First of all, I would like to apologize to any John Green fans who may have felt insulted with the teeny-tiny reference. However, that is what most defines Team USA today.
The undisputed favorites of this tournament, USA trots out an 15-man lineup with 9 guards. 9. EFFIN. GUARDS. Though you can count some as swingmen (SGs who can play the 3), that is still an awful lot of guards. So how did this situation come about? Lemme tell you how.
Before anyone else, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, and Carmelo Anthony called it quits, deciding to watch the tournament on their screens rather than from the bench. Then came Blake Griffin’s (injury), Kevin Love’s (free agency situation), and LaMarcus Aldridge’s (no one knows) decision to leave the team. Afterwards, Paul George suffered a horrific leg injury that made him miss not only the FIBA World Cup, but the entire NBA season. Lastly, things may have took a turn for the worst when Kevin Durant exited the team for some reason.
However, the overpopulation of 1’s and 2’s in this lineup isn’t as bad as it sounds. If anything, it makes me want to watch USA more (though I support my home team). Any basketball fan will drool when you combine two of these sights:
a) Kyrie Irving’s insane handles
d) Derrick Rose’s energy. ‘Nuff said
What might happen if: you take all four of them, along with any of two terrific three-point gunners (Kyle Korver and Klay Thompson), a creative offensive specialist (James Harden), a handful of energetic big men (DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Drummond, Paul Millsap, and Kenneth Faried), and one uni-browed freak of nature (Anthony Davis)? You get an automatic semi-final slot in the FIBA World Cup!
The reason why I only granted the Americans an assured semi-final slot is because of the gaping hole in the 4 spot. With the absence of notable players such as Love, Aldridge, and James, a void is left at the power forward slot. And if predictions are correct, we may see an early semi-final showdown between USA and Spain, setting up a showdown between the Spanish triumvirate of Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka, and the American bigs. And frankly, I could not think of how Faried or Drummond can outmuscle Marc, much less his brother Pau.
However, setting aside that notion, I believe that USA still has a strong chance of retaining the title of the world's best basketball nation. Unlike the previous tournaments though, it's not a lock for the crown, mainly because of the lack of natural forwards. -GS-
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