We may have deviated a bit from the biggest problem in our roster. Now guard play is important, but considering that an outside offense is questionable right now, let's put that aside for the moment. The US has always been top tier in guard play, and while we can improve, it's not our biggest concern. What we lack in world-class competition is competitive bigs. Right now we can't compete with the Chinese, and barely the Chileans for that matter. We've seen some secondary strong bigs come through the pipes recently, and that's extremely commendable to the manager who put in that hard work, but it's not consistent enough, especially at PF. Whether we eventually go with an outside offense or not, we have to realize that most other teams are going to be running LI anyway.
Of course there are concerns about 250k guards, but a top quality big costs up to 300k easily. 99% of American players can't afford this kind of guy, but it's the kind of player we're going up against at worlds, with teams using a strategy that allows these players to dominate. So our biggest problem here is not figuring out what guards we need, it's figuring out a way to stop these monster bigs and maintain a strong defense against a LI oriented NT landscape.