Time To Panic? The Team USA Select Team Beat The Real Team USA Roster In Back To Back Scrimmages During Training Camp
Well, this doesn't seem all that great. Call me crazy, but I would think that when you're forming a team to represent the USA in an international competition, you probably want that collection of players to be able to handle any type of opponent in their path. You know, given that the US is a basketball powerhouse. So to hear that before the FIBA World Cup even gets started we already have a situation where the current Team USA roster can't even beat the Team USA Select Team roster in camp, that feels like it might be an issue.
If you weren't even sure who is on the Select Team, here's that roster
Definitely some nice players on that team. Hell, you could make the case there are some guys on this roster that maybe should have made the real Team USA roster. We don't have too many highlights from these scrimmages outside of this video
and I'll be honest, the lack of rim protection is a little concerning. Also, the inability to prevent dribble drives. That's certainly going to have to be cleaned up over the next 3 weeks.
Of course, maybe this is all just part of the plan. Remember, there was a time when the Dream Team lost to college players back in 1992 and they turned out just fine. Granted this current Team USA roster is nothing even remotely close to the Dream Team roster but don't let those little details get in the way of some spinzone.
After the 2019 team had literally the worst FIBA World Cup showing in Team USA history, there's a decent amount of pressure on this year's team to avenge that showing and not be a complete embarrassment. In that regard, I'd say we aren't off to the best start. I know this is just a meaningless scrimmage, but it's also not exactly what you're looking to hear. Speaking of that 2019 team, guess who else lost one of these scrimmages to G-League/Select Team guys?
When Grant Hill took over creating this roster, he made a change when it came to this World Cup. For the first time in two decades, players did not have to try out to play for Team USA. All you had to do was show interest in playing. They also got rid of the mutli-year commitment to Team USA as well. I dunno, that feels like it might be an issue given what transpired today. You don't want to lock guys into Team USA commitments fine, but what's the harm in having tryouts?
Starting next week you'll be able to see some of these warm up games for Team USA with the first game against Puerto Rico being broadcasted on FS1, and hopefully today served as a wake up call. The rest of the world certainly isn't going to take it easy on Team USA, and if they struggle to beat the guys who didn't even make the team, lord knows what can happen once the real games start on the 25th.
