That's a massive downgrade.
Lebron/Steph/KD are good enough to excel in any kind of situation without much preparation.
They're all-time greats. A tier above regular MVP level players.
Noone who's 28 or under looks like legit MVP candidate. And they'll have to carry in '28.
Even something like Haliburton/Booker/Ant/Tatum/Bam would be enough to win gold, but only if they get a lot of practice together and are on '27 World Cup team.
If you're not a Lebron/Steph/KD level player, you need team chemistry.
It took amonster performance from the veterans to beat Serbia that has no talent on paper outside Jokic and Bogdanovic, without those three it's an easy blowout for them.
Jokic has one more Olympics in him, Serbia will surely aim for gold. If Jovic and Topic become good NBA players, it could get ugly for team USA.
With France potentially being more talented than Serbia.