I’m not especially surprised to see some of these guys that haven’t represented USA on a big stage like this before struggle due to phoning it in versus a team they should easily beat. Bam, Dame, LaVine, and Beal and Tatum haven’t played for USA since, like, the U-19s or something. Of course, all of them struggling together wasn’t especially likely, nor was the opponent shooting 48% from 3 on a billion shots—but still.

Durant *has* to be the experienced leader and take over games like this, but he too probably heard “scrimmage” and thought “fuck it.” To a lesser extent, the team needs Draymond to be a vocal leader too for the defense. And whether it’s fair to Bam or not, he’s *got* to carry a ton of the defense on his shoulders as easily USA’s most talented and versatile big. He can’t be our main big and get beat up by guys like Achiuwa and Okpala.

I don’t expect this sort of “I don’t give a shit” vibe to carry over into the games that count, for whatever that’s worth. Still embarrassing, still shouldn’t have happened.