The main knock on the 2012 USA Olympic Basketball Team is the absence of size on the roster. Those criticisms are warranted, as we got our first glimpse of futile stretches on Monday night in the team's second tune-up game against Brazil.
Anthony Davis, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler are the only three players that are 6'10" or taller on Mike Krzyzewski's team.
You can basically remove Davis from the conversation because he's not going to seeing the court nearly as much as the latter two. The No. 1 overall pick played 10 minutes in the first game, but was slapped with a "Did Not Play—Coaches Decision" against the Brazilians.
Love has played just under 25 minutes in the first two games combined, in which he has scored 11 total points. He's shooting 50 percent from the field, so he's not playing inefficiently so far through the exhibition games.
That leaves Chandler as one of the X-factors for Team USA's chances at running roughshod on the competition en route to a gold medal.
The entire country knows what this team is going to get out of Chandler on the defensive end. As the reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year, he changes the game in the paint in so many ways. Whether it be blocking shots, causing opponents to adjust their attempts at their apex or acting as another coach on the floor, Chandler is the cornerstone of any defense he is a part of.
On the offensive end, though, Chandler's value isn't as highly regarded.
With the Knicks last year, Chandler shot a robust 67.9 percent from the field to lead the NBA by more than 10 percentage points. The difference between Chandler and second-place finisher Dwight Howard was nearly as great as the gap between Howard and the player with the 41st-best field-goal percentage, Arron Afflalo.
Chandler's percentage was so high because he only average 5.7 shots per game. Many of his shots came on one particular play—the pick-and-roll.
The pick-and-roll would be a perfect way to help the United States mask its lack of interior presence and size. Inside scoring has been a huge problem thus far. The team has scored 82 points in the paint through two games, but most of those have come on dunks and layups rather than on post scoring.
Coach K has two of the best passing point guards in the league at his disposal in Chris Paul and Deron Williams. It would be wise for the Duke coach to try to run some pick-and-rolls over the course of the game to put some easy points on the board.
There isn't a way that the U.S. can unequivocally make up for its lack of size, but attempting to involve Chandler on the offensive end from time to time would help the cause.
It's not as though the U.S. really needs an interior presence to win this tournament, but they would have an easier time if they used Chandler's size to their advantage.
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