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From these exhibitions it feels like USA basketball is in trouble four years from now, and especially compared to its historical dominance.

While the actual 2024 Olympics may be completely different than the recent exhibitions, a ton of posters got all slobbery about the recognizable star names and proclaimed the team would easily waltz to gold…win every game by 20, etc. Yet it’s clearly not going to be easy even for this group, and I’m not personally shocked*.

*I’m sure I can dig up the post receipts upon request.

So with that I want to talk about 2028. I think we’re gonna struggle my fellow Americans (and all you international hoops fans).

It’s obvious from the All NBA selections, and simply by watching the game that there is no true American superstar.

Please, please don’t give me Jayson Tatum or Jalen Brunson. There’s no Jordan, no Lebron, not even a KD or a Kobe out there. No Shaq, nor Duncan. While there’s obviously a lot of talent, there are simply zero American icons now and in the foreseeable future.

Ant has been the recent great hope, and maybe he’ll make a lot of progress in 4 years to grow his game, but that seems far from guaranteed.

…and nope, I’ll have to see a lot more from Cooper Flagg. He’ll still be very young in 2028, and while he does look like a fantastic prospect, he is not on the level of a young Lebron, who couldn’t get it done in 2004 with a cast of other young stars like Melo/Wade/Amare, and an all time great like Duncan.

Meanwhile there’s an absolute dearth of bigs and size. AD has been absolutely huge for this squad in the exhibitions, but he’ll be 35 in 2028 and we all know his injury history. Everyone’s crushing 30 y/o Embiid now, so yikes, don’t wanna think about the 34 y/o version.

We’ll have 31 year old Bam Adebayo in 2028, but outside of him we have no real size in the pipeline when it comes down to being big and able to play more physical. Chet and Mobley as examples have high ceilings, but even with 4 years of maturity their frames aren’t built to fight and muscle against truly big guys.

The US won’t be short of depth and top to bottom talent. We’ll be one of the obvious favorites to medal. There will be plenty of great players, but at least to me, it’s obvious we can’t just roll the ball out and expect to win gold (like we’re somehow still doing in 2024).

What’s the answer?

I think we have to stop making pure all star teams. Think about roles. Think about how the team fits together. Think about how the players fit the FIBA rules and international ball and referees.

I honestly feel like the squad leans on Lebron because of his status as an ATG and otherwise no one’s sure if they should be the man, because quite frankly…they aren’t.

Yet no one’s used to playing the side role, so they look to the last American icon by default. I literally watched star players play hot potato this afternoon on a late possession with the clock winding down (prob cause they knew they didn’t have time to iso for 7 seconds!) when an actual spot up shooter used to that role would’ve let it fly.

Bigger picture, we could use better coaching and skill development for our elite prospects. Not just a bajillion AAU and ‘elite camp’ games.

Am I being too pessimistic, or are others seeing what I’m seeing?

ill get worried when they stop winning

this reads like the people saying the celtics were in trouble this past playoffs because they were "only" winning and not winning by 20.


USA is gonna get gold and will continue to get gold in the future.

4 years is a long time out to be glooming and dooming about


in 4 years guys like ANT and Banchero could be looking like top 5 guys

Stop catering to these old guys and non defensive players. They gonna have to get some guys who are dawgs on defense.

The gap is most likely shrinking. The older superstars are still the clear "alphas"/leaders when it was expected for the younger generation to take over and while they've been solid they've also been a bit disappointing. The overall top end talent has become more global which as a basketball fan is kind of exciting. The US still has the quality depth but the world is catching up. A more competitive Olympic games could be fun to watch.

It's going to be rough. I wonder which young American star will rise to the superstar level when 2028 rolls around.

Blazing_royale wrote:It's going to be rough. I wonder which young American star will rise to the superstar level when 2028 rolls around.

That’s the thing…there isn’t one now, thus why we still lean way too much on Lebron when he shouldn’t have to carry the team late like he has lately.

I don’t foresee one by 2028 either, but only time will tell.

There’s a definite vacuum with a lot of what we’d traditionally think of as 2nd tier stars with no pecking order and everyone’s kinda sitting on their hands unsure what to do.

Now if we played more team-oriented ball based on ball and player movement, cutting, etc. it wouldn’t be a concern.

But that’s not how we play in the nba, and it’s certainly not how most of the guys on the roster play when they’re the clear guys on their own teams.

Can Wemby become American like Embiid?

Yeah they're in trouble. The big 3 of Lebron/Steph/Kd are all gone by then. You don't have any other major stars on their level from the younger gen. This year might be the last time they take home gold for awhile.

I am not worry about 2028. A lot can happen in 4 years. Players grow, new talent emerges, etc.

Tatum, Ant, Banchero, Donovan Mitchell, Zion, Devin Vassell, Ja Morant, Bam, Cooper Flagg, Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham, Trae Young, D-Fox, Jaylen Brown, Brandon Ingram, JJJ, Evan Mobley role players like Jalen Suggs, older Derrick White, etc.. I like our guys still

Let's wait for them not to win gold this Olympics, and you start worrying.

Cooper Flagg to the rescue.

They will be completely fine lol - they'll have a roster of 10 all-stars easily. You don't need Michael Jordan to beat Franz Wagner and a bunch of plumbers

Anyway this super team right now barely beat Sudan and Germany, it's like not the oldies are even cooking except Lebron (or even at all like KD). If anything all the name recognition is preventing coach from putting out lineups that actually make sense

durden_tyler wrote:Let's wait for them not to win gold this Olympics, and you start worrying.

It’s not really worry, more a prediction reading a lot of obvious looking tea leaves.

Why should we be worried? Who cares if team USA doesn't win. It's not like they own the rights to be the best basketball team in the world

TyCobb wrote:Cooper Flagg to the rescue.

Young Lebron couldn’t get it done on the same roster as young Wade and prime Tim Duncan. Young Cooper Flagg is gonna get it done? I just don’t see it.

The talent is still there, but there is no clear cut leader on the court. Maybe Jalen Brunson?

Blazing_royale wrote:It's going to be rough. I wonder which young American star will rise to the superstar level when 2028 rolls around.

Cooper Flagg and Caitlin Clark we trust!

I know it’s cool to hate on Tatum right now, but I find it funny that you reference all NBA selections as evidence that there is no true American superstar..this kind of ignores that Tatum has made 3 straight first all NBA teams, right?

He doesn’t have that ‘dog’ in him, I suppose, but he was just the second option on an Olympic gold team 3 years ago at the age of 23 averaging 15 PPG. Not sure what’s been going on in these exhibition runs, but it feels like a lot of players are just letting LeBron and Steph do their thing out of respect since this is likely their last run. We know players on this team can play better and have proven it before like Tatum.

Everyone is freaking out about what we are going to do when LeBron retires, but he hasn’t even played on a national team since 2012. We’ve won 3 gold medals since then in world competition..2014, 2016, and 2020.

Really, some of these guys need to start taking the World Cup a bit more seriously, though. There does need to be a tad bit more continuity.

They’ll be fine. Always their tourney to lose, depending on matchups, chemistry and (lack of) prep.