to make out like either of those nations aren't producing more players than they ever have before? I mean, we literally just had a handful of French players drafted in the lottery over the last two years.

Let's hear it.



Where that generational talent at?!

Well, for starters, that has absolutely no relevance to the 2028 Olympics, because there just as easily could be a generational star or two on that team (like Cam Boozer), and that won't be relevant until 2-3 Olympics from now. It shows that our country has a far greater infrastructure to develop kids/teenagers, which inadvertently adds weight to my argument, because these international players will get the benefit of those resources by developing in the NBA.

I made note to another poster that Jokic only became the best player in the world because he honed his craft in the NBA. If he was still in Serbia, he'd probably be known as a diet version (or fat, depending on how you frame it) of Arvydas Sabonis. Same goes for Giannis. Same goes for Luka. The NBA has been the cheat code for players to develop and with the inundation of foreign talent that comes through, the stronger the other nations will become.

What happened in the 2023 FIBA world cup again

 

[CHICAGO]

And that's fine, I get that viewpoint. Guys like Ja, Zion, to a lesser extent Tatum that we thought would be next up haven't proven to be, and are all lacking in some form or fashion. And even with the Dream Team, Magic & Bird as the elder statesmen were just accessory pieces, the younger stars weren't deferring to them to lead the way, I get all that.

But again I ask, if any country has earned the right to be given the benefit of the doubt in terms of developing stars is it not the U.S.?

NO SIMPLY BECAUSE
AAU BALL HAS RUINED THE GAME
AND OUR PROSPECTS.

ONE MORE THING ILL ADD
IS THE FACT BRON/KD/STEPH
ALL PLAYED IN A MUCH MORE
PHYSICAL NBA THAN WHAT WE
HAVE NOW WHEREAS
ALL THESE YOUNGER CATS KNOW
IS THE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT ERA
AND IT SHOWS IN INTERNATIONAL PLAY.







​

 

[Damnshow]

I don't really understand why folks keep try to stamp this point about us having a deeper talent pool than other countries. It's not that relevant when you can only have 12 players on a squad, and a rotation that is likely only going to be 8-10 players.

This isn't war.

We can't send our best 1000 professional players to the Olympics to combat the only 200 professional players another country might have.

What matters most is having 1-2 players who can create runs, in every situation, and a bunch of players who're good enough to play certain roles. This is why superstar talent is what's most relevant here. Superstar talent has anchored our Olympics wins. Superstar talent that is now more widespread across the globe than ever before.

Our talent pool has proven to mean shyt when we needed cats in their mid-to-late 30s to rescue the team from defeat. In the last 30 years we have never relied upon players that old to carry us to Gold. That's an issue if we hope to have a superstar(s) to lead us in 2028.

If Team USA wants to win the next Olympics gold, they have to come up with a core of players that went through at least a few tournaments together. That's what every good international squad outside of USA and Canada has done. People wonder why a guy like Bogdanovic did so well or Yabusele looking so good against USA. Those been playing for their country for a while. They know their teammates well, they been through a lot of games. Obviously nowhere near as talented as top world players, but chemistry is there.

Team USA for damn near every tournament sends a different variation of guys. Trying to figure out their role, some complaining about the minutes like Ingram.

Obviously it's not an easy thing to do with tough NBA schedule and players feeling too tired and injury ridden to jump in a Fiba tournament. But if you do manage to get like 5-7 really good guys to dedicate a few summers for Fiba, and then add other players around them, I'd say chances to win gold would be big even without mega stars to bail them out.

When Bron, Curry and KD are gone, they won't be able to bail themselves out by individual talent. We already seen that a year ago when Edwards, Banchero, Brunson and Hali couldn't even sniff a medal. But if you keep some of those guys, add Bam, Booker, Tatum and couple more guys and let them build chemistry over the next 4 years, maybe Team USA won't need a top 10 of all time kind of talent to get the job done.


Germany is a good example. They got Dennis, Wagner, some NBA bench players and a few great quality Euroleague talent. They stayed together for a few years and managed to win bronze in 2022 Eurobasket, gold in 2023 Fiba World and 4th place in Olympics. That is an excellent achievement for a squad that isn't like very talented, but plays modern style of basketball and kept the same core throughout the years.

 

[Malcolmxxx_23]

Only one American in sight and he's still out there trying to find where he left his jumpshot.

Ya let’s ignore 2nd team and 3rd team

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

What happened in the 2023 FIBA world cup again

When Bron, Curry and KD are gone, they won't be able to bail themselves out by individual talent. We already seen that a year ago when Edwards, Banchero, Brunson and Hali couldn't even sniff a medal. But if you keep some of those guys, add Bam, Booker, Tatum and couple more guys and let them build chemistry over the next 4 years, maybe Team USA won't need a top 10 of all time kind of talent to get the job done.

Germany is a good example. They got Dennis, Wagner, some NBA bench players and a few great quality Euroleague talent. They stayed together for a few years and managed to win bronze in 2022 Eurobasket, gold in 2023 Fiba World and 4th place in Olympics. That is an excellent achievement for a squad that isn't like very talented, but plays modern style of basketball and kept the same core throughout the years.

Exactly.

But to that pont though, we're gonna have to get chin-checked in the Olympics to change the process of how we do things. We don't treat the FIBA World Cup as a serious competition (which is part of the problem). Grant Hill has already made it known that players don't have to make a long-term commitment with this squad, so there's a strong likelihood that we'll roll into the next Olympics the same way we did as the last one, except this time it'll be on a hope and prayer that a conglomerate of unproven talent will be enough.