Why Team USA Defeated?

FIBA World Cup in China closed with Spain’s second gold medal.  As many people predicted, team USA was not able to finish this world cup with 1st place.  This time we would like to figure out why team USA was defeated.

Reason #1: Lack of super stars.  In this world cup, team USA had only 2 All-star players.  This is the least number of the All-star players for team USA since last defeat.  For 2016 Olympics, they had 11 All-star players out of 12 members.(DeAndre Jordan was not All-star in 2016, but became All-star in 2017)  Moreover, there is no strong clutch player nor go to guy in the team.  Kemba Walker, Donovan Mitchell, and Jason Tatum could be clutch or go to guy, but compare to Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, and Paul George, they don’t look strong enough.

Reason #2: NBA rule vs FIBA rule.  There are many differences between FIBA rule and NBA rule, and here are some of the rules that disadvantages NBA players.  10 minutes each quarter.  Total of 8 minutes difference will make them more conscious about time management and rushes players to score.  14 seconds after offensive rebound.  In NBA offensive team can restart the offensive possession, but in FIBA rule they only have 14 seconds for second ball possession,  surely this will lessen the second chance points.  Foul out on 5.  In the NBA, foul out on 6, this means when players have 3 fouls, they already have to be careful with foul out.  In NBA there is not problem with 3 or 4 fouls, but in FIBA rule 3 or 4 is almost out of the game.  No defensive 3 seconds.  Defensive 3 second is pretty big violation in NBA, the consequence of the violation is that offensive possession team will be awarded 1 free throw and another possession.  So in NBA, players must aware of it, but in FIBA, there is no problem with it.  These differences can affect players’ performance critically.

Reason #3: Data.  NBA players are famous in any country as long as they play basketball since becoming an NBA player is one of the biggest goal for all basketball players.  Players outside of America watches NBA as American basketball players do.  But none of American basketball fans watches Euro League, Turkey League, or any other league outside of USA.  All the world has data of every single NBA player, but team USA did not have data of the opponent players except for international NBA player or recruit players.  They all know what team USA is good at and not good at.  This is huge disadvantage because it had been proved that super star team can be defeated if not good as team such as team USA in 2006.  All teams used zone defense since they know team USA did not have any spot up shooter except for Joe Harris.  And team USA struggled with scoring outside and at the rim.

Reason #4: World’s level is getting higher and higher.  It is clear that other countries’ level is increasing each year by looking at the number of the international NBA players.  Even Rising Star Challenge, Team World is winning by 3-2.  There are many super star players from outside of America such as Giannis Antetokoumnpo, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic.  The NBA is not completely dominated by Americans anymore.  We have to accept that world is catching up with America.

Here is the question.  Who should be playing for 202 Olympic game?  Should it be young stars or should it be real NBA super star team?  I personally want to see Dream Team play for the country.

Here is my roster for 2020 Olympics:  Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, James Harden, Klay Thompson, Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, Karl Anthony Towns, and Deandre Jordan.

Who is your roster for 2020 Olympics?