In ways that no one saw coming, Team USA has become a major point of conversation over the last week. Despite objectively having much more talent than their competition, the squad has been in some tight contests. They have won their previous three games against Australia, Serbia, and France by ten, three, and three points, respectively.
For the first time in a long time, Team USA seems beatable. There could be several reasons for the team’s struggles. But noted basketball savant Charles Barkley has his own theory.
Following from Sports360AZ, via SLAM:
“It’s not a good team to put together,” Barkley said. “If you take away DeAndre Jordan, every guy on that team is a ball-dominant guy. You see them playing a lot of one-on-one basketball.
“That’s the thing I’ve noticed more than anything. Like, you have to understand when you put a team together like that, you have to have some role players.”
“You take a guy like Kyle Lowry, who is a hell of a player, he wants to score. Kyrie [Irving] wants to score. Kevin [Durant] wants to score. DeMar [DeRozan] wants to score. So, I think they have been really stagnant offensively. […] When they put that team together in the future, they have to realize we can’t have just really, really great offensive players. They gotta have players that if they don’t get a shot, they’re not just gonna stand around and mope.”
Barkley does have a point. The roster’s makeup isn’t perfect. A lot of that, however, is due to the multitude of players who opted out of the Olympics. Chris Paul, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, James Harden, and Blake Griffin could have all been playmakers for the roster but could not play due to various reasons.
Team USA’s makeup would not have been as big of a problem if more balanced lineups were used. Coach K has all of his shooters and scorers starting and all of his defenders off the bench. Speaking of that, defense has been the real issue for the team, not offense.
Team USA clearly has some issues for a 5-0 team. The team makeup is some of it, but there’s simply too much talent there for the team to struggle so much.
