Blake Griffin Injury: How Absence of Lob City Star Would Impact Team USA

On Thursday, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported that Blake Griffin suffered an injury during a Team USA scrimmage.

"

Blake Griffin hurt his knee in a Team USA scrimmage Wednesday and is returning to LA to be examined by team doctors, sources tell Y! Sports.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 12, 2012"

Wojnarowski went on to report that Anthony Davis will travel to Las Vegas as Griffin’s replacement if one is needed. He also mentioned that Griffin twisted the same knee that he sprained during the NBA playoffs and that he is expected to receive an MRI soon.

For any other nation, losing a talent like Griffin from their national basketball squad would be an absolute disaster. But if it comes to that for the U.S., it won't be that big of a deal.

While Davis isn’t as talented as the Los Angeles Clippers star at this point in his career, he fits in so well with Team USA that they won’t miss a beat.

While Griffin is a superior scorer to Davis, the Americans aren’t in any need of a scoring boost. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony have that covered.

I hate to second-guess Jerry Colangelo, but because of the fact that Davis is a superior defender to Griffin, The Brow is arguably a better fit alongside America's plethora of lethal scorers.

Spain is Team USA’s greatest obstacle in the 2012 Summer Olympics. The inability to stop—not score against—Pau and Marc Gasol is what would trigger a collapse.

The three true big men that the Americans had planned to take across the Atlantic were Griffin, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler. While Chandler is an elite defender, Griffin and Love are far from it. A combination of Davis and Chandler would match up with the Gasol brothers better than Griffin and Chandler.

As fun as it would be to watch Chris Paul throw alley-oops to Griffin all tournament long, Team USA will be in no danger if he is forced to miss the Olympics. 

Follow @TheRealDDaniels