[r377Participant]

 

If you have a look at their roster and the best players in the world / NBA you will see that USA still had the best team and roster out there.

 

 

 

Let’s look at the best players in the tournament (NBA starters and NBA value)

 

 

 

Giannis

 

Jokic

 

Walker

 

Barnes

 

Mitchell

 

Myles Turner

 

Kris Middleton

 

Jaylen Brown

 

Gasol

 

Gobert

 

Rubio

 

Fournier

 

Gallanari

 

Sabonis

 

Valacuinaus

 

 

 

So the top 16 players in the tournament, America actually had  6 of the top 16 players. No other team had more than 2 nba starters

 

 

 

 

 

Other teams.

 

Australia – Ingles. Borderline starter in the league

 

Argentina – Luis Scola is their best player.  38yo and been out of the league now for 2 years.  You could argue mason plumlee and Broken lopez have more value. (in nba terms anyway)

 

France – Gobert. Batum is really struggling, not an nba starter anymore. Frank Ntikta isn’t an NBA starter. Fournier.

 

Serbia – Bogdonovic – borderline starter in the league. Jokic

 

Czech – satorensky – borderline starter

 

Canada – Like America lots of nba players didn’t bother to play. joeseph

 

Usa  – Marcus Smart borderline starter. Joe Harris actually led the league with 47% 3pt % and 14ppg. 3^rd leading scorer on a playoff team

 

 

 

I prob left out 1 or 2 players. You could argue maybe 1 or 2 could be in top 16 players (bogdonvic, Ingles, Harris etc)

 

[cohenbc1Participant]

 That’s why it’s called a team sport. Compared to the other countries, Team USA was a pick-up squad that was constantly losing and replacing players during its brief training camp.

We’ll never know but I bet they would have also lost to the Knicks, Suns, Grizz, etc. 

I wonder what would have happened if they’d just started the four Celtics and played them together the majority of each game, with either Turner or Lopez at C. I’d be shocked if Pop, Kerr, etc. didn’t consider this, but egos and "stardom"-based pecking orders probably made it impossible.

 

[BeastMode716Participant]

 the team was Very young & had never played together before 

Many of these Top international teams are filled w/ Legit Professional ball players from the NBA & the top leagues in Europe 

They are Grown men who have played together on these International teams for Years 

And they have been immersed in the rules & style of play of the international game

& finally, these players are not just going thru the motions in meaningless late reg season games – they pull that Jersey on for their country & it means Everything to them – those games were Super physical, these guys were spilling their guts out there, scratching & clawing every possession 

I don’t care how good a player is no group of Americans this young w/ zero Super Stars is going to get thrown together a few weeks before the tourny, have a handful of practices, travel to the other side of the world & have the ability to win that tounry 

I like that team USA stuck together & won their final game & their is no shame is losing – but team USA seemed shocked by the intensity & physicality right from the start – Turkey should have beaten them! Team USA got knocked backwards in game 1 vs Australia & they never really stablized & got their bearings 

Good learning Experience & congrats to the team who medaled – it was a Great tournament  

[RUDEBOY-Participant]

 the players showed respect after they were eliminated.but what colangelo said was very petty!!! 

[ThenilonatorParticipant]

 Give me Patty Mills over a heap of those players you mentioned. Just because he plays a bench role at the spurs doesn’t mean he is less important than someone who starts. You don’t play 8 years for that organisation without playing your role better than most.

[CynthiaParticipant]

We’ve seen many times in the past, where NBA teams with a lot of money try to throw together an elite team and it just end up in shambles. Just because you may be the best on paper, doesn’t mean you can actually play together. Even the few super teams that did work out in the NBA took a lot of time before they really got rolling (much more time than this ever-rotating FIBA roster had).

[HobbyOGParticipant]

 Excuse is lack of chemistry..you can’t just throw talent on the floor and expect to win..Miami didn’t win there first year..Luis Scula, Marc Gasol, Rubio, etc. have been playing FIBA, and the olympics for 10 plus years…together..what experience did we have?? salute to those guys for winning..when our interntional vets from the US play next year the Gold will come home..

[r377Participant]

 Scola doesn’t play for Spain

Only nba starters Spain had was Rubio and an aging Marc Gasol.

rubio and gasol played 8 games in 2016 olympics together and 20 odd games in World Cup together, which equates to less than half of an NBA season.

3 celtics, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum have played 2 nba season and playoffs together.  Just short of 200 possible games together, they would of more than likely played 110-140 together….  Brown and smart had another nba season together before that…

[2quick4uParticipant]

It’s funny how US media and fans try to hide or minimize their failure by saying that this US team was the worst team they’ve send in years or by saying that they were too young or inexperienced.

Even though it is true that most of those players had no FIBA experience i have to say that group of players not only is a heck of a team, but actually that team would be the best team in the NBA league next year.

No team in the NBA has that type of talent or depth and that team would easily win 60+ games playing in either conference.

In my opinion the US failure was not a matter of lacking talent, something absurd considering the players they had, and again, while it is true they lacked experience in that competition, in my opinion the main problem for their failure was their coaching, which may seem paradoxical considering their coaches were Popovich and Kerr.

As i’ve stated here many times, Rules are the most important factor in order to win a championship, NBA or FIBA, and if you don’t understand how these rules work you’ll hardly be able to win even if you have the "best player" in the world.

Popovich and Kerr made a tremendous mistake thinking they could win in FIBA playing like in the NBA, that is, playing small ball with 5 small players, but things don’t work like that as rules and conditions are different and therefore the game of basketball is different.

In my opinion Popovich was too influenced by Kerr and he has made his second biggest mistake in his coaching life after leaving Duncan in the bench in those final 26sec against Miami in the 2013 Finals that cost him (and the spurs franchise) a Title they had virtually won, while Kerr has proved once again that he is just a terrible coach that has been just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

[BlueRivers25Participant]

 I dont think it was Kerr’s influence. The roster was poorly constructed and they didnt have too many options at the 4 and 5 spots. Brook Lopez was a bust and Plumlee is a role player at the 5. They didn’t have any options at the 4 other than go small with a traditional 3 at the 4 spot. 

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