DeMarcus Cousins went down with a knee injury Thursday, and while it's not clear yet how serious it is, it could complicate things further for the U.S. as it's yet another hit for the frontcourt.
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As Duke fans, though, we've seen Coach K hit with many challenges and on numerous occasions he rebuilt his Duke teams on the fly.
It may be much ado about nothing: Cousins tweeted this later: "Thanks for all the concern, I'm fine," and after that USA Basketball said there was no structural damage.
He'll sit out Sunday's friendly against Brazil and is currently listed as day-to-day.
As we said, Coach K has a knack for remakng his teams, even mid to late season, and aside from that laudable skill, he has never backed down in face of trouble. If anything, his teams play harder.
Two parallels come to mind: first, Carlos Boozer's injury. Coach K ended up using Reggie Love at center, and it worked. Not many people would have ever considered that.
And secondly, Grant Hill's injury in 1992.
Krzyzewski stopped practice and made a couple of things clear: first, there would be no woe-is-me about it. And second, there would be no backing off.
Duke got through that and of course won a second straight national title.
We're not saying that that will automatically happen with the National Team. But we are saying that that spirit, that attitude, has been injected into USA Basketball, and not just since Paul George went down.
Coach K has already suggested that a three-guard offense might be used more often, and with Derrick Rose, James Harden and Stephen Curry, that's a pretty imposing trio - not to mention Kyrie Irving and possibly Klay Thompson off the bench.
Rose and Harden are not your typical guards. Rose is 6-3 and incredibly strong for a guard; Harden is 6-5 and 220.
To put that in perspective, Anthony Davis is 220. He's also 6-11. Mason Plumlee is 6-11 as well, solidly built - and 235.
And Curry, of course, is the finest shooter alive today, and a vastly underrated ballhandler.
That still leaves Davis, an emerging superstar, at center.
In his second NBA season, Davis averaged 20.8 ppg, 10 rpg, 2.8 blocks in 35 minutes per game.
Rudy Gay, recently added to replace Kevin Durant's rather extensive skill set, will help to space the court. He and Curry will be the leaders there, opening the lanes for the penetrators (which should include Gay).
Or at least that's how we see it.
It's not the team anyone imagined, but it could be pretty explosive. And if Cousins is able to play, and to control his emotions, he can bring some power and muscle that Davis, for all his gifts, does not possess.
And speaking of Davis, assuming the FIBA goaltending rule is still the same as it has been, he could knock away a ton of shots after they hit the rim. Just something to keep in mind, though it's bound to be hard for an American to reprogram himself to do that.