Lebron James Off Team USA’s Bench? Unlikely, But Welcome To Life On The Modern Dream Team
Want To Hear A Plausible, Albeit Unlikely, Scenario Where Lebron James Comes Off The Bench For Team USA?
It Starts With American Coach Steve Kerr’s Revelation Last Week That Joel Embiid And Kawhi Leonard Are Healthy And Expected To Be Ready For Olympic Training Camp, Which Begins Saturday In Las Vegas.
Embiid, The 7-Footer Who Picked The U.S. Over France As His Team For The Paris Games, Shoots Nearly 40 Percent From 3-Point Range, Blocks Nearly 2 Shots Per Game, And Is A Year Removed From Being NBA MVP. Based On Common Sense, Eye Tests, And Other Such Metrics, He Will Start.
So Will Stephen Curry, Who Like Embiid Has Never Played In An Olympics Before But Is The Greatest 3-Point Shooter Of All Time And Also, By Far, The Biggest Current Threat From Deep On Earth. His NBA-Leading 357 3s This Season (Luka Dončić Was Next Closest At 284) Are A Testament. He Is The Ultimate Floor Spacer.
The Third Lock To Start Is Kevin Durant, Who Is 6-11, An Outrageously Versatile Two-Way Player, And The Greatest Clutch Player In USA Basketball History. No One Has Delivered More, And More Often, With A Gold Medal On The Line Than Durant, Who, In Four Gold-Medal Contests (Three At The Olympics And Another At The FIBA World Cup), Is Averaging 29.5 Points. Beyond That, Durant Is The Most Prolific Scorer In U.S. Men’s History, With 640 Points Overall (Olympics And FIBA).
OK, Now For The Other Two Starters In This Scenario Who Would Edge Out The NBA’s All-Time Scoring Champ And A Two-Time Olympic Gold Medalist In James.
The First Is Leonard, A 6-7 Bruiser And Former NBA Finals MVP Who, When Healthy, Is Both An Efficient, Prolific Offensive Player And Menacing Defender With Vice Grips For Hands. If There Is A Single Reason Why The Americans Didn’t Win The FIBA World Cup Last Summer In The Philippines (There Are More, But Hear This Out), It Is Because They Allowed A German Non-NBA Player Named Andreas Obst To Get Loose For Four 3s And 24 Points, Despite Kerr’s Pregame Instruction To Pay Attention To Obst. Leonard, Fast Enough To Play The 2 Guard On Defense, And A Cerebral Defender To Boot, Would Not Allow That To Happen To His Team.
The Other Is James’ Teammate On The Los Angeles Lakers, 6-10 Forward Anthony Davis. Another Massive Disadvantage USA Basketball Had Last Summer — And For The Last Few International Cycles — Was Size, A Factor That Was Exploited On The Glass And On Defense In General. In A Loss To Lithuania At The World Cup, The Americans Were Outrebounded 43-27 And Coughed Up 17 Second-Chance Points, As Well As 14 3s (Including Nine In A Row To Start The Game). Overall, They Allowed 100 Points In All Three Of Their Losses During The World Cup, Which Should Be Hard To Do With A Roster Of NBA Talent, In A 40-Minute Game. Davis Is One Of The Best Defenders In The NBA, A Commanding Presence At The Rim And On The Glass, And A Dominant Post Scorer. Playing Him Next To Embiid, Against Opponents Like France (Who Will Have Rudy Gobert And Victor Wembanyama On The Floor), Serbia (Nikola Jokić, HELLO), And World Cup-Champion Germany Would Enable The Americans To, Right Away, Mitigate Any Size Disadvantage They Would Otherwise Have With Two Of The Best Big Men In The Sport.
To Finish The Thought, Leonard Is A Better Perimeter Defender, A More Committed Defender, Than James. Davis Is Taller And Also A Better Defender. The Americans Would Already Have Enough Offense On The Floor, So If Kerr Were To Base His Lineup Decision On The Pitfalls From Last Year’s Team (Only Two Players Off That Team, Anthony Edwards And Tyrese Haliburton, Made The Olympic Team), One Could Argue That James Might Be A Sixth Man.
And Yet, This, James Coming Off The Bench, Probably Won’t Happen. I Spoke With Two USA Basketball Sources And Both Cast Serious Doubt On The Idea. So Thank You For Going Through With This Exercise, And I Hope You Come Away From It Realizing The Difficult Task Ahead For Kerr And His Staff To Pick A Starting Lineup And Find Playing Time For A Roster With Legitimately 12 Stars.
“It’s A Great Question,” Kerr Said Last Week. “My Staff And I Have Talked About It Quite A Bit, It’s A Good Problem To Have, But I Think I’m Guessing That All 12 Players On This Roster Will Be In The Hall Of Fame Someday. So How Do You Pick Five Out Of 12? The Idea Is You Find Combinations That Click And You Find Two-Way Lineups That Can Be Effective At Both Ends. So Our Big Job In Las Vegas Is To Find Five-Man Combinations That Fit And To Just Ask All 12 Guys To Fully Commit To The Goal Of Winning A Gold Medal No Matter What It Looks Like, No Matter Who’s Playing.”
