USA Basketball is undefeated after Olympic pool play, but the criticism is gaining steam. Despite missing top stars like Steph Curry and LeBron James, USA Basketball brought a loaded roster to Rio. The team has struggled the past three games and enters the knockout round off two straight three-point wins.
TNT analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley was part of the 1992 “Dream Team,” and he’s been disappointed with what he’s seen from the 2016 edition of Team USA.
Barkley joined Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat for an interview Tuesday, and he said that Team USA’s struggles are rooted with the very makeup of the roster.
He said:
“Well, I hope they win gold. I want always us to win the gold medal. It’s not a good team to put together. I don’t think they did a good job because if you watch all those guys — they’re all good players, don’t get me wrong — they all need the ball.
“If you take away DeAndre Jordan, every guy on that team is a ball-dominant guy. You see them playing a lot of one-on-one basketball. That’s the thing I’ve noticed more than anything. Like, you have to understand when you put a team together like that, you have to have some role players. … But you take a guy like Kyle Lowry, who is a hell of a player, he wants to score. Kyrie wants to score. Kevin wants to score. DeRozan wants to score. So, I think they have been really stagnant offensively.
“When they put that team together in the future, they have to realize we can’t have just really, really great offensive players. They gotta to have players that if they don’t get a shot, they’re not just gonna stand around and mope.”
USA Basketball opens the knockout round against Argentina on Wednesday. You can listen to the full interview with Barkley here.