Almost everyone believes that the United States men's basketball team will be the biggest favorite for this year's Olympics.
Indeed, this is not much of a problem, after all, from the Beijing Olympics to the present, they have never lost an Olympic gold medal. Of course, they also lost in the group stage at the last Olympics, when they lost to France. But in the end, the United States won the Olympic gold medal with a huge advantage of 20 points per game.
And this year, they still have only one goal, which is to win an Olympic gold medal. And this is not an empty word, they have created a luxurious lineup second only to the dream team back then.
This lineup is led by James, the first person in the NBA, with two top superstars Durant and Curry as the second and third leaders, and then Davis, Embiid, Edwards, Adebayo, Holiday , Booker , Tatum , Haliburton and other superstars, plus a powerful role player White. Of course, he also replaced Leonard to have a chance to come to the United States team.
Needless to say, the luxury of this lineup is 100 million yuan contracts, of which Tatum's contract is as high as 315 million US dollars, which is the most in NBA history.
But judging from the warm-up games, it can only be said that the Olympic gold medal of the United States men's basketball team is not as stable as imagined. Why? Because, in the five warm-up games this year, the United States team averaged only 10.9 points per game. Several superstars don't seem to fit in with the team during the game, like Booker, who is also a superstar, but can't score. And Tatum is also in soy sauce. As for Haliburton, although he is a master of assists, in the United States team, it has been abandoned. As for White, he is clearly a dispensable character.
Judging from the warm-up matches with South Sudan and Germany, the offensive ability of the United States team is worrying. It was all won by James' dominating performance at critical moments. You know, James is almost 40 years old, there is no way to have a consistent dominance, and once he is slightly sluggish, the United States team is annoyed.
Especially the team's current second leader, I don't know if it's because of age or what's going on, I haven't found my feeling for a long time, and my performance is sometimes good and bad. Fortunately, the United States team still has a hole card, that is, their real ace Durant has not returned, after Durant returns, it will form the iron triangle of James, Curry, Durant, according to normal view, it should be much stronger.
After all, Durant and James are both players with their own systems, and wherever they go, they can attract a large area of defense, and other players will have a chance to score.