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Washington Wizards: USA Men’s Basketball Team Is Missing John Wall

By Ben Mehic

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Washington Wizards guard, John Wall, could have helped the United States Men’s Basketball Team become as dominant as they should have been in Rio

The United States men’s basketball team has won all five of their games during the group stage in the Rio Olympics. While the U.S. has managed to keep their record unblemished, they’ve suffered quite a few scares.

The Mike Krzyzewski led U.S. team is armed with 11 All-Stars plus Harrison Barnes.

Kevin Durant, a former MVP, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, DeMarcus Cousins and three-time Olympian Carmelo Anthony are leading the charge.

It’s safe to say that the U.S. has more talent on paper than any other team in the world. Quite frankly, it would be hard to put together a “world team” that could compete with the U.S. on paper.

Somehow, though, despite the overwhelming amount of talent the U.S. has, they haven’t been nearly as dominant as most pundits believed they would be.

Following a close 10 point victory over the Australian national team, the U.S. narrowly escaped with a win against Serbia by three points.

Those couple of competitive games should have been enough to wake the U.S. up, we thought.

Apparently, it wasn’t.

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The U.S. hardly beat the French national team on Sunday afternoon, edging them out at the end by just three points.

Now we have a large enough sample size to compare this version of the U.S. national team to the ones prior.

Right now, this team has proven to be a lot more vulnerable than the U.S. teams we’ve become accustomed to watching dominate on the international stage.

Some have argued that the U.S. didn’t actually send their top talent to Rio with the likes of LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry opting to sit out.

But, when comparing the U.S. team to the ones that have stayed competitive against them, like Australia, Serbia and France, there’s no reason why the United States hasn’t won in dominant fashion.

This edition of the U.S. team is stacked with All-Stars and there’s no excuse as to why they aren’t coasting to wins. But, this team is missing some things that the other U.S. national teams weren’t.

Cousins and DeAndre Jordan have dominated their match ups, for the most part.

Cousins’ skill coupled with Jordan’s athleticism has helped the U.S. control the glass and protect the rim inside. The days of thinking the U.S. has a weak frontcourt are over.

The same could be said for the shooting guard and small forward positions, which are being manned by Durant, George, Klay Thompson and DeMar DeRozan – each of whom are All-Stars that bring something different and unique to the game.

If we had to nitpick – because truthfully, that’s exactly what this is – the only area where the U.S. has a flaw is at point guard.

More than the actual talent that’s playing point guard, the U.S. is missing ball movement and unselfishness.

It’s almost as if the U.S. is too stacked with wing players who’ve become used to taking over games themselves. The ball movement, even with unselfish scorers on the floor, has been poor.

Since the team hasn’t had much time to practice nor play together, the U.S. team doesn’t have much chemistry, and that’s evident in the way their offense becomes stagnant late in games.

They’ve sneaked out with wins just because they’ve been able to out-talent the opposition. That should work well enough to return to the states with gold, but to those watching the game, it’s a tad concerning.

Both Irving and Kyle Lowry are offensive-minded guards whom aren’t necessarily known for their distribution. That isn’t a problem given the way the NBA has changed, but it does cause some issues during international play.

When Chris Paul, for instance, was the leading guard for Team USA, the ball swung and there was an emphasis put on finding the open man. That hasn’t been the case in Rio.

With that said, I couldn’t help but think of one thing while watching the U.S. struggle to win games over the past week or so: they could use a player like John Wall.

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Wall took his name off the list of players that were being considered for Team USA after undergoing surgeries to both of his knees this off-season.

When Curry, Paul, Westbrook and others decided not to participate, Wall’s chances of actually being called up grew significantly.

If he didn’t have to get the procedures done, Wall would have gotten the opportunity to play.

The Washington Wizards haven’t had a player get seriously considered to represent the nation since Gilbert Arenas was in town.

This summer, both Wall and Bradley Beal could have been donning a USA jersey in Rio, but neither player ultimately decided to go, with Beal sitting out due to his commitment to Washington.

Wall, a double-digit assist man who’s been an All-NBA defender before, is exactly the type of player the U.S. team could use right now.

The current U.S. team doesn’t have a player on their team who prides himself on finding his teammates and locking the opposing guard down.

At times, the U.S. has had to switch George onto guards. When Serbia almost pulled off an upset, Coach K decided to put George on Milos Teodosic, instead having Irving defend one of Serbia’s other wing players who was less of a threat.

At 6-4, Wall has the size, speed and length to neutralize any other guard in the world.

He wouldn’t have allowed someone like Teodosic or Australia’s Patty Mills to find their rhythm and lead their respective team’s comeback.

And of course, Wall has consistently been one of the NBA’s leading assist men.

Averaging 10 assists per game last season, Wall has come into his own as a passer and has learned how to impact the game even when his shot isn’t falling, which is something the other guards on Team USA tend to struggle with.

Similar to Paul, Wall’s ability to change speeds, keep his dribble alive, find open teammates while driving to the basket and get the ball to his big man coming off a screen is second to none. The U.S. doesn’t have that right now.

Next: Building a Homegrown Star in John Wall

Team USA’s lack of a true facilitator has hurt their offense, but that should not be enough to get upset during the single game elimination portion of the Olympics. This team will be fine with or without a player like Wall. Still, it’s hard not to think how much better the U.S. would have been if Wall could have played.

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