Team USA Basketball 2024 (Men's)

Capt. Factorial

Capt. Factorial

ceterum censeo delendum esse Argentum
Staff member
#1
#1
Here's a thread for discussion of Team USA basketball this year. Right now the squad is playing exhibition tune-ups.

Here's the schedule for now:

Exhibition:
Wednesday July 17 (today!) 9 AM PDT (now!) vs Serbia

Saturday July 20, Noon PDT vs. South Sudan (FOX)

Monday July 22, Noon PDT vs Germany (FOX)


Olympics Group C Games:
Sunday July 28, 8:15 AM PDT vs Serbia (NBC)

Wednesday, July 31, Noon PDT vs South Sudan (USA)

Saturday, August 3, 8:15 AM PDT vs Puerto Rico (NBC)


Olympics Medal Round Games:
Quarterfinals are scheduled for Tuesday, August 6:
2 AM PDT - Germany vs. Greece
5:30 AM PDT - Serbia vs. Australia
9 AM PDT - France vs. Canada
12:30 PM PDT - Brazil vs. USA

Semifinals: Thursday, August 8:
8:30 AM PDT
Noon PDT

Bronze medal game: Saturday, August 10, 2 AM PDT
Gold medal game: Saturday, August 10, 12:30 PM PDT
 
Last edited:
megapoxy

megapoxy

Starter
#2
#2
USA destroying Serbia after a rough start early in the game. For Serbia though this is a back-to-back match and they seem not to want to go all out since the two teams will meet in the opening round of the Olympics. Bogie is not playing (injured like Durant) while Jokic and Micic haven't played in the 2nd half at all. Steph making up for his poor shooting match vs the Aussies, scoring the first 9 points for his team and leading the way with 5 triples if I am not wrong (the current boxscore in usa basketball site is stuck). Davis had 6 blocks at some point, he seems to be 2 months late playing that kind of defence vs a Jokic team.
Even though Embiid has started all 3 exhibition matches so far, he seems to be the weakest link despite looking healthy. When Davis and Adebayo playing together in the lineup USA looks unstoppable in both sides of the floor. No idea why 3 players from Team Select are still with the team and getting some minutes (Galloway, Potter, Hayes).
The next friendly at London vs South Sudan (that is also in the same group with USA and Serbia at the Olympics) should be even easier but the last one vs Germany could be an exciting one.
 
megapoxy

megapoxy

Starter
#4
#4
kingsboi said:
South Sudan has a team? huh? 0_o
Click to expand...
They were the best African team in last year World Cup (17th place, above Angola and Ivory Coast and Cape Verde that were 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th) so they automatically qualified for the Olympics without having to go through the qualifiers like other teams did. Normally Nigeria is the best team in the continent but the last years the country is a mess, federation is a mess as well not funding anything so despite the several Nigerians players on the NBA they don't play for their squad. Mike Brown used to be the coach for the NT having Jordi as an assistant there.
Some notable Nigerian players (not NBA superstars but still), Metu, Vincent, Achiuwa, Nwora, Okogie, Azubuike, Bassey, Monte Morris and former Kings Okpala (no idea what happened to him) and Moneke that had stellar past 2 seasons in Europe.Also Jahil Okafor that has been playing overseas lately with success and there are the Antetokounmpo brothers as well that their parents are Nigerian but all of them were born and raised in Greece and obtained (after many adventures, if someone read the book, the movie was kind of "soft") the Greek citizenship, playing for Greece etc.

South Sudan has 2 players with NBA experience, Wenyen Gabriel former (mostly Stockton though) King, Carlick Jones who is actually naturalized and had an amazing World Cup last year, he will be playing in Partizan the next season, Thor from Charlotte, Bol Bol and Thon Maker that there were expectations to be the next Giannis but he ended up playing for Asian clubs now. There is also Maluach that is expected to be a first round pick in 2025 draft. No idea if all of them will make it to the final roster, hard to find news for them, there are no boxscores in their friendlies, they are facing England on Thursday before playing Team Usa on Saturday. Luol Deng is the one creating this team out of nowhere since according to him in the whole country there is not one single indoor basketball court!!!
 
I

ick300

Starter
#5
#5
Watched the first two quarters yesterday only , but USA looked as they complete rookies , you can’t imagine how many stupid childish mistakes they made specially for some 3/4 minutes in the beginning of second quarter …
Obviously they pull themselves together in the second half , but It will be interesting to see their “real face”
 
kingsboi

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#6
#6
megapoxy said:
They were the best African team in last year World Cup (17th place, above Angola and Ivory Coast and Cape Verde that were 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th) so they automatically qualified for the Olympics without having to go through the qualifiers like other teams did. Normally Nigeria is the best team in the continent but the last years the country is a mess, federation is a mess as well not funding anything so despite the several Nigerians players on the NBA they don't play for their squad. Mike Brown used to be the coach for the NT having Jordi as an assistant there.
Some notable Nigerian players (not NBA superstars but still), Metu, Vincent, Achiuwa, Nwora, Okogie, Azubuike, Bassey, Monte Morris and former Kings Okpala (no idea what happened to him) and Moneke that had stellar past 2 seasons in Europe.Also Jahil Okafor that has been playing overseas lately with success and there are the Antetokounmpo brothers as well that their parents are Nigerian but all of them were born and raised in Greece and obtained (after many adventures, if someone read the book, the movie was kind of "soft") the Greek citizenship, playing for Greece etc.

South Sudan has 2 players with NBA experience, Wenyen Gabriel former (mostly Stockton though) King, Carlick Jones who is actually naturalized and had an amazing World Cup last year, he will be playing in Partizan the next season, Thor from Charlotte, Bol Bol and Thon Maker that there were expectations to be the next Giannis but he ended up playing for Asian clubs now. There is also Maluach that is expected to be a first round pick in 2025 draft. No idea if all of them will make it to the final roster, hard to find news for them, there are no boxscores in their friendlies, they are facing England on Thursday before playing Team Usa on Saturday. Luol Deng is the one creating this team out of nowhere since according to him in the whole country there is not one single indoor basketball court!!!
Click to expand...
I remember hearing a story once on how before being scouted and discovered, Embiid would play on a dirt basketball court in Cameroon. I know that Africa does produce NBA players and border line NBA players but I just wasn't expecting a country like the Sudan to be on there due to its turmoil
 
D

dude12

Hall of Famer
#12
#12
USA escapes….Carlik Jones shakes Jrue for a mid jumper, miss, Wenyen Gabriel almost gets 2 outback’s in but Derrick White and A Edwards both had hands on the ball
 
megapoxy

megapoxy

Starter
#14
#14
kingsboi said:
South Sudan has a team? huh? 0_o
Click to expand...
That almost would have aged perfectly.
Meanwhile handicap was -30something points, became -46.5 points so all those that took the handi and caused it to become much bigger are now cursing on Team USA.

Yesterday it was announced that Bol Bol didnt make the final cut for South Sudan due to "personal reasons". Still the African team was struggling at their friendlies, beating quite hard Portugal (without Queta on the roster) and losing to Argentina (that didn't have all their stars since they won't be in the Olympics anyway).
 
Mr. S£im Citrus

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#18
#18
Kevin Durant is perfect in the first half: 21pts on 8/8. USA leads Serbia by 9 at halftime.

Serbia has a very talented team, but they do not resemble the team that won silver in the PI, in my opinion. By which I mean that team looked like it could medal, and maybe even win gold, without Jokić. Maybe it's just the fact they're playing United States, but this team... does not. They looked overmatched every minute that Jokić was on the bench, whereas they seemed much more equipped to play without him during the World Cup.
 
Mr. S£im Citrus

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#30
#30
USA has quietly put together a team that is much more balanced than they usually do: having guys like Holiday, White and Adebayo, who don't demand shots and are willing to sell out on defense make the Bookers and Tatums way more palatable.
 
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