LAS VEGAS– The United States is back on top of the world in every age group in men’s basketball and has re-established its dominance in Olympic competition with consecutive gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 games at Beijing and London.
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski and Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo deserve a lion’s share of the credit, for convincing forward LeBron James and guard Kobe Bryant– the two most recognizable and marketable players in the world — to buy into the idea of representing their country after a long NBA season.
But nothing lasts forever.
This will be Krzyzewski’s final go round as head coach of the national team and it likely will be the final curtain call for James, Bryant and forward Carmelo Anthony,– the core of both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic championship teams– as well as center Dwight Howard and guard Dwyane Ward on the 2008 team and guards Deron Willliams and Chris Paul, who played for the U.S. in 2012, will all be 31 or older.
Transition will be in the wind this week as Krzyzewski and his staff get their first look at the future with 27 young stars who were invited to an Olympic mini-camp at the Mendenhall Center here on the campus of UNLV.
One of the strengths of Team USA during the Krzyzewski era has been its fluid roster.
That was never more evident than 2010 when Krzyzewski began replenishing the country’s talent pool. Krzyzewski did a superb job coaching a young team of guard Chauncey Billups, center Tyson Chandler, guard Steph Curry, forward Kevin Durant, forward Rudy Gay, guard Eric Gordon, forward Danny Granger, forward Andre Inguodala, center Kevin Love, forward Lamar Odom, guard Derrick Rose and guard Russell Westbrook– none who had previous Olympic experience– to a gold medal at the World Championships in Istanbul.
Five of those players– Durant, Inguodala, Love, Westbook and Chandler– went on to make the 12 man roster and played influential roles on the 2012 Olympic team that finished 8-0 and averaged 115.5 points in the London games, winning by anaveage margin of 32.1 points.
James and Bryant will still be the centerpieces of the 2016 team, which will have more depth and talent than any team in the tournament, including Spain, with the Gasol brothers.
But Krzyzewski, who has a 62-1 record in international competition, wants to make sure there is no slippage after he rides off into the sunset and that key players remain committed to his ideals later in the decade when the World Cup dates change and the event takes place in 2019, a year before the Olympics instead of the current two years. “Once that happens, guys need to commit to both events because they run right into each other,” he said. “At least, we need to get them thinking that way. I would hope the younger players would commit again.”
The U.S. has plenty of young talent in the pipeline, like 6-10, 280-pound, 17-year-old high school prodigy Jahlil Okafor of Whitney Young of Chicago, a star on the US U19 gold medal World Championship team and the best low post scoring threat to ever play for a U.S. age group team.
But there is no future Kevin Durant at this mini-camp and it is hard to tell whether any of the players here, other than point guard Kyrie Irving, 6-8 combination forward Paul George or 6-10 shot blocking center Anthony Davis, an NBA rookie from Kentucky’s national championship team who was a late addition to the 2012 team after forward Blake Griffin suffered an injured left knee, have a realistic chance to make a veteran Olympic roster or even play a critical role in the rotation for the 2014 World Cup team.
Krzyzewski seems relatively certain many of the young stars from that 2012 Olympic team like Durant, Westbook and James Harden will return and Rose may play in the World Cup, which should give this country superiority on the perimeter. The one thing Krzyzewski could probably use is one, possibly two shot blocking, big bodied, defensive minded centers to help Love as he attempts to neutralize Marc Gasol of Spain if the two countries meet in the gold medal game in Madrid, with an automatic bid to the Olympics on the line. Roy Hibbert would be perfect, but he hasn’t been able to get a release from the Jamaican team. Brook Lopez, who missed the 2010 Worlds with mono, could also ask to be reconsidered. But neither is likely to happen, leaving Krzyzewski to search for a solution.
Anthony Davis is a skilled 6-10, 220 pound option with a bright future, although he is currently thin by international standards.
Then there is emotionally short fused 6-11, 270 pound center DeMarcus Cousins.
Cousins, who has been in the league three years, has undeniable talent, but drew the ire of Colangelo after he became too physical for his own good or the team’s good, showed questionable body language and got into it with officials on a few occasions when he played for the Select team in a scrimmage against the Olympic team in one of the 2012 practices. Afterwards, Colangelo characterized Cousins as immature and said he had a long way to go. Davis took offense and Colangelo has since taken the blame for the blow up and Cousins is here again, as confident as ever.
“Which centers in this camp are you most concerned about,” one writer asked.
“No one,” Cousins replied.
Krzyzewski has won without a true center before in international competition. Howard was iffy in 2008 and Krzyzewski played without one for long stretches in London.
“In the World championships and London, the 4 and 5 were played at times by Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony or at the Worlds, Kevin Durant, Lamar Odom or Rudy Gay and we won both of those competitions,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s not about finding a big, it’s about finding versatile players who can play multiple positions and that’s an advantage we have. It’s just like the point guard. We don’t need a point guard if you’re playing with Lebron, Kobe and durant because these ugyhs need the ball. Everybody kind of adapts to play game that ‘s condusive to our style and it doesn’t necessarily have to be 1 through 5.”
It is Krzyzewski’s willingness to adjust and think outside the box that has made Team USA so dangerous in the last six years.
