The lads’s Olympic basketball match area is now set, and we have got a crystal-clear image of all three teams that might be competing in Paris later this month. Staff USA might be in Group C, together with Serbia, Puerto Rico and South Sudan. Even with the US already being closely favored to win gold in Paris, that’s made even simpler by the group of opponents they’re going to face within the first stage earlier than the knockout rounds. The USA routinely certified for the Paris Olympics by ending as one of many prime two nations within the Americas zone on the FIBA World Cup final summer season. 

Staff USA completed fourth after dropping the bronze medal match in opposition to Canada. It was a stunning end for the American males’s group, and little doubt led to an elevated curiosity in competing within the 2024 Olympics by prime American expertise within the NBA. 

It led to maybe essentially the most stacked roster for Staff USA in fairly a while, even when it will not find yourself that includes Kawhi Leonard. The Clippers star withdrew from the Olympics on July 10, and in an announcement Staff USA mentioned it decided with the Clippers that sitting out the Paris Olympics was in Leonard’s “greatest curiosity.” Leonard missed the top of the common season and a lot of the playoffs with a proper knee damage. Derrick White was chosen for Leonard’s open roster spot and the champion Celtics now have three of the 12 roster spots on Staff USA.

Nonetheless, with the star-studded roster comes with outsized expectations. The lads’s match begins on July 27, with Staff USA taking the court docket for the primary time on July 28 in opposition to Serbia. However previous to that, the US will participate in a USA Basketball Showcase from July 10-22, the place they group will play in opposition to 5 totally different nations as a tune-up for the Olympics. It will characteristic matchups in opposition to Canada, Australia, Serbia, South Sudan and Germany. 

Staff USA might be led by Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, in addition to Gonzaga head coach Mark Few, Clippers coach Ty Lue and Warmth coach Erik Spoelstra as assistants.

As we get nearer to the beginning of the Olympics, here is all the data you must learn about Staff USA’s roster, schedule and an outlook for the defending world champions.

Staff USA roster

Staff USA Basketball Showcase schedule

Staff USA 2024 Olympics schedule

Staff USA outlook

The USA has gained 16 gold medals on the Olympics, and has captured nothing lower than gold since 2004. The Individuals enter each Olympic Video games because the heavy favorites, and for good cause. They area one of the best gamers each 4 years, and regardless of placing collectively a group on a brief timespan they nonetheless sometimes handle to bulldoze the competitors each 4 years. However Staff USA is not infallible. In every of the 2 final FIBA World Cup appearances, the U.S. did not medal, inserting fourth final summer season and an much more stunning seventh-place end in 2019. Granted, these groups didn’t boast one of the best expertise the US has to supply, nevertheless it’s proof which you can’t simply throw anybody on the market with hopes of beating the remainder of the world.

However the 2024 Olympic roster is maybe one of the best assortment of expertise the US has fielded for the reason that 2008 Redeem Staff, which was constructed to avenge a bronze medal end on the 2004 Video games. We’ll get Stephen Curry in his first Olympics ever. Most likely the final Olympic look from LeBron James, the debut of Joel Embiid, who Staff USA was hotly recruiting to affix as a substitute of going with France or Cameroon. And peppered in there’s a good mix of older expertise like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Jrue Vacation and Anthony Davis, blended with the subsequent technology of American stars like Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton.

Nevertheless, the sphere on the 2024 Olympics options among the greatest worldwide gamers that can all be chomping on the bit to try to knock the Individuals off. Canada has the second-best assortment of NBA expertise behind the US, and will very properly meet the U.S. within the gold medal match. The identical is true of France, which could have Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert patrolling the frontcourt. Even in Staff USA’s personal group, the group should face reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Serbia, which completed second eventually summer season’s World Cup. After which there’s Puerto Rico, which earned a berth to the Olympics for the primary time since 2004. The final time Puerto Rico had been there, the nation handed Staff USA a stunning loss within the group stage, which despatched the Individuals on a spiral that resulted in a bronze medal end.

The Individuals will definitely be favored in each matchup, however they can not afford to take any opponent calmly as there’s NBA gamers on practically each roster heading to Paris. The most important weak point for Staff USA might be determining the right way to play collectively on each side of the ground. They’ve coaching camp and 5 tune-up video games to construct chemistry, nevertheless it’s at all times a bit clunky when you might have 12 guys who are usually not used to enjoying collectively.