Forget injuries, withdraws or whatever other excuse. Think of this as a hypothetical military draft where you play or are sentenced to life in prison / execution.
Who would your starting 5 be for the best TEAM we could send? I want to super emphasize TEAM here. So putting Curry, Harden, KD, Melo and Cousins out there is 100% against the spirit of this question and as we have seen multiple times in Rio, going out with all isolation guys leaves us vulnerable to a team of far less talent but much better chemistry.
For SG, PF and C I easily selected Klay Thompson, Anthony Davis and Deandre Jordon. I love the offensive rebounding and shot blocking of a Davis / Jordon front court, along with the full court game of Klay.
PG and SF were the hardest for me to pick.
I love Westbrook but his game might not translate to the international game as well as others. So with Klay already here, I go with the chemistry factor and chose Curry at PG.
Call me absolutely nuts, but at SF I passed on Lebron, Melo and KD! We have enough shooters and ball handlers already. So I went with KL.
My Starting 5:
Curry
Klay
Kawhi
Davis
Jordon
No team with Curry and Thompson will struggle offensively but this lineup has a much greater defensive presence and less iso guys standing around than the current team USA starting 5. But is this the best lineup? Who would you guys pick?
