Draymond Green breaks down the Olympic basketball medal round, predicting USA will face Germany in the final. He identifies Germany as the clear number two team and biggest threat to Team USA's fifth straight gold, highlighting Franz Wagner and Daniel Schroder as key players.
Chapters
Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. As I said, we're about halfway through the Olympic tournament, which means the medal round is now about to begin and the pool play is over. 8 teams have gone home, 8 teams are moving on. And so USA will start off versus Brazil. First game in the medal round, I think we mop them by 40, no problem. It's great to see the Brazilians get there. Love the Brazilians. Shout out to Gui Santos, young fella playing for Brazil, representing his country. I love to see it. They stand no chance. They'll lose by 35 to 40 points and Team USA will move on to the to the semifinals. 'Cause quite frankly, Brazil just don't have enough. Little older. So a couple guys a little older on the team. No more Barbosa. No more Andy V. It's kinda, you know, they gotta build the young talent back up. So they stand no chance. We understand that. I think the matchup we're almost excited about to start off the medal rounds is Canada-France. Although I quite frankly don't think France is good enough. I think France's guard play isn't good enough for Canada. Canada has Lou Dort, who's a great defender to guard the best player for Canada, for France, the best wing guards for France. Shay Gildress-Alexander is on another level. And Canada's doing what they're doing. Jamal Murray's playing pretty bad right now. I think Jamal Murray's averaging like 5 points during the Olympics and Canada's doing what they're doing. However, Where France could take advantage of Canada, and what's ultimately gonna be the reason Canada cannot even compete with Team USA, is Canada don't have the bigs. Dwight Powell and Kelly Olynyk, respect for both of those guys as basketball players, but they're not near good enough to compete with Bam Adebayo, Joel Embiid, Draymond Green and Anthony Davis. So when they play Team USA, if they were to get to Team USA, that right there alone can't compete. Just don't have the big player. And France has the bigs, but where you could take advantage of the size is with physicality. And they're not very physical. And so— You got the length, which is great, but I actually think Kelly Olynyk and Dwight Powell could push them around a bit. They should be able to push them around a bit. And so because they're not the most physical team, I think that can help Canada out. And I think because of that, I got Canada moving on to the semifinals and beating France. Yeah. In Paris, which I really wanted to see Team USA beat France in Paris because it just would be amazing to see Team USA. Like a couple years ago, so I played in these last two Olympics and like what you end up realizing is like the teams that, A, think they coming. I think a few years back France had won the world championship or something and they start, acting as if they were kind of better than Team USA, or they beat us in the world championship or something of that nature. And they kind of start acting as if they're on the same level of us. And that's just not a realistic thing when it comes to playing basketball. And so when you're going through these Olympics, in 2021, we lost the first game to France.
France.
Devin Booker, Jr., Drew Holliday, and Chris Middleton, who all ended up being 3 very important pieces on our team, landed the day of the game because again, we was coming off the COVID year and then the season started at Christmas. And so the Finals went all the way to July, Suns-Bucks. They then flew right after the Finals ended, landed on the day of the first game. No practices, nothing, and played. That's not why we lost. We lost because we lost. Don't really matter. We won the gold medal. But when they won that first game, I'll never forget Evan Fournier like, "Yeah, they're a good team. I mean, they're great players, but they're not a team." And then to go on and lose to us in gold medal game, we saw some tears. And it was fun to watch. And as we stood up there on that podium getting them gold medals, all of a sudden those individuals had come together as a team. And so I don't forget these things. So like when you play Olympic basketball for Team USA, like just like in the NBA where you get rivals and you build up animosity towards the team, I feel that.
Yeah.
So when I'm watching these games, I'm in it. 'Cause I feel that and I know the beefs among certain teams that we got with people. I know them. And France is one of them. And so they'll lose to Canada. And unfortunately Team USA won't be able to beat them in France. Greece, Germany is another one of our quarterfinal matchups. And I think it's great that Greece made it to the medal rounds. Quite frankly, I don't think they have enough for Germany. Germany. Has looked to me the clear-cut favorite for number 2, for the silver medal, second best team in the Olympics. To me, they're clear-cut number 2. And so I think Schroeder's great in Olympic basketball. Franz Wagner has taken the next step dominating. And I just don't think Greece has enough to compete with that. Giannis is great. But I think Germany wins that one by double digits. Germany's playing incredibly well. And I don't see that change until they play Team USA. And then we got Australia, Serbia. And I think I'm going with Serbia in this one. I think Australia's possibly on the wrong side of the hill. They are getting a bit older. I think this is Patty Mills' 4th or 5th Olympics. And Patty Mills, by the way, Patty Mills is one of the greatest Olympians from a basketball perspective of all times. What he does in FIBA basketball, I wouldn't even say Olympians, just in FIBA, FIBA basketball players, Patty Mills is incredible. And he's still playing well, but I just think they're on the wrong side as far as their older guys are going. And— Yeah. I don't think the younger guys are quite there, like talented enough to then carry those older guys. So I got Australia losing in the quarterfinals to Serbia. I think Joker's gonna have a big night. Jock Landale plays great for Australia, but Joker gonna give 'em hell. And I just don't think Australia will have enough to compete with Serbia. So I think your semifinals will look something like USA versus— Serbia. Serbia, Canada versus Germany. And then I think your final is Germany versus Team USA. Where USA walking with what would be our fifth straight gold medal. 2008, '12, '16, '20. Our fifth straight gold medal. You can book it. It's happening. You heard it here first, second, and third.
Yes, sir. You know the beautiful thing about being a sports fan? There's only like 2 days the whole year without a game. 2. With so much happening and so much action, that makes just about every day game day at DraftKings Sportsbook. It's super easy for first-timers to get started. Try betting on something simple like picking a team to win. Go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app, select your team, and place your first bet. It really couldn't be any easier or any simpler. Baseball, golf, UFC, there's something for every fan of every sport to bet on DraftKings. And I know it's early, but football season will be here before you know it. And the Kansas City Chiefs are currently the favorite to win the Super Bowl on DraftKings at +550. And if you're new to DraftKings, you gotta check this out. New customers bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code HOOPS. That's H-O-O-P-S. That's code HOOPS for new customers to get $150 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just $5, only on DraftKings. The crown is yours.
