Let the games begin. Team USA Men’s Basketball was a perfect 5-0 in exhibition play ahead of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, where final scores now will matter starting Sunday morning in their first of three Group C games.
Team USA as part of Group Stage play will face Serbia on Sunday, South Sudan on Wednesday and Puerto Rico on Saturday, Aug. 3. They already faced Serbia and South Sudan as part of their recent slate of exhibitions, barely beating South Sudan and enjoying a 26-point win against Serbia. Puerto Rico will be a brand-new opponent for the United States.
Serbia was the lone opponent Team USA handled easily on the way to Paris.
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What if Team USA had to play a starting five composed of the three countries they’ll go against in Group C?
The five would be fascinating to see, so let’s have some fun in an alternate world.
Point Guard: Jose Alvarado, Puerto Rico
Grand Theft Alvarado will be a joy to watch one week from now when Team USA plays Puerto Rico, depending where your rooting interests lie. Watch Alvarado when he isn’t playing Team USA, too. It’s a viewing experience made to keep you wired for all four quarters.
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That’s how Alvarado takes his job. Undrafted in 2021 after being a four-year starter at Georgia Tech where he was the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year as a senior, the New Orleans Pelicans converted Alvarado from a two-way deal to a standard contract after only 47 games in the NBA. He’s that important. One can guarantee he also is going to try to be Steph Curry’s biggest annoyance of the Olympics.
Alvarado is sure to follow Curry’s every step wherever he is on the floor. In the one game the Pelicans played the Warriors this past season with Alvarado, a five-point New Orleans win, Alvarado only scored four points on 1-of-5 shooting – all being 3-pointers. But Alvarado in 35 minutes off the bench also was a game-high plus-18.
Curry scored a game-high 33 points on 12-of-33 shooting and went 7 of 13 on threes, but also committed a game-high seven turnovers and his minus-8 was the worst among Warriors starters. Puerto Rico will be major underdogs, and Alvarado is going to leave every last drop of sweat on the floor.
Shooting Guard: Carlik Jones, South Sudan
A backcourt of a 6-foot Alvarado and Jones at 6-1 spells trouble when comparing themselves to the size of Team USA. The duo also would be full of fun, and Jones has to be rewarded after the performance he pulled off against the Americans.
Jones’ final shot in South Sudan’s one-point loss to Team USA bounced too hard off the backboard, but his play earned the respect of everyone. Though he was only 7 of 21 from the floor, Jones earned a 15-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist triple-double against the United States. He also added two steals, turned the ball over just once and was a game-high plus-14.
There were rumblings that Jones’ showing could earn him another shot at the NBA, but his deadline passed and he will play for Partizan Belgrade next season. Jones last appeared in an NBA games for the Chicago Bulls in the 2022-23 regular-season finale where he scored 11 points in the fourth quarter. Between the Bulls, Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks, Jones has played in 12 NBA games.
The Olympics will be his biggest stage to prove what kind of player he is, and Jones will look to again make Team USA sweat during the Group Stage.
Small Forward: Marial Shayock, South Sudan
Another player from South Sudan’s national team who didn’t pan out in the NBA, yet gave Team USA fits. Shayock played four games for the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2019-20 season, scoring a total of 11 points. He hasn’t been back in the league since.
He also scored a team-high 24 points for South Sudan when they nearly pulled off the largest upset in basketball history. LeBron James was the only person to score more points than Shayock in Team USA’s win. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer put up 25 points, a mere one more than Shayock did.
Shayock, 6-5 and now 29 years old as of July 26, was 9 of 16 from the field and 6 of 12 on 3-pointers while dismantling Team USA’s defense. This past season in China he averaged a career-high 19.1 points with a 47.8-percent field goal percent and made 41.1 percent of his threes. He’d bring the most shooting to the team, and Steve Kerr knows Team USA has to be better prepared next time they’re guarding Shayock.
Power Forward: Khaman Maluach, South Sudan
That’s now three straight players from the world’s youngest country after gaining independence from successfully seceding from Sudan in 2011, and now it’s time for the youngest player on the team. As in the youngest person among all basketball players at the Olympics.
In reality, someone like Maluach’s South Sudan teammate Wenyen Gabriel, who has played 150 NBA games, should be slotted here. This isn’t reality, and Maluach is the more intriguing and entertaining choice. Even – or especially – at 17 years old.
The 7-2 teenager played 12 minutes off the bench against Team USA, totaling seven points and three rebounds. Maluach went 3-of-4 shooting and made his only 3-pointer. Getting minutes against Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis and Team USA’s star big men will again be unforgettable for Maluach.
The five-star recruit is headed to Duke to play alongside the country’s top prospect in Cooper Flagg. In this made-up scenario, his frontcourt mate is a three-time NBA MVP.
Center: Nikola Jokic, Serbia
Duh. Do I really need to write more? Probably not.
Jokic in Serbia’s blowout exhibition loss to Team USA was a game-low minus-27. He scored 16 points on 6-of-19 shooting and missed all four threes, adding 11 rebounds but only two assists. Jokic doesn’t have a Jamal Murry to pass to, and Team USA will force his teammates to beat them.
Try as they will, but the mountain likely still is too high to climb. Jokic already is an all-time great, and going against him always causes headaches. Kerr’s goal is to cause some that same frustration to The Joker.
Jokic rounds out a starting five that includes a future top draft pick, a pest for all of the Western Conference and two Olympic breakout stars aiming to bring many more eyes to their country’s growing basketball scene.