The roster is set, the first weekend of practice is now in the books and Team USA's opening exhibition in advance of the 2012 London Olympics is only days away.
There's a lot of excitement surrounding the USA men's basketball team, but how does an undefeated, gold medal-winning team get better?
Add a defensive stopper, a potent scorer off the bench, and one of the NBA's most explosive athletes. That's the straightforward recipe for USA Basketball in 2012 as the 12-man team, which was officially announced on Saturday, prepares to defend its 2008 Beijing gold medal this summer.
"We feel like we're definitely a great team. We have all the pieces that we need," forward Carmelo Anthony said. "We've got to put it together, but we feel like we're the best team out there."
A number of players from the '08 gold medal team will be back in London, including reigning NBA MVP LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, and Tyson Chandler.
Team USA rounded out the rest of their roster with the addition of Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala and James Harden. They earned the final three spots that opened after a flush of injuries knocked out at least four players who would have been on the team. They beat out Eric Gordon, Rudy Gay and No.1 draft pick Anthony Davis of New Orleans, who couldn't scrimmage this week because of a sprained ankle.
Although several key pieces from the '08 team are absent due to injury-Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, and Dwayne Wade-the 2012 roster's core is older and wiser than the 2008 group.
There will be a lot of pressure for this team to match what the "Redeem Team" accomplished in China but several players' primary focus is winning and not what happened four years ago.
"I think it can (match the 2008 team) but at the end of the day I don't think it really matters," Chris Paul, Clippers All-Star, said. "It's all about winning the gold medal. We can't freeze time and play against the '08 team. The reason why I think this team is better is we are a little more versatile but a bigger part of it is that all of us are much better than we were in '08."
The 12-team Olympic men's basketball tournament tips off July 29th. For the first round, the USA is grouped with Argentina, France, Lithuania, Nigeria and Tunisia. Argentina won the Olympic gold medal in 2004, and a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Games; France is a two-time Olympic silver medalist; Lithuania is a three-time Olympic bronze medalist; and Nigeria and Tunisia are both making their Olympic debuts in the men's basketball.
The quarterfinals are scheduled for August 8th, the semifinals August 10th and the gold medal game on August 12th, the final day of Olympic competition.
