Even when players like LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden are sitting out, the United States still has the strongest basketball team in the world. The team is packed with superstar talent as guys like Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Zach Lavine, Jrue Holiday, and Bam Adebayo are leading the way. While some of these players aren’t exactly elite-level players in the NBA, there is no doubt that they are better than the vast majority of the players representing other countries at the Olympics.
Despite this supposed skill gap, Team USA has struggled to play as a collective unit under head coach Gregg Popovich. After losing a couple of exhibition games prior to the Olympics, Team USA lost its first game of the Tokyo Olympics to France, and now, there are questions as to how far this team can actually go.
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In fact, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, there are now questions surrounding Gregg Popovich and whether or not he can lead this team to victory. Players are reportedly getting frustrated with his offense, and things could escalate if the team continues to lose.
Per The Athletic:
“To be clear, Popovich is horrified by his own record coaching this team. He dwells on it and hates the losing. The players are frustrated, too, grumbling on their way back to the locker room about “running the San Antonio offense” when apparently they feel like there are better ideas. Pop has said, because of the truncated nature of Team USA’s training camp, the offense would be based on “concepts” instead of set plays.”
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The United States will play their next game on Wednesday against Iran, and fans are expecting a blowout. If they fail to win this match, then they could very well be going home early.
[Via]