The Blue-White Game is, by nature, delightfully irrelevant. Team USA needs to be tested against international players who play an international style, but instead they do what they can: split up and go to work against themselves. The result is an All-Star Game-esque three-point shooting and dunking exhibition, and while the level of competition is ultimately a bit higher than the ASG, there’s no way around just how limited the scrimmage is as an evaluative process.

With that in mind, here are a few thoughts from last night’s scrimmage, complete with evaluative limitations!:

• Part of the beauty of Team USA is that it offers players an opportunity to thrive in ways they simply aren’t allowed on their current NBA squads. Case in point: Andre Iguodala. The Sixers have a lot of young talent, but no one productive enough to slide Iguodala into a more comfortable role/usage rate. Team USA has point guards coming out of its ears, and all of them will be looking to set Iguodala up for his next huge dunk or three. Meanwhile, Iggy quietly goes to work as the Americans’ top perimeter defender, capable of playing in conservative, shot-altering defenses or in Coach Krzyzewski’s preferred high-pressure approach. His two-way excellence is noted on the NBA level, but when he has other quality players to make up for his weaknesses on offense? He’s fantastic. K called Iguodala “an important part of the team,” and he’s not wrong.
• No, Jeff Green, your turnaround jumpers will not be needed in Turkey.
• One thing working in Kevin Love’s favor that goes beyond his rebounding (Though it’s worth noting that Love once gathered three offensive rebounds on a single trip down the floor in the BW Game, kicking it out to an open teammate each time.) is that unlike the other bigs on the roster, Love has legit FIBA three-point range. He’s capable of spotting up in the corner on the weak side to balance the ball action, or even roll out off a screen to set up shop at the free throw line extended. Brook Lopez, judging from his bizarre love affair with the 22-foot set shot last season, only wishes he could be used similarly.
• The fast breaks were an absolute mess. Though it’s not particularly useful to gauge the team’s strengths and weaknesses in a game like this, it does give us a decent read on the players’ chemistry. Right now, it’s pretty miserable. The stanchion caught more outlet passes than anyone else did. Things got a bit better as the game progressed, but it’s clear that Team USA has a lot of work to do in all areas offensively, even the simplest ones.
• Both teams took a ton of three-pointers. The Orlando Magic averaged 0.57 three-point attempts per minute last season (27.3 per game), which is fairly remarkable. The White team yesterday? 0.73 attempts per minute. Both Team USA squads were very accurate from beyond the arc, yet I can’t help but feel that they may be missing the point. Having a shorter three-point line is an advantage, and being able to space the floor is paramount. Yet in yesterday’s game, both teams looked like they were shooting threes just to shoot threes.American teams have struggled in the past not because of their reluctance to take the three, but because when all of the other options were shut down, they couldn’t. The players trying out for this year’s squad are desperate to prove that they won’t go the way of their forefathers, so they fire away. To me, it just feels a bit backwards. They’re trying to prove they can create good offensive possessions by generating bad ones; in their effort to prove they can take and make threes in Turkey, Team USA as a collective (in this one scrimmage, anyway) took (and in all fairness, made) all kinds of threes, both good and bad. Something to keep an eye on.
• JaVale McGee may not be my favorite big on the roster, but he can run the damn floor. He was active in his nine-ish minutes, but my primary concerns still hold: McGee can look good against other teams that don’t have legit centers (he was on the same team as Brook Lopez), but will he really be able to produce and defend against FIBA-caliber bigs?
• I want to trust Lamar Odom to make the right plays, but how do you not worry about him? Odom does much more right than wrong, but I still feel like this team has almost no margin for error in the World Championships and yet Lamar will inevitably flirt with it.
• It’s easy to forget just how good Russell Westbrook is. The guy is an absolute lock to make the final roster in my mind, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him go nuts in Turkey.
• Tyson Chandler looks like the top center on the roster, particularly because Brook Lopez was rather unimpressive in his exhibition debut. Games like these don’t exactly favor Lopez, but Chandler (and McGee, to an extent) looked far more useful defensively. Despite reports that Chandler came into training camp out of basketball shape, he was mobile and effective last night, helping to deter some — some — of the Blue team’s drives to the basket. There were a few surprisingly productive players in the BW game, but Chandler seriously impressed.
• Eric Gordon (16 points, 4-of-7 threes, two steals) played rather well, but none of it means a damn thing. It’s not fair, and it doesn’t have to be. Gordon is a solid player, but there just isn’t room for him on this roster. O.J. Mayo shares too many of his strengths but has more explosive scoring capabilities, and the number of point guards that can play off the ball should nudge Gordon out of contention.
• Ultimately, the Blue-White Game is appropriately labeled a ‘showcase.’ It’s easy to see the things that Team USA does well, and it’s easy to laud the skills — Derrick Rose’s speed with the ball, Kevin Durant’s scoring, the overall roster’s versatility — that make this team so intriguing. But without real competition, it’s almost impossible to properly evaluate this team’s weaknesses, and how much they’ll come to impact USA’s run through the World Championships.