The sting is being felt more by Canada and Australia because their top guys aren't there and unlike the U.S. they don't have a mile-long line of NBA-level replacements to choose from. I think some of the smaller but still formidable programs make out OK like Serbia and Greece--they get Jokic and Giannis, for now--but they are still not winning anything, especially Greece. Also why would FIBA intentionally want LESS talent and marquee names? They want people to attend and make money. Who wins is not all that relevant either, the main thing is qualifying and it's pretty much a mortal lock that the U.S. qualifies (and again why would FIBA want the best team with most of the best players out of the Olympics?).

The whole thing is watered down by this unreasonable schedule.