This team has the potential to be good and should be considered favourites, but they are not unbeatable.

F Kevin Durant, Nets
G Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers
G Devin Booker, Suns
F Jayson Tatum, Celtics
G Bradley Beal, Wizards
G Zach LaVine, Bulls
F/C Kevin Love, Cavaliers
F/C Draymond Green, Warriors
F/C Bam Adebayo, Heat
F Khris Middleton, Bucks
G Jrue Holiday, Bucks
F Jerami Grant, Pistons

Where are they light? At centre?

Lillard
Booker
Durant
Tatum
Bam

Run and gun.
May struggle on the defensive end

Lol, this team is not beatable, those are some of the clutchest players currently in the NBA, not to mention the points this team is going to put up in every game.

No-one is beating that team. No-one is getting even close.

kevin love is the only one who is sub par

That USA team is hardly a lock for the gold. Favourites? Probably. What NBA fans never seem to get is that their whole league is set up to make scorers look good. They have an over-inflated view of how good these guys actually are. The USA finished 7th at the last WC.

In international basketball it's 50/50 offence/defence not 80/20 like in the NBA we all saw what happened to Giannis at the last WC. Durant's a very good offensive player but there will be games where he is well held. Durant will also get exposed defensively.

It will be interesting to see how things go but the Boomers don't need to fear this team.

Odds as requested by Luuuc:

USA 1.28
Spain 11
Serbia 12
France 18
Australia 26
Lithuania 26
Argentina 31
Slovenia 41
Croatia 51
Greece 51
Canada 101
Italy 101
Turkey 101

Out of interest are those odds "post Simmons blow up" - if so
what were they before?

Good question but I didn't see any released until after Team USA's squad was announced.

That is the absolute worst take I've ever heard on this forum Zodiac.

In terms of KD. Durant has the ability to be one of the most elite defenders in the league, but due to being the most potent scorer in the league that is where all his energy goes. No doubt in my mind if a season came along where KD decided he wanted the DPOY award he would get it.

Boomers? They'd be lucky to get within 15 pts of this USA team...

I'd rather take Love out and add a true Centre, someone like Ayton maybe.

"15 points is very generous, even with Simmons, USA in second gear by 25. To many scorers, no one can compete."

Agreed, this could be a '92 Dream Team type destruction of every other team.

Rough on the team that obliterated teams between 2008 and 2016 isn't it?

"Rough on the team that obliterated teams between 2008 and 2016 isn't it?"

Probably, I just don't remember those as clearly as I remember the original and best.

Thanks, PW

USA a lock for gold? No.
Favourites? Yes, big time.

" thinking USA will just breeze through the tournament."

They have in the last three olympics...

This isn't the US WC team.

Man, people are stupid thinking USA will just breeze through the tournament.

They look ok but there is no Nick Kay here

Just comparing this roster with the 2019 WC team.

2021 Olympic Team

F Kevin Durant
G Damian Lillard
G Devin Booker
F Jayson Tatum
G Bradley Beal
G Zach LaVine
F/C Kevin Love
F/C Draymond Green
F/C Bam Adebayo
F Khris Middleton
G Jrue Holiday
F Jerami Grant

2019 World Championship Team

F Harrison Barnes
F Jaylen Brown
G Joe Harris
C Brook Lopez
G/F Khris Middleton
G Donovan Mitchell
C Mason Plumlee
G Marcus Smart
G Jayson Tatum
C Myles Turner
G Kemba Walker
G Derrick White

It's obvious to anyone that knows anything about the NBA that the Olympic roster is far superior to the World Champs roster. The only guy I'd swap out of the Olympic roster is Kevin Love or Jerami Grant for Jaylen Brown.

Kevin Durant is arguably the best player in the world right now and this Olympic roster has supreme talent at the guard/forward position with Lillard, Booker, Tatum and Beal. Isaac's right in questioning whether they are a little light at centre but bigs are becoming less and less vital in today's game.

Yes international ball is different, but not that different where this level of talent will struggle. I'd be shocked if the USA don't win gold. They may not breeze through but I also believe they have a superior squad to 2016 where whilst the USA didn't breeze through they turned it on when they had to, slaughtering Serbia in the final. The 2016 Olympics also featured a Serbian team with Jokic, who won't be there in Tokyo and a Spanish team that featured much younger Gasols...

Now that is an intimidating roster. Throw in Popovich and then Kerr as an assistant. Definitely favourites, even lacking chemistry. Hopefully there will be a weakness somewhere to exploit.

Rat10 knows what's up. That 2019 WC team was absolute trash with Tatum, Brown and Mitchell the only legit upper level players, and that was 3 years ago so they prob weren't upper level players yet.

If you've got a starting lineup of,

PG: Lillard
SG: Booker/Beal
SF: Tatum
PF: KD
C: Bam

then you're going to need an opposition of 5 all-world 1st defensive team to play on them. Good luck trying to stop that.