2024 Olympic BASKETBALL Thread (Pt. 2: Let the Games Begin!)

[Special_Puppy]

Incredible game by Tatum. Didn't miss a single shot or commit a single turnover

[LV-Suns]

Incredible game by Tatum. Didn't miss a single shot or commit a single turnover

[Jakay]

It just has never happened before whereas a tier 1 player has gotten a dnp in a recent Olympic game. It’s been since like 1988

KD was on a roll, you play him when he is THAT hot. Next game someone else might sit up, its fine.

Also, let’s be real, he isn’t really “tier 1” player. If we made a list of best players in the league, case can be made he’s outside the top 10

I don't disagree with you, but would just like to point out "we" did make a list: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2397928 with him in the top 10.

Whether you agree or not (which you clearly don't) is another matter.

[NyKnicks1714]

Meh. If anything Tatum not playing now helps the Celtics during the regular season.

Agreed. As a non US Celtics fan i would even prefer if Kerr cuts Jrue and White's minutes down aswell. No need after a long season for heavy minutes.

This has about 0 impact. What's potentially exhausting is the whole experience, the practices, the travel, etc. There's only 6 games. For a fairly young player like Tatum the difference between playing in them and not playing in them is nonexistent.

[Triple M]

That's perfectly fine. No one's telling Tatum to want or expect anything less. It's just when Tatum fans try to use winning as the argument for why he's a top 6 player when most others can see through the argument.

Still a really damn good player, just not the guy who can carry you by himself through an entire season/playoffs. Not many guys fit that label anyways.

If the supporting cast was so amazing, why was Tatum the only all NBA player? First team at that. The evidence is stacking up to a point where your point is not really in line with what’s happening. Did everyone else just underrate all of the Celtics’ players for the whole season? Like I said it is a funny narrative now.

Because Tatum stood out the most from an elite supporting cast. You add practically any player in the top 15 and they achieve the same success Tatum did, not hard to see lol.

That isnt a great argument. It reminds me when people used to say VC, Pierce, T-Mac, and AI would also have 3 rings in Kobe's place.

Tatum has been a consensus top 10 player in most publications so i dont see why he is getting push back in that regard. He's a far more accomplished player then people are giving credit, for example was the team he led to the finals stacked as well

[Tor_Raps]

If the supporting cast was so amazing, why was Tatum the only all NBA player? First team at that. The evidence is stacking up to a point where your point is not really in line with what’s happening. Did everyone else just underrate all of the Celtics’ players for the whole season? Like I said it is a funny narrative now.

Because Tatum stood out the most from an elite supporting cast. You add practically any player in the top 15 and they achieve the same success Tatum did, not hard to see lol.

That isnt a great argument. It reminds me when people used to say VC, Pierce, T-Mac, and AI would also have 3 rings in Kobe's place.

Tatum has been a consensus top 10 player in most publications so i dont see why he is getting push back in that regard. He's a far more accomplished player then people are giving credit, for example was the team he led to the finals stacked as well

I also believe that Vince/Tmac/Pierce/Allen would have won 3 rings with that level of Shaq lol.

And I'm cool with Tatum being around the 10 mark. My comment was simply that he's closer to top 15 than he is to top 5.

[ITYSL]

Tatum and Brown did just lead a team on an historic playoff run to win the championship. It is odd that one of them, the Finals MVP, is not even on the team, while the other - who led the team in PRA for the Finals and for the playoffs overall, and who was also the team's 2nd leading scorer in Tokyo - got a DNP CD.

I wonder if anything even remotely similar to that has happened before. In Tokyo, the NBA champion's 2nd and 3rd best players in Jrue and Middleton both made the team, and both played every game.

If you're anything aside from a pure Celtics hater, you'd have to acknowledge that that is very unusual, and maybe unprecedented.

Bro, there are 3 Celtics players on this roster. 2 of them played heavy mins today and 1 even started and we won a blowout game against a top international squad. Yet, Boston fans are complaining that there is not a 4th Boston player on the roster and 1/3 got a DNP.

Bro, it's not homerism to think that a guy who has made three straight first team all NBAs, led his team in PRA for his team's recent championship run, who was the 2nd leading scorer for the gold medal-winning Team USA in the last Olympics, shouldn't have gotten a DNP CD. Please show me a situation in history that's even remotely similar, because I don't think it exists.

Talking about Jrue and DWhite isn't going to work on me because they are literally my favorite players on the Celtics. Them playing and Tatum not playing are completely different topics.

[Mephariel]

To perfectly describe how Tatum isn’t a top 10 player I present you this question.

Put Doncic on Boston and Tatum on Dallas, what happens?

Case closed

The Boston offense will be better and the Dallas defense will be a lot better.

[Edrees]

Maybe Kerr is mad at Tatum for the 2022 NBA Finals? But GSW won so that doesn't really make sense as a motive for benching him.

Mad at what? Wiggins locked him up and Tatum basically didn’t show up lol, Kerr should be thanking him if anything

Yeah I dont know I'm just trying to figure out the reason he is DNP today when he appears healthy and available.

the reason is he's on a team full of people who could have got finals mvp if they were on the celtics last season in his place?

Idk how this US team will be after Bron, Curry, and KD retire tho lol. Young players have been very unimpressive. Especially when you consider Bron, Kobe, Wade’s age in 08….

Let's see, Team USA would have Banchero, Barnes, Mobley, Edwards, Maxey, JJJ, Brunson, Haliburton, probably Cunningham, Morant (but I don't think his game fits well for FIBA Basketball)... + some good roleplayers. That's nit bad at all. All of them will be better in 4 years from now.

There will also be breakout players we dont know about. 2 years ago nobody would say Brunson would be on team usa in the future.

If I'm gonna be honest, the guy with the most specious starting case is Steph. He hasn't gone nuclear thus far and I actually think the bench needs him more as a ballhandler. If you had Steph come off the bench, Tatum would make sense at the 4.

Steph just being on the court gives us the spacing we need even if he's not going off the fear he puts in opponents is enough for him to be out there over Tatum.

Plus if he gets hot he can just win the game in a few minutes with a bunch of consecutive threes.

[AI_Efficiency]

We won by a lot with Embiid playing pretty badly, so maybe that justifies Kerr not playing Tatum, but I would think that even in like a supporting cast role, Tatum would be better at it than Booker or White. I think Tatum genuinely does add solid value even when the ball isn’t in his hands. But again, I’m sure the US will mix it up as the tournament goes on and everyone will get in on the fun.

[Mephariel]

I’m not criticizing him for playing for the US. I’m criticizing his rationale. He came out and said he’d rather play for Cameroon but Cameroon doesn’t have a good chance to make the Olympics and he wants to win.

If he’s as great as Eyetoma wants us to believe, you’re telling me he couldn’t have teamed up with Siakam and gotten them into the Olympics?

He’s a front runner who always blames others and never takes responsibility. This was yet another example of who he’s been his whole career; weak.

So what rationale would you accept Embiid playing for the US? Obviously he wants to play for the most prestigious team and give himself the highest chance of winning the gold right? What other rationale is out there? So basically, you are criticizing him for playing for the US.

“I want to play for the country I call home.”

The Olympics isn’t about playing for the most prestigious team, at least not to the rest of the world. Athletes have become immortal by simply taking their team to a worldwide competition or getting a win.

It is to him. There is nothing wrong with that. If you are a basketball player, you probably dream of playing for the Dream Team too. Again, so basically he can't play for the US without being criticized? He is a US citizen and can't choose to play for his country?

[bb22]

Can’t wait to hear what bill Simmons says about Tatum being benched. He’s been on his **** all year, especially after the playoffs.

Listen to his last podcast before the olympics he allready said Tatum will gonna have a tough time getting minutes, he knew.

I did. He suggested the offense run through Tatum rather than Lebron. His reasoning being that Tatum was a point forward that won a ring this year while Lebron was knocked out in the first round.

[PushDaRock]

Pretty convincing win against an elite team. US next two games are against patsies so they won’t be tested again until the the QF round.


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they almost lost to one of those patsies a week ago

In a warmup game.


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which they still kept the starters in to finish the game

[PushDaRock]

Embiid is a clown

Calm down lol

no

[Mamba81p]

The problem with not playing Tatum is that he might not want to play in 2028 and beyond. A lot of older players will be gone and Tatum actually played well in 2021

[bb22]

We won by a lot with Embiid playing pretty badly, so maybe that justifies Kerr not playing Tatum, but I would think that even in like a supporting cast role, Tatum would be better at it than Booker or White. I think Tatum genuinely does add solid value even when the ball isn’t in his hands. But again, I’m sure the US will mix it up as the tournament goes on and everyone will get in on the fun.

Technically I'd like to see Tatum out there instead of Book or White, but Book seems more OK with playing off ball and provided some good ball pressure on Serbia's guards during spurts today. White is defensive minded and better at chasing guards and defending over screens. Bam has been playing very well next to AD, which is very surprising, so you can't justify Tatum over Bam at the 4. Lebron is Lebron. Arguable Tatum would do a fairly good job in Leborn's role, but he's the clear leader, uncomparably better playmaker, and is playing with a lot of effort. Tatum needs to prove he deserves Ant's minutes. I'm sure he'll get the opportunity next game.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

The problem with not playing Tatum is that he might not want to play in 2028 and beyond. A lot of older players will be gone and Tatum actually played well in 2021

Edwards will be better than him in 2028, also there's Flagg, Boozer and Dybansta on the way.

[Mamba81p]

The problem with not playing Tatum is that he might not want to play in 2028 and beyond. A lot of older players will be gone and Tatum actually played well in 2021

Edwards will be better than him in 2028, also there's Flagg, Boozer and Dybansta on the way.

We need more than 1 star to guarantee gold.
We don't know how Flagg and Boozer will look like. I don't judge players that I haven't seen in multiple full games, not just some highlights

[DarkAzcura]

The problem with not playing Tatum is that he might not want to play in 2028 and beyond. A lot of older players will be gone and Tatum actually played well in 2021

Edwards will be better than him in 2028, also there's Flagg, Boozer and Dybansta on the way.

We need more than 1 star to guarantee gold.
We don't know how Flagg and Boozer will look like. I don't judge players that I haven't seen in multiple full games, not just some highlights

Also, you can’t just assume Edwards will be better. I know everyone is hype on him rn, but we have no idea if he will actually truly accomplish anything by then that warrants him leading Team USA. You can’t take players for granted, and Team USA also needs to think about the future when they are playing these tournaments. Especially with our continuity issues.

Like it or not before Tatum shot poorly in the Finals many regarded him as the current top US player (not including Embiid). It’s revisionist history to think otherwise atm.

The problem with not playing Tatum is that he might not want to play in 2028 and beyond. A lot of older players will be gone and Tatum actually played well in 2021

Why would not playing in one blowout game be that big of a problem? I seriously don't get why people are clowning him and Hali.
It's not like they played awful like Embiid.

Tbf, Tatum and Hali are in different situations. This is Hali’s first Olympics. Tatum has been here before and proven he can be a top 2 option on a gold medal team, and since then he’s been to the Finals twice and made first team all NBA 3 times. It’s very odd to DNP him at all. Tatum is proven, has done it before, and he’s only accomplished even more since his last Olympics. Before two months ago, Tatum was commonly ranked top 5-6 in the NBA and regarded as the best US born player currently, beyond LeBron, Durant, etc. I’m fine with him taking a backseat to those guys since they are still really good and this will be their last run, but it’s odd to DNP him.

[Inspektor1312]

The problem with not playing Tatum is that he might not want to play in 2028 and beyond. A lot of older players will be gone and Tatum actually played well in 2021

Why would not playing in one blowout game be that big of a problem? I seriously don't get why people are clowning him and Hali.
It's not like they played awful like Embiid.