Physicality, passing, experience: 3 lessons learned at the World Cup for USA?

INDIANAPOLIS (USA) - The USA didn't lift the Naismith Trophy last summer at the FIBA Basketball World Cup yet the experience should benefit all of the players and coaches that were involved.

"I really do believe, if you took that same team and took them next year or to another FIBA event," said Grant Hill, managing director for the national team, on The Woj Pod, "the 2023 experience would better prepare them and I think we'd do better."

"I'm not saying we'd win gold, but I think we'd show better and maybe win a medal or possibly win gold. So having that experience, understanding what you're about to get yourself into, is incredibly valuable."

Germany edged USA in a Semi-Final thriller at the World Cup, 113-111

Every member of that USA World Cup 2023 team has been named in the 41-man national team pool for this year. What the composition of the national team for the Men's Olympic Basketball Tournament Paris 2024 won't be known for some time, however.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge of preparing for and playing in the Olympic tournament", USA head coach Steve Kerr told the Associated Press after the Paris 2024 Draw. "The excitement continues to build, especially now that we know we will face both Serbia, who finished second at the World Cup last summer, and South Sudan, who we will get to host in London as part of the USA Basketball Showcase.”

Tyrese Haliburton, the Indiana Pacer who was on the World Cup team, could end up being on the Olympic roster. He now has a better idea of the strengths of international opponents.

"In the NBA, everyone runs a high pick and roll," he said. "And if that doesn't work, we'll run a high pick and roll again. And in the FIBA game, it doesn't really work that way.

"...THE EUROPEAN TEAMS PROBABLY PLAY BETTER OFF THE BALL THAN WE DO."

"I feel like from a younger age, they're playing a different style of basketball. They're passing and cutting. I would say that from a general scale, the European teams probably play better off the ball than we do.

"They move pretty well. And so it's just figuring that out."

Another aspect of the international game that made an impression on the USA team was the physicality.

"The game is just so much more physical," Haliburton said. "The things that you can get away with here, the little bumps and stuff like that, it's just like a whole different brand of basketball. It's a different style. You come together with a group of guys and you just have to adjust quickly and figure it out. I think that challenge is a lot of fun."

Big and strong Jonas Valanciunas helped Lithuania beat USA in the Second Round of the World Cup

During the coaching reign of Mike Krzyzewski with USA Basketball, the team hit a bump in the road at the 2006 World Cup in Japan. That USA team had LeBron James, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and numerous other stars, yet lost in the Semi-Finals to Greece.

USA, under Coach K, never lost again. He coached through the 2016 Olympics. They bounced back from their Quarter-Finals defeat to France at the 2019 World Cup by winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

If there was an obvious advantage that opponents had over the USA at the World Cup, it was their continuity. Teams were full of players who had competed together in previous tournaments or international windows.

None of the USA players who played Cuba twice and went 1-1 in last month's international window are in the 41-man pool for the Olympics.

NBA players didn't suit up for other national teams, either, yet many top-level players in other countries suited up for European teams.

There were many EuroLeague players on rosters in Europe and the Americas.

The international window as opportunity for Latvia to build on their success from last summer

Latvia, a team on the rise after making it to the Quarter-Finals of the World Cup before losing to eventual champions Germany by just two points, had seven of their players from Manila in the lineup in the last window. In their first game, Latvia won 79-75 in Spain against the national team that had five World Cup players.

Something else that is clear to Hill is that when players commit to the national team, they must know their role may be different from what it normally is with their NBA teams.

"A coach once told me, 'You need a piano mover, a piano tuner and you need a piano player,'" Hill said. "And you need all three to have a great performance. And it's the same way with a team. You can't just have all superstars. You need people who can move some pianos."

That is something that he and USA coach Steve Kerr will bear in mind when selecting players for the Olympic team.

"Putting together that (USA) roster, those pieces, some of those guys may not be as glamorous as some of the other names but they can do something specific that we feel may translate on the FIBA stage," Hill said.

Hill was struck by the offensive sets and passing of international opponents.

"We typically here in the NBA beat you with great one-on-one play, great talent," Hill said. "They beat you with precise execution. They don't have guys that can just break you down and go get a bucket. So they just really executive their stuff."

As for the piano movers?

"The physicality, it's kind of like the Knicks in the early nineties or the Pistons Bad Boys in the late eighties," Hill said. "The physicality is something that we don't see in our game. So there is a lot of adjustment. Certain guys, their games don't necessarily translate. But there are certain guys that you're like, 'They would do really well on this stage.'

There are leading international players from other countries that are physical in the NBA, however, like Lithuania center Jonas Valanciunas.

Asked about the high expectations of USA fans, Haliburton said: "I think there’s an expectation when you put that uniform on. I think when you guys watch USA Basketball, you don't say, 'Oh, they’re going to lose.' If you see us playing some random country like Lithuania, you're like, 'They're (USA) going to win. They got one NBA player over there (Valanciunas was at the World Cup but Domantas Sabonis was not).

Haliburton celebrated after making a big play against Greece early in the First Round

"And then we lost to Lithuania this summer. I think there's an expectation when you put that uniform on that's been instilled for a long time and our expectation when we play is to uphold that. There is the pressure of that, but you have to accept that, relish that and love that.

"That's part of the fun part of playing for USA. There's a target on your back."

FIBA