I will write another wallpaper, hope no one minds.
If you do, you have all the right to just not read and skip it.
I agree that Pop and team USA might not be a match made in heaven... And Colangelo mostly emphasize on how much this means to Popovich, his previous involvement with the national team, his patriotism, his name, reputation and what he has done in the NBA and for basketball in general, so he deserves a gold medal and some happy moments on international stage. Like I said, no other names were even considered to replace Coach K. Even after the 2004 Olympics, Colangelo was choosing between Pop and Coach K. This whole thing works very or almost completely differently to what Popovich has built his name on. The amount of time you can prepare team USA is extremely short, for each tournament you get almost a completely new team, you have barely any continuity, you have to make it simple and effective. Coach K managed to realize a lot of things after 2006 and he was talking with Pop a lot, even before Popovich got the job.
On the other hand, you obviously have something that even Coach K did not face to this scale, which is players just literally refusing to play. The weakest team he had was back in 2010. Love, Curry, Westbrook were all young, Curry basicly being 11-12th man like Granger and having absolutely no impact. Odom playing as C, Rose struggling a lot to adapt to Fiba, Gordon and Billups missing a lot of 3 pointers and Rudy Gay doing what he can, but mostly being mediocre. Rondo withdrawing after some friendly games. So, basicly the entire core of that team was Durant, which single handed carried the entire offense, Iguodala being the defensive anchor and Odom providing as the universal, quick big, because Chandler couldn`t stay out of foul trouble and being rather limited. They almost lost to Spain during a friendly game, I think they won only by two points, but they beat Lithuania and Greece in the friendly cycle, also ending up without a single lose, having only one additional tough game against Brazil in group stage. They were very beatable, nothing like the Redeem Team, a completely new group of guys, you can also say they lacked experience badly, they lacked size, they lacked shooting, which was compensated mostly by only one man in the shape and form of young KD. Some say that a lot of international NBA stars did not show up that summer so it was much easier, but once again, they faced Lithuania in the Semi finals and Lithuania had some sick games during that tournament, then they faced the host Turkey with Turkoglu and they were giving it all in front of their supporters. A friendly game against Spain was one heck of game as well, but they still managed to win it all. Coach K ended with only one defeat from 2006 to 2016, including all the meaningless friendly games (playing twice against Spain in their own territory). This year, they already lost 3 times and miraculously escaped a deafeat against Turkey. Basicly, the only easy game they had was against Japan and more or less Czech. Yet, when you look at these lost games – you have one against Australia and it surely wasnt just a regular friendly for the Australians, generating record crowd, having a golden opportunity to beat USA in front of everybody, making a statement. They played hard and they won the second game, having in mind that Joe Harris, the best 3 point shooter in the team, missed an open final shot. Then they lost against France, having +7, Mitchell being on fire, but suddenly stopping and letting Kemba make one poor decisions after another. After the game reporter asked if France managed to take Mitchell out of the game in fourth quarter. The answer was – NO. And Pop was rather irritated by that question. So what happened to Mitchell? Losing to Serbia didnt mean much, especially when they lost the first quarter by 32-7.
So, what I am trying to say, even with this „poor“ team like many try to paint, they had all the chance to reach at least semi finals or even final. Was it because of Popovich that they managed to win their first 5 games and lost to France only after a tough fight? Him being able to mask of how actually poor this team was? Or was it because of him that they underperformed and underachieved, because they could have played with more aggression, faster tempo, less rotational mumbo jumbo and better selection of the remaining guys they had? In my belief, they had the potential to do more and still were one of the best/if not the best squad in the entire WC. I still think it is a 50/50 situation, where the coaching staff could have done better at handling things (what happened to Fox? Why was Adebayo cut so fast and Plumlee/Lopez made the team? Were they trying to free up space for Bagley who just refused to play even after being promoted from the Select Team? What role did Middleton have? Why did Harris get so many minutes? Why Mitchell wasnt the main guy against France till the end? Why Turner was benched for so long?) and then you have players who were missing a lot of wide open shots, some of them clearly being not in the best shape or injured like Smart.
Then you have things that you cant control, like injuries (the team being already stripped down to its very bone, then losing both Kuzma and Tatum was just brutal) and influence from outside. Why Pop refused to make all these additional practises? Was it his decision or a recommendation for the sake of load management? Was Tatum really as hurt so he couldnt play even for 10-15 minutes in the live or die game? Or was that once again out of coaching staff control? On one hand, being the coach of team USA, you have the access to greatest talent in the world and yet you get to deal with so much crap and things you cant change. Obviously the national team is treated as inferior by clubs and some players themselves. So, even if they loan a player for a tournament, there are most likely limits as to how much you can use these players, how much you can train and practise. And then you get players on other teams who give all they have, despite playing in NBA and earning millions as well. Remember Dragic in that Euro final against Serbia? He couldnt even stand on his feet after the ridiculously incredible performance in the first half, he had to be substitute before the game even ended. Patty Mills being exhausted against Spain and not holding anything back pretty much during entire tournament. I`m not saying the US players are/were not trying, they did, but there still is a certain difference in mentality, the meaning, importance and passion. Just like when Giannis said he would trade his MVP title for a title with the national team.
Pop has faced a lot of diversity and never really had a chance to coach a team that would be at least similar to 08/12/16. 02/04 was mostly crap and while the Olympic team had some star players, but was far, far from the A or even B+ team at the time, also Popovich was not the main guy back then. This year was a freak one regarding withdrawals, something that Coach K faced as well, but not to such scale. If the trends and timing of WC was like this back in 2014 and 2010, I doubt we would have seen Cousins, Davis, Harden, Curry, Thompson or KD. Even if at that time they were not the players they are today (apart from Cousins obviously), they would still be on pair/considered better than a lot of high caliber guys who clearly said "nope" this summer. Add up at least Beal, Lillard to this year team and you would already have similarities with 2014.
So, if they actually are able to gather at least B+ team next year, I would like to see how Pop manages it, because for the first time he would have all the tools in the world to win the gold. If they still lose... Well, then there`s almost none excuses left. The one that the world has catched up and there will be no easy life for the likes of Curry, Harden, Davis, George - does not convince me. I think the difference is still there.
