Olympic basketball thread

[kekgeek]

France was +3 WITH Rudy Gobert
France was -14 WITHOUT Rudy Gobert


Not a big single game +\- guy but you felt this today. USA struggled to score when Rudy was in. Wemby and Rudy not meshing on the offensive end all Olympics was a killer for France. Don’t get why they played small ball against the US

Overall fantastic international career for Rudy, Batum and Fournier. 2 silver medals at the Olympics, multiple bronze medals in the worlds, and a gold in euro basketball.

New era for USA, France and Spain incoming who have been staples of international basketball these last 15 years

[Wolvesfan21]

Ant is a world champ

He's got to step in in 4 years. Can't see Durant, Steph, Bron or KD playing or being very effective at that time due to age if they do or can. We still got guys who we can bring in though like Jaylen Brown, De Fox, Holmgren, maybe even Kyrie if he cares (probably not). Teams going to get weaker though I think.

Ant, Bam, Tatum, Booker and Haliburton could be back, and there is still a lot of talent to choose from inclucing Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, LaMelo Ball, Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes, Jaylen Brown, Banchero, Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Brandon Miller, Derek Lively, Reed Shephard, Cooper Flagg. So USA will remain a title contending team. France should be good in the frontcourt with Wemby, Coulibaly, Sarr, Risacher and Dieng and if they can get decent guard play they will be strong.

A lot of guys need to show improvement though. Losing our 4 superstar HOFers will be a challenge. Four years is a lot of time though so if a few guys we listed step up we could be in good shape. Ant will likely be the lead dog by then. Maybe best player in the world too. Wemby might have a say also, isn't he only 20. France will likely be a bunch better if those young guys improve.

[KG4Ever]

He's got to step in in 4 years. Can't see Durant, Steph, Bron or KD playing or being very effective at that time due to age if they do or can. We still got guys who we can bring in though like Jaylen Brown, De Fox, Holmgren, maybe even Kyrie if he cares (probably not). Teams going to get weaker though I think.

Ant, Bam, Tatum, Booker and Haliburton could be back, and there is still a lot of talent to choose from inclucing Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, LaMelo Ball, Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes, Jaylen Brown, Banchero, Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Brandon Miller, Derek Lively, Reed Shephard, Cooper Flagg. So USA will remain a title contending team. France should be good in the frontcourt with Wemby, Coulibaly, Sarr, Risacher and Dieng and if they can get decent guard play they will be strong.

A lot of guys need to show improvement though. Losing our 4 superstar HOFers will be a challenge. Four years is a lot of time though so if a few guys we listed step up we could be in good shape. Ant will likely be the lead dog by then. Maybe best player in the world too. Wemby might have a say also, isn't he only 20. France will likely be a bunch better if those young guys improve.

"Maybe best player in the world too." Ant will have to win a title or two before he even enters the conversation. Ant is not even on the same level as Joker or Doncic right now and probably not on SGA's level either yet (but might be getting close). Wemby has a higher upside than Ant. OK, everyone I've mentioned is a foreign guy, so Ant will have an easier time being best in USA, but he'll still need to get better to be best and I really want to see his passing significantly improve.

[FNG]

It was inspiring to see LeBron lead the gold medal winners in scoring with 14.4 PPG and an incredible TS% of 70.1%! You could make a case that he was our best player. Does he maybe get a spot in the team in 2028, even if he's no longer in the league? Maybe player coach?

Actually everyone in the rotation except Tatum shot efficiently. Bam's 61.5 % was the second worst of the top 10 scorers to Tatum's 47.5%!

I also loved Halliburton's humorous humility post-celebration. He tweeted a photo of himself with his gold medal and said "when you ain't do nun on the group project and still get an A"!

[Q-is-here]

I agree with a couple of you guys that the LA Olympics could present quite a challenge to Team USA. LeBron, Curry, and Durant are literally all-time greats and man did we really have to lean on those guys to win the gold.

Although Ant wobbled a bit in that semi-final, he did have one of the most consistent roles on the team. I think this was a smart move by Kerr and Hill given the turnover that is going to occur between now and the L.A. games. He's being groomed to be the #1 scoring option for Team USA and it was important for him to get minutes in "high leverage" situations. Hopefully he rises to the occasion four years from now.

[FNG]

I agree with a couple of you guys that the LA Olympics could present quite a challenge to Team USA. LeBron, Curry, and Durant are literally all-time greats and man did we really have to lean on those guys to win the gold.

Although Ant wobbled a bit in that semi-final, he did have one of the most consistent roles on the team. I think this was a smart move by Kerr and Hill given the turnover that is going to occur between now and the L.A. games. He's being groomed to be the #1 scoring option for Team USA and it was important for him to get minutes in "high leverage" situations. Hopefully he rises to the occasion four years from now.

I don't know, Q...I don't think one can understate the importance of home court advantage in the Olympics. The host country always seems to do better than they usually do when they're not hosting. It's not unusual for the three top countries to be the US, China, and then the host country (Japan in 2020, and France the entire Olympics this year until GB snuck by them yesterday). I agree that 2028 will be a transition year for the US team, but even if it is difficult for us to overcome the loss of the legends who led us this year, I think the advantage of hosting will lead to an easier gold medal than this year when we were greatly tested in the final two games.

I'll be sure to bump this in 4 years (if I'm still alive!).

[Q-is-here]

Good point about home court advantage in '28. That will certainly help.

I really got into the Olympics this year - more so other events than basketball. It's pretty incredible the breadth of sports and events that the U.S. competes in. It seems like China is competitive in fewer events, but the ones they do compete in they tend to do really well at (diving for example, where they are ridiculously dominant), thus they tied the U.S. for gold medals even though the U.S. had a lot more medals overall.

[FNG]

Good point about home court advantage in '28. That will certainly help.

I really got into the Olympics this year - more so other events than basketball. It's pretty incredible the breadth of sports and events that the U.S. competes in. It seems like China is competitive in fewer events, but the ones they do compete in they tend to do really well at (diving for example, where they are ridiculously dominant), thus they tied the U.S. for gold medals even though the U.S. had a lot more medals overall.

Me too, Q...I'm admittedly a sap for all the human interest stories that the networks suck us in with. And the degree of athleticism in so many of the events is mind-boggling. I finished up my career in Shanghai and was living there during the 2008 summer Olympics. Even though I didn't attend any of the events, it was exciting to be there during the buildup and also during the two weeks. A funny story though. I was looking forward to watching a lot of the coverage on the few available China TV networks. I hadn't thought about that there was only going to be coverage of the events China was good at...non-stop ping pong and diving 24/7! One day I was in a taxi, and I realized the driver was listening to ping pong on the radio! I thought it was really stupid. But then I realized it's really not much more stupid than me listening to a baseball game on the radio.

[Q-is-here]

Good point about home court advantage in '28. That will certainly help.

I really got into the Olympics this year - more so other events than basketball. It's pretty incredible the breadth of sports and events that the U.S. competes in. It seems like China is competitive in fewer events, but the ones they do compete in they tend to do really well at (diving for example, where they are ridiculously dominant), thus they tied the U.S. for gold medals even though the U.S. had a lot more medals overall.

Me too, Q...I'm admittedly a sap for all the human interest stories that the networks suck us in with. And the degree of athleticism in so many of the events is mind-boggling. I finished up my career in Shanghai and was living there during the 2008 summer Olympics. Even though I didn't attend any of the events, it was exciting to be there during the buildup and also during the two weeks. A funny story though. I was looking forward to watching a lot of the coverage on the few available China TV networks. I hadn't thought about that there was only going to be coverage of the events China was good at...non-stop ping pong and diving 24/7! One day I was in a taxi, and I realized the driver was listening to ping pong on the radio! I thought it was really stupid. But then I realized it's really not much more stupid than me listening to a baseball game on the radio.

Good stuff. China is apparently feeling themselves a bit because they tied us in Gold medals. They have 1.4 billion people. They SHOULD win a lot of medals, yet underachieve on a per capita basis (the U.S. is middle of the pack on this basis).

What's unique about the U.S. is because of it's diversity, immigrant population, and sheer depth in a lot of events, many Olympians that compete for other countries actually live in the U.S. and many were even born here. The dude that won the pole vault for example was born and raised in Louisiana, but competed for Sweden. I highly doubt there are many Olympians living in China that compete for other countries....

[FNG]

I was just thinking about this topic this morning, Q…why does the US do so well in the Olympics when we are only the 3rd most populous country. I think the answer is you need three things to be successful: population, physical attributes like size, strength and athleticism, and wealth and a lifestyle that supports athletics. Only the US has all three. China has the population and some wealth, but the Han Chinese who make up 98% of the country have some physical limitations. African nations have incredible physical advantages, but they lack the wealth and life style to support athletics. India only has population, so they will never win medals. And European nations are smaller than the US, so they will also lag.