Team USA’s Bench Is Making World Cup Starting Five Tough to Justify

Team USA's bench has been more impactful than the starting five during the FIBA World Cup, which raises some rotation questions.

Angel Reese and her teammates play during the FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup. | IMAGO / NurPhoto

Team USA's lineups and rotations for the FIBA World Cup have received some scrutiny, especially after the team's near-upset against Italy on Sunday.

And several stats suggest that Team USA's starters haven't been nearly as productive as the bench players through two World Cup games.

For one, the starters (Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Kahleah Copper, Breanna Stewart, and Napheesa Collier) were a combined -15, while the bench players were a combined +30 against Italy.

Granted, +/- is a flawed stat. And it definitely doesn't paint the entire picture in this case, since Team USA's starters and bench players play together at times. Several Team USA starters came through in crunch time against Italy.

But this +/- discrepancy does highlight that generally, the bench players had more of a positive impact than the starters against Italy. And this was the case in the team's World Cup opening victory over China as well.

Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, Aliyah Boston, and Rhyne Howard during the USA FIBA World Cup. | IMAGO / Eibner

Caitlin Clark specifically has been +36 through two games while coming off the bench, which is the highest on Team USA's roster. She didn't have a good individual performance on Sunday (she was held without a field goal for the first time in her college or WNBA career), but the team still played well when she was on the court, as she finished with a +6.

Clark's individual struggles aside, the bench has still shot the ball better over two games. They have a 40.8 FG% while the starting five has a 34.4 FG%.

Team USA Bench Is Making Strong Case for Bigger World Cup Role

There's a clear difference in the way that the starting unit (led by Chelsea Gray) and the bench unit (led by Caitlin Clark) play on offense. The starters have more of a half-court-centric style, while the bench unit plays faster with more pace and tries to get baskets in transition.

This isn't an issue in and of itself. But when combined with the aforementioned stats, it does suggest that head coach Kara Lawson should at least consider giving more minutes to her bench players.

That being said, there's no substitute for experience. And it's undoubtedly good to have players with lots of international experience starting games, as all five starters won a gold medal with Team USA at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

But this younger bench unit has been more effective at this point. So if the USA continues to have close games against teams they're much more talented than, perhaps switching up the rotations would help solve that.