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After 13 years of international domination, the US men's national basketball team is now losing. One day after losing 10 points against France, she lost a medal at the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Team USA suffered a second consecutive defeat, this time against a Serbian team whose coach did not, called this particular blow before the teams ever had in China. A discouraged and exhausted American unit stepped out of the door, a slow step to argue and engage as Serbia ran a 32-7 lead in the first quarter that it would not give up.
The United States is now heading to Saturday's meeting with Poland, which will determine whether it finishes in seventh or eighth place. Anyway, it will be second worst result of a competition in the history of American basketball. It's a cold cup of coffee for a national program. This is the kind of thing that forces everyone involved to take a long, painful look into this dark, deep mirror.
Right?
Many people may have reacted to the defeats of the American team with the same kind of arched eyebrow and yawning implied by the great Robin Lopez here. The answer to the question of how the United States regains the upper hand does not seem so complicated, it is enough to appeal to the best American talents for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. But there is a danger in letting "win better players" be the only lesson to be learned from this fall.
As basketball continues to grow around the world and international talent improves, future US teams – those after 2020 – including LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and James Harden will have almost no more in the world. pool – will not always be able to rely on the best player on the field. When these days come – as they did against France on Wednesday and Serbia on Thursday – Team USA will need players who come together better than this year's model. The whole process must be more intentional than just "Who is always willing to say yes?" In a sense, the challenge and the project share similarities with the rise of the superteam era in the NBA during the last decade.
The Celtics became instant champions by importing two future Hall of Famers to add to the one already present in the building. But Boston was an instant monster precisely because his pieces went perfectly together: Kevin Garnett commanded the defense and served as an offensive link in the forward zone; Paul Pierce was the main wing designer and the leading end scorer; Ray Allen was the secondary perimeter option, a persistent threat of capture and fire, and a constant floor spacer. The role of the players also has its place: Kendrick Perkins placed brick wall screens (often in motion) and cleaned the glass, Rajon Rondo launched the offense and traded the ball, and all the others skied in their respective corridors.
The story was the same in the other cities of the constellation. The Big Three Heat, the Big Three Cavs, the warriors of strength in numbers have all understood the formula of the championship not only by stacking the stars, but by finding the complementary adjustments that surround them. Now, however, we have reached a new NBA stadium, in which Big Threes and Big Fours have given way to dynamic duos. This is partly because of the faster pace of player movement, which makes it difficult to maintain a star for more than two years at a time. But you can also attribute this to a change in front office design that sees more value in surrounding two superstars with a handful of competent players than selling three stars and striving to fill the rest of rotation while avoiding luxury. tax payments.
The leadership of USA Basketball does not have that kind of financial problem; With no salary cap to take into account, CEO Jerry Colangelo and Co. must simply convince the guys to get involved. After the era of the exchange teams, this has allowed the US team to do what every NBA general manager would like to do: accumulate as many as possible. stars without worrying too much about their shape or how they work. At first, it was not a problem: many megawatt stars made multi-year pledges to compete not only for major international competitions, but also for annual minicamps, meetings, and more. But after a decade in which the United States is firmly reaffirmed as the world's dominant sporting power and with many players in the gold medal squads who get out of the program or take care of injuries, USA Basketball needs new blood. As we have seen this summer, the transfusion turns out difficult.
"To go ahead with USA Basketball, we will need the cooperation of teams, agents, and then an individual communication with the players to make these commitments a reality," he said. Thursday Colangelo to Tim Reynolds, of the Associated Press. . "I'm looking forward to seeing how many players get up early to indicate that they wish, want and wish to play."
It is possible for a group to want it, either because they want to restore the pride of the program after the defeats, or because they are now waiting for a tournament instead of two. With the World Cup having changed from its standard calendar every four years (which would have been the case in 2018) to this summer, the players who signed up to it had to sign up to pass from one year to the next. full season of the NBA at a major international competition. , then straight into the NBA training camps (which start in three weeks), then (hopefully) in a long playoff series, then directly into the preparations for the Summer Games. USA Basketball is used to form World Cup teams without the best players in the Olympic teams, but such a downtime in two years is a big question, even for non-megastar types which usually populate the intermediate groups, especially with the "load management", which is now a word of order in the league.
Whatever the cause of the dropouts, the United States still has more talent than any other nation on the field – no other team can boast of 12 players in the NBA – but beat one point against another very important point: FIBA basketball, you know, no NBA basketball. Example: Giannis Antetokounmpo is the most valuable player in the NBA and is on the list of the best basketball players in the world. Greece still failed to qualify for the round of 16 because the Greek roster did not have enough shot to free it and the different rules, pitch size and playing style of FIBA Help mitigate what makes Antetokounmpo almost impossible to stop with the Bucks.
Kemba Walker, in a vacuum, is a better basketball player than any of the French guards who split the United States on Wednesday. But in a structure that favors movements from one side to the other and the ability to create for other players, Evan Fournier and Nando de Colo may seem like superior options for stretching. Australia has beaten the US on show because Patty Mills went crazy in the fourth quarter; Moulins can Go crazy for Australia, in a completely different way than it can for Spurs, because Boomers have a bunch of other tables, shooters and controllers to free it. Turkey, a team that no one thought was threatening to threaten the powerful Americans, went to the apocalypse of the free throws, because they had the right kind of players and the right style of play to give problems in the USA. While the enthusiastic United States World Cup has highlighted the importance of having the best talent in international competition, the United States has also emphasized how important the context, continuity and importance of these tournaments were paramount.
For France, Australia and Turkey – the teams that pushed the United States, sometimes beyond its breaking point – the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. There is real talent on all these alignments, but it is the harmonic convergence of the individual pieces that created something that could not be matched by Team USA.
The United States needs a good guard game, but not just guys who can defeat a defender head-to-head and get to the rim. A punctual guard and a group of strong combo guards – few of whom even have much experience in the NBA, let alone international experience – are not really keen on it; you need several good faith facilitators who can create clean looks for others. One might wonder what the American attack might have looked like if Kyle Lowry, who had retired from the operation to recover from the left thumb operation, was able to calm the game, or if De & # 39; Aaron Fox did not retire just before the team left. for Australia for reasons that remain a bit foggy.
The United States also needs shooters capable of firing. Non-Joe Harris / Kemba players together pulled 29.4% of the World Cup three-point line, contributing to an American attack that ranks 18th out of 32 teams with half-court offensive efficiency, according to figures from Synergy Sports Technology cited by Kirk Goldsberry of ESPN. After watching Brook Lopez and Mason Plumlee, they provide very little information during the fortnight of FIBA. wrong needs big ones who can do more than be big – strong centers and attackers who can play with the ball, either in front of the basket or on the back.
The US team can certainly find these players. Some might come in the form of superstar veterans who declined recent invitations, like James Harden, Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard. (A great player like Draymond Green or Blake Griffin would have been terribly kind in China.) Some, like my Alarm His teammate Jonathan Tjarks suggested Thursday that it could come from young rising stars like Trae Young, Devin Booker, Zion Williamson and Jaren Jackson Jr. There are a multitude of shooters, defenders and playmakers in the US ranks , whose games can combine and overlap to create the kind of burning offenses we have seen in the past, but which belonged to countries like France and Serbia this year. But the process of their assembly must be much more intentional than "grab the best name that remains".
It will not take much to put USA Basketball back on top of the mountain next summer. However, to stay there, the United States will need a better plan and smarter approach than ever before.
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