Scouting Report: How Does Team USA Defend Team Spain?

While some people find it fun to imagine whether the current men's basketball team in this country could travel through a time machine to give the 1992 Dream Team a loss, the more pressing and realistic matter at hand is whether our guys can keep the Spanish team from stealing our gold medals in a couple of weeks.

After a “too close for comfort” win over Argentina this past weekend, Team USA will probably be looking to tighten up defensive rotations on the perimeter and figuring out how to physically and strategically handle Spain’s big men inside.

While I don’t imagine we’ll see much strategy and set rotation from Spain Tuesday night against Team USA, they will be gauging what the American players are capable of doing. Many international coaches are known for showing very little of what to expect when it comes to exhibition games, and I don’t expect Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo to be much different.

Spain already knows they have a size advantage when they’re throwing Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka at the American team. But how they use their perimeter players will most likely determine whether or not Spain can eventually take home the 2012 gold medal.

Juan Carlos Navarro

NBA fans were only briefly acquainted with Navarro when he set the rookie record for most 3-pointers in a season his one year in Memphis. JCN is a gunner in every sense of the basketball term. He’s a high usage, high volume shooter that is typically regarded as Spain’s number one scoring option.

Even though he’s a bit undersized for a shooting guard at 6’3” and roughly 180 lbs, he’s incredible at getting his shot off against bigger defenders. You can’t leave him on the perimeter because he’s often in the high 30s and lower 40s in Euroleague and Liga ACB competition. However, if you crowd him on the perimeter, he’s great at driving into the lane and getting off his patented floater.

Check out this highlight reel of Navarro against France last summer.



This is a perfect example of how Navarro operates. He takes what the defense gives him. Beat him to the spot on his crossover and he’ll adjust by going behind his back. Position yourself extremely on one side of his body and he’ll lean the other way to create space. Once he pushes his floater or gets space on his jumper, his body control is hard to match.

You can’t go under the screen with him because once the hedging big man leaves him to recover to the paint, he fires off his quick release. He knows every bit of room he needs to get his floater off, even against the most athletic big men in the world.

He’s basically the Spanish version of Allen Iverson, only with a deadly 3-point shot. Every angle is his.

How does the US defend that? Andre Iguodala would be my main choice.

We saw Andre Iguodala defend the perimeter in the FIBA tournament in 2010 and he was devastating. When he doesn’t have any responsibilities on offense (like with Team USA), he’s able to focus all of his energy on playing defense. Allow him to focus strictly on the defensive side of the ball and he will eat your face.

Iguodala is one of the few guys in the NBA that is capable of playing Bath Salts defense. He’s rabid and tenacious. He has the strength to keep Navarro from getting a physical advantage and he’s long enough to challenge shots. Spain could try to counter this with running JCN off of screens, but Iggy fights over those as well as anybody on the perimeter.

When Iguodala isn’t available, allowing Westbrook to harass him is probably the way to go. You just need a strong player with quick leaping ability to be able to chase him around, fight through picks and challenge jumpers.

When Team USA doesn’t have those guys on the court and opts to start with a back court of Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant, going to zone might be a good way to trick Spain into going away from JCN. When Team USA faced Spain in 2010, they were able to chase Navarro and Rudy Fernandez off of the 3-point line at the end of a tight game.

I’m not advocating zone full-time against Spain because they can probably pick it apart with Marc or Pau Gasol getting the ball at the free throw line and surveying the position of the defense, but you can surprise them with it in big spots. The key to it is committing defensively and swarming the ball as soon as Navarro receives it.

The Gasol Brothers

Speaking of the Gasol brothers, they’re going to be a problem for Team USA. Tyson Chandler can only guard one of these guys while still playing solid help defense, and Kevin Love struggles to get his shot off and defend bigger/longer players like Pau Gasol.

Can the US go small against Spain and afford to have LeBron James at the power forward slot? Absolutely.

Check out this video of LeBron fronting the post against Pau Gasol from this past season.



Every time Gasol tries to move LeBron, James just keeps his butt low and plants it on the thighs of Pau. If you go back and watch it, LeBron has all of the leverage against Gasol here and the Lakers had no idea how to counter it. They usually would be able to go to a high-low game with Bynum feeding it into Gasol from the free throw line, but they never went there and struggled to find Pau inside.

Marc Gasol knows how to run the high-low big man game as well as his brother does. In this game against the Bulls, you can see Taj Gibson fronting Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol making him pay with a pass inside from the free throw line.



While Marc’s passing ability isn’t quite at the level of his brother’s, he’s still one of the best passing big men in the league. In situations like this, Tyson Chandler has to play up on Marc Gasol and risk him using his strength to drive past him. Or Chandler has to play off him and hope to contest a jumper (free throw line area) Marc made 50.4% of the time last year.

The key to this will be the help from the weak side. LeBron can keep Pau out of position, but if they swing the ball into the middle of the floor to Marc, the weak side has to drop down to the paint and stop an easy scoring opportunity.

Serge Ibaka

There are thoughts that Spain could play a zone with all three of their big men out there at once, but I actually think this would be a horrible mistake for Spain. Going with a 2-3 zone against the US would mean keeping Marc in the middle and Pau would have to take one corner while Ibaka takes the other. You can’t really afford to have Ibaka in the middle while the two Gasols protect the 3-point line.

If they go to this zone, you’ll end up having LeBron James or Kevin Durant positioned in the corner. While Ibaka’s defense was heralded in the Defensive Player of the Year voting, he’s really only best when he’s protecting the rim from the weak side. Durant shot 10/18 from the corner-3 last year. LeBron is too quick for Ibaka to stay with on the perimeter.

While the threat of Ibaka playing in a front court with the Gasols seems ominous, I really don’t think the US really has to worry about it. Even if he’s just used in the rotation, he’s going to have to play against a much smaller and more agile offensive player as Team USA goes small.

The rest of the perimeter players

Finally, without Ricky Rubio available, the depth of Spain’s perimeter gets a little murky. However, they aren’t devoid of talent by any means.

Jose Calderon is fantastic at taking care of the basketball. Rudy Fernandez is a gunner that can sneak behind the defense for a couple of lobs. Fernando San Emeterio is a gifted and crafty scorer from the wing. And Sergio Llull is a solid combo guard that can make plays.

The problem is, outside of Calderon, the Spanish team doesn’t have elite initiators and creators. The US can do what they plan to do, which is ratchet up the ball pressure and make the Spanish perimeter completely uncomfortable.

If the big men for Spain don’t set a perfect screen, we can see LeBron, Iguodala, or any of the perimeter defenders for USA sneak into the dribbler’s space and create a turnover.

Spain has to get creative with how they set up the outside attack if they want to pull off the biggest upset in Olympic basketball history. They can use their big men to set the tone and create off screens away from the ball.

But if they allow Team USA to up the tempo and play a chaotic style of defense, they’ll be looking at silver medals in August.