U.S. 3×3 basketball off to rocky Olympics start. What’s the future for the sport? Our experts debate

The Athletic has launched a new series of sports debates in which two writers break down a specific topic. In this Olympic edition, Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman discuss the U.S. 3×3 team.

Ben Pickman: While the U.S. five-on-five basketball teams are undefeated (on both the men’s and women’s side), the 3×3 teams have gotten off to less than ideal starts. On Wednesday afternoon, Team USA women’s 3×3 team dropped its second straight game to open the Paris Olympics, losing to Azerbaijan 20-17. Sabreena, before we get into a broader conversation about the program, what have you made of the Americans’ start?

Sabreena Merchant: In a word, it’s been bleak. The U.S. is 0-2 with five pool play games to go, so it can still advance to the knockout stage — in 2021, a 2-5 record was good enough to move on — but there aren’t promising indicators that the Americans will be able to string together wins.

Team USA has looked inexperienced and uncomfortable with 3×3 basketball. On the one hand, it’s surprising, since the Americans are the defending gold medalists and world champions. On the other hand, this group of Cierra Burdick, Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard and Hailey Van Lith had never played a tournament together, and only Burdick and Van Lith remain from either the Olympic or World Cup teams.

Pickman: Injuries have had an impact on the group’s composition as Cameron Brink was the World Cup’s MVP but is missing the Olympics after tearing her ACL on June 18. (Hamby replaced her.) Howard played in the Atlanta Dream’s final game before WNBA All-Star Weekend, but she had missed a month leading up to it with a lower leg injury. Yet that doesn’t fully explain what we’re seeing. As you said, they look disjointed, and in 3×3 where playing on a string seems so important, the lapses are even more glaring.

#3x3WNT returns to action against Australia (7 am ET) & Spain (3:30 pm ET) tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/oMJvguiUuk

— USA Basketball 3×3 (@usab3x3) July 31, 2024

Merchant: Before we get into the on-court product, let’s start with the roster construction. It’s not as if the selection committee can take the best WNBA players who aren’t on the five-on-five team, as was essentially the case in 2021, when the sport was new to the Olympics and a strict qualification procedure hadn’t been established. Players have to compete in 3×3 events and accumulate points, which is how Burdick and Van Lith made their way onto this team and why more well-known names like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese aren’t here. Even so, this squad’s makeup raised a few questions, even before it lost the first two games.

My biggest concern was the absence of Allisha Gray, a 3×3 Olympian in 2021 who was in the training camp pool in April. Leaving behind an experienced player who also happens to be a WNBA All-Star was a strange choice at the time and looks even worse now.

Pickman: It certainly aged poorly, and it’s especially jarring considering that Howard, Gray’s Dream teammate and a two-time WNBA All-Star, has struggled so mightily. Through two games, Howard — who mind you, might be the most skilled player in the entire field — has scored a combined 2 points. She has made 2 of 13 field goal attempts and missed all seven 3-pointers. Her defense was better against Azerbaijan, but it was an issue against Germany.

Merchant: That’s putting it mildly. Perhaps this is a function of the U.S.’s scheme hanging Howard out to dry, but how many possessions ended with her trailing her assignment as they scored directly at the basket? As you mentioned, Howard is arguably the most talented player who will take the court at Place de la Concorde, but her 3×3 experience began in April, and she doesn’t look ready to compete for a gold medal in a sport that is far more different than five-on-five than it may seem at first.

Pickman: The team’s head coach, Jennifer Rizzotti, said she had initial concerns about Howard’s transition from five-on-five to 3×3 but came away impressed by Howard’s development over a seven-day camp this spring. Howard can score at an elite level, but the Americans need her to be more effective.

Let’s be clear, too, this isn’t all on her. It is 3×3 after all.

Merchant: It’s fair to say Howard was the main culprit against Germany, but Van Lith took up that mantle against Azerbaijan, when Tiffany Hayes of the Las Vegas Aces destroyed her in isolation. Hayes targeted the matchup against smaller Van Lith and easily finished over her again and again, and Van Lith couldn’t score enough (she shot 3 of 11) to compensate with her offense.

Pickman: Hayes was, and has been, excellent. Through two games, she leads all players with 10.5 points, seven rebounds and 4.5 defensive rebounds a game, as well as an efficiency value of 28.3.

Merchant: Going up against Hayes was oddly reminiscent of Van Lith’s most recent college game, when she was picked on by Clark in the 2024 Elite Eight. At 5-foot-7, Van Lith is too slight for some guard matchups, and it’s much harder to hide her with only three players on the floor, especially when the U.S. doesn’t have a dominant rim protector like Brink behind her.

Pickman: Van Lith and Brink developed chemistry playing together when both were in college. You make a good point that her weaknesses are likely exposed more without the 6-4 forward. But as the lone collegian on this roster, Van Lith’s inclusion (and the group’s struggles so far) also raises another question: What caliber of players should the U.S. be bringing into the 3×3 program?

Merchant: Although it would be ideal to bring as much talent as possible to the Olympics, it’s too risky to rely on WNBA players who miss the cut for the five-on-five team, which is what appears to have been the case with Howard. The 3×3 game relies on team chemistry rather than strong individual play, and the Americans need to build reps. Maybe we’re not having this conversation if Brink is healthy, as the U.S. would have three-fourths of its 2023 World Cup squad, but as it stands, talent alone isn’t working for the Americans.

Pickman: But maybe the roster isn’t composed of the four players who miss the five-on-five cut (and as we said, it can’t be directly that), but there has to be some kind of middle ground, right? Are there not other WNBA players who won’t make a five-on-five roster who can become staples of the 3×3 program?

Merchant: The problem with that pathway is it requires players to willfully take themselves out of consideration for the big team, which is a hard pill to swallow. Think about Kelsey Plum back in 2021: The only reason she was in the 3×3 pool was because an Achilles injury prevented her from playing five-on-five. She and Jackie Young jumped up to five-on-five as soon as they could, and even Gray went to five-on-five USA camps before ultimately coming back to the 3×3 pool in April.

In addition to the ego hit, players would have to commit to 3×3 events during the offseason, which is their time to make bigger salaries playing overseas. That’s another sacrifice, especially when we’re talking about a second tier of players who don’t necessarily make big bucks in endorsements.

Pickman: Speaking of big bucks, though, I wonder if the new Unrivaled three-on-three league will get more players interested in this format. Unrivaled operates with different rules and does not give out FIBA points, but it still has some loose similarities. Mainly that it is nominally three-on-three. Could even just a few players take part in Unrivaled, realize they like the format, and elect to play in more USA Basketball 3×3 competitions? Maybe that’s another pipeline strengthener.

Merchant: I don’t think Unrivaled will help in any meaningful way. First of all, the pool of players is mostly players who are trying to get on the five-on-five team. Secondly, the full-court style of play is different enough that I don’t think it will help players transition to the FIBA version of 3×3. Throughout the launch, the Unrivaled team has emphasized the amount of space in its version of three-on-three and the fact that it creates less wear and tear on the players — that is the complete opposite of the physicality that exists in Olympics 3×3.

Instead of the WNBA route, USA Basketball might be best served thinking younger. The best way to get players to commit to this brand of basketball is by making it a feeder system for the big team, and that only works if they’re either in college or recently graduated.

Pickman: That’s reasonable, too, and we witnessed at All-Star Weekend a number of high-level college players (Mikaylah Williams, Cotie McMahon, Serah Williams and Lucy Olsen, Christina Dalce and Morgan Maly) taking part in an exhibition contest with the U.S. Olympic team. The aforementioned group was the U.S. U23 Nations League roster and went undefeated in its tournament.

Let’s close, though, with a fun hypothetical. Putting qualification restrictions aside, if you were selecting four WNBA players not on the five-on-five team to play 3×3 in the Olympics, who would you take?

Merchant: Setting aside the fact that Burdick belongs on this roster and has looked pretty great even as the U.S. has struggled, my four are: Gray, Arike Ogunbowale, Bri Jones and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. My toughest omissions are Stefanie Dolson (a 2021 Olympian who has probably aged out of 3×3) and Chennedy Carter.

Pickman: I agree with Gray and Ogunbowale. I’ll put Carter on my roster, too, and go with Aliyah Boston to round out the group.

It would also be exciting to take four players from one team, like Clark, Boston, Kelsey Mitchell and NaLyssa Smith, or Ogunbowale, Jacy Sheldon, Maddy Siegrist and Natasha Howard. Either way, those are all debates for another time. We’ll learn a lot more about this year’s 3×3 team soon. On Thursday, the U.S. plays Australia at 7 a.m. (ET) and Spain at 3:30 p.m. (ET).

(Photo of Rhyne Howard: Lars Baron / Getty Images)