2024 Olympic Basketball Discussion Thread

[drone3]

I think McVeigh, Goulding and Magnay are in. Cooks, Kay, Delly, DJ and White will be cut.

Giddey/Exum
Daniels/Mills/Goulding
Green/Thybulle
Ingles/McVeigh
Landale/Reath/Magnay

I know it’s only China, but when we have our defensive lineup on, it’s pretty damn hard to score.

Australian team has been named with strange picks.

Giddey/Exum/Delly
Mills/Daniels
Green/Ingles
Kay/Mcveigh
Landale/Reath/Magnay

Matisse Thybulle cut for some reason and our best shooter Goulding cut.

Shocked by those picks.

Thybulle being cut is Lunacy to me. He was EVERYWHERE in the 1st Qtr of that first China game. Coach obviously happy enough with Daniels, Green and Exum as our POA and wing defence, which is still very good.

Magnay is a surprise pick for me. We must be very worried about other teams size, as I didn't think he performed well in either game against the Chinese. And in general, he offers nothing on offense.

Golding showed his value as being someone who can impact a game in a short space of time, when points are needed. His defense is porous, but thought his shooting may get him there.

Cooks played well against China, but his lack of shooting and horrid FT% is a minus for him.

Delly over Thybulle??? What in the world

[QPR]

I also would have taken Goulding over Daniels tbh

[LewisnotMiller]

That is...bizarre.
It looks like they decided they needed 3 point guards, and 3 centres (in case of injury) and worked from there, hence Delly and Magnay getting in.
Very old-fashioned take given the amount of ball-handlers we have. Giddey, Daniels, Exum, Ingles, Mills...they can all handle initiating the offence.

Thybulle should be playing. I know the shooting is sketchy, but not like Magnay and Delly help with that. It is why Kay is being played, and I totally get that.

(I'm fine with McVeigh over Goulding, mostly because the team has shown a lot of reluctance to play Goulding in previous tournaments even when he's picked. McVeigh isn't a movement shooter like Goulding, but he can hit a catch and shoot three pretty well, and has more positional versatility.)

[GroundBound]

Delly & Ingles getting the stink eye - while Mills getting a free pass. Yeah, I get it - Patty has been great for Australia prior to the last World Cup, no doubt. Unfortunately, I don't think he has hit a jumpshot in over a calendar year. He was sub 33% for FG with Miami (20% from 3). His shooting vs China was awful.

Not sure why all 3 of Ingles, Mills & Delly are making the cut...I think we should have dropped them prior to the last world Cup and starting blooding the next generation - forcing players of Exum's Thybulle's age into 'leadership' positions.

Question though - Would a healthy Simmons beat out anyone for a spot in this squad? Kay?

[HeatIn5]

Wondering who will start for USA. If it were me I’d probably start LeBron at the point and go

LeBron
Curry
Tatum
Durant
AD

[sikma42]

Wondering who will start for USA. If it were me I’d probably start LeBron at the point and go

LeBron
Curry
Tatum
Durant
AD

That’s tough bc they would have trouble guarding on the perimeter and rebounding. Its gonna be very interesting to see how these lineups shake out


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[HeatIn5]

Wondering who will start for USA. If it were me I’d probably start LeBron at the point and go

LeBron
Curry
Tatum
Durant
AD

That’s tough bc they would have trouble guarding on the perimeter and rebounding. Its gonna be very interesting to see how these lineups shake out


LeBron would be the PG in only 2 senses - On paper and bringing the ball up the court in half court situations so Steph can move off ball. Realistically he’s going to help rebound and Tatum will do more of the moving on the perimeter.

You have a bunch of defenders off the bench. To be honest, I wish that Embiid would have stayed away and not joined USA because Bam is such an unreal fit with this team.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[Fo-Real]

Wondering who will start for USA. If it were me I’d probably start LeBron at the point and go

LeBron
Curry
Tatum
Durant
AD

I would guess it will be a rotating starter situation.

[Wingy]

Wondering who will start for USA. If it were me I’d probably start LeBron at the point and go

LeBron
Curry
Tatum
Durant
AD

That’s tough bc they would have trouble guarding on the perimeter and rebounding. Its gonna be very interesting to see how these lineups shake out

Throwing this lineup out just underscores that this roster isn’t nearly as scary as people think. A lot of monster names that are in fact way beyond their primes. A lot of injury history and availability issues on the roster.

[JasonStern]

LeBron, Curry, KD, Kawhi - 4 Finals MVPs of the 2010s are on the same freaking team!

Can't wait to see them play together.

Haven't been this excited for the Olympics since 2008. RealGM general board needs to realize this is probably the last hoorah for LeBron, Curry, and Durant. Should be special.

[JasonStern]

Wondering who will start for USA. If it were me I’d probably start LeBron at the point and go

LeBron
Curry
Tatum
Durant
AD

Curry would be the PG at that point. KD would probably move into a SF role. Embiid would probably beat out Davis. Kawhi would probably beat out Tatum.

But a STACKED team for once. No need for hero ball, which has been the case recently. I know I will get blasted for this, but you could make the argument that this team is better than the Dream Team. People forget that Bird was on his last legs and missed most of the games, Stockton missed most of the games, Laettner somehow beat out Shaq for the team... And the stats won't reflect this team being better, but international basketball has gotten exponentially better since 1992.

[Mirotic12]

Mills, Ingles, Dellavedova...it feels like Australia and USA might be adopting the national team models of Brazil, Argentina, and Spain - let your guys play to 40+ if they want to...

[HeatIn5]

Wondering who will start for USA. If it were me I’d probably start LeBron at the point and go

LeBron
Curry
Tatum
Durant
AD

Curry would be the PG at that point. KD would probably move into a SF role. Embiid would probably beat out Davis. Kawhi would probably beat out Tatum.

But a STACKED team for once. No need for hero ball, which has been the case recently. I know I will get blasted for this, but you could make the argument that this team is better than the Dream Team. People forget that Bird was on his last legs and missed most of the games, Stockton missed most of the games, Laettner somehow beat out Shaq for the team... And the stats won't reflect this team being better, but international basketball has gotten exponentially better since 1992.

Curry operates best when not initiating the offense because it allows them to run floppy sets to get him open. Those sets will be initiated by Bron at the point and sometimes even probably AD/Durant.

[JasonStern]

Wondering who will start for USA. If it were me I’d probably start LeBron at the point and go

LeBron
Curry
Tatum
Durant
AD

Curry would be the PG at that point. KD would probably move into a SF role. Embiid would probably beat out Davis. Kawhi would probably beat out Tatum.

But a STACKED team for once. No need for hero ball, which has been the case recently. I know I will get blasted for this, but you could make the argument that this team is better than the Dream Team. People forget that Bird was on his last legs and missed most of the games, Stockton missed most of the games, Laettner somehow beat out Shaq for the team... And the stats won't reflect this team being better, but international basketball has gotten exponentially better since 1992.

Curry operates best when not initiating the offense because it allows them to run floppy sets to get him open. Those sets will be initiated by Bron at the point and sometimes even probably AD/Durant.

More likely Booker or Haliburton if you wanted to go small back. Regardless, the team is stacked and I am jacked.

[mkot]

Read on Twitter

[Rainwater]

Watch on YouTube

This SHOULD be a cakewalk for Team USA

[cdubbz]

Nike with a HUGE letdown with the uniforms. Curry, Lebron, Durant all on the same team and they drop a boring Team USA jersey.

[Black Jack]

Thoughts:

France highlights look good, Wemby and Gobert might be a problem.

Why is Kawhi there? he cannot stay healthy.

[Pachinko_]

Watch on YouTube

This SHOULD be a cakewalk for Team USA

I gotta admit... I was expecting half those guys to duck out in the last minute, especially the injury prone ones like Kawhi and AD or the older ones like Lebron/KD/Steph. I mean at their age it takes a carefully planned summer routine to endure another long NBA season, and the Olympics tournament + camp/travelling/friendlies throw that out of whack. I remember Jrue describing how exhausted he was when he had to play World Cup immediately after the Finals when he was on the Bucks, so kudos to all of them for showing up. As a big FIBA fan I really do appreciate it

Paris will also appreciate it, that city has a small but faithful basketball crowd who loves American basketball, And1, streetball, hiphop culture, and will love to see their heroes in the flesh. I can feel the excitement reaching nearly Barcelona 1992 Dream Team levels

In terms of it being a cake walk, it's really not that simple, and you don't want it to be either, some healthy competition and tight games will make the tournament way more interesting for everyone. Those FIBA rules, refs and style of play bridge a lot of the talent gap, which is why Team USA lost to 3 teams last summer in the WC. However this time, by the looks of this team USA, the talent gap is more like a gulf... probably too big to overcome. To give you an idea: Germany is the current World Champions, and they are returning with a full squad, and in terms of salaries you can buy that whole Germany team for the price of one Team USA starter.

So yea Team USA is absolutely the clear favourites. However if they come to the tournament unprepared or with the wrong attitude, there are definitely teams in there who will make them pay. Lets see how it all plays out, I can't wait!

[MagicMamba88]

Watch on YouTube

This SHOULD be a cakewalk for Team USA