Ahead of Saturday’s Olympic basketball tip-off, Sportsnet’s basketball panel will tackle the burning questions heading into the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Who are the players to watch in Rio?
Team USA is the heavy favourite to take home gold, but which team has the best shot at challenging USA for gold?
Craig Battle, senior editor
France. They’ll be much better than they were at the Olympic play-in tournament, as their Games starting lineup will feature all three of their current established NBA players in Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum and Tony Parker.
Jeff Simmons, sports enthusiast
France. They have one of the best starting fives in the tournament, loaded with NBA pros such as Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, and Nic Batum, and the emerging Rudy Gobert puts them in silver medal contention.
Evan Rosser, senior editor
France. Plenty of experience playing together, particularly for Parker, Diaw and De Colo; Batum tears it up in international play; and Gobert is enough of a defensive threat in the middle to make it something more than a complete cakewalk for Cousins and Jordan.
Dave Zarum, NBA editor
I’m tempted to say Lithuania, if only to break from the overwhelming consensus. But the fact is that, on paper, only France and Spain have the personnel to go toe-to-toe with the loaded American squad. France is tempting, and they’ll be much stronger than the team we saw beat Canada at the pre-Olympic qualifier in Manilla last month. But I’ll go with Spain, who’s core have been playing together at this stage for more than a decade—which matters in this format— and have a versatile roster that can match up with whichever five the Americans trot out.
Dan Robson, senior writer
Spain. A nice looking starting 5 means they’ll have a shot if they can force USA to play their game. (But really, no.)
Donnovan Bennett, staff writer
Spain. They still have the best non-American NBA players and plenty of big shot makers, experience and great point guard play.
