London Olympics 2012: Squads That Will Challenge Team USA for Basketball Gold

Team USA is still the prohibitive favorite to bring home the gold medal in men's basketball from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, even with Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, Chauncey Billups and LaMarcus Aldridge sidelined by injuries.

Of course, taking the top prize across the pond would hardly have been a guarantee if those four were healthy, but it is still well within America's grasp, thanks to the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Paul and Kevin Durant.

But which nations are most likely to give the Yanks a run for their money in London?

Spain

La Furia Roja nearly upended the Red, White and Blue for the gold at the Beijing Games in 2008, and they have a solid-enough squad to put a scare into Team USA once again. Ricky Rubio, who made a name for himself with the way he played in China four years ago, will be out on account of a torn ACL. He'll be sorely missed, though Sergio Scariolo will still have an NBA-caliber point guard—Jose Calderon—on whom he can rely.

Spain's front court is among the best in the world, thanks to the Gasol brothers and Rudy Fernandez and will be even better with the addition of Oklahoma City Thunder star and ace defender Serge Ibaka.

No team in the world can match America's depth and breadth of elite talent, though Spain measures up closer than any. They also sport the sort of experience and on-court cohesion that can give the American All-Stars fits in the final game.

Argentina

Chances are, if Team USA is going to play for gold, it'll have to deal with Argentina first. The Gauchos return the corps of a squad—known as the "Golden Generation"—that won gold in Sydney in 2004 and bronze in Beijing last time around.

Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, Fabricio Oberto, Andres Nocioni and Carlos Delfino aren't the spry, young ballers they used to be, but few groups in the world today can so much as hold a candle to what these Gauchos have accomplished in their time together.

The fact that this will likely be the last go-round for this unit on the Olympic stage will give the Argentines that much more motivation to make the most of their opportunity in London, albeit in the treacherous Group A.

Turkey

Turkey couldn't keep Team USA from claiming gold at the 2010 FIBA World Championships but managed to put up a good fight, nonetheless. Head coach Orhun Ene's current crew includes a competitive blend of savvy veterans (Hedo Turkoglu, Omer Onan, Kerem Tunceri), stars just coming into their own (Ersan Ilyasova, Omer Asik) and young guns still feeling their way through (Enes Kanter, Izzet Turkyilmaz).

If nothing else, the Turks will present American coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff with the difficult task of figuring out how to properly pronounce all of their players' names.

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