LOL Those teams would not have last in the 2nd quarter if the US top players were to play in this tournament. I want to remind you, 4 of the Top 5 NBA players didn't participate (Lebron, Curry, Westbrook, CP3). You can even add Kawhi and Anthony Davis to that list of non-participants. In fact, only 1 legit superstar Kevin Durant and the rest of the USA Team are basically fringe all-star and role players. It is the one of the weakest US team put together. The only reason they lost in 2004 was guys pull out because of terrorism and it was a team put together in 3 days.
Talking basketball to me is like talking to a expert. I'm doing basketball statistical analysis as a hobby. LOL
Referring you to FIBA World Championship in 2014.
We have Curry, Rose and Harden also Antony Davis,
Score line the Team USA score are similar outlook than this team.
USA - Turkey - 98 - 77 (21 points different)
USA - Mexico - 86 - 63 (23 points different)
USA - Ukraine - 95 - 71 (24 points different)
USA - New Zealand - 98 - 71 (27 points different
That is we have Derrick Rose, Steph Curry and James Harden
Compare to the score line of
Team USA to Australia 98 - 86
Team USA to Serbia - 94 - 91
The question is not whether or not we have enough offensive player, we always have enough offensive power, so, beside Chris Paul, you put Curry and LeBron would not do much on a defensive end of the game, you need to realise team USA maxed out the offensive end a long time ago with Klay Thomson, KD, Carmelo Anthony and Jimmy Butler,
It was always the defensive end team USA is lacking, while I agree they should have included Kawhi in the line up to boost defensive power. The problem is, US is very good at running game, and we can see from the games they play with both Serbia and Australia, had the opponent slow down the game and plan the attack and use the clock wisely, that will inhabit team USA transition power, the US team is so good because they will score every time you missed, if you don't miss, (Or not missing much) they cannot play quick transition basketball and stretch out the point, this is exactly what happened in the last two Olympic game.
Now, even if you have Steph Curry, and LeBron, it would not help much (You may have some block by LeBron and some steal from Curry added to the stats) but in the end, they are offensive player, not really used as an defensive end.
Some people question how weak this team, but the ground reality is that this is not a weak team because of the player itself, but because of the way we played basketball. And in international level, you cannot be just outrun the opponent ike you do in NBA, just because your offensive power is great does not means your games are guaranteed, and that is what we saw in this two games, a fact that I don't think it will change much even if we have Curry and LeBron
And for you to talk to me about basketball, that's the same as you are talking to an expert, I used to play NCAA div 2 basketball and I am coaching leisure league in Australia for both men and women team, had I was not shot to bits in Iraq and Afghanistan, I would be playing Basketball in Australia semi-professionally too.
And the 2004 games is not fail because the team just put together 3 days before the competition (This team USA is put together 15 days before Olympic too and can also be classed as B Team too), that is a gross lack of insight on how basketball have been evolve since the end of 2000 Sydney Olympic.
I have written on it in some other thread about why US perform badly on 2004 Olympic, I am not going to write that here again, you need to go search the US team against China on the 2016 showcase thread in PDF.