Spain, Australia, Slovenia viewed as challengers to Team USA among experts

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

The Olympic Games are around the corner and if the recent qualifiers and prep skirmishes are of any indication, it will be a very competitive tournament when it comes to basketball.

While Team USA is always given the title of the favorite in the Olympics and their roster is quite stacked with superstars for this event, the team has had its fair share of troubles during the preparation when it comes to the game itself, as well as the coronavirus positives.

That opens the door to other teams to challenge them and that has also been recognized by those watching and analyzing from the sidelines.

Dimitrije Curcic from RunRepeat gathered the opinions of 83 basketball journalists and analysts (including Eurohoops) who answered 11 questions.

The most important question of all was overwhelmingly on the side of Team USA which received 72.3% of votes to win the gold medal. However, Australia and Spain have been given a chance as well, and even Slovenia is viewed as a potential miracle run in the tournament.

In fact, a lot of experts are riding the Luka Doncic wave and they expect the Slovenian wunderkind to steal the spotlight in the Olympics. He received roughly half the votes to be the top scorer as well as the leader in assists. His performances would also be the reason why a big percentage expects Slovenia to overachieve and perhaps even upset the powerhouses at the podium.

The summary of the votes is as follows:

Winner: USA (72.3%), Australia (10.8%), Spain (9.6%)
Runner-up: Spain (34.9), Slovenia (20.5% ), Australia (19.3%)
Best offense: USA (75.9%)
Best defense: Spain (30.1%), France (25.5%)
Overachiever: Slovenia (42.2%), Nigeria (28.9%)
Underachiever: France (26.5%), Argentina (24.1%)
MVP: Kevin Durant (49.4%)
Top scorer: Luka Doncic (51.8%)
Most assists: Luka Doncic (55.4%)
Top rebounder: Rudy Gobert (59%)

You can read the full questionnaire here.

Related Post