Evaluating the U.S. National Basketball Team

     The US has been placed in Group C, which includes round robin play with the Dominican Republic, Turkey, Finland, New Zealand, and Ukraine.  While it seems impossible for the U.S. to not finish top four in this group, and advance to the knockout stage along with the top four teams from Groups A, B, and D, it isn’t as clear whether or not they will breeze through games against top teams such as Spain, Argentina, Lithuania, and Brazil.

     Let be clear about this.  This is no dream team.  The 1992 Olympic Team starring Hall of Famers like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson would most likely be able to beat this team.  This is because many of the most talented American players will not be competing, a topic I discussed earlier here.  I may have been a little harsh on some of the players who did make the team when I claimed how this team is not near as good as it could be.  However, the team still does have a wide variety of very talented players, and certainly no scrubs.
 Here is the full list of players on the team.  Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, DeMar Derozan, James Harden, Rudy Gay, Kenneth Faried, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Drummond, and Mason Plumlee.