Steve Kerr injects Warrior DNA into the team! See the road to redemption for the U.S. men's basketball team from the warm-up game

For a long time, the status of the World Cup and even the predecessor World Championship has never been comparable to the Olympics, and in the case of the end of the 2023 World Cup basketball tournament and the 2024 Paris Olympics, most stars are reluctant to play for the country for two consecutive years, preferring to wait until next year to put on the national team shirt. Like the 2019 version, this year's U.S. team recruitment has once again encountered a bottleneck, and although four of the team have been selected to the Star Game, none of them are among the top three teams in the NBA last season.

Looking back at 2019, the United States team has had many ominous signs from the training stage, Kyle Lowry, Kyle Kuzma and Marcus Smart have been injured one after another, the United States also lost to Australia in the warm-up game, breaking the 78-game winning streak, swallowing the first defeat in 13 years, and the last time they lost in an official international or warm-up match, they had to trace back to the 2006 World Championship Final Four match against Greece. In the end, he finished seventh, writing the worst record in team history.

On the other hand, this year's American team, although the outside world is generally not optimistic about the starry United States, can be humiliated and return to glory, they still won five consecutive victories in the warm-up stage to try to crush doubts.

However, looking at the content of the game, the United States is not as smooth sailing as it is on the books, although in the face of Puerto Rico, which has a poor strength, Slovenia where Luka Doncic is suspended, and Greece where Giannis Antetokounmpo is absent, the United States has slaughtered the opponent by more than 20 or 30 points, but Spain and Germany, which have a relatively complete lineup, the United States fought with the opponent until the second half, and it was difficult to reverse the victory.

Does Team USA have a chance to return to the championship in this tournament and complete its self-redemption?

No longer relying on singles and blockers Kerr injected Warrior DNA into the team

Due to the short training period, not much time to practice complex tactics, and the star-studded squad, the U.S. team in the past has always relied on star power, mainly with a large number of singles and blocks, but after Coach Steve Kerr took the helm, he tried to flip the routine.

New coach Kerr mentioned in an interview that the Warriors' tactical system will be introduced, of course, the United States team can not instantly become a Warriors, after all, there are no quasi-Hall of Fame shooters such as Curry and Thompson, Kerr's main intention is to increase running and empty hand cover, improve tactical variability, so as to create better space distribution and ball flow.

The Warriors are an extremely selfless team that everyone enjoys sharing the ball, and last season, the Warriors team averaged 321.6 passes per game and 29.8 assists per game, all the highest in the league.

In order to reflect the mastery of the Warriors' tactics, Kerr was ingenious from the talent selection stage. In the past, the U.S. team preferred players with outstanding individual ability, while Kerr valued the teamwork and practicality of the players, which was regarded as inheriting the philosophy of the master Popovich. At the last World Cup, Popovich, the head of the seal, also included a number of high-quality green leaves, such as 3D wingers Harrison Barnes and Chris Middleton, and defenders Marcus Smart and Derek White.

Compared to Popovich, Cole has a more defined group of players. One of the big problems with the East Olympics USA is that except for Durant, who is the absolute core, the roles of everyone else are so ambiguous that the players are at a loss on the court.

On the other hand, Cole established the player's job early on, with Jaylen Brunson, Anthony Edwards and Teris Haliburton carrying the main ball spots, with Jaren Jackson Jr., Bobby Portis and Paul Bankero acting as the pillars of the box, and the rest of the swingmen responsible for defense and running off the ball. Although Cole may not be the best fit for the player, at least let everyone know what responsibilities they should bear, so that the team can get on track faster and adjust as the run-in situation goes.

The tactical version of the American team can be seen everywhere with the shadow of the warriors, such as a large number of four small one and five small formations. The U.S. team also played a team style comparable to the Warriors, who scored a league-high 69.1% of assists in regular games last season, and 64.0% so far in the U.S. warm-up games, which is also a good result.

Offensive and defensive transitions have been a hallmark of the U.S. team, and Kerr is a master of this, with eight of his nine seasons topping the league in fast-break points per game since he took over as head coach in 2014, including four consecutive years in 2014-18. Under Cole's leadership, this year's U.S. team not only performed well on fast attack, but also had a high percentage of fast play tactics.

The Warriors are a team with a high volume and quality of three-point shooting, ranking first in the league in three-point shooting last season, but still maintaining the second-highest shooting percentage in the league. Kerr also introduced the Warriors' system of a lot of cover to create perimeter gaps into the United States, excluding the game against Spain, the United States averaged about 29 outside shots per game, and if the game time is converted to 48 minutes (40 minutes per game under the FIBA format), which is about 34.8 times, this number can be ranked in the top ten of the NBA last season.

Team USA members come from different teams, and integration into Cole's system will inevitably suffer from the throes of the season, with teams shooting less than 30% from three-point range in the first two warm-up games, but after a period of adaptation, the next three games gradually got better, and the three-point shooting rate exceeded 40%. Under this tactical system, nothing benefits more than the swingman, as an ambush shooter, he gets a lot of C&S outside shooting opportunities, as shown in the table below.

Players	Three-point shooting percentage in warm-up games
Brandon Ingram	40.0%
Mikal Bridges	38.5%
Cameron Johnson	42.9%
Austin Reeves	57.1%

Still, the U.S. team hasn't been doing its best on the offensive end. The more passes the ball, the more opportunities to make mistakes, and Cole emphasizes speed, the American team is more likely to make mistakes in the busy, coupled with players from all directions, tacit understanding is still developing, resulting in frequent mistakes. In the match against Greece and Spain, the team made more than 20 mistakes, and even the second half against Spain made an outrageous mistake against the United States, and the sideline kickoff was directly copied by the opponent.

In addition to mistakes, another big door for the United States is that it is not good at cracking regional defense. Since regional defense is not a mainstream defensive strategy in the United States, when Spain and Germany offer regional defense, most American players do not know how to respond, and the style of play is relatively monotonous.

Fortunately, Heat head coach Spoelstra is a member of the coaching team of this year's American team, and according to statistics, the rate of regional defense in the regular season he coached the Heat was nearly 20%, ranking first in the league. How to improve the efficiency of the United States breaking the region, Spoelstra should be able to provide a lot of help.

Body Disadvantage, unclear explanation for changing defenses The US team's defense line is full of holes

The United States is a temporary team, the tacit understanding between players will definitely not be better, there is often a problem of unclear explanation of the change of defense, this year's American team is no exception, as long as the other side implements P&R, the United States will have loopholes in the change of defense, especially in the face of German defender Dennis Schroeder such a tricky commander, more highlighting the shortcomings of poor communication in the United States.

Another major weakness on the defensive end of the United States is its physical disadvantage. Half of the players in the team are less than 200 cm tall, and the small-ball lineup is dominant, the American wingers are usually shorter than the opponent, and against Spain, the American swingmen are constantly being hit by the opposing team's big forwards Juan Hernangomez and Santi Aldamaka.

In addition, the American team inherited the Warriors' "All Switch" strategy, so that the guard group often became a breach after changing defenses, and Spain and Germany, which had plenty of manpower in the box, frequently took advantage of this to create mismatches.

Even if the United States has the NBA New Defensive Player of the Year, in the case that the perimeter defense is easy to be scored by the opponent with a size advantage, JJJ, which covers a wide range of defenses, has to frequently assist in the defensive position, resulting in defensive rebounds lost, which in turn leads to loss of points.

It can be seen that the American team must improve the problem of communication between defenses to avoid a series of defensive crises.

Rivers will be an X-factor Where are the instructions for use of Ingram, Banqueiro?

In terms of individual performance, Edwards and Brunson, who were placed in high hopes by the coaching team and entrusted with the responsibility of leadership, performed brilliantly, not only ranking in the top two points per game in the warm-up game, but also taking turns to stand up against strong opponents Germany and Spain, showing the value of stars.

Rivers, positioned as the sixth man, has a chance to play the X-factor of the American championship. Rivers, who has a stable outside projection and high ball intelligence, has shown good attacking efficiency under the Cole system, whether he has the ball or not, so he is used by the coaching staff and even left on the field in decisive moments.

Ingram pales in comparison, averaging just 7.8 points and shooting 42.4 percent from the field. Since Kerr positioned him as a small-ball four, Ingram didn't have much possession, resulting in poor numbers. Although the U.S. team occasionally creates elbow ball-carrying opportunities for him through cover like Zipper, it is not very frequent.

Given that the most sought-after international players should be tall forwards with ball-carrying ability, such as Durant, the gold medal winner of the United States, Hernangomez, who helped Spain dominate the last World Cup, and Finland's Laurie Markkanen, who won last year's European Championships, the coaching staff should consider taking advantage of Ingram's flexibility against players in the same position.

Banqueiro is another player who has not played as well as he should. Although he was reused by Cole as the number one backup center, he was still ahead of Portis in the order of play, but he was inexperienced, always too aggressive on the field, his passing and shot mastery needed to be strengthened, and the thin Banqueiro had little resistance against traditional centers.

Cole mentioned in an interview that Banqueiro, who combines height, range and ball-carrying skills, should cause headaches for opponents. Banqueiro's role as a small-ball center can indeed increase speed, but in the half-court positional battle, it seems that it has not yet produced the benefits that Cole expected, and the defensive end is still easy to become a burden.

All in all, the U.S. team's personnel rotation and tactical arrangements still have considerable room for improvement. The good news is that the United States has good luck, and the preliminary opponents Greece, New Zealand, and Jordan should not be able to pose much threat, so the United States still has the spare time to fight and accelerate the run-in through actual combat.