Paris Olympics Futures Bets: Team USA & Simone Biles' Quests

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00:00The opening weekend of Paris Olympic action into the first

00:06four weeks of action at the Olympiad over in France. Jacob

00:11Kamenker from Sporting News joins us live right here on

00:14this Monday morning for his Olympic assessment. We hit on

00:18everything Jacob and that is your expertise from the

00:21basketball hardwood both in the men's and women's game. We'll

00:24talk some gymnastics and Simone Biles despite being injured

00:28during warm-ups getting out there on the floor once again

00:32over in Paris. Plenty to break down. We appreciate your time

00:36to start off this new week. Thanks for having me guys.

00:39Happy to be here. We are glad to have you here of course and

00:44we start with Team USA in its hopes of winning a fifth

00:48consecutive men's basketball gold medal. A shaky exhibition

00:53series that did feature a matchup against Serbia that was

00:57the Americans' best performance and in the Olympic

01:00opener yesterday, another dominant performance over

01:03Nikola Jokic and Serbia. 110-84. Team USA Jacob

01:09covering is a 13 and a half point favorite. A total of 185

01:13and a hook does sky over. Led by LeBron James and Kevin Durant

01:18in his first action this summer with Team USA. The Americans

01:22make a statement in their Olympic opener. What did it say

01:26to you about Team USA in its hunt for a fifth straight gold

01:29medal? I think it just goes to show the depth of this team. I

01:34mean we talk about this every year just how deep the quality

01:37of the US rosters are but I think specifically this year

01:41we have LeBron James back in action. You have Kevin Durant

01:43there. You have Steph Curry there. You have all the star

01:46players from United States pretty much in this tournament

01:50and we saw early in the game the first half it was a little

01:53shaky. They were figuring out their rotations a bit. I thought

01:56Joel Embiid struggled a bit. He only ended up playing 11

01:59minutes. So I think Steve Kerr is still trying to figure out

02:02the best way to utilize these guys and you know Jason Tatum

02:06didn't even play and Kerr after the game said he felt like an

02:09idiot not playing him but that's just how great this team

02:12is. You can sit Jason Tatum and be fine. So I think you're

02:16going to see him continue to mix and match. Try to figure out

02:18the best matchups and you know maybe don't put Embiid in a

02:22game where you might have to guard a guy like Jokic maybe

02:24not at least in long stretches. So I think it was good to see

02:27them kind of learn in the first half and then in the second

02:30half pull away. I think if you're a United States

02:32basketball fan, you're feeling pretty good about that. No doubt

02:36about it and also taking a look at the superstars on this team

02:39in one LeBron James 27 minutes 9 of 13 from the field 21 points

02:43strips in with seven rebounds and nine assists. I can't say

02:46like Jacob we're not surprised by this year but it looks like

02:49that true alpha dog on Team USA is LeBron James. Yeah, he still

02:55seems to be that guy and he seems to want to run things

02:58through him and Team USA I think realizes that LeBron's

03:02experience and his ability to operate both as a forward, a

03:06scorer, a slasher, and a distributor as a point forward

03:10type is invaluable to this team because LeBron just has such a

03:13high basketball IQ 20 plus years of experience at this

03:17point and so much on the Olympic stage that they know

03:20if they run things through him, things are probably going to go

03:23pretty smoothly. The right guy is going to get the ball. The

03:25right guy is going to get an open shot. They're going to be

03:27good in transition if he has the ball in his hands. So I know

03:30there will be some LeBron haters out there who say, oh,

03:33he's hogging the ball too much. He's trying to do too much by

03:36himself. No, if just this team works best when he is the one

03:40making the decisions and being that floor general. So I expect

03:43that to continue and I expect him to continue to post solid,

03:46well-rounded stat lines like you mentioned. Jacob Donnie

03:50wants to be a LeBron hater but can't even do it. LeBron nearly

03:55post a triple double in the Olympic opener. The Americans

03:59Jacob have been a heavy favorite to win a fifth

04:01consecutive gold medal at the Olympic Games since these odds

04:04became available but it was only minus 400 after the five

04:09game exhibition series that led to a couple of questions

04:12perhaps about the US after their Olympic opener in the

04:16impressive victory over Serbia. Now minus 550. Canada a win

04:21over Giannis and the Greeks. They have the second best price

04:25at plus 850. We saw four games of action on Saturday at the

04:30Olympics. Victor Wembenyama and the host nation France. A

04:33victory over Brazil. Germany hammered Japan. The Australians

04:38a double digit win over Spain and then yesterday the other

04:41two teams in group C along with team USA and Serbia. South

04:46Sudan a big victory over Puerto Rico. Jacob what is your

04:49overall assessment of the Olympic field in men's

04:52basketball? I think the field is getting stronger and stronger

04:57by the year. You're seeing more teams that can at least keep

04:59pace and keep games with the United States competitive. As

05:03much as that game that they just played against Serbia was

05:06you know a big win for them and they dominated in the second

05:09half. There were years when they would have won that game by

05:12halftime but the presence of a guy like Nikola Jokic and just

05:15the rising level of basketball talent in the country is going

05:18to make it harder for the US to just put the hammer down every

05:21single game. And you look at teams like Canada and like

05:24France where they have established NBA stars on that

05:26those teams. I mean Canada has Jay Gilgis Alexander a

05:30legitimate MVP candidate last year. The French have Victor

05:33Wembenyama and Rudy Gobert who if they could figure out how to

05:37implement those two and play great defense near the basket.

05:40All of a sudden you're asking teams to make a lot of

05:42perimeter shots which Team USA can absolutely do. But these

05:46two squads those two squads look like they could

05:49legitimately challenge the United States at some point. I

05:52think the United States has to be viewed as a favorite as long

05:55as they have this depth of talent. But the gap is

05:58definitely closing and I think that's a great sign for just the

06:01game of basketball on the international stage. And as

06:04we've seen in recent years the parity growing within the NBA.

06:06It's great for the sport. Team USA on the men's side looking

06:11for gold. Same thing could be said about the women who also

06:14open up here taking on Japan today at 3 p.m. Eastern. A heavy

06:17favorite at minus 22 and a half here at the Fandula Sportsbook

06:20and a total of 160 and a half. We saw Team USA play their

06:25exhibition round technically against the WNBA All-Stars and

06:28lost that. Maybe a chance to gel as a team moving forward. What

06:32are the expectations in this game against Japan and also

06:34moving forward for you Jacob with Team USA from the women's

06:37perspective. My expectations in this game against Japan is

06:42that they're going to come out and I kind of think they're

06:44going to be ready to punch their opponents in the mouth a

06:46little bit. I think that WNBA All-Star game was sort of a

06:50situation where the WNBA All-Stars had a lot of people

06:54who are viewed maybe not as snubs for the Olympic team

06:56because there are just so many good players that could have

06:58made that team. But you know they're a little myth that they

07:01weren't on there. You have Kayla Clark and Angel Reese on

07:03that team. Both of them could have gotten consideration for a

07:06roster spot. Didn't make it. So I think the motivation was

07:09there for the WNBA All-Stars and less so for the US

07:12basketball and just an exhibition. But I think you

07:16have so many veterans on this team from Diana Tarassi to

07:19Brianna Stewart. Like all of these players are going to come

07:23together and they just have such a size advantage over other

07:25countries. I mean you have Brittany Greiner and Asia

07:28Wilson who's the best player out there right now and you can

07:31just throw them at opponents. Good luck trying to defend that

07:34on the Olympic stage. So I think the USA women are going

07:37to have maybe an easier time racking up these big wins than

07:41the men and they could have some big blowouts on the

07:43schedule. I'm expecting them to do very well in this tournament.

07:4622 and a half is the spread now. It was 19 and a hook

07:50entering this past weekend. They were a minus 2300 favorite

07:54was Team USA in women's hoops to win their eighth consecutive

07:59gold medal. Gold is something that Simone Biles knows very

08:02well but Jacob after the Tokyo Olympics in which she had to

08:07withdraw from a few events due to mental health struggles. She

08:11was back out there yesterday injured her leg in warm ups and

08:15still led Team USA to the top spot in qualifying for team

08:20gymnastic events. What are you expecting out of Simone Biles

08:24and Team USA one final minute in this segment? I think that

08:29Team USA should win the gold. I think this is a kind of a

08:32redemption opportunity for them. Again, not that they were

08:35bad in Tokyo. They still took home the silver but they went

08:38in with gold expectations and Simone Biles just wasn't right

08:41and I think it really strained her and it killed her not to be

08:44able to be out there with her team and I think that's why she

08:47came back for these Olympics and you can just tell she feels

08:50confident right now and she's just nailing her routines. I

08:54think she has a potential to sweep gold medals across the

08:57events that she's in and if she gets in the uneven bars final,

09:01she could medal in every event. She's just one out of the

09:04alternate spot there so we'll see what happens. She's doing

09:07things that nobody has ever done. Moves, routines that

09:12nobody has ever even attempted. They call it the Simone now when

09:16she does that. Jacob Kammacher from Sporting News. We

09:19appreciate the time and the Olympic assessment.

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