No medals for the USA

PODCAST: David Thorpe on what matters

Dennis Schroder and Germany won the U.S. men’s FIBA World Cup. Serbia won the silver. Canada got bronze.

And then there was the United States, the biggest force in global basketball, without a medal, in fourth.

For the most part, everyone is freaking out. But it’s more complicated than all that, David Thorpe tells Jarod Hector on today’s TrueHoop podcast. This is an event that doesn’t mean much to American NBA players—the best of whom stayed home. (Other than 2004 in Athens, the U.S. wins the Olympics every time.) In David’s eyes, with a slightly different roster, the U.S. will be big-time favorites next summer. He’ll be writing more about this later this week.

On the podcast:

• The brilliance of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

• How the Rockets should handle Dillon Brooks coming off a great FIBA tournament 

• Burning questions for the Celtics, Nets, Knicks, 76ers, and Rapt…