All of Team USA's problems have been proven real

Plus: Ooh Canada.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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The list of concerns with this particular Team USA roster heading into the 2023 FIBA World Cup:

• It’s too small, especially behind Jaren Jackson Jr.

• There’s not enough playmaking across the roster.

• There’s little continuity or familiarity across the players.

No. 3 is always going to be an unavoidable issue with Team USA. There are hundreds of American-born players talented enough to play at a national team quality at every age level, so there is little consistency in who plays as time moves forward, and those players are not always the ones selected for the senior team.

To wit: Jalen Brunson played on Team USA’s Under-18 national team in 2014 at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship and again in 2015 for the Under-19 national team that won the U19 World Championship. Tyrese Haliburton played on the U19 team in 2019. JJJ played for the U17 team in 2016. The other nine players never participated in an international tournament with USA Basketball growing up.

That’s pretty different than the experiences of most other players at the FIBA World Cup, many of whom have repeat reps in international play going back to youth days. The pools are smaller, so the players are more likely to keep getting selected.

As for the size issues that Team USA faces, especially if JJJ is unavailable for any reason: those were on full display in the Americans’ 110-104 loss to Lithuania on Sunday. Jonas Valanciunas and Domantas Motiejunas wrecked the Americans inside.

JJJ was in foul trouble before anyone broke a sweat and played just 15 minutes. Here are JJJ’s stat lines through five games, in chronological order:

• VS New Zealand: 12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assists, 0 steals, 1 block in 16 minutes (FOULED OUT)

• VS Greece: 9-3-0-2-2 in 18 minutes

• VS Jordan: 12-6-1-1-2 in 16 minutes

• VS Montenegro: 11-0-1-1-1 in 20 minutes

• VS Lithuania: 3-1-3-1-1 in 15 minutes (FOULED OUT)

No rebounds in a competitive game against Montenegro, and a single rebound while fouling out playing opposite former Grizzlies teammate JV? That’s brutal stuff made more brutal by the fact the only other traditional bigs on the USA Basketball roster are Bobby Portis Jr., Paolo Banchero and Walker Kessler. Coach Steve Kerr clearly doesn’t trust Kessler much, but still had to put him in early in Sunday’s game because once JJJ got hit with a few fouls, there was no other option.