Would the U.S. win gold with this team?

[reamily]

Really the fact that the nba best players only play every two years and dont play in regional tournaments adds to their invincibility..

[Levenspiel]

... I believe this would make things more equal between countries than throwing 12 NBA starters/11-12 NBA all stars out there...

Interesting thought, but I think you could have simply send the US players playing abroad to make it "more equal". That was the case for a while, and competition seemed "more equal".

As for your example, I think yes. They would.

This gives me the impression that you guys are now so bored of beating the internationals easily that you are trying to make it more fun by inventing new ways of doing it, like I used to play tetris upside down after a while.

[post]

Smith is an above average 3 point shooter for his career though. Bogdanovic has never even played in the NBA.

[reamily]

Well Jr Smith = Bogdan Bogdanovic both are chuckers ..

[post]

I thought of an interesting way the U.S. could challenge itself more in the Olympics, inspired by the realization there are only 1.4 NBA starters on the average non U.S. team, with Spain leading all with 5 when including Ibaka and Marc Gasol. So construct a U.S. team with any three NBA starters you want, but the other 9 players have to be NBA bench players. By bench player, i mean someone who has been in the league for at least 3 years and has played a majority of their career games as a non starter. I believe this would make things more equal between countries than throwing 12 NBA starters/11-12 NBA all stars out there. I think this team would function well together as well. If you don't think this particular team would win gold, how would they do and do you think my general idea could produce a gold medal team but with different players?

Team (with projected minutes played, which could be adjusted depending on the situation)

Starters:

C-Dewayne Dedmon (13.3)
PF-Ed Davis (13.3)
SF-Lebron James (35.0)
SG-James Harden (35.0)
PG-Stephen Curry (35.0)

Bench:

C-Cole Aldrich (13.3)
C-Jeff Withey (13.3)
PF-Taj Gibson (13.3)
PF-Darrell Arthur (13.3)
SF-Jared Dudley (5.0)
SG-J.R. Smith (5.0)
PG-Jarrett Jack (5.0)