The Rio Olympics kick off this weekend, with the U.S. men’s basketball team playing their first game on Saturday against China. But there isn’t going to be much drama in the tournament. Even with the slew of world-class American players who will be absent from Rio for various reasons (a group that includes LeBron James, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard), Team USA is still widely expected to walk to a third-straight gold medal.
Which is a shame, because the worldwide crop of basketball talent is as deep as it’s ever been. The problem is that many of the best international players (Latvia’s Kristaps Porzingis and Italy’s Danilo Gallinari) play for countries that don’t have many NBA-caliber players. There’s no team the U.S. will face in the Olympics with the depth to challenge them; Brazil and Argentina are aging groups, Spain will be without Marc Gasol, and France’s roster is top-heavy. None of them can compete with a U.S. squad that, after all the withdrawals, still includes Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony and DeMarcus Cousins.
But the lack of competitiveness in the Olympics leads to an interesting hypothetical: could a superteam be constructed that could compete with the Americans? If you took 12 of the best non-American players in the world and put them on a team together, what would it look like?
We took a stab at how that roster could come together, and it’s a pretty impressive group.
POINT GUARDS
Goran Dragic (Slovenia)
Ricky Rubio (Spain)
Tony Parker (France)
Point guard is the weakest position outside of the USA, which is a little odd considering we’re in the middle of a golden age of point guards in the NBA. But all of the best point guards in the league — Curry, Westbrook, Paul, Lillard, Irving, John Wall, Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley — are American. Irving was born in Australia, but he plays for the U.S. national team, so he’s obviously out of consideration here.
Dragic is the only top-10 point guard in the NBA from a country besides the United States.
Rubio and Parker get the nods as well due to their extensive international experience, even though neither of them are great outside shooters. Germany’s Dennis Schroder, Canada’s Cory Joseph and Australia’s Dante Exum (if he’s healthy) are intriguing possibilities here as well. Spain’s Sergio Rodriguez who played for the Blazers in the mid-2000s before returning overseas, signed a deal with the Sixers this summer after six outstanding seasons with Real Madrid. He’d be an option as well, especially with his three-point shooting.
WINGS
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece)
Andrew Wiggins (Canada)
Nicolas Batum (France)
Danilo Gallinari (Italy)
Giannis would likely end up playing a lot of point guard, which could create matchup nightmares for the U.S.’s more traditional players at that position. Batum is an Olympic vet and a solid two-way threat, while Wiggins brings defense and Gallinari provides outside shooting. There are lots of other options here, too: Australian Ben Simmons, Sudanese Luol Deng (who has played for Great Britain’s national team in world competition), Croatians Mario Hezonja and Bojan Bogdanovic, and Bosnian Mirza Teletovic. If you want to give Argentina’s Manu Ginobili a lifetime-achievement award roster spot, that works too, but this is a formidable and versatile group.
BIG MEN
Steven Adams (New Zealand)
Serge Ibaka (Republic of Congo, plays internationally for Spain)
Rudy Gobert (France)
Marc Gasol (Spain)
Al Horford (Dominican Republic)
Unlike the backcourt, the world’s crop of bigs is unbelievably loaded. The list above leaves out Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia), Karl-Anthony Towns (Dominican Republic), Nikola Jokic (Serbia), Nikola Vucevic (Montenegro), Nikola Mirotic (Montenegro, but plays for the Spanish national team), Boris Diaw (France), Dario Saric (Croatia), and more. Cameroon’s Joel Embiid would be an intriguing possibility if there were any assurances of his health. Dirk Nowitzki would get consideration as a legacy selection here, but he’s retired from international competition. Croatian rookie Dragan Bender is still raw, but he’d be worth a look, too.
For the sake of this hypothetical, pretend Gasol is fully healthy (and by the way, his older brother Pau was a painful omission here, too). He’s one of the best centers in the world, and his passing-centric offensive game is especially well-suited for the international game. Gobert is a lethal rim protector, and Ibaka adds three-point shooting.
No matter what team you put out there, it will be difficult to contend with a U.S. group where Paul George is maybe the third-best wing scorer. But an All-Star group of players from the rest of the world could compete, and maybe win. If nothing else, it would be more entertaining to watch than the inevitable string of blowouts awaiting us over the next three weeks.
