Paris Olympics Men's Basketball Final Tour: The United States team is not perfect, but it is enough to stand out

Qing Yang said

2024-07-24 23:40Posted in Anhui Sports Creators

Today, the United States men's basketball team left London, where it was training, and went to France to officially start playing in the Paris Olympics.

Winning all five games in the warm-up games did not cultivate confidence in them, especially in the last two games against South Sudan and Germany, if it were not for James, who is almost 40 years old, he might have capsized.

In the latest ranking of the top 12 of the Olympic Games, South Sudan is at the bottom and Germany is second behind United States. Between the end and the end, it seems that there are still many undercurrents and rapids.

But everyone who has seen the so-called dream team over the years knows that in fact, except for Rio 2016, it is not easy for them to win the championship every time.

In the semi-finals of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Lithuania Jascovisius missed a three-point shot to keep them alive 85-83.

Athens '04 aside, it was the only time in the 21st century that they lost an Olympic gold medal.

08, 12 Although there are Kobe Bryant and LeBron's "imperial double" press, and the FIBA killer Durant is added later, but the two finals met the golden generation of Spain, and they both played to the fourth quarter to stabilize the situation.

The 21 Tokyo Olympics was completely Durant's lone heroic performance, which also established his status as the gold medal king, scoring champion and FIBA first person in the United States men's basketball team.

On the contrary, it is easy to overlook the Rio Olympics, which they won so easily, mainly because their opponents were in a period of adjustment.

The peak of old rivals such as Spain and Argentina has passed, and Serbia, France and Lithuania have not yet become a climate. On the United States side, Durant and Anthony lead, coupled with the newly emerging Irving, Klay, and Cousins, won all eight games while averaging 22.5 points per game.

A 96-66 win over Jokic's fledgling Serbia in the final was already their easiest Olympic gold medal journey.

At the beginning of this year's team, no one actually doubted the team.

LeBron, Curry, and Durant regarded it as the final curtain call, the thick eyebrows of the Mesozoic generation, Leonard, and Adebayo also responded positively, and the younger generation of Tatum, Edwards, Booker, and Haliburton also regarded it as a supreme glory.

Coupled with the recruitment of Embiid, who has killed all sides in the NBA in recent years, weakening the host France while improving himself again.

The so-called basketball kingdom, the so-called elite, nothing more than this.

But with the retirement of time, Leonard withdrew due to injury, and Durant did not appear for a long time, which made their originally smooth journey more twists and turns. Problems were also exposed in the warm-up games later.

In the five warm-up games, although the opponents were strong and won all the final victories, it seemed that more of the opponents around them found confidence, and made the dream team a little more dangerous.

The biggest hidden danger in this is probably head coach Cole.

Those who are familiar with the Warriors know that Kerr is a good gentleman on the surface, but on the inside he is a "hard bone" who is extremely committed to his basketball philosophy.

In the years of the Warriors, regardless of the peak or trough, he rarely chooses to compromise and bow his head, and the only one who can make him an exception is probably Durant in the 18-19 season.

Now that Curry is on the list, it is natural to insist on his winning method with the Warriors.

So in the five warm-up games, we saw that Curry, LeBron, and Embiid were as stable as the starting positions.

Curry is Kerr's tactical anchor, LeBron is impossible to substitute regardless of ability and status (otherwise the old man will not come at all), and Embiid must have received relevant commitments before he is willing to wear the Stars and Stripes.

Others use it meaningfully.

At the No. 2 position, he experimented with Booker and Edwards, both of whom were in the starting lineup, but in the end Booker was likely to occupy a starting spot with better projection, while his team-high plus/minus (+50) in five warm-up games.

Michael · Reed in '08, Adu-Melon in '12-'16, Booker and Lillard in '21, Team United States is still used to bringing a super cannon.

The last spot now looks likely to belong to Holiday if Durant can't recover from the injury in time.

Many people may forget that although Durant was a god in the last Olympic Games, Zhu Ge must be the "No. 2 hero" of the team.

His strong body and excellent matchups, as well as his underrated key ball ability and ball intelligence, provided important ball-holding security for that United States team.

In FIBA, which is very different from the NBA gameplay, Holiday is a star outsider such as Lillard, LaVine, Booker, and Tatum.

See the problem? That's right, it's Kerr's "beloved" back three, and his pursuit of quality on the ball on the offensive end is close to potential

But in this lineup, Janku is too old to count on the defensive end, and Booker and the Great are also used to scoring crazy and teammates in the NBA.

The bench is the other extreme.

Thick eyebrows + Adebayo two DPOY-level interior teamed up, so that the United States team's defensive intensity in the rotation phase will rise sharply, and Tatum + Edwards (Booker), the two attackers in the league now, are actually not good at tandem offense, plus after Derrick · Huaihuai returned to the team, Kerr temporarily eliminated Haliburton, the only pure point guard on the team (defense is really not good).

So the rotation of the United States is to gather almost the team's best defensive resources, but lack a rope.

So the current starter/bench rotation for the United States team:

Starting group: James Curry-Holiday Booker-Embiid

Subs: White Edwards Tatum Thick Eyebrows Adebayo

The starting group has spilled over organizational attributes (James + Curry), but lacks size on the outside, so it doesn't take much advantage against tough teams like South Sudan, Australia, and Germany.

Embiid's squatting defense has been exploited by Australia, South Sudan and Germany in a row, constantly arranging peripheral projections against him.

The bench group is closer to the traditional dream team, with a defensive foothold to grasp the offensive and defensive transition, but once the position is lost, there are not many ways.

Edwards and Tatum, the two offensive points, did not reach the grasp of Kobe, LeBron, and Durant back then.

So in the recent warm-up games, we can all see the clear distinction between the main and substitute of the United States team, and the sense of gap is extremely obvious.

In addition to Curry's wave of taking away Serbia, the Australia bench was chased from a maximum of 20+ leads to within five points, but could come back strongly in the fourth quarter against Germany to fight back 9-0.

The main group was also blown up by South Sudan in the first half, but it was back to a 16-0 run late in the third quarter.

Both lineups had their highlight moments and embarrassing memories, and perhaps he didn't find a "master key" for me in Kerr's rotation.

Ideally, if Durant doesn't return, then it's best to find a bodyguard (Holiday / Bushy Eyebrows) around Janku, and then choose a counterpoint optimal solution between Booker/Edwards/Tatum according to the opponent's situation.

And once Durant returns, when he has the ability to play, Janduku starts, plus a blue-collar interior who can defend (undoubtedly thick eyebrows), and a point that can actively defend and wander to fill in the position (Holiday / Tatum).

In order to maximize the United States' super lineup of three generations of "old, middle and young" in the same house.

Of course, at the end of the day, we are still too such a dream team.

If you look at the other teams at the Olympics by the standards by which you look at them, you can't look at them.

Australia has stars such as Alexander, Jamal · Murray, and Barrett, but the inside line is Olynyk and Powell, and the real United States can eat them alive even by Adebayo.

This Canada team is actually very much like the FIBA version of the Thunder.

Last year's runner-up Serbia finally welcomed back Jokic, but the problem is that their frontcourt lacks an Aaron · Gordon who "blocks" Jokic, in fact, neither Petroshev nor Dubrich can provide a stable basket protection.

And we all know that defense is probably the only weak link in Jokic.

France has the supertwin towers of Gobert and Wembanyama, but the outside line is still relying on Batum and Fournier, who are more than 70 years old combined.

The same problem is also with Australia, who can also put on an NBA-level starter, but the core is still 36-year-old Patti · Mills, and if they do put the burden on Josh · Giddey, their opponents will probably wake up laughing in their dreams.

The only one who really looks like it can cause problems for the United States is Germany.

But their core rotation is too short, and the NBA team of Schroder, the Wagner brothers, and Theis, plus Obst and Vogtman, are all their family.

Unless they can play better and hotter in the main event of the Olympics than they did in the World Cup, the "Dream Team" is likely to face the dilemma of running out of energy and being unable to beat four hands with two fists.

In the end, Spain in 08 and 12 finally failed because they only had two core points, Gasol and Navarro, and they couldn't play 40 minutes.

A lot of people ignore a question,

At a time when there is no successor United States the big talk about decline, now the FIBA world has also ushered in a "guard shortage".

Among the world's strongest teams, Greece, Australia, and France are still relying on the old man.

Canada's guards are all made in the NBA, Spain is now in the embarrassment of not being able to catch up, and even the outside line has to keep 39-year-old Rudy · Fernandez.

The only one who really has no defenders to worry about is Germany, and they won the World Cup last year thanks to Schröder's excellent performance.

He is the real "No. 1 point guard" in the FIBA world today.

So can Xiao Hei in this Olympics let go of his two big brothers in the Lakers?

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