Just watched the last quarter of this game and it's immediately evident that this team is playing just like the other teams that didn't win gold. They're just a random collection of talented players with no cohesion. It's sort of like watching the nets without Bruce Brown or Claxton and almost no practice. Another thing they neglected (or didn't realize) was that the redeem team had a lot of wings too but LeBron and Melo are good low post scorers. They don't get much going to the rim unless it's out of an iso. They can't punish any switches. This team is a collection of perimeter scorers with a couple small defensive minded centers. I think playing Draymond green hurts them because they switch everything anyway and he hurts what should be an unstoppable offense. Throwing Middleton out there would be better (obviously, he's a little busy).
The players have to realize that their is no favoritism in FIBA lol. Maybe these guys ain’t that good. Harden was team captain in 2014 and led the team to gold against a way better team in Serbia in the final. harden, cp3, lebron abd Luka are the only players in the league right now that know how to dictate tempo and control the pace. Even if you add steph curry to this roster they would still lose Floor generals of the past like Stockton, billups, j. Kidd and those guys are a rare breed in today’s nba. Harden is the modern prototype not steph curry luka and trae young the best young guards in the league emulate harden for a reason lillard, curry and guys like that are more of natural 2 guards mislabeled as pgs
Its the nba writers that gassed these guys up. Lillard has really never done anything in the playoffs and he is seen as better than harden by nba media members. Then you have Durant whose game is actually designed for fiba but he is not a lead ball handler. Beal has list I dunno how many games and he is proped up like zach lavine lol. A healthy James harden just might be the best player currently in the league
Lillard seemed real passive down the stretch, I would have thought he'd be demanding the ball and trying to take them home. In crunch time Team USA just deferred to Durant and he didn't hit shots. Tatum was invisible as well in the 4th. Not sure why Pop played Keldon Johnson and Darius Garland either. That's a weird decision to make when it's just the second game his team has played together, you'd think he'd want the main guys to get some reps playing alongside each other. Gold truly is up for grabs in this Olympics, Pop has a lot of work to do
No way it's the players, this roster is pretty stacked...but from what I saw their offense isn't in sync, guys are just taking their own shots. That's not going to work anymore. We knew that though for years, that's why they hired Coach K and he had no issue no matter the team getting results. Also, Curry was on that 2014 team and played well, it's not the players that are the issue for a team USA team. It's always their chemistry and thus it's always going to point back to the coach. Popovic is one of the GOATs...but the results are the results. I hope he turns it around, I know winning a gold medal has been a dream of his.
the players are the ones with the all nba selections and praised all over America. You are ignoring fiba rules, defenders are allowed to d up in fiba. Even draymond won’t try the **** he does in America with berating officials or they will toss his ass from the game. Team USA currently doesn’t have a legit floor general. The 2008 team had Cp3, Kidd and deron Williams, the 2012 team had kidd and cp3 with lebron, the 2016 team I’m not sure( don’t remember their roster) but this team USA roster currently has no pg that can control the pace of the game to prevent a track meet also yes curry was on the 2014 team, but he played his more natural position with is the off ball 2 guard. Curry if I remember correctly was also benched numerous times by coach k for kyrie because of missing shots and bad defense. Harden was the lead guard on that team
I wish Harden would of been healthy although that means he is likely not playing because he would of been in the finals.
