USA Basketball Team

[Triple7]

Nasty work by JT. Eek.

Read on Twitter

Yuck.

[Green89]

This team should have won every game by 20. I wonder if Kerr purposely sat players to keep it close, just to let Curry have to save the day. Either that or Kerr truly is a terrible coach.

[ConstableGeneva]

Read on Twitter

[Fierce1]

This team should have won every game by 20. I wonder if Kerr purposely sat players to keep it close, just to let Curry have to save the day. Either that or Kerr truly is a terrible coach.

That's true.

Steph is a defensive liability that got hunted by opposing teams.

[Fierce1]

And just an FYI, Jayson Tatum didn't make ALL-NBA 1st team 3 straight seasons because of his shooting.

If Kerr just wanted shooting then he should just have told Grant Hill to pick Sam Hauser instead.

[canman1971]

Steve Kerr is an absolute arrogant douchebag, plain and simple. F****ing ego maniac that was handed the best players not only on USA, but GS as well. Eff him!!!!

[stepbackj34]

Read on Twitter

If you were wondering why Kerr chose to bench Tatum and/or play him low minutes.

It's hard to blame Kerr for Tatum's shortcomings when you consider the players he had at his disposal. Being selected for the first team doesn't matter much if you struggle to shoot or don't make an effort to move without the ball in international games.

[Fierce1]

Playing Tatum low minutes would've been TOTALLY FINE!

But benching Tatum was disrespectful.

You just don't do that to a guy who has been playing for Team USA since he was in high school.

[Fierce1]

What needs to happen is if Team USA wants somebody from the Celtics, include Joe in the coaching staff and put Jaylen on the team.

Otherwise, JT should just pass on 2028 so that there will be no risk of getting injured.

If the Cs win 1 or 2 more chips on or before 2028, there will be significant interest in Celtic players from Team USA.

[Triple7]

What needs to happen is if Team USA wants somebody from the Celtics, include Joe in the coaching staff and put Jaylen on the team.

Otherwise, JT should just pass on 2028 so that there will be no risk of getting injured.

If the Cs win 1 or 2 more chips on or before 2028, there will be significant interest in Celtic players from Team USA.

JT won’t play as long as Kerr is the coach. Also, they would have a hard time convincing other stars to commit in 2028. Not worth spending your off season hitting thr bench and getting humiliated. Good luck winning in 2028.

[Fierce1]

What needs to happen is if Team USA wants somebody from the Celtics, include Joe in the coaching staff and put Jaylen on the team.

Otherwise, JT should just pass on 2028 so that there will be no risk of getting injured.

If the Cs win 1 or 2 more chips on or before 2028, there will be significant interest in Celtic players from Team USA.

JT won’t play as long as Kerr is the coach. Also, they would have a hard time convincing other stars to commit in 2028. Not worth spending your off season hitting thr bench and getting humiliated. Good luck winning in 2028.

Have to agree with you on that one.

Coach K and Popovich never did something like what Kerr did.

[cloverleaf]

Playing Tatum low minutes would've been TOTALLY FINE!

But benching Tatum was disrespectful.

You just don't do that to a guy who has been playing for Team USA since he was in high school.

This isn't little league, you don't need to put the guy in a horrible slump into the game just to not hurt his feelings.

[Fierce1]

It may not mean much right now, but it will be a different story if the Cs keep winning championships and JT and JB are playing at an elite level by 2028.

We already saw how Team USA crashed and burned when Ant was the #1 option.

KD will be 39 by August 2028.

So Team USA will need to replace Lebron, Steph, and possibly KD by the next Olympics.

There's really a big chance that the Jays will have a status like the 1990s MJ and Pippen by 2028.

But as a Celtic fan, why risk injury when Tatum already has 2 gold medals from Olympic basketball.

[Fierce1]

Playing Tatum low minutes would've been TOTALLY FINE!

But benching Tatum was disrespectful.

You just don't do that to a guy who has been playing for Team USA since he was in high school.

This isn't little league, you don't need to put the guy in a horrible slump into the game just to not hurt his feelings.

Jayson Tatum isn't a little league player.

Team USA was bad on defense in this Olympics.

That's why the point differential is low compared to other Team USA teams that played in the Olympics.

Jayson Tatum is not just about shooting.

Besides the gold medal game, Kerr was using Booker as a SF and we all know Booker is not known for defense.

Like I said, if it's just about shooting then Grant Hill should just have asked for Sam Hauser instead of Jayson Tatum.

[Fierce1]

If we base it on Tatum's track record over the years with the Celtics, he's going to continue to improve and reach his peak in a couple of years.

When he wins MVP or Finals MVP or both, people will be saying, "Can't believe Steve Kerr benched this guy, twice, in 2024."

[Triple7]

It may not mean much right now, but it will be a different story if the Cs keep winning championships and JT and JB are playing at an elite level by 2028.

We already saw how Team USA crashed and burned when Ant was the #1 option.

KD will be 39 by August 2028.

So Team USA will need to replace Lebron, Steph, and possibly KD by the next Olympics.

There's really a big chance that the Jays will have a status like the 1990s MJ and Pippen by 2028.

But as a Celtic fan, why risk injury when Tatum already has 2 gold medals from Olympic basketball.

If i’m the Jays, i’ll tell them to **** off. Kerr **** team USA basketball. I’m almost certain he would resign as coach for team USA pretty soon. Good luck Grant Hill haha. Serves you right for getting a stupid jerk for a coach.

[Triple7]

Playing Tatum low minutes would've been TOTALLY FINE!

But benching Tatum was disrespectful.

You just don't do that to a guy who has been playing for Team USA since he was in high school.

This isn't little league, you don't need to put the guy in a horrible slump into the game just to not hurt his feelings.

Lol. They invited him to play, and not the other way around. Plus he couldn’t give him 7-10mins the whole game? I’m fine benching Tatum in the semis against serbia when they are down big, and trying to comeback, but that benching in the first game, was just flat out disrespectful.

[Fencer reregistered]

One point getting a bit lost:

If Kerr wasn't even going to play Tatum, then picking White over Jaylen was a sensible move.
And Jaylen's theories about Nike conspiracies look ever weaker accordingly.

Also, given how central James and Durant were to this particular team:

-- It's easy to understand why Tatum didn't play INSTEAD of them.
-- It's hard to understand why Tatum didn't play IN ADDITION to them.

[Triple7]

Well, there you go. Just went in there to **** up USA basketball for the future, and leaving them high and dry haha. Well, his only goal was to win in all, and he got that. I don’t trust Spo to do Celtics players good either.

[Fencer reregistered]

Well, there you go. Just went in there to **** up USA basketball for the future, and leaving them high and dry haha. Well, his only goal was to win in all, and he got that. I don’t trust Spo to do Celtics players good either.

Overstated. Kerr wanted to win now, and the future -- e.g. program development -- will be other guys' problems.

Perhaps Spoelstra can put together a real system under the challenging circumstances these coaches face. Kerr just resigned himself to pickup ball, even in the areas -- defense and rebounding -- where he supposedly was emphasizing team play.