Next Up For Team USA: France In Paris For Gold
France has emerged as the hottest team in the field and will not be easy to beat.
Saturday, the US plays France for the gold medal in Olympic basketball.
Les Bleus are the home team and have overcome average guard play to make it to the finals, which could make things a bit sticky for Team USA.
France has emerged as one of the great powers in FIBA and should be for years to come with the Age of Wemby upon us.
Victor Wembanyama is just 20 but he has a body and skill set that is unprecedented. His future is blindingly bright.
He can block shots and hit threes and handle the ball like a guard - all at 7-4. His only weaknesses really are strength and experience and time should take care of both.
France is currently ranked just ninth in FIBA but they didn’t get to the finals on the lean back of Wemby alone. There is significant talent on this team. Nicolas Tatum, Evan Fournier, Rudy Gober and Bilal Coulibaly are all NBA players and Frank Ntilikina has been in the league too. Nando de Colo has extensive international experience. And clearly France is playing well together.
Trivia point: Rudy Gobert is listed at 7-1 and Wembanyama at 7-3. Look at this picture and see if you think Wemby is just two inches taller than Gobert. He looks significantly taller.
This gives France two great shotblockers although Gobert hardly played against Germany. And according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, there is a bit of dissent on the French side, with Fournier arguing strategy with his coach and the coach telling Wembanyama to pass more.
France changed the lineup along the way and it has had a huge impact. This team is no joke and playing at home is a huge boost.
Normally the US has a big advantage in athleticism and defense but France’s smaller lineup, backed up by Wembanyama, will challenge that superiority.
And don’t look for Steph Curry to have another freak game. He might, but typically, you don’t get games like that back to back.
However, we might see an outburst from Kevin Durant or Anthony Edwards or another player.
Obviously this would be a good time to shoot threes well no matter who does it, and the US can hopefully defend like hell because they’ll need to.
Game time is 3:30 EDT.