What would a winning Team USA look like in 2024

One would think Morant would be on the team if he wants to be and has cleared his life up

Embiid/AdeBayo
Tatum/JJJ
Edwards/Brown
Booker/Haliburton
Mitchell/Young

I'd get Sabonis to change over too. Can save a spot for a couple of guys that might show out.

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One would think Morant would be on the team if he wants to be and has cleared his life up

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no.
can't shoot and isnt' a good defender.

AD is not undersized, and he should be playing. If he doesn't want to play, then get JJJ or Bam.
Paolo is 6'10" 250. He's more than big enough to play the 5.
MPJ and Tatum can more than play the 4 defensively.

This teams problem wasn't at center, and that's not why they lost. They had JJJ and Paolo, and then they were playing with guys under 6'5". They had no 4's to help out with defense and rebounding, and were relying on Edwards/Bridges/Hart/Reaves to be the 2nd biggest guy in the lineup.

Tatum and MPJ are actual 4's, as well as Zion if he learns how to get in shape and actually play defense.
and this team severely lacked elite offensive players out side of Edwards. BI was a massive failure.
The bench for this team was pathetic. A US team should break away from opponents when the 2nd unit comes on. backups from Germany should not be able to compete with our 2nd unit.

No argument that Zion is fragile, but he plays (when he plays) like a beast, not a pussy. No one is bullying him or hurting him from physical play. He's not going to go sit b/c he got a bobo b/c someone got physical with him. He gets aggravated by it and then goes dunk on you.
AD....yeah i agree, he's a fragile little bitch, but he's what you need at the 5. Great defender/rebounder and can stretch the floor on offense.


JJJ and Bam are the better defenders at the 5, but neither of them help spread the floor on offense, and we aren't giving them the ball down low either, so they are really just in the way offensively. AD spreads the floor. Zion is an elite finisher at the rim. They are both much better suited to help a US team than JJJ or Bam.

The US has never needed a great 5 to win anyone, so i don't really care who the 5 is. They simply need a 5 that is going to do the dirty work and play good defense. They could bring in Nic Claxton and be fine. But they also need to have big players at the 3 and 4. Guys like Durant, Lebron, Carmelo, PG, Kawhi, Draymond are big 3's and 4's.
This team had literally no 4's or 3's on the team, just 1's and 2's.

Tatum/MPJ/Zion/Paolo. That should be the 4's, and there should be lineups where 2 of them are on the court to be even bigger.

Booker/Edwards
Brown/Lavine
Tatum
Zion/Paolo
and a 5 that plays good D and hustles his arse off.
That is a big lineup, that is uber athletic as well.

Edwards would be the 2nd smallest guy on that 8 man rotation. He was the 2nd biggest guy on the current teams rotation.

I think you are underestimating a good PG. Schroeder was killing us. Can't just play 2s and 3s. Need a good floor general..

Why no Embiid?

Also no D. Mitchell?

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Why no Embiid?

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for 1, he's from Africa and i'm not sure if he'd play for the US, although i'm sure he could at this point if he wanted to.
and B, he's always hurt and doesn't need that extra mileage on his body playing for a country he's not from.

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Also no D. Mitchell?

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Knowing Murray if from Cananda now, i would insert DMitch into my 12 man roster.

Embiid wasn't born here. If he decided he wanted to play for the US then obviously he is a no-brainer.

But yea you could easily make a swap to put Mitchell on there as well somewhere.