Team USA Can't Hit Threes or Learn Lessons

Despite a 2-0 start and an average points margin of +26, it's not hard to find problems with Team USA's performance. As you know, neither Angola nor China are among the top teams in this tournament: China stands #11 in the world, and Angola #14. Iran is the only team worse than the U.S.'s first two opponents.

As such, the Americans should be winning by 26 against these squads. Spain, Lithuania, maybe the Croats or Greeks -- those teams will perform far better, and the United States will need to be at full-throttle to win easily (which would be the goal, you'd think). And Team USA is not playing at full-throttle.

The biggest blemish is the awful three-point shooting performance. The Americans have hit only 12 of 45 long-range attempts ... despite the much shorter distance compared to the NBA and the stated aim of rebuilding the team as a team with, you know, role players. Two visages of that plan -- Michael Redd and Tayshaun Prince -- have fewer minutes than everyone but Carlos Boozer, the third-string center.

This team is not full of good long-range shooters. Kobe, Kidd, LeBron, 'Melo, Wade, Paul -- all shoot no better than 34% on their careers, and this set of bigs rarely shoots that deep. Deron Williams does have a reliable stroke, and is 2-for-5 in the Olympics. But Redd is the only prototypical three-point shooter on this team (39% on his NBA career, taking 5/game last season) ... and he has played less minutes than Jason Kidd, who is like a -17% shooter for his career. (Slight exaggeration.) Redd's a good teammate, and he practically begged to be on the team. It's worth it on a program-building level to respect his commitment, at the least.

Kobe's not as bad a shooter as he has portrayed (more on him later), but it seems the no-brainer solution to Team USA's shooting woes is to let the good shooter play more. And garbage time doesn't count.