The discussion on Team USA’s Exhibition games hasn’t ended yet. The Hoopers started against Canada, winning 86-72. Which was later followed by Australia (98-92), Serbia (105-79), South Sudan (101-100), and Germany (92-88). As you notice, all these are wins, however, they aren’t convincing ones. The Sudanese players, who’ve made it for the first time at such a level, almost beat NBA Championship-caliber players. That just shows how countries, since the Dream Team in America, have evolved and gotten stronger over time.

Now Zach Lowe, a sports journalist, presented his thoughts on The Lowe Post about Team USA’s ‘best player’. He said, “This is not a media-fabricated thing that going on. He has been carrying Team USA at the end of games. He’s been unbelievable in the Olympics on both ends of the floor. Some of the rebounds he got at the end of the game to steal that game against Germany were just like ‘Monster big boy-I’m just bigger and stronger and tougher than you rebounds’”.

Talking about weakness, he was quick to mention Joel Embiid, who Steve Kerr seems to have a lot of faith in, as he’s been getting the nod to start every game. However, his performances have been far from consistent. “Places where teams are going to really go to attack is when Embiid is on the floor they’re going to attack his drop-back defense because that’s where Team USA doesn’t want to switch”. The Process’ huge block, after being beaten on the dribble, that led to Anthony Edwards‘ triple will be remembered, of course.

But the argument currently is that his 15-point and 8 rebounds game wasn’t enough. That’s because there’s a lot more quality on the bench. Anthony Davis hasn’t been favored to tip off games, and he’s by far been the most solid Team USA player on the hardwood after his Lakers pal LeBron James. Even Stephen Curry admitted, “We haven’t played our best offensive game yet. When we lock in defensively and rebound, nobody can really beat us,” after the game against Germany.

Are these major hindrances in Team USA’s quest for Gold?
Team USA has the most star-studded squad in the Paris Olympics. Imagine a team of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, and Bam Adebayo now called Dream Team 2.0. However, even after having such a roster, Team USA players weren’t able to deliver, part of the reason being that Steve Kerr has also been quite rigid with his starters and rotations.

“When we all had struggles, LeBron took the lead”, Jrue Holiday once admitted. King James’ feisty layup in the last seconds against South Sudan and scoring the final 11 points in the Germany game to now being the Team USA’s male flagbearer, Bron seems to be all the hard yards, sometimes even covering up for his teammates at 39! However, how much of a weakness is Joel Embiid, really?

As per Zach Lowe, “When we have any lineup that doesn’t have Embiid, we’re going to switch everything and the way to beat a switch is to slip hard out of those screens ahead of the switch.” He also says, “Germany is an interesting opponent for us and potentially Canada too is they have these guards in shooter and especially SGA who can get into the paint against the elite defenses.”

But Joel Embiid doesn’t seem to lack any confidence. He said, “People who watch me know that every season it takes me a couple of games to get going, and this is no different,” He added, “That’s the reason we’ve got preseason games.” Now that the exhibition games are done, do you think Steve Kerr will bring about major changes in Team USA’s lineup?

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