Team USA basketball heads into the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as a heavy favorite to win gold. That's no surprise considering just how stacked their roster is, with the likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant suiting up for the Americans.

Steve Kerr's squad doesn't have the most difficult group, either. They will play Serbia, Puerto Rico, and South Sudan. Canada, who is in Group A, is seen as the biggest threat to the US in their pursuit of gold. However, according to Brian Windhorst, that's not the case.

Windy believes Serbia, who are led by two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, is the team the States need to watch out for. He explained why on the Hoops Collective Podcast:

“In my view Serbia is the team that has the best shot to beat Team USA. The reason is, number one the most talented team other than the Americans is the Canadians, but Canada plays a style that USA is very comfortable with. When those two teams play it's not a FIBA game, it’s an NBA game. They were very comfortable in Vegas two weeks ago, they were very comfortable, even though they lost that game last year in Manila. Yes Canada can beat the US but I love the US’s chances 4 out of 5 probably.

Serbia plays, they’re huge, they can go 7 foot, 7 foot, 6’11 if they want to across the front line. They have arguably the best player in the world, Jokic. They have an NBA-level perimeter player in Bogdan Bogdanović and Vasilije Micić, who’s an NBA player as a point guard. Go find another European team that has two other NBA guards, you’re not going to find one.”

Team USA already handled Serbia

In preparation for the Olympics, Team USA already played the Serbs in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and dominated them, winning 105-79. Curry led the way with 24 points after a pair of quiet showings against Australia and Canada previously. Bam Adebayo also had 17 points in the victory.

The US and Serbia will begin their Olympics journey on July 28th against each other. Despite the lopsided win, the Americans know that the Serbs are capable of competing against them when at full strength.

As Windy said, there's really no answer for stopping Jokic. Bojan Bogdanovic can get hot from deep at any given time, while Vasilije Micić completes Serbia's NBA backcourt. Plus, Bogdanovic didn't play in the exhibition matchup while The Joker sat in the first quarter and played limited minutes in the final three periods, too.

Yes, on paper Team USA is a mile better than anyone in the tournament, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will win gold. As Windy pointed out, Canada plays an NBA offense that the Americans could handle. Serbia's style is slightly different and that may give the States some issues.

LeBron and Co. have a couple of warm-up games left in London against South Sudan on Saturday and Germany on Monday before their opener on the 28th in Lille, France.