3 Likes and Dislikes for Team USA Basketball
Relive Olympic basketball highlights, from Anthony Edwards' debut to Diana Taurasi's historic 6th gold, and dive into Team USA's journey.
Welcome to By Derek James, your weekly source for insights into professional basketball, covering the NBA, WNBA, and more. With nearly a decade of hands-on experience, I provide in-depth analysis and commentary. You can show your support with subscriptions at $5/month or $50/year, any of which are greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.
Although there is no NBA, I am really enjoying this stretch. The Twins are in the division chase and the Seahawks won their preseason opener. Oh, and we have had Olympic basketball. While I have takes on the men’s team, I have an appreciation for the women’s team’s prolonged dominance. This is because the women should win and do, but the men should almost always and do so like 93 percent of the time. This sounds pedantic or silly, I know, but I’ve allowed myself these thoughts more often now that I’m not a regular media member.
My fondness for USA basketball goes back to childhood. I was just too young to remember the ‘92 Dream Team but was just getting into basketball for the Dream Team II in the ‘96 Atlanta Olympics. Seeing all these players together was incredible and captured my imagination. It was like playing NBA Live (back in the day) and building a stacked roster. But then I remember the men’s team falling short just two cycles later in ‘04 before the ‘08 Redeem Team.
This time, I watched as much as I could. My initial expectation for this team was that this was a unique collection of guys who, outside of Jrue Holliday, Bam Adebayo and Derrick White, were so accustomed to playing with the ball, leaned on three players over 35 (Curry, Durant and LeBron) and two players I just don’t trust in Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid. I didn’t think they would be bad but I didn’t think they were locks. Then the games started and even though there were some curious fits, it was clear they just had so much talent; just look at their semifinals victory over Serbia where they trailed for about 36 minutes. Now that this team has secured the gold, this collection of players will fairly be held up against the 1992 team.
Anyway, here are some things I liked and didn’t like about the basketball in these Olympics.
Things I Liked
Anthony Edwards Shines: This is a Timberwolves-first blog and what better place to start. Edwards represented himself and the franchise well in his first appearance, averaging 12.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists on 58% shooting from the field and 48% from 3. In the medal round when he did not play his best, he moved nicely off the ball and found other ways to stay involved. A good first showing from a key future piece of USA Basketball.
Diana Taurasi Wins a Sixth Gold Medal: Did you know Taurasi is the first athlete to win six medals in a team sport? That’s because competing for 24+ years *and* winning should be too hard to do at this stage. Big congratulations to the future hall of famer.
Old Guys Lead the Way: I say this with the caveat that I am three weeks younger than Durant, but these three were a part of the age question of this team for me heading into the games. Durant shot better than 50% from 3, LeBron posted a triple double in the semifinals against Serbia and Curry led the team in scoring in what is somehow his only Team USA appearance. Without these guys, they may not be atop the podium.
Things I Disliked
Joel Embiid: Very little about Embiid’s presence on this team was enjoyable, from his pseudo free agency leading up to the games, calling his teammates old, running into Curry on handoffs and his usual falling-for-no-reason shenanigans, him playing for anyone else would have been more enjoyable. This isn’t to say I don’t think he’s great; I think he should be above things like flopping and foul grifting given his abilities. However, he did help save the US against Serbia with his 19-point performance on 9-for-11 shooting. We just won’t mention some of his missed defensive rebounds led to good second and third chance points the Serbians just didn’t knock down in the fourth quarter. On the whole, Embiid was a net negative for me.
Jayson Tatum Discourse: Look, is this a little league team or a basketball team trying to win something? Because not everyone is going to play comparable minutes to their NBA minutes in this setting. Tatum did not seem to care much but his mom sure did. That’s when this story moved beyond lame. “Oh, Tatum will remember this when Grant Hill calls in 2028.” Man, in 2028 LeBron, Curry and Durant will be gone. Anthony Davis will be 35 and Holliday could be too old, too. He will get his chance and there is no grand conspiracy to keep him from playing. In fact, it’s clear he, Edwards and Booker are the future of this squad.
Gabby Williams Foot On The Line For France: This is here because this is such a rough way to go out. Down by three to the US in the gold medal game, Williams gets the ball just behind the line and takes a step before burying the shot as time expires. Only, her foot is well over the line after review. I feel for Williams here because this is probably one of those moments that will be difficult to forget, but France going toe to toe like that with the US is impressive.
What’s Next?
This is probably the worst point in the off-season. NBA transaction season is more or less over and media days are still five-ish weeks away. What will fill the void? I have not decided. I could easily write some WNBA stuff now that I have more time, but have avoided doing so in the last year or so because of how often the Discourse is toxic and unenjoyable. Maybe I give that another go. I could write some football preseason thoughts but who is coming here for that? I’ve always wanted to branch out but don’t think I have the audience for it, which is fine. I know where my bread is buttered.
One of my favorite ways to fill time is revisiting trades or transactions. There are also old games on YouTube that can be fun to write about. We’ll see, I just know I want to write more even when the content isn’t apparent and that’s often the hardest part of this. Stay tuned.