A Smart Look At Team USA

The most perceptive article we’ve seen

This article by Michael Pena from the Ringer is the best detailed, most thoughtful look we’ve seen at this year’s Team USA.

He starts by reminding us that Serbian coach Svetislav Pesic was the one who started the idea that this team could be better than the legendary 1992 Dream Team.

That’s a tough sell because that team had three of the greatest winning instincts in the history of the game in Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. Chuck Daly also started Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone and Scottie Pippin with Johnson and Jordan. That left Bird, Chris Mullin and Charles Barkley coming off the bench and John Stockton too.

That team was a load.

This year’s team is really good but there are some problems too, notably turnovers and, as Pena argues, offensive stagnation. And cold three point shooting at some point could mean disaster.

As he also argues though, Durant will end up starting, which means a possible bench rotation of Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum and Derrick White.

As he also points out, the rotation is still in flux so very few things are certain. This is pretty certain though: if this team continues to improve on defense and cuts down on turnovers, it’s going to be really tough to beat.