USA Basketball may have access to the best and deepest talent pool in the world, but it also has two significant disadvantages on the international stage: Many of its players have little to no international experience compared to other national teams, and the squad is usually assembled shortly before each tournament without much practice time in advance. Other national teams, like Belgium, Italy, and Spain, for example, have played together for years and met early to practice and play friendlies ahead of the World Cup.
Team USA, meanwhile, has to rely on what little experience players gained together at previous tournaments, a training camp in December, and the qualifiers in March, and build chemistry on the fly. That unfamiliarity hasn’t been much of a problem in recent years because of the sheer talent on Team USA compared to the rest of the world.
However, now other teams don’t just have more FIBA experience and more experience playing together. They also have the talent to keep up with Team USA.
Just take France for example. Eight of their twelve players currently play in the WNBA, including All-Stars Gabby Williams and Dominque Malonga. Moreover, eight of the players on this World Cup roster played together at the 2024 Olympics, and seven of them teamed up for the 2025 EuroBasket tournament. Many of their connections go back way further than that. Williams, Marine Johannes, and Valeriane Ayayi, for example, all played EuroBasket together in 2021. Other teams like Belgium, Spain, and Australia have similar histories of roster consistency and collective experience.
Eventually, USA Basketball may have to rethink its roster strategy and consider implementing more roster consistency and pre-tournament time together to match other teams’ experience and chemistry.
On-court chemistry factored into the latest FIBA World Cup power rankings
The latest FIBA World Cup Smart Power Rankings came with a big change of pace for Team USA. The U.S. didn’t finish first. France took the top spot after a dominant group phase that saw them lead all teams in the tournament in points, assists, steals, and efficiency per game.
Moreover, Gabby Williams leads all players in points per game with 18.7, and Marine Johannes is tied for seventh with Mali’s Djeneba N’Diaye with 17 points per game. Williams also ranks second in steals per game and is tied for first place with Belgium’s Emma Meesseman in efficiency.
Several Team USA players have also put together great individual performances, but the team chemistry hasn’t been quite on the same level yet.
“Of course USA are stacked with amazing talent and there’s every chance they’ll still finish with yet another World Cup crown,” the Smart Power Rankings read. “But on-court connections still look like a work in progress.”
Add us as a preferred source on Google