5 things we learned after Team USA’s five exhibition games
Team USA wrapped up it’s pre-Olympics showcase on Monday with an unbeaten record. What did we learn about the team in that span?
While it wasn’t always convincing, Team USA finished it’s five-game exhibition slate, deemed the USA Basketball Showcase, with an unbeaten record. On paper, they picked up wins against a number of teams that figure to be among those competing for gold in Canada, Serbia and Germany.
But a thoroughly unconvincing win over South Sudan and an unnecessarily close win over Australia leave just enough of a sour taste in the mouths heading into the Olympics.
There is — knock on wood — a lot of basketball ahead of Team USA in the coming weeks, but what did we learn about this team through their five pre-Olympics games?
Here are five observations, mainly of them Lakers-centric because, well duh, from the team’s five contests.
LeBron James is still The Guy
The most fascinating part about the Olympics every four years is that you see the hierarchy of the league’s best players. While that wasn’t entirely true with the 2020 version of Team USA, that will absolutely be true this year.
We saw it in 2008 with Kobe Bryant. When the chips are on the table, who is the guy everyone else is going to turn to. It’s the only place we see this sort of dynamic.
And while these games have not counted for anything yet, the hierarchy is pretty clear in a number of ways, most notably in that LeBron James is still The Guy on this team. In the last two games, things were hairy in the final minutes and everyone turned to LeBron, who delivered both times.
What was notable about the game against Germany is that other players had their chance. But whether it was Steph Curry getting blocked by Lakers legend Dennis Schröder, Anthony Edwards turning the ball over or others just simply deferring in the moment, LeBron was the only one who successfully stepped up.
There will certainly be moments when other players make big clutch plays on both sides of the ball. But it became abundantly clear that any debate of “Who gets the final shot with the game on the line” won’t be much of a debate at all.
Anthony Davis is one of the five best players on this team, and the best big man
Through the first three, possibly four, games for Team USA, Anthony Davis was arguably the best player on the roster. Defensively, there has absolutely been no one better.
Overall, his athleticism offers a different dynamic than Joel Embiid and that probably makes him more suited to the FIBA game. To that point, in those last two games when things were tight at the end, it was AD as the big man on the court.
Anthony Davis should still be coming off the bench
Even if I think AD has been the best big on the roster and the second-best player outside of LeBron, I’m fine with him coming off the bench. That’s due almost entirely to the fact that he and Bam Adebayo have formed one of the most incredible defensive frontcourts in Team USA history.
The pair of them can fly around the court, defend the rim and just completely disrupt whatever other teams are trying to do. Before closing time, tying AD and Bam’s minutes together as much as possible should be the goal.
The last two games have shown that head coach Stever Kerr will go to AD when it matters, as he should. Until they get to that point, let Bam and AD wreak havoc.
The Lakers really need to play two-big lineups next season
This might feel like a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to seeing Bam and AD together, but there’s plenty of evidence to support this.
For quite a while, fans wanted to see AD at center. In fact, it was a point of frustration for lots of fans that he wouldn’t do it. Well, here we are, asking for two-big lineups once again. According to Cleaning The Glass, the last two seasons have been the most AD has played at center and, largely speaking, it’s been good.
But when the Lakers won a title, it was with a viable big man alongside AD. And this Team USA run further shows how AD can be unleashed with a legitimate center behind him.
Now, whether this means playing AD with Jaxson Hayes or Christian Wood more or acquiring a center via trade or free agency remains to be seen. But there absolutely needs to be more multiple big looks next season.
Team USA should be the favorite, but this will be fun to watch
This will almost certainly be the most competitive Olympics ever. It is already the greatest field of teams and players ever.
Despite only being together for weeks, Team USA handled some of it’s toughest foes in the showcase. Granted, it was a Serbian side that didn’t field some of it’s starters, but even then, they made some strong statements on the way.
France will most likely be the biggest challenger and will present a very interesting challenge with Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert. But USA should have an answer for every team, no matter how they’re comprised.
This will be a very fun couple of weeks of games, though, for both USA and other sides, including Rui Hachimura and Japan. It’ll be the most formidable challenge USA will ever face for the gold, but the USA Showcase showed they will be incredibly difficult to topple.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.