Olympic Basketball 2012: Team USA's Most Compatible Teammates

An All-Star team’s greatest weakness is always chemistry.

Team USA’s 2012 Olympic basketball squad is no different. While they boast the best players in the world, not everyone’s talents mesh together perfectly. Here are three combinations that form the Americans' most compatible duos.

3. Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler

Sure, they play together on the New York Knicks, but there’s more to Melo and Chandler’s ability to play together than experience alone.

Anthony is a ball hog. That’s not an insult; it’s just a fact.

Last season, no one in the NBA that had a higher usage rate than Melo had a lower assist ratio than him (via ESPN). Translation: Out of all the league’s ball hogs—Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook, etc.—Anthony passes less than all of them.

But that isn’t a problem with Chandler on the floor. He doesn’t demand touches. According to 82games.com, a whopping 81 percent of his field goals were assisted in 2012.

Unlike LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kevin Love—frontcourt players that need the ball—Chandler has no problem deferring to Melo on every single possession.

2. Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul

Kobe is the usage king.

Having played in the triangle offense for the vast majority of his career, he isn’t used to playing alongside a true point guard. According to ESPN, Bryant led the NBA in usage rate the last two years and needs his touches. Having him on the floor at the same time as, say, Westbrook is mistake, but he could cooperate with Paul.

CP3 not only plays off the ball better than Team USA’s other floor generals, but when he does have the ball, he’s the squad’s best playmaker. Paul had a higher assist rate last season than Westbrook and Deron Williams as well as a lower usage rate.

That, along with the fact that Kobe has praised him in the past, makes the Americans’ starting backcourt duo as good as it gets.

1. Kevin Love and Anthony Davis

If Mike Krzyzewski leaves Love on the floor as Team USA’s only true big man, they’ll get dominated down low.

While Love is a phenomenal scorer and rebounder, he’s a sub-par defender. According to 82games.com, he allowed opposing centers to record an average player efficiency rating of 20.5 on him last season. Considering that the league average is 15.0, Love is liability.

With Davis on the floor at the same time, though, Love’s inability to protect the rim is masked. As a freshman at Kentucky, The Brow averaged a whopping 4.7 blocks per game. That’s the same rate at which shot-blocking legend Dikembe Mutombo denied opponents in his final year at Georgetown.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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