Apart from Kevin Durant’s masterful efficiency coming off the bench, the most important story to come back out of Staff USA’s win over Serbia on Sunday was the truth that Jayson Tatum did not play a single second.
You were not alone in the event you thought possibly Tatum had a bit damage pop up. An image floated round social media exhibiting his finger closely wrapped. Or possibly he caught the virus that Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis have been coping with within the lead as much as Sunday. There needed to be one thing happening, proper?
Nope. He simply straight up obtained benched. Coach’s resolution. Not a single second to be discovered for the most effective participant on the most effective crew within the NBA who has made first-team All-NBA three straight years. Not even when the Individuals have been up 21 early within the fourth quarter. Tatum, who was presumed to be one of many candidates to crack the beginning lineup, by no means as soon as took his warmup shirt off.
“It is actually laborious in a 40-minute recreation to play greater than 10 guys,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr advised reporters after the sport. “With Kevin [Durant] coming again, I simply went to the combos that I felt made probably the most sense. It appears loopy. I believed I used to be loopy after I checked out every thing and decided these are the lineups I wished to get to.”
In a separate interview with ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Kerr admitted that he “felt like an fool” for not taking part in Tatum, however he did iterate that “each recreation’s going to be totally different primarily based on matchups” whereas indicating that Tatum “goes to play” because the event strikes ahead.
As an preliminary response, it appears fairly foolish to listen to Kerr say Tatum did not play due to “matchups” and “lineup combos” when his best energy as a participant is the truth that he matches any lineup in any position and may match up in opposition to any opponent. He cannot be hunted defensively. He can play on or off ball. The concept a 6-foot-8 wing who can shoot, cross, dribble, defend and rebound does not match up nicely with Serbia, or anybody else for that matter, is, frankly, a preposterous suggestion by itself.
After all, that is a completely distinctive context. Maybe a very powerful factor Kerr stated is that “our guys know the important thing to this complete factor is to place all of the NBA stuff within the rearview mirror and simply win six video games.” That is the place a crew with this a lot overlapping expertise will get tough. On a daily crew, Tatum is the most effective participant. On this crew, there are half a dozen guys, not less than, who can do all the identical issues he does, and that is the place you need to learn between the strains of Kerr’s phrases.
What he is saying, in essence, is that he thinks Devin Booker, who’s rattling close to the identical participant as Tatum, is a greater match via the lens of supporting the beginning lineup, and he thinks Anthony Edwards is a greater participant, interval.
You possibly can argue that Derrick White maintains second-unit offensive readability as a non-scorer with a clear-cut obligation to defend in the identical manner Jrue Vacation does for the starters. Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo are positionally mandatory, and Durant is, nicely, Durant. Edwards is the one who might, on paper, be most simply swapped out for Tatum.
I am not saying Kerr ought to’ve gone that route, as a result of then we might be sitting right here saying why the hell did not Edwards play. I am merely saying you’ll be able to’t inform me for one second that Edwards “matches up higher” with Serbia than Tatum.
If something, the argument might be made that Durant’s presence, if we’re speaking pure lineup combos, would make Edwards much less mandatory as a go-to scorer on the second unit, whereas Tatum would make sense in a do-everything assist position much like one Booker occupied with the starters. Attempting to make this about “matchups” is a euphemism for a harsh reality: Kerr did not suppose Tatum was a mandatory part to beat one of many higher groups within the event. When he says Tatum will probably be on the market subsequent recreation, nicely, the U.S. is taking part in South Sudan on Wednesday. Kerr might throw blind darts for his lineup selections in that recreation and Staff USA might nonetheless win by 30 (so long as the Individuals do not repeat their efficiency from earlier this month).
So let’s get to the center of the query: Are Booker and Edwards higher gamers than Tatum? Cheap minds can disagree right here. For those who have been rating NBA gamers, these three could be very shut to 1 one other on any record value its salt.
Maybe it factored into Kerr’s resolution that Tatum did not play or shoot all that nicely via the exhibition schedule. However neither did Booker, who related on simply 33% of his 3s within the Olympic lead up.
I suppose you possibly can argue that Booker does really feel like a barely higher suited assist participant than Tatum does in a beginning lineup managed by two alphas LeBron James and Stephen Curry, however you actually must squint to just accept that reasoning. If you are going to go along with the spacing logic, Tatum was really a greater catch-and-shoot shooter this previous NBA season, and he simply received a championship on a crew whose best energy was the sum-of-its-parts mixing of elite skills. Tatum did not shoot nicely all through the playoffs and but was superior in all of the margins that are likely to tie lineups collectively.
We do that loads in NBA parlance as nicely, getting obsessive about these “matchup” and “match” buzz phrases. The truth is that this: good gamers, significantly ones who land squarely within the middle of the size-and-skill spectrum and, maybe most significantly, can play multi-positional protection, match anyplace.
That is the blessing and curse of getting your hand on the switches of a crew with this a lot redundantly elite expertise. Just about all these guys can do every thing. The one different participant that did not see the court docket was Tyrese Haliburton, however that has a transparent clarification. He isn’t the defender that White is.
In Kerr’s protection, whereas Tatum is definitely a succesful and versatile defender, Edwards is clearly higher, and Booker might be a bit higher, on the ball, and point-of-attack strain is a giant a part of the FIBA recreation. The straightforward reply would’ve been to separate minutes between Booker and Tatum, however you then’re reducing into the stream that takes time to create for each the person participant and the lineup as an entire.
Kerr additionally might’ve put Tatum, and Haliburton for that matter, within the recreation within the fourth quarter when the result was determined, however that just about feels extra embarrassing than not taking part in in any respect. These guys are superstars. They do not need to sub into rubbish time like some highschool scrub.
In hindsight, Kerr’s resolution to go along with Booker and Edwards over Tatum seems to be fairly rattling good after they mixed to attain 23 factors on 6-of-8 3-point taking pictures whereas the Individuals placed on a collective basketball clinic. And that does not bode nicely for Tatum transferring ahead.
Sure, he may and even most likely will play in these subsequent two group-stage video games in opposition to South Sudan and Puerto Rico as a result of there’s nearly no manner the Individuals can lose these matchups, and when the U.S. probably faces an opponent in opposition to whom they could be smart to play smaller (Canada, for example), Tatum might see time there, as nicely.
However when all issues are equal, he’s clearly not Kerr’s selection at this level. That is a troublesome capsule to swallow, and also you marvel the way it may impression Tatum’s enthusiasm for future Olympic endeavors when the Individuals will want him much more as soon as LeBron and Durant lastly age out. Solely time will inform for that. However for now, Kerr is taking part in this event with the fellows he feels give him the most effective likelihood to not go down because the coach who blew a fifth straight gold medal with one of the vital proficient groups ever. If Tatum’s ego has to take successful within the spirit of that mission, so be it.
