Unpacking Team USA's FIBA World Cup Stumble: A ShotQuality Analysis on Strategy & Potential Fixes

WHat it will look like when Team USA Wins Basketball Gold in the future

Unpacking Team USA's FIBA World Cup Stumble: A ShotQuality Analysis on Strategy & Potential Fixes

Posted at: 9/13/2023

Hey basketball fans! 🏀 Let's talk Team USA, and their less-than-gold performance at this year's FIBA World Cup. Rumors of LeBron and Curry joining forces for the Olympics were spreading even before the final buzzer sounded on Team USA's loss to Canada. But maybe we're looking in the wrong place for answers. What if the squad's struggles aren't a talent issue, but a strategy one?

The Small Ball Strategy: A Double-Edged Sword

You may remember Team USA's 2020 golden run, banking on small ball to outpace and outmaneuver everyone. This year, Coach Kerr seemed to double down on that playbook. But according to our ShotQuality database, this strategy didn't give Team USA the edge they were looking for. They had the fifth-best offense and third-best defense in the tournament, but that's not the full picture.

Against basketball powerhouses like Germany, Lithuania, and Canada, the US defense crumbled. Our SQ metrics show that Team USA allowed shots at the rim at the third-highest frequency in the tournament. Yikes, right?

The Minutes Game: A Defensive Dilemma

What's really turning heads is the minutes distribution on the roster. Jaren Jackson Jr., the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year, got just 16.5 minutes per game, while Paolo Banchero, a young talent but not a defensive stalwart, saw more floor time. Seems like a defensive mismatch waiting to happen, doesn't it?

The Walker Kessler Factor

Now, here's where it gets interesting. Walker Kessler, the young rim-protector, saw just 56 total minutes in the tournament. In the NBA, Kessler ranks in the 84th percentile as a pick-and-roll finisher, according to our ShotQuality numbers. His rim protection could've been the stopgap Team USA needed.

The Final Buzzer 🏀

While the call for new faces is loud, maybe it's not about who's on the team but how they're used. Team USA had the talent; they just needed a few tweaks to their game plan.

So, let's not be too quick to overhaul the roster. Sometimes, the key to winning gold might just be in rethinking the playbook. 🥇

What do you think? Could a strategy shift have saved Team USA? Let's keep this conversation rolling!

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