Why Joel Embiid Could Be the Cure-All for Team USA
Whenever Grant Hill gets back on U.S. soil, the USA Basketball managing director should make plans for a trip to Philadelphia. When the 76ers travel to the Bay Area in January, Steve Kerr should be ready to pop into the team hotel. From now until next summer, Team USA’s powers that be should have one goal: get Joel Embiid.
Sunday’s bronze medal game loss to Canada was disappointing. But it wasn’t humiliating. It wasn’t embarrassing. Frankly it wasn’t even that surprising. Canada isn’t just our quirky, hockey-obsessed northern neighbor. They are a budding basketball powerhouse. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Dillon Brooks and RJ Barrett speak to that.
Kerr played on the USA team that won the 1986 FIBA World Cup title.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
And Canada isn’t the only one. Kerr—who was on the U.S. staff in 2019, when Team USA finished seventh—knows that. “I didn’t need a reminder,” the coach said. Slovenia is led by Luka Dončić. Germany, which won this year’s Cup, has Dennis Schröder, the Wagner brothers (Franz and Moritz) and a deep roster. Serbia, the runner up, has Bogdan Bogdanović, Nikola Jović and a roster full of three-point shooters.
“The game has been globalized over the last 30 years or so,” Kerr said. “These games are difficult. This is not 1992 anymore. Players are better, all over the world. Teams are better. It’s not easy to win a World Cup or Olympic Games.”
The U.S. will field a better team in 2024, with Olympic gold viewed more favorably by top American stars than FIBA’s hardware. But so will everyone else. Serbia could add Nikola Jokić. Giannis Antetokounmpo could play for Greece. Kristaps Porziņģis will be back with Latvia. Canada could add Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins to a roster that’s already frighteningly good.
The U.S. needs help.
It needs Joel Embiid.
Team USA has two glaring problems. There’s defense: It surrendered 110 points to Lithuania. Another 113 to Germany. Canada blitzed the U.S. for 127. “Our defense is pretty bad,” said Anthony Edwards. Entering last Sunday’s game against Lithuania, Team USA was 97–0 when scoring at least 100 points in Olympic or World Cup games. Since then, the team is 1–3.
“Defense was the issue in the games we lost,” said Austin Reaves. “If you can’t get stops, you can’t [win].”
Size is a problem. More specifically, a lack of it. The U.S. played without Paolo Banchero and Jaren Jackson Jr. on Sunday (Kerr reported that some kind of illness had worked its way through Team USA’s locker room), but even at full strength, the U.S. is woefully small. Jonas Valančiūnas bullied the U.S. frontcourt in a loss to Lithuania. Germany outscored the U.S. in second chance points 25–8. The kind of versatile, switchable roster that succeeds in the NBA doesn’t work as well in FIBA tournaments. And even if the 2024 roster features some ’20 returnees—Bam Adebayo could play—Team USA still needs to beef up.
It needs (ahem) Embiid.
Hill knows it. “I’ve talked to him,” Hill told NBA Radio in July. Embiid is the closest thing USA Basketball has to a cure-all. The reigning MVP doubles as one of the NBA’s best rim protectors. He can bang bodies with Jokić and Valančiūnas. Emiid can be a deterrent to Gilgeous-Alexander and Schroder. With Embiid roaming the paint, the U.S.’s impressive collection of wing defenders can play more freely.
“He knows our desire to have him a part of our program,” Hill said. “So we’ll see sort of where that goes.”
Embiid is interested in playing internationally, those close to him say. Part of why he has not is health. The center has battled injuries for most of his NBA career, injuries that often require lengthy recovery time in the offseason. And there is the question of who he would play for. Embiid was born in Cameroon but holds citizenship in the U.S. and France. France would love to add Embiid to a towering frontcourt that could include Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert. The U.S. needs Embiid to grapple with them.
The fight for Embiid will be tough. The U.S. needs to win it. As mediocre as Team USA has been in World Cups—the Americans have not won since 2014—they are the reigning power at the Olympics, having won four straight golds. But even there the gap is closing. France beat the U.S. in pool play last cycle, snapping a 25-game winning streak, and narrowly lost a rematch for the gold medal. If the U.S. wants to remain atop the basketball world, it needs something.
It needs Joel Embiid.
