USA Basketball’s struggles prove talent takes time

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USA Basketball has nearly lost two games in a row, playing poorly in both. Their struggles prove that building chemistry is a process.

The United States men’s basketball team is the best in the world. They have the more talent than any other national team despite the fact that they’re without some of their best players like Stephen Curry, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis. They will be celebrating a gold medal victory at the Olympics soon enough.

Despite this, the Americans have had trouble over their last two games. They struggled to keep up with Australia, finally pulling away in the last few minutes winning by a margin that didn’t quite represent just how close the game was. And yesterday, they nearly let the game slip away from them at the hands of the Serbians, beating them by just three points.

Even though those teams do have some good NBA talent, they are not on the United States’ level. The red, white, and blue have a plethora of All-Stars and All-NBA players (and Harrison Barnes). And yet, they haven’t quite put it together yet.

They dominated the exhibition games back home and defeated China and Venezuela easily in their first two games in Brazil. But they’ve sputtered and played down to their opponents’ levels. Even more alarming, Team USA has escaped those games with a victory. They should not be settling for just winning; they need to be blowing teams out.

The Warriors’ trio has struggled thus far. Draymond Green hasn’t been able to control the game like he normally does and his lapse in judgment on the defensive end in the final seconds of the game allowed Serbia to get a great look at a potential game-tying three-pointer. Klay Thompson hasn’t shot the ball well at all and he was relegated to the bench because of it. Kevin Durant has had a roller coaster Olympics.

The USA’s struggles aren’t all that hard to pinpoint though. First, when you’re that good and that much more talented, it’s easy to get lazy and fall into bad habits. The Americans have done this. From bad, forced passes to horrible isolation possessions, they’ve played some poor basketball. They rely on their natural talent and athleticism to make this happen and carry them over the hump.

Secondly, talent takes time to mesh. Chemistry isn’t built in a day. It comes about from playing together more and more. Again, they have the best talent in the world, they just haven’t quite figured out how to put it all together.

There’s no reason for Kyrie Irving to be dribbling the ball for the majority of the shot clock and forcing up an off-balanced shot in the lane. It makes sense when Tristan Thompson and Iman Shumpert are his teammates, not when Carmelo Anthony and Paul George are. It’s bad basketball.

Kevin Durant is a fantastic one-on-one player, but he needs to learn to move the ball better when his shot isn’t falling. The same with nearly every other guy on the team; there’s no real facilitator. There’s no Chris Paul to direct traffic.

This is what the Golden State Warriors will have to deal with. Having a Curry/Thompson/Andre Iguodala/Durant/Green Super Death lineup. It won’t happen overnight. They, like the USA, will win games because they are more talented.

But the Americans haven’t clicked yet. And the Warriors won’t either. Not right away. It takes time to mesh world-class athletes and find something that works for all of them. But once they do, it’s over for everyone rest.