The U.S. men’s Olympic basketball roster still deserves to be labelled the ‘Dream Team,’ but with the sport’s globalization these past three decades, the rest of the world is catching up.

The competition in Tokyo will be a far cry from the original ‘Dream Team’ days in Barcelona.

In the three years leading up to the 1992 Olympics, here are the winners of the three most notable NBA awards:

Finals MVP

- 1991-92 Michael Jordan, USA

- 1990-91 Michael Jordan, USA

- 1989-90 Isiah Thomas, USA

Regular Season MVP

- 1991-92 Michael Jordan, USA

- 1990-91 Michael Jordan, USA

- 1989-90 Magic Johnson, USA

Rookie of the Year

- 1991-92 Larry Johnson, USA

- 1990-91 Derrick Coleman, USA

- 1989-90 David Robinson, USA

And here are the same three awards from the previous three seasons:

Finals MVP

- 2020-21 Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greece

- 2019-20 LeBron James, USA

- 2018-19 Kawhi Leonard, USA

Regular Season MVP

- 2020-21 Nikola Jokic, Serbia

- 2019-20 Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greece

- 2018-19 Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greece

Rookie of the Year

- 2020-21 LaMelo Ball, USA

- 2019-20 Ja Morant, USA

- 2018-19 Luka Doncic, Slovenia

Nine of nine awards were won by Americans during the ‘Dream Team’ era versus four-of-nine present day.

Team USA is the undisputed favourite to take home gold in Tokyo (-300), but teams like Australia, Spain and France are not far behind.

The Aussies have seven current or former NBA players, France has eight, and the current world champions, Spain, has nine.

Until further notice, the Olympics will always be Team USA’s tournament but it’s not unreasonable to be worried.

Here are three situations that warrant concern and might encourage you to value-bet a team in the field:

Exhausted Championship Hangover

Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton hopped on a private jet shortly after Game 6, exhausted from two deep playoff runs.

Media, coaches and players have all criticized the compressed schedule from this past NBA season and there’s no denying the correlation between that and player injuries.

These three have luckily avoided the injury bug but with no rest between championship-level basketball and Tokyo, I can’t imagine they’d be 100 per cent. Considering they represent a quarter of the roster; it could end up being a problem.

Lack of Chemistry

Bradley Beal and Kevin Love were late withdrawals this past week. The three aforementioned players above arrive in Tokyo on Saturday. Team USA plays their first match of the Olympics versus France on Sunday.

How much practice time are these 12 players going to get?

When the Americans lost consecutive exhibition games to Nigeria and Australia earlier this month, nobody was suggesting their roster was less talented or accomplished than the others.

The difference is many of these international teams have been playing together since their adolescence.

Damian Lillard commented on their lack of chemistry in the Australian post-game: “These teams are experienced, and they’ve spent a lot of time together. We are still working at becoming a team.”

Questionable Replacements

As talented as Keldon Johnson and JaVale McGee are, social media had a field day trolling Team USA’s selection committee.

This is an undersized roster, so it makes sense why an ultra-talented player like Trae Young wasn’t selected. But what about the other American big men?

Anthony Davis, Christina Wood and Myles Turner all remain stateside while two-time NBA champion, McGee, heads to Tokyo as the 12th man. He’s obviously the least skilled of the bunch but fans have to trust coach Greg Popovich’s decision-making.

And while Johnson is the youngest and least accomplished player, his endurance, explosiveness, and energy is probably the perfect antidote to Team USA’s current challenges.

Who’s Worth Betting?

With games set to begin this weekend, here are the gold-medal odds for Team USA’s most notable opponents:

Australia +700

Spain +1100

Slovenia +1800

France +2000

Argentina +3

Nigeria +3300

You can make a reasonable case for any of these six teams to pull off an upset but based on the concerns listed above, I’d roll the dice on Spain at +1100.

While the average age of this squad is 30.5 (oldest of the 12 teams), their experience and size perfectly juxtapose the concerns revolving the Americans.

The Gasol brothers are older than the entire American roster, but this golden era of Spanish basketball might get one final shot in Tokyo. Expect them to play with that level of urgency.

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