DarkAzcura wrote:Tatum isn’t a B list star, though. That’s just revisionist history and putting too much stock in him shooting poorly in the Finals. He was widely considered to be a top 5-6 player in the NBA and the best US born player in the NBA currently. Any consideration beyond that is like I said revisionist history and putting too much stock in him shooting poorly in the NBA Finals.
B list stars don’t make 3 straight first team all NBA teams and make the Finals multiple times. He’s also proven as a top 2 contributor on the last Olympics team.
I want to be crystal clear that I'm higher on Tatum than most and think it was ridiculous that Brown won both playoff MVPs over him, so I'm not someone being reactionary based on the Finals.
Re: best US born player in the NBA currently. I would say he had the best NBA season out of any US born player last year, but that doesn't mean he's the most capable player at 100%.
I would say LeBron is the elephant in the room.
1. LeBron is too old to be at his best all through the season like he used to, and so it would make sense to call Tatum the better 82-game player nowadays...but this is not relevant to the Olympics.
2. LeBron is connected to LeGM, who destroyed the Lakers ability to be a contender with the Westbrook trade. Not looking to let Laker management off the hook here - I blame them too - but in a nutshell, if you put LeBron on a team that's as fantastically built around the stars as the Celtics are, and you put Tatum on a team that traded everything for Westbrook, LeBron's team is going to be better than Tatum's. LeBron deserves to suffer for his role in all of this in the NBA...but it has nothing to do with the Olympics.
Re: Top 2 contributor last Olympics. Let's break that down. Here were the top minutes guys last time:
1. Durant
2. Holiday
3. Lillard
4. Booker
5. Tatum
First thing we should note is that none of these guys are bigs. Bam was the top minute big last time.
Now who were the top minutes guys in this first game in 2024:
1. LeBron
2. Booker
3. Holiday
4. Curry
5. Bam
So, so far we have Booker & Holiday roughly maintaining their status, and Team USA addressing their big-man weakness with Bam along with AD & Embiid.
A 3rd member of the previous core, Durant, I think clearly will become a top 5 minutes guy this time if his health is up to it.
Of the big 5 from last time, that just leaves Lillard & Tatum on the outs. Lillard's just not on the team this time so there's that.
So then yes, it's noteworthy that Tatum was the #5 minutes guy last time but didn't play in this first game, and I don't expect it to be so extreme in all the games going forward - I expect him to at least be in the rotation.
But for him to be a top 5 minutes guy again, we would expect he'd need to be in the core 5-man lineup, which if healthy would seem likely to include LeBron, Curry, Durant, and a big. Who do you want in that final spot? Maybe it will be Tatum, but in both last Olympics and the current, Holiday & Booker have gotten bigger minutes, and so if we're just looking at Team USA norms, Tatum's kinda has to raise his prominence above some fellow alums from last time to get there.
Now for the record, it surprises me that Booker's getting starter minutes right now, and I kinda think he's ripe to get pushed to the side. Wouldn't surprise me at all for the team to feature Tatum over Booker for a starter spot.
But if Durant becomes a big minute starter, I kinda think both Tatum & Brown will end up playing more bench-like minutes.
By contrast, I'd expect Holiday to keep his spot as Curry's backcourt partner. He's generally considered the best perimeter defender in the world and he can work on or off the ball. That's basically exactly what you want when you have Curry even if you don't have LeBron - but if the offense is running through LeBron, then it really, really makes sense.
A note on the bigs: This is the most awkward situation on Team USA. Basically, Team USA management lobbied hard to get Embiid partially to keep him away from France, and so the expectation is that he's Team USA's starting center...but realistically if you're not running the offense through him, AD & Bam are better at the rest of the game. Embiid probably should be glued to the bench, but he won't be because of the awkwardness of the situation.
