NBA basketball returns in late October, but it'll look a little different than you remember. I synthesized the most significant shifts of the offseason by answering eight key questions.

Written & Illustrated by Jackson Boake

The 2024 Paris Olympics flipped the ordinary NBA landscape on its head. A thrilling assemblage of multinational, intergenerational hypotheticals converged on the court, supplemented by a cast of shiny new narratives set to permeate media spaces during the dog days of the offseason. Are LeBron James and Steph Curry in love? Should the Nuggets pair Nikola Jokic with Bogdan Bogdanovic in the NBA? Is Steve Kerr deliberately sabotaging the Celtics? Can anyone conquer the Red, White, and Blue?

Let’s capture the essence of this year’s Summer Games by indulging in its most riveting, intoxicating figures, ranked from 20 to 1. Some require long-winded explanations. Others, not so much.

20. Anthony Edwards - United States

12.8 ppg - 2.8 rpg - 1.2 apg - 1.7 topg - 58% fg - 48% 3p (4.2 a/g)

Edwards seized a fitting role as a primary second-unit scoring dynamo with the liberty to dance in isolation, slash in pick n’ rolls, and rev his engine in transition. He’s a lightning rod, and his scintillating talent took center stage in a 17-minute, 26-point outburst versus Puerto Rico. We witnessed decorated NBA legends differ to the Ant-Man when he got going—an incredible testament to his trajectory as a defining figure of basketball’s next generation.

It wasn’t all suns and rainbows, but that’s okay. The growing pains of a 23-year-old wunderkind exploring the breadth of his skillset are to be expected. Edwards is in the process of phasing out certain tendencies that can be disruptive to the offense as a whole—namely, his inclination to stall possessions by taking a few too many dribbles and driving into traffic, versus perpetuating the flow with quick-hitting swing passes. His turnover count eclipsed his 1.2 APG, likely a byproduct product of reverting to old habits amidst some inevitable soul-searching in an unfamiliar basketball ecosystem.

It was a pleasure to watch Edwards “figure it out” in this transformational stage of his career. He’ll be at the forefront of the American attack in the 2028 Olympic Games.

19. Giannis Antetokounmpo - Greece

25.8 ppg - 6.3 rpg - 3.5 apg - 68% fg - 17% 3p (1.5 a/g)

What more can we do than sing the praises of Antetokounmpo, who operated under a degree of heliocentricism that we’re yet to see from him at the NBA level. The Greek Freak was denied touches by multiple defenders off the ball, and on the catch, he saw at least three bodies instantaneously—two of whom smothered his airspace while the third over-shaded into the near-side driving gap. Greece’s excruciatingly stagnant offense consisted of non-threatening guards pounding the ball above the break in search of entry-pass angles to Antetokounmpo in the high post. An agonizing formula, yet one that went toe to toe with a slew of NBA mainstays representing Canada.

18. Josh Giddey - Australia

17.5 ppg - 7.8 rpg - 6.0 apg - 5.0 topg - 50% fg - 47% 3p (4.8 a/g) - 54% ft

Giddey’s Olympic performance was a breath of fresh air following a tumultuous NBA season of being tethered to the perimeter as a spot-up threat. Australia tossed him the car keys, casting him as the kingpin of a breakneck offense with the freedom to spread his wings as a temp-pushing playmaker. His fingerprints were all over each game as a slasher, glass-cleaner, table-setter, and most impressively, three-point gunner! That’s right: Giddey flashed life as a perimeter shooter—cause for bludgeoning optimism. Leveraging three-point viability is a key ingredient to generating consistent paint pressure and opening up inside-out facilitating opportunities. Hopefully, Giddey can build off his strides from this Summer.

Giddey’s untempered playmaking ambition (5.0 TOPG) and late-game indecision contributed to Australia’s ultimate demise in the Quarter-Finals versus Serbia. He’s still searching for that “Goldilocks Zone”: the middling offensive gear between unyielding dynamism and modulated maturity. Luckily for him, he’ll have plenty of time to experiment with Chicago this year.

17. Bogdan Bogdanovic - Serbia

18.3 ppg - 4.0 rpg - 3.8 apg - 48% fg- 46% 3p (6.5 a/g)

“Hey Atlanta, want to take a flier on Michael Porter Jr.? We’ll take Bogdan Bogdanovic and DeAndre Hunter off your hands!” - Nuggets GM Calvin Booth, probably.

Seriously though, Bogdanovic’s poetic chemistry with Nikola Jokic has me glued to the trade machine. Let’s bring Bogi to the Mile High City.

16. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - Canada

21.0 ppg - 4.3 rpg - 4.0 apg - 54% fg - 33% 3p (3.0 a/g)

Team Canada’s underperformance relative to pre-tournament expectations can be whittled down to numerous factors, none of which involve Gilgeous-Alexander. If anything, he was too liberal in his approach to orchestrating the offense when the team was, in fact, at its best when he tapped into “give me the ball and get out of the way” mode. His delicate, composed offensive repertoire willed Canada to crucial eleventh-hour triumphs over Greece and Spain. Death, taxes, and hyper-efficient intermediate-level scoring from SGA.

15. Franz Wagner - Germany

18.5 ppg - 5.8 rpg - 2.5 apg - 47% fg - 20% 3p (5.8 a/g)

I’ve never seen a player with immaculate basketball instincts and such a robust foundation of skills leave so much to be desired, and yet make as profound of an impact as Wagner. The German swingman recently inked a Five-Year, $224M rookie scale extension with the Orlando Magic just weeks ago—one that was met with intense scrutiny rooted in his imperfections on display as an NBA Junior.

The phrase “shoot for the moon, land among the stars” epitomizes Wagner. For such a hoops savant, how on Earth is he not a better distance shooter? He doesn’t pop off the screen athletically, nor does he dazzle in the open floor like other young guns of his class. Worst of all, he capped his third-year campaign with a ghastly 1-for-15 shooting performance in Game 7 against Cleveland.

Yet, despite this extensive space for pronounced growth, Wagner still offers a baseline of efficient slashing, steady playmaking, veteran savvy, and immense versatility. His +5.3 on/off swing this past season smashed all other Magic starters. His consistent outpouring of paint pressure buoys a congested Orlando offense, while his blend of size, switchability, and off-ball vigilance is a key component for their stifling defense. Continued investment in Wagner’s upside is essential to the Magic’s long-term title aspirations.

All of what I just said, the good and bad, perfectly encapsulates the Wagner experience in the Paris Olympics. In a vacuum, he was great! Even under the alternative confines of international basketball, he did what he does: veer and connive his way into the paint for efficient two-point shot creation. His stretches of assertiveness produced near double-digit free-throw attempts versus France in Group Play and Serbia in the Bronze Medal Game. He both contained the ball on the perimeter and disrupted drives on the interior. There was a lot to like. 

But man, the three-point shooting and elimination-game voodoo grew disheartening. He cashed just 7-of-35 perimeter shots over six games—solid volume, frightening accuracy. Germany’s biggest game of the summer came against France in the Semi-Finals. After ripping off a quick seven points in the opening frame, the disappearing act that followed was a scathing reminder of his Game 7 horrors from a few months back.

I’m so fascinated by Wagner. He’s an indisputable bedrock for a blossoming organization, but is he worth north of $200M? The jury is still out.  

14. Luol Deng - South Sudan

The South Sudanese basketball revolution was the unequivocal feel-good story of the 2024 Olympic Games—and one that was unbridled by the personal funding of Sudanese native turned refugee and NBA star, Luol Deng. 

An imposing, omnipresent triple-double from Carlik Jones and the sweltering shooting prowess of Marial Shayok had Americans staring down the barrel of a shotgun in a harrowing exhibition thriller. A signature steamroll from LeBron James with eight ticks remaining was enough for Team USA to circumvent a historic 43.5-point upset, but nonetheless, South Sudan experienced a genuine basketball coronation on the global stage. Soon after, the nation captioned its first-ever Olympic victory in a 90-79 win over Puerto Rico.

13. Bruno Caboclo - Brazil

17.3 ppg - 7.0 rpg - 59% fg - 55% 3p (2.8 a/g)

Welcome to the most underappreciated subplot of international play: the Draft Bust Renaissance. 

The NBA has become increasingly calculated, with hyper-specific, data-driven parameters shepherding player utilization, roster building, financial maneuvers, etc. The contrast between Caboclo’s foiled NBA endeavors and expansive international utility is a microcosm for the situational dependency of certain skillsets and archetypes. Assessing his game through a more progressive, modernized scope yields parallel perspectives to NBA General Managers: he’s a low-volume spot-up non-threat who shackles your collective spacing when plugged onto the perimeter, yet an insufficient small-ball center hindered by his limited interior defensive chops. In theory, the inverse of this would be an analytics darling—Caboclo just isn’t optimized in this setting.

But the confines of the international game are far less restrictive, and in a way, focus more on what a player “can” do than what he “can’t." A tranquilized fixation on rim protection—the byproduct of a more qualitative-over-quantitative approach—and looser emphasis on the powers of spacing make Caboclo’s drawbacks appear far less detrimental. Combine that with his scaled-up usage amongst an inferior talent pool, and you have a basketball ecosystem that is much more conducive to gifted but “antiquated” players like Caboclo.

Caboclo was once tagged as being “two years away from being two years away”—a derivative of his rare blend of length, mobility, and ball-handling with an obvious slight to his egregious stipulations. He may have never panned out in the NBA, but it was fun to see the flashes of old materialize in this alternative Olympic universe. The highlights? Monstrous 33-point, 17-rebound, and 30-point, six-rebound performances versus Japan and the United States.

12. Dennis Schroder - Germany

17.2 ppg - 7.5 apg - 3.3 topg - 46% fg - 39% 3p (7.7 a/g)

I’ve always had an irrational fondness for Schroder and his manic, balls-to-the-wall attitude and intensity. There’s a lack of malleability to his uniquely linear, nose-down style of creation, but when he’s operating at the helm, he’s more than capable of fueling an effective offense with his incessant paint pressure and creative playmaking. Schroder seizes that very role with Germany, spamming spread pick n’ rolls with Daniel Theis and digging into his bag of tricks to create advantages by exploiting opposing big men in space. He’s quicker than you, craftier than you, and definitely not afraid of you. 

For better or worse, Schroder’s eyes light up at the sight of the front-running Americans. In their sole exhibition matchup this Summer, his brimming confidence manifested itself in multiple forms—a dismal 3/15 shooting performance, yet a net-positive two-way effort featuring 10 assists and suffocating defense both on and off the ball versus Steph Curry. 

Ultimately, Germany’s non-medaling outcome is an indictment on their concentrated offensive attack—but that’s no knock on Schroder himself. If Franz Wagner can find another next gear as a true co-directing offensive engine, this team will be an international force.

11. Devin Booker - United States

11.7 ppg - 3.3 apg - 57% fg - 57% 3p (3.8 a/g)

Has any player bolstered their public perception more than Booker this summer? It’s pretty well documented at this point: his adaptation to a concentrated, assiduous role with Team USA was seamless. He flew around screens, executed razor-sharp reads off the catch, shot a homing missile from the perimeter, and buckled down on defense to a level that we hadn’t yet seen from him.

Mr. Booker: please shoot more threes with Phoenix next season!

10. Jamal Murray - Canada

6.0 ppg - 3.8 apg - 29% fg - 14% 3p (3.5 a/g) - -5.8 +/-

I’m not going to disparage a max-level NBA player who’s grappling with evolving responsibilities next to a ball-dominant guard (Gilgeous-Alexander), popped routinely in big moments before, and is just a year removed from co-captaining a championship team. 

Gulps 

But this was a hard watch. Murray’s never been an elite athlete, but his first-step burst and lateral agility looked completely shot over this entire stretch. I’m kindly stamping the evaporation of his shooting touch as an aberration, but his utter inability to manufacture crevices of space in isolations, pick n’ rolls, and DHOs was irrefutably disturbing.

Canada was -23 (!) over 82 minutes with Murray on the court in non-exhibition outings—none of which were inorganically deflated by a matchup versus the United States. Retrospectively, the alternative of Andrew Nembhard’s point-of-attack defense and efficient three-level scoring was probably a better late-game option—though that might be the lingering PTSD of a Celtics fan talking.

Let’s hope Murray bounces back in his ‘24-25 campaign. Denver absolutely needs it.

9. Mathias Lessort - France

7.2 ppg - 3.3 rpg - 67% fg - 60% ft (4.2 a/g)

If you didn’t watch the Olympics, you’re probably confused by my ranking of a guy you’ve never heard of who averaged seven points and three rebounds.

But I was mesmerized, enthralled, and bewitched by all 82 minutes from the “French Harrell” (I just made that up) this summer. Lessort, a 6’9” battering ram emblematic of a blast-from-the-past archetype, completely usurped Rudy Gobert as France’s screwball in the non-Victor Wembanyama minutes. His incessant motor crested in a cinematic quarter-final performance versus Canada, where he swung the balance of the game by brutalizing Dwight Powell and Kelly Olynyk for 14 free-throw attempts in 19 minutes.

The undersized, interior-focused small-ball center is antithetical to the trajectory of the modern NBA, so Lessort’s destiny is probably as a skull-masher overseas—but he’s worth keeping tabs on moving forward.

8. Joel Embiid - United States

11.2 ppg - 3.8 rpg - 57% fg - 54% 3p (2.2 a/g)

I’m still searching for the best adjective to describe Embiid’s 2024 Olympic campaign. Bumpy? Polarizing? Resilient? It’s kind of a mix of all three. His decision to play for the USA over France was not met kindly by the fans, given that the Olympics were held in … well, France. Thus, emphatic booing careened from the crowd on each catch, dribble, and shot; reminiscent of Kyrie Irving’s return to the Boston parquet or Vince Carter in Toronto post-breakup in 2004. He certainly has his share of cynics here in the States, but the anti-Embiid troupe only multiplies overseas.

Embiid’s on-court play was also mired in controversy. He stalled the offense on high post touches by catching, collecting, faking, and barrelling toward the rim at a deliberate pace, contradicting the organizational emphasis on tempo and movement. His poor conditioning, omnipresent in transition and as a pick n’ roll defender, became a throbbing pressure point in an otherwise staunch American defense. 

But the buzz surrounding Embiid’s poor play vanished in an instant after a torrid pair of elimination game performances versus Brazil and Serbia. In a combined 39 minutes of play, he totaled 33 points and 11 rebounds on 13/17 FG and 5/6 3P. The USA outscored opponents by 40 points over that stretch. 

This was the Embiid we’ve become so accustomed to seeing on a nightly basis in the NBA; an inevitable, indestructible palisade of force blending ox-like strength with surgical precision. The playoffs are a different animal, and one that he’s yet to fully conquer, but perhaps we can learn from his eventual high-leverage Olympic dominance. In operating as a secondary option without the onus of creating every ounce of offense, Embiid focused more on finishing plays than initiating them. With the ascension of Tyrese Maxey and the home-run acquisition of Paul George, maybe the Sixers can replicate this formula to harness maximum energy and efficiency from their certified superstar.

7. Rudy Gobert - France

3.3 ppg - 4.0 rpg - 1.3 bpg - 69% fg - 14.2 mpg

For better or worse, the “Stifle Tower” has become a permanent fixture in NBA discourse of the utmost toxicity. These conversations, in which Gobert is portrayed as the maligned adversary to hoops purists, hot-take hunters, and analytics skeptics, are some blend of hostile, humorous, and illuminating. Needless to say, the Olympics dumped a river of petrol on the fire.

Gobert is excellent at what he does, but his nonexistent malleability to venture beyond a hyper-specific role spelled death for France’s double-bigs experiment with Victor Wembanyama. Coach Vincent Collet wanted to play fast, free, and spaced; an obverse approach to twin-tower lineups with multiple seven-footers inhabiting the paint. Gobert and Wembanyama were essentially negating each other, and when forced to choose, France unsurprisingly sided with its 20-year-old evolutionary marvel dropped from outer space—relegating Gobert to second-unit duties.

Only, those were quickly usurped as well—this time by Mathias Lessort in a shocking turn of events orchestrated by Collet. The move made sense, but it’s important to acknowledge the situational context before using it to nuke what’s left of Gobert’s reputation. He’s a ceiling raiser to the bone, with momentous two-way rim gravity accessible in an environment furnished with playmakers to assume the responsibilities that Gobert himself cannot. But the floor is as low as the ceiling is high, and the architecture of France’s roster tapped into its deepest, darkest depths. In the absence of trusty table-setters and marksman floor spacers, Gobert was forced to operate in congestion—a scenario in which he’s handicapped by his stone-mitted hands, poor touch, and frenetic composure at the whiff of resistance.

This simply didn’t work out. Unfavorable conditions magnified the worst of his weaknesses, while France’s roster simultaneously housed perhaps the only other human on Earth capable of replicating his superpower of clasping the rim defensively. This shouldn’t be an indictment on Gobert’s NBA viability, but rather a testament to the uniqueness of the single most polarizing basketball figure of our generation.

6. Guerschon Yabusele - France

14.0 ppg - 3.3 rpg - 52% fg - 29% 3p (3.5 a/g)

The “Dancing Bear,” selected 16th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, headlines part two of the Draft Bust Renaissance. A burling embodiment of physicality with traces of shooting touch and quick-hitting passing chops, Yabusele was always an interesting case in theory—just not so much in practice. He was simply too big and slow to slide with wings on the perimeter, yet not nearly the vertical leaper to deter shots around the rim. His offensive skillset hadn’t materialized, and thus, he didn’t really have a niche on that end of the court either. 

Fast forward to 2024, and Yabusele has made the necessary amendments to fulfill expectations of the past. He’s fine-tuned both his body and his footwork—catalysts for a newfound defensive nimbleness in covering ground and sliding laterally. This surfaces in tight confines on the perimeter—navigating screens, blitzing DHOs, mirroring evasive guards on quick switches, etc.—as well as in open areas, whether that entails guarding in space for extended stretches or flying from the weakside to contest airborne finishers at the hoop.

Yabusele is now firmly on the radar of NBA teams, and rightfully so—provided that his Olympic reformation wasn’t a mirage. The perpendicularity of a 6-foot-7 “stretchmark-four” versus the dynamic, multipositional next-gen wing colonizers will raise eyebrows, but Yabusele’s physical imposition poses a unique counter in itself to the vulnerabilities of downsized lineups. 

5. Jayson Tatum - United States

5.3 ppg - 5.3 rpg - 38% fg - 0/4 3p

Disclaimer: I’m talking about my favorite player here.

I abhor the fact that this has become such a focal point of the Olympic media circus, but here we are. Unless you’ve been living under a rock (not derogatory) or just don’t really follow basketball (derogatory), you’re probably familiar with what happened here: on an abundantly crowded roster of NBA legends, ascending phenoms, and seamless complimentary chips to iron out the wrinkles, Tatum was more or less omitted from the blueprint. He played sparingly, if at all—seeing the court in just four of six games and aggregating the second-fewest minutes on the team. 

Tatum’s brief stints were an evident psychological struggle. He grappled with role obscurity, juggled contrasting motives of “blending in” and “standing out,” and clearly struggled to establish any rhythm within the flow of the game. His jumpshot vaporized, and overall production was discombobulated by a tangible dissonance with what his team wanted to do.

Ultimately, the effort to make things work was one-sided; and that is where I have a problem with Kerr’s management of the situation. Kerr entered the Olympics having previously devised a framework for what he wanted the team to look like and how he wanted the pieces to fit, and this plan didn’t include Tatum at all. Tatum is widely considered one of the most “versatile” players in the league, so Kerr’s assumption was that he’d be able to adapt to what was in front of him—but that’s rooted in a misunderstanding of what versatility actually entails. Tatum’s size, athleticism, and expansive skillset allow him to assume a myriad of roles, but those roles have to be established for him to thrive. Think of him like a musician: he may be able to rap, sing, dance, and play a couple of instruments, but that doesn’t mean he can freestyle.

There are plenty of ways in which Kerr could’ve integrated Tatum into the functioning of Team USA. Bam Adebayo spent extended stretches orchestrating sets out of the high post next to Anthony Davis in the second unit, and while the supersized, ubiquitous partnership served its ostensible defensive purpose, the over-congestion of interior-located forces neutered the USA’s offense to similar extents. This is where I’d plug in Tatum: an equally virtuosic high post offensive hub, but with extra splashes of self-initiation and downhill dynamism to offset the inadequacies of Davis, who’s generally less equipped to pull defenders away from the hoop himself. Adding another ball-handler in Tatum would also tap into sequences of uptempo, coast-to-coast offense—a dimension well-suited for lineups predicated on churning stops and safeguarding the defensive glass. Tatum replicates a large portion (obviously to a lesser extent, but nonetheless) of Adebayo’s defensive expertise: the size, switchability, out-of-zone glass-eating, etc. Thus, I’d estimate that the presumable offensive upgrade from Bam to Jayson would vastly outweigh the defensive dip.

I would have loved to see sporadic reps, at minimum, of Tatum handling the ball in pick n’ rolls. “True 4s” (Guerschon Yabusele, Johannes Thiemann, Bruno Cabocolo, etc.) are far more abundant in Euro-ball and the most likely counter to Tatum’s rangy, robust frame, so why not coerce them into guarding perimeter-oriented actions—exploiting the very thing that’s driven them towards NBA obsolescence. That aside, Tatum is a provenly exceptional playmaker in these situations. His 1.16 PPP as a pick n’ roll ball-handler in the 2024 playoffs ranked in the 92nd percentile amongst qualifiers. Insert the counterbalancing gravity of Anthony Davis as a rim-roller with unerring snipers dispersing the perimeter, and you’ve got an irrepressible formula for offensive success.

I’ll curb my visions of Tatum crushing smaller defenders on an island or diving into space off Curry-ushered pick n’ rolls before this forks into its own essay. Kerr had to address some fickle rotational challenges head-on, and while I understand why he prioritized who he did, Tatum is the caliber of player that you invest in—no matter the cost.  

4. Stephen Curry - United States

14.8 ppg - 50% fg - 48% 3p (7.7 a/g)

Curry hit on just five of his 19 three-point attempts over his first three Olympic showings. For most NBA players, a singular week of 26% perimeter shooting is trivial. But for the greatest shooter of all time, it’s all but foreign. 

Coach Kerr deserves credit for his continued investment through adversity in one of the top players the world has to offer, and I promise this isn’t a passive-aggressive jab at his management of Jayson T-- okay, fine, I’m lying. Still, Curry’s mere presence boasts a degree of off-ball gravity that’s completely and utterly unique, necessitating a defender affixed to the back of his jersey at all times, in all locations. If you think a short-lived cold spell is changing that, you’re wrong—his unrivaled flammability being the reason for my conviction.

And boy, did Curry ever find his shooting touch—detonating and dazzling in back-to-back miraculous performances to net a Gold Medal finish for his country. Over the final two games, Curry averaged 30.0 PPG, 8.5 3PM, and 3.5 APG, slashing 63%/65%/100% splits and buttressing the team’s offensive attack when it mattered most. For a while, Curry’s first Olympic stint was headed south—until the powder keg erupted into oblivion. When the pendulum swings, it swings quickly.

Flammability personified.

3. Victor Wembanyama - France

15.8 ppg - 9.7 rpg - 3.3 apg - 2.0 spg - 1.7 bpg - 42% fg - 29% 3p (6.3 a/g) 

We’re all familiar with Wembanyama: a skyscraping, spellbinding concoction of inimitable physical and technical attributes bending the boundaries of conceived reality. From logo threes to paranormal poster dunks to dexterous dribble maneuvers straight from the book of prime Jamal Crawford, it feels like we’ve seen it all in just the infantile stages of his NBA career.

And yet, the Olympics proved that we haven’t seen it all; doing so by shining a light on what a slightly tempered version of Wembayana might look like in a more competitive setting. He was presented with a fresh set of obstacles. The shrunken court, narrowed in its literal dimensions and further compressed by France’s semi-deficient spacing, offered far less room for Wembanyama to wield the breadth of his 8-foot wingspan as a creator; the kinks of international officiating—namely, the leniency toward contact and physicality—allowed smaller opponents to attack his lower center of gravity by guarding into his chest; and the limited capacity of his auxiliary offensive options forced him to generate every ounce of his own offense (hello, Nolan Traore).

The scoring product wasn’t always pretty, but Wembanyama’s greatness extends far beyond his point totals. He converted just six of 27 field goal attempts over a critical two-game stretch versus Canada and Germany, but chipped in substantial contributions as a rebounder, facilitator, and defensive stalwart while executing sound on-ball decisions in big moments. He then erupted in the finals, pairing a hyper-efficient 26 points with four offensive rebounds and just two turnovers as the axis of Team USA’s defensive gameplan.

Wembanyama still has so much room for growth; that’s what invokes such a tantalizing sense of terror in basketball fans projecting what’s to come. His shotmaking will soar, his handle will complexify, and his inherently clairvoyant anticipation will only sharpen; all while the game itself slows down with experience. It’s important we cherish this moment, where Wembanyama’s insusceptibility to the inevitable, cherry-picked criticisms of the media machine are merely a perk of his adolescence. Before we know it, his unadorned ring finger will become a point of scrutiny. And even if that’s rectified, there’s always going to be more to poke at.

2. Nikola Jokic - Serbia

18.8 ppg - 10.7 rpg - 8.7 apg - 2.0 spg - 54% fg - 17% 3p (3.0 a/g) 

Even in the absence of viable surrounding talent (speaking relatively), Jokic’s resolve to team-oriented basketball prevailed. Serbia’s offense postulated on the sociable, egalitarian approach of its best player—never once bending into the heliocentric ways that such a skill gap would suggest. Jokic is hardwired to a unique brand of basketball that’s both founded on hyperspecific tendencies and yet malleable enough to adapt to the personnel around him. Serbia almost took down Team USA in what would have been an upset of epic proportions, but the Bronze Medal is another genuine resume enhancer for the Joker.

1. LeBron James - United States

14.2 ppg - 6.8 rpg - 8.5 apg - 4.0 topg - 66% fg - 31% 3p (2.2 a/g)

This one obliges little introduction or explanation. At 39 (yes, 39) years old, LeBron spearheaded America’s Whether a product of his unrivaled pedigree James’ motivation to restore America’s