The USA is in Big Trouble with the World Cup
For those who don’t know, there is currently a basketball World Cup going on in China but because ESPN+ is ruining sports you aren’t able to watch it. But anyway, the US team was hit with the “I don’t want to play” plague from a lot of the NBA’s veteran players so Coach Pop now has to rely on the young guys to carry US to the cup.
However, the US is in some deep shit if they run into Serbia. I don’t know what the bracket looks like because the World Cup is still in group stages. But Serbia is by far and I mean by far the best team at this tournament. I think I heard that the US could possibly face Serbia in the semis or the finals, but either way they are going to get ROLLED.
The Serbian roster is too consistent. Granted I don’t know many of the guys that play for Serbia because they play over in Europe. But I do know Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic and those two are better than any player currently on the US. Jokic is a top 10 player in the league, something the US doesn’t have, and Bogdanovic is a top shooter/scorer in the league.
To be honest, only true basketball fans know who Bogdan Bogdanovic is because he plays on the Kings and they get no TV time. Or they mistake Bogdan for Bojan Bogdanovic because they have the same last name, but Bogdan is a good player who should be on everyone’s watch list this upcoming NBA season.
(Bogdan got 30 on Italy^^^)
Anyway back to FIBA World Cup. The US don’t stand a chance if Tatum is out for long because this team is struggling to score and play defense. It almost looks like they want nothing to do with this tournament, and just want to focus on the upcoming NBA season.
The US struggled bad against Turkey in a game they should have lost, but Turkey can’t hit free throws. They should kill Japan in their next game and then the fun begins after that. FIBA is weird. They play 6 total games in group stage for the first round (play every team once), and then they play a total of 4 games in the second round which is also group stage (only play two teams). So the single elimination should start in the quarters.
Hopefully the US can get the Cup, but if they have to play Serbia they are going to have to play a perfect game in order to beat them.
John McCormack (Uncle_Mac4)