Team USA’s struggles create heightened sense of excitement ahead of Tokyo Olympics

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

The United States men’s basketball team usually swaggers its way through the Olympics. At Rio five summers ago, the team stayed aboard a massive luxury cruise ship in Pier Maua and were at the center of everything.

The big news item from the first couple of days of the 2016 Games? How DeMar DeRozan, DeMarcus Cousins and DeAndre Jordan mistakenly wound up in a high-end brothel while apparently searching for a "male spa."

When they had some spare time, a bunch of squad members went to watch swimming and predictably got bombarded by other Olympians desperate for selfies and high-fives.

Oh, and along the way, they played a few basketball games, won them all easily, and then jetted home with gold medals in tow.

This time it figures to be a bit more difficult. Some people are worried about it. It’s actually kind of great.

To put it rather kindly, the U.S. has had a mixed week. On its pre-Olympic exhibition schedule, Tuesday’s bounce-back victory over Argentina came on the heels of a pair of unexpected defeats in which the team got outplayed, head coach Gregg Popovich got riled up and everyone’s expectations got thrown for a loop.

Bring it on.

Because, with the U.S. showing some real and present signs of fallibility, the Olympic men’s hoops tournament just became more anticipated than any of its recent renditions.

Sure, seeing star-studded collections of elite NBA talent run through an overmatched field of opponents has held an intrigue of its own these past three Olympic cycles.

There has been a lot of talk on how the rest of the world is catching up to the U.S. It felt like it in 2004, when a young team featuring a baby-faced LeBron James lost three times, including a group game to Puerto Rico, and had to settle for bronze.

Since that time, U.S. squads have marched to a combined 24-0 record in Games competition.

It certainly hasn’t been boring, witnessing the likes of Kobe Bryant, James, Chris Paul and Kevin Durant stampede their way to gold medals as part of an almighty All-Star construction. It hasn’t been dramatic though, has never been suspenseful and, if we’re splitting hairs, has sometimes felt more like an exhibition circuit of outrageous skill and athleticism rather than something truly Olympian.

That won’t be the case now. If the Americans are capable of losing to not just medal contenders such as Australia, but also a Nigeria squad considered a borderline case to make it to the knockout stage, then it feels like there’s a whole lot more at stake.

Durant, this time joined by high-powered pals such as Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum, can’t just roll out of his Tokyo bed and expect the opposition to lay down before them. The U.S. is going to have to learn how to play more effectively as a team – and they’re going to have to earn it.

"Maybe it is a personnel issue," FS1’s Kevin Wildes said on "First Things First." "The guys are all great (but) the scariest part is what if we have the wrong team and then we are set up not to medal."

It is important to note that Tatum was also a member of the 2019 U.S. FIBA World Cup Team, which did struggle, losing to both France and Serbia in the medal round and finishing in seventh place. Some of the top teams in that tournament featured many of the same members we will see in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

It isn’t unpatriotic in any way to be excited about the fact that there is an enhanced possibility the U.S. might lose in Japan. That’s what competition is all about, competing, and if the field in general is worthier than in yesteryear, that’s all well and good.

Furthermore, if this current incarnation of Team USA has some weaknesses and deficiencies that they ultimately need to work through and overcome, that’s kind of a cool wrinkle to it as well.

"It was better," Popovich said after the Argentina game. "Bit by bit. Every day, I hope."

It feels a little bit odd that this has become a topic at all, and it definitely wasn’t predicted to be that way. There was supposed to be only one item atop the hoops agenda this week, namely the ongoing NBA Finals between the Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks.

The time to talk Tokyo was … once the team got to Tokyo. The plucky performances by Nigeria and Australia, fronted by Joe Ingles and Patty Mills, changed all that.

Reality dictates that the U.S. will still be an overwhelming favorite once hardwood hostilities begin in earnest. The opening game will be against France on July 25, followed by Iran on July 28 and Czech Republic on July 31.

There are other worthy contenders led by star names, with Luka Doncic’s Slovenia team having made the field for the first time. Spain is always cohesive and strong, and Australia, France and Argentina are all hoping to medal.

Yet no one can boast the combined talent force of the Americans, and if Popovich can get his group moving in the kind of direction they showed in blowing out Argentina on Tuesday, another route to gold likely beckons.

Complacency can easily seep in when you’ve got such a loaded roster, so good that every position is covered with a multitude of talent. But a couple of wake-up calls were sounded and the early evidence appears to show the warning has been heeded.

The rest of the basketball world has been alerted to the fact that the gold medal could be there for the taking, while the group itself has received the urgent message it needs to step up its game. That recipe could lead to one of the most open, and best basketball tournaments we’ve seen in years.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.