Joe Viray on Team USA and how a team in constant program transition must always depend on hardwood transition

Analysis of USA Men’s BB with clips from the South Sudan game

Until USA Basketball can enact a program built on commitment, continuity, and continuous development — not dissimilar to how the Redeem Team was built and Mike Krzyzewski's seven-year tenure as national team coach — there will always be natural handicaps Team USA will face in international competitions.

As such, the evergreen solution they’ve employed to overcome a lack of continuity is talent overflow. On paper, bringing together 12 of the most gifted, talented, and skilled basketball players in the world is a recipe for success and dominance — and it can certainly overcome unfamiliarity and a rushed process on most days.

But in a world where the USA’s monopoly on talent and skill is slowly slipping away, that recipe for success is a few hot shooting nights, a few missed defensive assignments, and a couple of unfortunate slumps away from becoming an unmitigated disaster. Which is why that formula — while it works most of the time — is still an imperfect solution.

The side of the floor that almost always suffers under this process is offense — particularly, half-court offense. Under this current setup of team building, where the roster gets together mere weeks before the actual competition, there simply isn’t enough time to paint a coherent picture on offense — and a coach such as Steve Kerr who banks on continuity and chemistry as the keystones behind his intricate Warriors offense can’t work his full magic.

When you’re constantly trying to learn sets on the fly and also building the chemistry and rapport with teammates you either haven’t played with at all or haven’t played with for a long time, you get possessions like the one below:

If you’ve paid heed to the minute details of the Warriors’ half-court offense, this set may be familiar to you. Called “Thumb out” by Kerr, the play is simple: the ball handler comes off a ball screen at the slot area, throws the ball to a teammate occupying the other slot area, and gets the ball back on a handoff (known as “Get” action). It’s a quick-hitting early-offense set designed to catch a defense flat flooted.

Granted, the Team USA version still managed to produce a bucket despite the shaky process — which is where the talent element comes in. The margin of error is significant if Plan B involves a pick-and-roll between Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis.

But that’s largely been a microcosm of their half-court offense: occasionally, the philosophy and intention seep through, but it has mostly comprised of skill bailing out the lack of on-court rapport. Talent has been working hard to mask the warts, but even talent working harder than the devil can’t solve everything on offense.

Which is why Team USA has historically banked on a different approach, one that suits them best given the nature of their talent, the abbreviated ramp-up, and the unfamiliarity with each other.

The selection of Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo, and Davis isn’t without rhyme and reason. The “duh” part concerns Adebayo and Davis more than it does Holiday, who is a good offensive player but isn’t counted among the best offensive guards in the NBA. But Holiday is arguably the NBA’s best perimeter defender who can size up in a pinch on switches.

He can also do this to opposing ball handlers:

With Kawhi Leonard bowing out from the team, selecting Derrick White to replace him sticks to the intended ethos of the roster: defenders who can guard multiple positions and wear many defensive hats, whether as a point-of-attack operator, an off-ball chaser, or a rim protector.

Adebayo, in particular, is a special kind of luxury. He is arguably the NBA’s most switchable big, able to defend positions 1-5 without much drop-off in defensive quality. Add the fact that FIBA officiating has a bigger leeway in terms of the physicality they allow defenders to play with, Adebayo has more reason to play his counterpart on offense closely (in contrast to how big-man initiators are typically defended at the top of the key), which can lead to possessions like this one:

Moreover, a successful stop on defense gives Team USA all the advantages in the world, with weapons that can capitalize upon those advantages unlike any other basketball country on Earth.

Peep at the amount of switching during the possession below — and how Adebayo’s deflection of a three-point attempt leads to multiple advantage situations on the secondary break (i.e., how a team moves into half-court offense if they were unable to create an initial shot):

A central tenet of transition defense is that a defender must run back and match up toward the nearest defender, regardless of size. This gives the transition offense an opportunity to attack mismatches via isolation possessions on the perimeter and/or in the post. Coupled with four other defenders who may be all out of sorts and not in an ideal condition to play proper set-up defense, this can lead to an efficient shot being generated.

In the example above, multiple advantage situations comprised of the following:

1. Durant finding himself matched up against 6’1” Carlik Jones

2. Adebayo rim running and getting a deep seal in the paint, which collapses multiple defenders inward

The latter of which triggers a kickout and swing toward White, who promptly drills the three against a South Sudanese defense in rotation.

The personnel across the board (save perhaps for Joel Embiid, who is the least switchable asset on the roster) allows Team USA to endlessly switch assignments, which has always been their default coverage in international competitions. Switching is easy to implement, relatively simpler to execute, and requires little instruction from the coaching staff.

“(South Sudan) is the fastest team in the tournament we're going to play,” Kerr said to Ben Golliver of the Washington Post. “We wanted to match up. They made 14 threes against us in London. The whole game today was going to be about switching and staying in front of people.”

Switching can have its faults, however. Opponents have zeroed in on this tendency and have been intentionally using their bigs to trigger switches onto Team USA’s guards, allowing the bigs to take them deep in the paint. This was a point of contention last year during the FIBA World Cup, where the Americans didn’t have the same quality of perimeter defenders they have now in these Olympics.

With Holiday, White, and — to lesser albeit above-average extents — Devin Booker and Anthony Edwards to reinforce the perimeter room (and provide Steph Curry with cover — more on that later), those switches have been less of a problem.

That doesn’t mean that if the opportunity to bail someone out of a pinch is there, they won’t take it. Much has been said of their defensive personnel and their individual quality, but defense can also be the realm of the thinking player.

Draymond Green is arguably the most intelligent defender of all time, but he’s already won two gold medals and was left off of this Olympic cycle. Replacing him as Team USA’s designated high-IQ man is none other than LeBron James — and while this version of James is far from the caliber of defender Green was and still is, James’ mind operates in a highly similar manner.

Look no further than on this possession as proof:

When Booker gets switched onto the bigger Wenyen Gabriel, James immediately communicates a switch — a “scram” switch, to be precise, defined as an off-ball switch that aims to eliminate a mismatch — which results in a forced turnover and triggers the fastbreak. Booker does his part, as well, switching onto the cutter James left behind and preventing an easy dive toward the bucket.

Booker deserves a special mention for playing his role well on both ends of the floor. On offense, he has embraced being a complementary piece rather than the first-option star that he is with the Phoenix Suns. He has had no problem being a standstill catch-and-shoot operator, an off-ball mover whose job is to be a screen recipient and screen setter, and being a connector who’s willing to keep the ball moving.

On defense, Booker has been an unexpected godsend. While he still isn’t on the same level as Holiday and White, he has fought and shown commendable effort, especially when fighting over screens and moving his feet at the point of attack.

As Curry’s backcourt partner in the starting lineup, Booker has been a serviceable cover for the Warriors’ superstar, who hasn’t had the best defensive showing during these Olympics. When South Sudan went to switch-hunting mode in the fourth quarter against Curry, he repeatedly allowed Jones to blow by him:

When Kerr instructed Curry to hedge out instead of fully switching against Jones, Booker also did his part by fighting hard over the screen, staying attached to Jones, and using his size and length to smother Jones’ drive to the paint, garnering a stop and triggering another fastbreak — finished by Booker himself:

While Team USA boasts a plethora of offensive talent, defense will always be of equal — if not higher — priority, a must-have in this day and age of international opponents overcoming the talent deficit with skill, shooting, and schematic ingenuity. A program that always turns over personnel from one tournament to another — coaching staffs included — will always be somewhat disadvantaged within a team context.

Which doesn’t surprise anyone that — until a major overhaul is implemented — a program that is always in constant transition has to almost always rely on being in constant on-court transition, which demands a heavy diet of successful defensive possessions.