Is this Team USA the weakest USA team in recent memory?

Team USA won gold at the Rio Olympics, as expected. But they struggled throughout the tournament in a way that the program hasn’t in a long time.

There have been much discussion about the talent level of this year’s USA men’s basketball team. Surely, it’s the most talented team in the Olympics this year, but in recent games, there have been some hiccups for the team that was expected to dominate in international play. With several close wins and not putting teams away when USA is up by a big margin begs the question: Is this Olympic team the weakest USA team in recent memory.

Now, let’s compare the last three Team USA Olympic teams, which are 2008, 2012 and 2016.

On the 2008 team was Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, and Tayshaun Prince according to basketball-reference.com. This group led by Coach Krzyzewski was one of the most talented and unselfish teams in Olympic history. There were floor generals in Paul, Kidd and Williams and scorers in Anthony and Wade.

There were also rebounders and defenders in Bosh, Howard and Prince. The 2008 Olympic team also boasted two of the best players in the league at the time in LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, the latter being the best closer in the world. Bryant showed his other-worldly killer instinct with clutch shot after clutch shot, the most memorable being his four-point play against Spain in the gold medal game late in the fourth quarter.

So how does the 2016 Olympic team compare to this 2008 team? Well, for starters, Carmelo Anthony is still on this team. DeMar DeRozan is like Wade in the sense that he can score and get to the foul line, but Wade was a premiere defender that DeRozan isn’t. DeMarcus Cousins is like a Dwight Howard in terms of posting up and getting rebounds, but Cousins doesn’t protect the rim nearly as good as Howard did on the ’08 team. You could point out that Cousins is a much better outside shooter than Howard too.

There is no player on the USA team that has the strength, speed and athleticism combined into one package like LeBron. Most possibly, the weakest position out of all the positions between the ’08 team and ’16 team is the point guard position. The 2008 team has three point guards in Kidd, Paul and Williams, whereas this year’s Olympic team only has two point guards in Kyrie Irving and Kyle Lowry. The difference between the 2008 Olympic point guards and this Olympic team’s point guards in the style of play. Kidd, Paul and even Williams are pass-first point guards, whereas Irving and Lowry are mainly scoring point guards. The 2008 USA team is better than the 2016 team in terms of talent, chemistry and unselfishness.

Now let’s compare the USA team four years ago in 2012 to this year’s USA team. On this 2012 team was Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler, Russell Westbrook, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Chris Paul, James Harden, and Deron Williams. There are only two players from the 2012 team on this 2016 team and that’s Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant. DeAndre Jordan from this year’s team is the 2012 version of Tyson Chandler in terms of his defense and shot blocking.

There were scorers on the 2012 team such as Bryant, Anthony and Durant just like there are scorers on the 2016 team like Klay Thompson, and Durant and Anthony also. There were defenders such as Iguodala and James on the 2012 team, but on the 2016 team, there’s a plethora of defenders including Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Paul George. Again, the 2012 USA team has more depth and pure pass-first mentality point guards than this year’s Olympic team in Paul, Williams and Westbrook.

The 2016 team has not been dominant like they were expected to, barely beating Spain by six to get into the gold medal game. However, in the gold medal game on Sunday, this 2016 USA team played a complete game on both ends and dismantled an overmatched Serbian team, beating them 96-66 winning the gold medal. Kevin Durant had 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting and was the best player on the court. The defensive presence with active hands and getting into the passing lanes and great defensive rotations.

All in all, this 2016 team is weaker than the other Olympic teams in 2008 and 2012 due to a lack of chemistry and ball movement and a lack of a true point guard. In this year’s gold medal game, the 2016 team showed that it can play at an elite level like the 2008 and 2012 teams when demonstrating a pass-first mentality. In the end, this year’s team did well in representing the USA and brought home their third consecutive gold medal. Hopefully, in the 2020 Olympics, several players such as Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard play in the games.