I think U.S. basketball needs a change in mentality, attitude. It all starts right at home with the NBA. Stop forcing the star attitude, in which the stars get more spotlight than their own teams. It's a team game, not Lebron vs Kobe but Cavs vs Lakers.
Actually that's STILL not the problem -- that's just the political angle from younger nations wihtout the star talents.
One problem of course is just youth -- an intentional move to build long term, but still sending out a very young team into unfamiliar surroundings to play experienced teams under a derivative ruleset. Almost like the college All-Star teams we used to send back in the 80s.
Another of course remains the shooting -- still amazes me that we once again did not respect how dramatically FIBA rules can alter the balance of the game. Had Brad around to wave a towel, but otherwise? Nope. All the same style of penetrating player once again in a rules variation directly designed to disadvantage such players.
And finally, and most on point, a major problem is, and has been for some time, having TOO MANY stars. Having a star or two is incredibly useful in basketball -- ANY basketball -- but even with a better looking effort, the US team was still built by piling up as many star players as possible. Does not work. Is unlikely to start working. Star players can only function as star players if they have the ball in their hands. When they do not have the ball in their hands, they are rarely that effective. Thus, given that there is only one ball, the U.S. does NOT have its best, or close to best team out on the floor. When forced to play off the ball you might be better having Robert Horry (well, when younger) than LeBron James.
Nonetheless, the foundation was clearly rebuilt this time out, and elements of this core seem quite likely to win gold at some point in the not too distant future. The focus on getting it done is finally there. But the incredibly slow learnign curve of the people who put these teams together remains something to behold. Figured out the dedicated team part of the equation, but little else.