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.
moving forward into '28-32 or later…YES chemistry is more important. sudan, germany, france, serbia all have hung with USA with just ‘role players’ with chemistry. so IMO, next USA team should be chemistry focused.