Team USA Basketball Showcase 2015: Reaction and Takeaways for Blue vs White

Thirsty hoop fans wandering the basketball wasteland of mid-August stumbled on the oasis of Team USA's Basketball Showcase just in time.

Though the action wasn't particularly intense, and though the very biggest names in the Team USA pipeline took the night off, it was still good to see some of the NBA's finest trotting up and down the hardwood in Las Vegas. And trot they did, in a fast-paced, dunk-filled 134-128 victory for the White team.

USA White featured Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, DeMarcus Cousins, Draymond Green, Arron Afflalo, Michael Carter-Williams, Blake Griffin, Terrence Jones and Mason Plumlee. Former Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau called the shots for the winners.

Led by former New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams, USA Blue was made up of Andre Drummond, Bradley Beal, Kenneth Faried, Victor Oladipo, Amir Johnson, Harrison Barnes, DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay and Elfrid Payton.

Unlike last year at this time, Team USA wasn't tuning up for an international competition. The tenor on Thursday was decidedly casual.

Still, it was basketball, and you don't take that for granted in August.

Here's what we learned.

Maybe There's Room for Conventional Bigs

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As NBA trends continue to marginalize old-school centers, both the White and Blue teams started conventional big men in Cousins and Drummond, respectively.

Though neither team ran many plays through the post (or any plays at all), the big guys still featured prominently. Not only that, but the lack of floor-stretchers extended to the starting power forwards as well. Griffin and Faried suited up as first-unit 4s for their respective squads.

This was an up-and-down affair, and the only bruising occurred between hands and rims in this breakaway dunk-fest. But that won't be how the 2016 Olympics go down. There, Team USA will have to contend with the hulking size of Spain, led by the Gasol brothers and Serge Ibaka. France will trot out shot-swatting savant Rudy Gobert and his terrifying wingspan.

There will be traditional bigs to tackle down the line, so perhaps it's not so surprising that Team USA is still giving a long look to its bulkier (if not especially trendy) options.

Drummond posted a game-high 27 points and 16 rebounds for the Blue team. Cousins led the White team with 24 points and 11 boards.

In a game with no defense and no boxing out, it's good to be big.

There Was Some Rust

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NBA training camp is still weeks away, and, well...you could tell.

Particularly at the outset, there were some legs that didn't quite have their typical bounce and some touch plays that were lacking in finesse. Carter-Williams threw a lob to Griffin into the rafters in the opening minutes, and Griffin missed an uncontested dunk off the front rim shortly thereafter.

On the ensuing play, Cousins bricked a slam attempt.

Hey, there'll be plenty of time for these guys to get their games in order before the regular season starts. And besides, Griffin found his bounce in time to cram home an off-the-board alley-oop from Carter-Williams later in the contest.

Maybe everybody just needed some time to get loose.

Klay Thompson Is More Than a Shooter

It appears Klay Thompson has been studying up on teammate Stephen Curry's craftiness, as the Golden State Warriors shooting guard took a break from long-range sniping to nutmeg DeMar DeRozan in the open court.

You've got to feel for DeRozan here, who was really just following the scouting report. Thompson was nearing half court, which meant he was well within his shooting range. So DeRozan was probably on the lookout for a pull-up from 60 feet or so.

Instead, he let Thompson whip the ball through his legs en route to an alley-oop (one of approximately 10,000 attempted in this game) to Terrence Jones.

Watch out, Steph. Thompson and his ever-expanding game are gunning for your highlights.

Paul George Didn't Play, but He Could Have

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The basket support stanchions were a full two-and-a-half feet farther away from the baseline than they were a year ago, and everybody who noticed the difference knew why.

Last year's showcase ended on a somber note, as Paul George broke his leg in an awkward landing on one of those stanchions, costing him almost an entire season and sparking debate about the risks of suiting up for Team USA.

George didn't play in Thursday's game, but the most encouraging news was that he could have.

Excused from minicamp by head coach Mike Krzyzewski, George is back at full strength after months of rehab and six late-season games with the Indiana Pacers last year.

If he wants it, there's a great chance George will get a spot on the 2016 squad that heads to Rio.

Best of all, everybody involved in this year's showcase emerged perfectly healthy.

This Was...Different

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There were a couple of signs that this scrimmage wasn't going to be standard regular-season NBA fare.

We've already touched on the rust, but even more telling were the demeanors of a couple of key figures.

Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press caught Thibodeau doing something completely out of character, tweeting: "How serious is this USA Basketball game? Tom Thibodeau has been smiling for the entire break between quarters."

Smiling!

Apparently, time away from the messy relationship with the Chicago Bulls front office has calmed Thibs. Either that or he understood the stakes of Thursday's contest.

Secondly, we got this tweet from Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News: "Leonard leaked on the break instead of blocking out his man. If this was a real game, Pop would bench him for a quarter."

Oh, don't worry. Once Gregg Popovich gets wind of this, Leonard will find himself doing extra sprints on the first day of Spurs training camp.

And Pop won't be mad. He'll just be disappointed—which we all know is so much worse.

Michael Carter-Williams Owes Victor Oladipo

Maybe Oladipo is still ticked about losing out on the 2013-14 Rookie of the Year award to MCW. Maybe he's just trying to distinguish himself for future USA Basketball roster considerations.

Or maybe he's just a really good athlete.

Either way, Oladipo, who scored 25 points in all, smashed a one-handed dunk on Carter-Williams' head in the fourth quarter after crossing him over at the top of the arc. MCW probably has a right to seek out payback at some point in the future; Oladipo embarrassed him in a setting that was supposed to be (and for the most part was) laid-back.

The post-dunk dance didn't help either.

Expect Carter-Williams to take the first meeting between his Milwaukee Bucks and Oladipo's Orlando Magic very seriously.

Jerry Colangelo Is Not Kidding Around

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"If everyone stays healthy...this will be the best team we've ever put together, potentially."

That's what USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo had to say about the talent pool for the 2016 Rio Olympics, according to Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated.

Considering the Team USA luminaries involved in past international competitions, that seems like a wildly hyperbolic claim. But when you think about the players who didn't participate in Thursday's scrimmage (OK, fine: Showcase), maybe Colangelo's not just blowing smoke.

LeBron James and Kevin Durant didn't play. Neither did Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis or James Harden.

Dwight Howard was there, but he sat out. Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and Paul George were all absent as well. That's 11 players right there, and the 2016 squad will only contain 12.

Somebody as talented as Leonard, Thompson, Griffin or Cousins isn't going to make the cut.

That's insane.

It's practically blasphemy to say it's possible any version of Team USA could be better than the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird-Michael Jordan Dream Team of 1992, but this one might just do it.