U.S. men’s hoops team replacing important pieces

LAS VEGAS – They lost Dwyane Wade but gained Kevin Durant. Dwight Howard’s size has given way to Russell Westbrook’s speed.

The Americans know their men’s Olympic basketball team will look much different than the one that captured gold four years ago in Beijing. Three of the most important players from that team were unable to return, but the carryovers keep talking about being better now than they were then.

“I think it has the potential to be that if we learn to use our versatility. It’s a more versatile team than 2008. Now, does that translate into being better?” coach Mike Krzyzewski said Sunday. “Although we don’t have the center, that team didn’t have Durant or Westbrook. So it’s a different team and we’ll see if it becomes better, but it can be. It could be.”

In some ways, that’s difficult to envision. Wade was the team’s leading scorer, averaging 16 points per game. Howard averaged 10.9 points while shooting 74.5 percent from the field. Chris Bosh, also out this summer, backed him up and shot even better (77.4 percent) and leading the team with 6.1 rebounds per game.

How can any team make up for all that?

“Well, we have some guys that can pick that up,” LeBron James said. “I mean, D-Wade was our leading scorer, but we didn’t have Kevin Durant on our team. We didn’t have the activity of Tyson Chandler on our team as well and the athleticism at the point guard position.”

Westbrook is an offensive upgrade over Jason Kidd, the point guard not back from ’08. As James sees it, Andre Iguodala is more athletic than Tayshaun Prince, and James Harden can do more things offensively than Michael Redd.

“If you match us up, we have so many great pieces that guys can just play to their strengths, and I think we can be better,” James said.

Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Deron Williams, the other young players from ’08, have made similar leaps toward superstardom, and Kobe Bryant has held steady where he was.

“First of all, you have to look at the guys who are with us from the ’08 team. They were 21, 22 years old back in Beijing. They’re now in the prime of their careers, so they’re a lot bigger, stronger, better basketball players today,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said.