I always thought that if USA just sent the most recent NBA champions to represent team USA that they would perform much better than just sending the absolute best players because the NBA champions are cohesive unit where every player knows their exact role and Team USA typically have to figure out how to play with each other.
I always thought there was a huge diminishing return on a ton of individually skillful players since in the end, there is only 1 ball.
Problem is when the most recent NBA champions have their best players representing other countries. For example if the Nuggets win, the Nuggets without Jokic and Jamal Murray may not even medal in an Olympics.
Nuggets with Jamal Murray but without Jokic wouldn’t medal.
Sometimes I wonder if people in this sub watched Olympic basketball and realize how much talent there is. Have a look at team Canadas roster. Much better than nuggets without Jockic, and they didn’t medal
The US should 100% prioritize building a team around Aaron Gordon, KCP, and MPJ!
Ok but with the Celtics they basically just had to swap out bigs but otherwise the rest of their rotation is American
Obviously there could still be issues with the format change but it’s not that crazy
Yeah but if you’re swapping people out I feel like it’s not much different than constructing a new team.
If anything maybe you take the coach who wins the Finals and he takes 3 or 4 of his guys as the base of the team and selects complimentary players around them.
But ultimately I think just picking the best players is the best approach. And prioritizing guys that you know are mature enough to slot into a specific supporting role that they may not be used to.