Have been thinking about this for a few days. On paper, the USA clearly has the most talent and deepest player pool to pull from. But obviously there’s a lot more to it than just getting a bunch of talented guys together and asking them to just play. There would need to be some chemistry and guys willing to accept their role.
For this hypothetical, everyone is healthy and willing to play. There’s a deep pool of guards to choose from, but pickings are a little slim when it comes to big men.
Team B
PG: Kyrie Irving, Trae Young
SG: Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, James Harden
SF: Jimmy Butler
PF: Paolo Banchero
C: Myles Turner
Team C: Knicks & Friends coached by Thibs
PG: Jalen Brunson
SG: Josh Hart, Donte Divincenzo, Miles McBride
SF: Mikal Bridges
PF: Julius Randle
C: Mitch Robinson, Isaiah Hartenstein*
*Hartenstein was born in Portland and wasn’t invited to play for Germany so I’m counting him
Other players in the pool to round out both rosters:
PG: Ja Morant, De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Maxey, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Russell Westbrook
SG: Zach Lavine, Jalen Green, Klay Thompson, Desmond Bane, Anfernee Simons, Dejounte Murray, Austin Reaves, Alex Caruso, Herb Jones, Jalen Suggs
SF: Jerami Grant, Keldon Johnson, Scottie Barnes, Michael Porter Jr, Demar Derozan, Kyle Kuzma, De’Andre Hunter, Keegan Murray, Bruce Brown
PF: Jaren Jackson Jr, Aaron Gordon, Evan Mobley, Draymond Green, Tobias Harris, Zach Collins, Obi Toppin, Jaden McDaniels
C: Brook Lopez, Jarret Allen, Naz Reid, Mason Plumlee, Walker Kessler
Alternative Question: Which countries would have faired better if they had all their best players? Were there any guys who would have been a lock for their country but didn’t play for whatever reason?
Does the A team have to take the 12 best? Do they get priority choice before team B starts? If we tried to spread things around to have a solid 7 man rotation with impactful benches, you have to imagine they could make 5 or 6 very competitive teams.
Teams Red, White and Blue with the top 21 players split across three teams would obviously be dominant.
Could also see what teams look like if divided by geography.
I think the best way to maximize the number of medal capable teams is to just take the top X number of NBA teams that you’d think would be the best without their international players and patch them up with players from the rest of the league. This way you minimize any team chemistry issues which is usually Team USA’s biggest weakness while still probably having more talent on average than most international teams.
Ya Celtics just need a couple bigs to replace KP and Horford and it would be a good team.