After two complete Olympic cycles, the departure of coach Gregg Popovich as Team USA coach was made official, announcing in passing that Steve Kerr he will be in charge of assuming responsibility for the next few years.
USA Basketball is expected to name Steve Kerr as its next men’s team head coach with a staff that includes Monty Williams, Erik Spoelstra and Mark Few, per @wojespn pic.twitter.com/d3gqpilHvc
– Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 10, 2021
There are several challenges for Kerr to defend the United States’ status in the world of international basketball. Here are the closest competitions that the 56-year-old coach will have to take on.
The United States is in the first phase of the FIBA Americas tournament to determine the qualifiers for the FIBA World Cup 2023 and, although they are expected to advance smoothly, they register a victory and a defeat, occupying the third position of group D.
If they go to the final round, Team USA must be among the top three teams of the six participating in the second round. Kerr will not be available in person for several of the meetings, due to his commitments to NBAHowever, it will be an active part of the call and the work carried out by the staff.
If the United States finally meets expectations and advances to the world championship to be held in Southeast Asia, one of the most important challenges for Kerr will come in charge of the team and that is to build a squad worthy of competing at the FIBA level, being quite difficult to recruit stars of the NBA, since they tend to prefer extra rest in the offseason.
Steve Kerr says Team USA had ‘huge disadvantage’ with lack of continuity at FIBA World Cup #Warriorshttps://t.co/4rDrHq2mKi
– Warriors Nation (@WarriorNationCP) September 24, 2019
Team USA failed in its last participation in the orbital event, remaining in seventh position and adding a place to the 2020 Olympic Games for being the second best team in America behind Argentina. It is almost a matter of honor to return to the top of this international tournament.
Finally, the great test of the first cycle of Kerr in charge of the men’s team of the United States will be the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, in search of what would be the fifth consecutive gold medal in jousts. Important will be the influence of the coach when adding NBA figures of the level of Stephen Curry.
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What tournaments will Team USA play under Steve Kerr?