Hoops Tonight - USA-Serbia Reaction: Kevin Durant explodes, LeBron & USA cruise by Jokic | Olympics

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Slash baseball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the volume. Happy funday, everybody, hope all if you guys are having a great start to your week. Well, Team USA at a very entertaining first game of pool play in the Olympics against Serbia as they win by twenty six points. We're gonna be breaking that game down from

a bunch of different angles. I'm gonna start by just kind of going through the entire game that we're gonna talk about the decision to bench Jason Tatum and why I disagree with it, and some of the different angles that people are taking to try to make their case and that debate. Kevin Durant in his return, once again just shows this uncanny ability to just step back out on the basketball floor after taking time away to nurse an injury and then just immediately look like Kevin Durant

as he comes out red hot. And then at the tail end of the show, Joel Embiid once again goes minus eight in the game his team wins by twenty six. The obvious sore thumbs sticking out on this Team USA roster. I want to talk a little bit about some of the specific reasons why that has been the case. So a bunch Team USA stuff today. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of

our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSONLTS. You guys don't miss any show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed where if you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. Don't forget. It's also helpful if he leave a raiding in a review on our podcast feed, and the last not at least keep dropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments. We're going to record one at the tail end of this week to carry us over the weekend like we usually do. All right, let's talk some basketball.

Actually have one last note before we get started. So we came up with a decision for player rankings and the way that we're going to do it. So we're just going to do an in a vacuum list, meaning we're going to do a top twenty five players list that strictly evaluates the basketball players and how they contribute to winning in a vacuum, irrespective of the talent that

they are surrounded by. Then to address that like kind of like bragging rights issue, We're just going to do one episode at the tail end of that where I tell you guys, who I think is the bragging rights Champion of the year, meaning the basketball player that accomplished the most individually within that season and deserves the recognition at least the bragging rights so to speak, of being

the best player in the world. I'll give you, guys the candidates that I think are up for that position, and then we'll talk about which player I pick for that spot. So that's our workaround. We're not going to do two separate top twenty five lists. We'll do one and then we'll talk about who is the guy who has the bragging rights. We're going to start releasing that stuff when I go out of town for the summer,

which is from August eighth to August eighteenth. I'm actually going to start working on the list tomorrow, but we're going to kind of bank all that stuff and just start running it while I'm out of town towards the tail end of the month in August, because this Team USA thing moves pretty quickly. There's the South sud A game on Wednesday, then they played Puerto Rico on Saturday.

Then it's quarterfinals on Tuesday, semi finals on Thursday, gold medal game on Saturday, and that's it for Olympic basketball. And so from that point we have the rest of the summer to work on player rankings, and then pretty quickly we're going to be in September and we're going to be doing our season previews and starting to deep dive into each individual team all the changes they made over the course of the summer and what we can

expect from them going into next season. And before you guys know it, we'll be in training camp when we get to early October. So those are just some scheduling notes for the next couple of weeks. But for the rest of this week and going into next week, we're probably just going to focus on Olympic basketball. I'm probably gonna try to find some time to cover some other teams other than Team USA as well. We'll see how that goes over the course of the next couple weeks.

All right, Serbia USA, let's get into it. So, as we expected, Steve Kerr finally went with a more typical rotation instead of his line shift. So like at the first time out he put in just Anthony Davis for Joe Lumbeid, then after that he brings in just Anthony Edwards I think for Devin Booker at that point might have been for Drew Holliday. But just like bringing in in one guy at a time, make maybe two guys here, two guys there, more of a traditional basketball rotation instead

of the line shifts. Say he was doing like a damn hockey team in the early part of exhibition play right, which again that's to be expected as he's just basically testing out lineup combinations and seeing what works right. These are the real games, these are the ones they have

to win. It also looked a lot like the last game against Serbia, where Serbia came out with just an insane amount of defensive pressure to start again, picking up full court, trying to jump passing lanes, being really physical with ball pressure in an off ball situations. They knew that one of their best advantages was we might just play harder than these guys. That was what we saw

in the exhibition play. That's what we saw yesterday, and they if you guys remember in the exhibition play, they got a pick six on steph for like an inbound play where they they took the ball away from it, went down and got a layup. They did the same thing to start the game yesterday as well. They had another steal on a Joel Embiid lazy inbound pass. They're very FOURD aggressive, trying to capitalize on sloppiness and lack

of effort from Team USA. But one of the things I talked about in the last game was that's a very exhausting way to play. Not only that, like it's a it's a play, it's a style of play that most teams don't use in large doses, expect especially old grown men professional teams, because they're older, they need to conserve energy resources. A lot of these European teams, athleticisms not really their strength, so that's not what they lean into.

They lean more into execution and playing playing like really smart in the half court, you know basketball in terms of change of pace and just setting really good picks and using your size, using your IQ, all that kind of stuff. It's kind of unusual, right, And so one of the things you'll notice is if I asked you to shoot fifty catch and shoot threes right now, let's do a smaller number, ten catch and shoot threes. But you're nice and warmed up. But you shoot ten catch

and shoot threes, you're gonna shoot a certain percentage on them. Right. But if I asked you to sprint up and down the court ten times first, and then I asked you to go shoot ten threes, like, you're gonna have trouble. Like there is a muscle memory that you rely on that depends on your legs feeling a certain way. It depends on your arms feeling a certain way, and that muscle memory can get disrupted in a lot of different ways.

Really physical games can disrupt your muscle memories. You get all keyed up from the adrenaline rush of physical confrontation. Really fast paced games can affect you in terms of like if you're a team that's used to playing slow and then you run into the Steve Nash Phoenix Suns, they run you up and down the floor, and then all of a sudden, you're exhausted and you're not making the same shots that you usually made playing without outside

of norm defensive energy. That can be something that disrupts your typical muscle memory and situations like that. And so I thought it was really interesting in both games that in the exhibition and in this pool play game that Serbia came out gangbusters, playing with insane effort kept the game close for about a half but then the bottom fell out, and the main issue was the inability to knock down decent looks from the three point line right now.

That was exacerbated by the fact that the USA team shot extremely well. They made over fifty percent of their threes and that's why they won by twenty six points despite falling down ten to two. But Serbia also did not shoot well. But again, I like to think of that these things are connected. You know, you guys know me like I'm I'm going to make sure that we acknowledge the existence of luck within shooting, but we're going to prioritize actual controllable factors before we start to talk

about luck as the driving force of the outcome. I tend to think that when you try to play like that, it's really hard to after your jumping, passing lanes, picking up full court, doing all this crazy intense defensive energy stuff, to then suddenly slow down and trust your muscle memory to knock down a jump shot. It's just really difficult, right, So that ended up being the issue. Servey ended up falling apart late in the game, especially as fatigue became

a factor. Kevin Durant checked in when it was twenty to fourteen and immediately got hot and they One of the things I liked about it too, is like Katie didn't come in gunning trying to take tough shots. His first two shots were both clean looks in catch and shoot situations. The first one was ball screen on the left side of the floor. Ball got swung to the corner. Hadi's man rotated because the cornerman, the guy who was guarding the cornerman, had sucked into the paint to help

guard that possession. Katie's man dropped down. I think it was Drew extra pass up the wing to Kevin Durant wide open on the wing, knocks down the catch and shoot three right. The second one that he got was actually off of a really interesting set that Steve Kerr had them run coming out of a sideline out of bounds and it was kind of a very interesting example

of five out offense. So the inbound the ball I think it was to Derek White on the in the right corner, and then Bam and Ad both go to run and set a double staggered ball screen for Derek White in the corner, but Bam just quickly slips out of it, runs to the opposite dunker spot. Anthony Davis sets the pick, Derek White comes off on the weak side.

We had Kevin Durant in the corner and we had Anthony Edwards on the wing right, so you have three man action, two guys spotting up on the weak side right now, in a typical like kind of standstill situation where everyone's just kind of watching, it's easy for those weak side defenders to suck into the paint and to be in a position where they can help but also recover. But by design, Steve Kerr had Anthony Edwards cut off of that weak side wing right as the action was

taking place. So there's just a lot of ball in player movement, you can imagine it. And by the way, I clipped this play, It's on my twitter feed at Underscore Jason lt. You guys can find I only clip two plays from the game, but you can find that on my Twitter feed if you want to see a visual example. But as Derek White's coming off the screen, Bam slips to the opposite dunker spot and Ant cuts through, and all that is is just off ball player movement.

And you know, I had someone respond to the tweet because in the let's talk about what happened on the actual play. First, Ant cuts through, Kd's man actually ends up following Ant through the lane, so Katie ends up wide open on the left wing. Derek White hits him, KDE knocks down the shot right easy offense, but the whole I had someone that responded to the tweet and he said, isn't that just a defensive mistake? Yeah, you're right, and absolutely was bad defense. But that's the point. When

you're guarding off ball, it's a hard job. You gotta see man and ball. This is why you do shell drill when you're in college and when you're in high school, and they still do it in the pros. This is why you do closeout drills. This is why you work on defensive positioning. Where you are one pass away, where you are two passes away, where you are when you're

the low man in pick and roll situations. All those things get repped out because of Because off ball defense is difficult, you've got to track multiple things at the same time. Now, imagine that I am guarding a player that doesn't want to cut, that doesn't want to relocate,

that doesn't want to set an off ball screen. It's really easy for me to be like, he's over there, He's gonna be over there, so I can kind of key in on this play and I know if the swing pass goes, I literally know where I'm supposed to close out too, because this dude's not moving. But when there's ball in player movement, it's much harder to track man and ball as guys are going through. And if you watch on the specific play I'm talking about, as Ant cuts through, ants man is down at the nail

helping on the ball screen. Super common coverage you see in professional basketball. Right as the guy's coming off the ball screen, the guy who's one pass away just sinks down to like kind of around where the foul line is so that he can dig down and try to disrupt things but also close out right. But he's he's trying to track Ant and the ball. Ant cuts through and gets behind him. He's not paying attention. He's digging

down at the nail as Ant is cutting through. So then Kd's man is like, oh shit, Ant's cutting through. I'm gonna have to go with him because ants man is not paying attention. So then he follows Ant on the cut. Then Katie is wide open. You see the point the idea there is if Aunt and Katie just stand, it's easy. I think it was bogged on Bogdanovic, who

is guarding Ant on this play. It's easy for bog Done to sync down into the lane and dig down and not really give up that much of an opening, right, But as soon as there's ball, there's off ball player movement involved. It makes it a tougher job. Same sort of thing if you just imagine the interchange. Imagine if because this one was just a set play, right, this was a set play. Sideline out of bounds. We're gonna run this double drag for Derek White coming out of

the corner. We're gonna have Bam slip the screen. We're gonna have Ant cut off the wing. We're gonna have Kade relocate. We're gonna get an open shot out of this. That's a set play. But in traditional five out motion

you're supposed to do this sort of thing instinctually. So like if they're in free flowing offense and Drew brings the ball off the floor and semi transition and they just happen to run a ball screen and Ant and KD are on the weak side, if Ant is more willing to just set a pin down for KD as KD comes up in the exchange, or if kdie backscreens for Ant, or if they cut, or if they do any sort of like movement on the weak side, it makes it that much harder for those off ball defenders.

You can imagine in a pin down situation. Now both of those guys are they're communicating a switch, or maybe they're communicating a hedge, whatever it is they're communicating. They now have to worry about what's going on over here instead of keying in on what's happening on the strong side where the ball is. That's why that's so important.

And I actually thought it was really fascinating because I don't know if you guys saw this morning, but Kevin Durant was getting into arguments on Twitter again with people, and he was specifically getting into arguments about running organized offense versus freelance offense, right, and this is something we've been talking about a lot on the show recently, and Katie was talking about how the beauty in the game is guys just playing and it's not as structured, but

there's reading and reacting, and Katie was making points he was saying, like that doesn't mean just standing around. He's like guys can cut and screen and relocate despite that not being actually a set part of the play that's read and react basketball. Katie is right, However, where I

disagree with KD is. There has been an extensive amount of statistical analysis done on this specific debate, and one of the things that I've talked about krangis Tim Cranis, who covers the Lakers, did it an immaculate job, like an incredibly detailed job breaking down the difference in efficiency on a per possession basis when they run a set like an actual organized offensive look versus freelance like just ribble up the floor and do your own thing. That

gap is pretty wide. It's pretty wide around the league, and so I agree with KD in the sense that, like the entire the entire purpose of a set is to get an advantage. So if you just bring the ball up the floor and you see a quick advantage, whether that's a transition, crossmatch or just because you're pushing in transition, the defense isn't set yet, so you can attack before they get their actual set half court look on defense, whatever it may be. Yeah, you want to

have balance. KD actually specifically said that in his debate this more on Twitter. It's about balance, and he's right. You want to have a good amount of like freedom for guys to take advantage of advantages that appear naturally in the game. Oh I'm dribbling the ball at the court and the wrong dude picked me up he's too small. Or oh, I'm bringing the ball to the floor. The guy guarding me, he's clearly tired. I'm just gonna rise up into my transition pull up three. Katie made one

of those right before the half. It was a two for one situation, caught the dude on his heels, just rose up into a shot. Yeah, you want to have freelance. You want to have freedom baked into your offense for guys to capitalize on advantages that naturally appear. But it does take a certain amount of discipline to understand that freelance basketball is generally less efficient than organized basketball, and you need to run organized basketball. Now where it gets tricky.

If you guys remember from the Jimihakez interview, Jimi Hakez talked about how went in the NBA with the shorter shot clock. Sometimes you only have a chance to get the ball at the floor and run one or two actions, and then you have to get a shot up on the rim and he's right, and so there's a timing

element to it. Did you get the ball at the floor quickly enough to be able to run organized offense or is it one of those things where you have a certain advantage, there's only twelve seconds left, it doesn't make sense to try to back out and run something organized. You want to free flow. That balance is an important thing to try to strike as a basketball team. But in general, I think most teams are a little too high on the freelance and not high enough on that

organized offense piece. And I do think that's an area of opportunity that you see around the league because just like that play I talked about where Ant cuts through

and it gets Kadi to wide open three. Just something stupid like saying like, hey, you want to run the boss screen, that's fine, But every time we see kd dribble up the right side of the floor and call for a ball screen, we need to have two or three kind of preset weak side actions that these guys are running consistently instead of just standing still, so that we can just squeeze a little bit more juice out

of this, because that's really the point. Point is like if Katie running a static ball screen in a freelance situation is worth one point zero five points per possession. But if we run a week side cut, a week side relocation, or a week side screen, it bumps it up from one point zero five to one point two five, Then you bet your ass. Then I want my coaches and I want I want basketball teams to try to

squeeze that little extra bit of efficiency out of it. Right, And so I know that's a huge detour in this discussion, but I found it super fascinating in light of the debate that Kevin Durant was having on Twitter this morning, because that's kind of one of the things that's going around the league right now, like how important is it to give your players freedom to play freelance basketball versus the realities of how efficient organized basketball is because organized

basketball makes it harder for off ball defenders, end of story, makes it more to that person who quoted responded to my tweet. Yet, you're right, it's a defensive mistake. But that's the whole point running offense. You run offense to get the defense to make a mistake, and when they make a mistake, you have an advantage. Then you can

play read and react out of there. And to Kdi's point, that is where the beauty of basketball takes over when you run a set and the set generates an opening, then that So let's say let's say you run that exact same set and Katie gets a wide open catch on the left, but a dude throws an excellent rotation in a great close out, Katie has to drive the close out and then you get a nifty off ball screen or a cut or a relocation that ends up

getting somebody open. There is beauty in the flow, but in order to really get into the flow, you need to get the defense in rotation. And it's generally easier to do that when you run an organized offense. And so that's why it's a more complicated topic.

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left corner. He had a one legged fade away on the right elbow area, the two for one right before the half. Takes the pull up, or it might have been right before the end of the first quarter. I can't remember exactly, but takes the pull up three with like thirty two seconds left, and I think it was before the half, and then he had that crazy shot as he cut along the baseline and he like caught and turned into like a right shoulder fade right before

the half. It's a beautiful example of like you want to build your rhythm through easy shots and then you want to go into the tougher stuff, right and like, this is something that Kde has always had a really good grasp on. Kde doesn't come out and just start taking super tough jump shots. He works his way into the flow until he finds his rhythm. Then he starts to see how far his rhythm can carry him with the higher level shot making that he is capable of.

Having him out there and I think he's gonna end up starting before too long, if not literally on Wednesday, but having him out there just fundamentally alls it, like fundamentally alters the spacing of the unit because he's like on this team, he's like a super juiced up version of Michael Porter junior. He's doing a lot of work off the ball, but we're talking about one of the most deadly spot up guys literally in the history of basketball doing his thing over there, like twenty three points

on nine shots. I'm always amazed specifically with Kevin Durant. I'm always amazed by his ability to step on the floor and immediately be in rhythm. So any of you guys who have played college basketball or high school basketball and they've had an injury know exactly what this is like. This is something I see with like the vast majority of NBA players. Think about your favorite NBA team and then you hear like Lakers fans like, hey, Ruy Hachimura has been out for two weeks with this injury. He's

coming back tonight. What do you expect from Ruey hat Chimura in that situation. You expect him to look like rueyat Chimura, meaning physically he's gonna look like Grewyachimura on the court, but he's probably going to be rusty, right. You expect him to probably go one for four from three, not three for four from three. You expect him to look a little tired sometimes. You expect him to make

a few defensive mistakes. You expect him to miss a couple reads because he's adjusting back to the speed of the game. Again, you expect that with everybody. Well, bron Like forever I remember, it'd be like he'd take a day off, or he'd take a couple of weeks off to nurse and injury, and he'd come back and it's like it's like he's mishandling the basketball. The jumper's not quite there. Like that's a super typical thing. I had a foot injury before my second year playing in college.

I was terrible in the first semester. I was way better in the second semester, because it's just really hard to go from being hurt to getting back to like the full idealized version of yourself. Katie has has this bizarre superpower, and I mean, the best example of it

was the twenty nineteen Finals. The dude misses a month of basketball and then step onto the floor in the NBA Finals in a must win game against one of the best defenses in the league and just smooth just comes out, starts hitting shots and has eleven points like that before he ends up having the Achilles injury like he It is remarkable his ability to just walk into incredible, high stakes, high pressure basketball and just look like Kevin Durant. It's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. I

literally don't know what to make of it. And it was super fun to watch him out there yesterday alongside the rest of Team USA. Lebron again was amazing. The transition pushes are the main one that are standing out to me, Like he literally looks like old freight train Lebron with his ability to just get that head of steam and drop that shoulder, get those little angles and then power through people for left handed finishes and right handed finishes. He's still operating as the hub at the

top of the key and hitting cutters. A big one that you'll see is like again, just like an off ball screen where you have a shooter come off and then the screen will slip and like he hit Ant for a foul on one of those, he hit Drew Holiday for a wide open layup on a great example of what I'm talking about in terms of off ball player movement and trying to bait defenses into making mistakes. This was the second clip that I pulled and put

on my Twitter feed. Basic action Lebron at the top of the key, Drew Holiday goes and sets a pin down for Steph Curry. Steph Curry's trying to come off for a three. Both defenders miscommunicate the switch. They both run out with Steph drew holiday slips, he's wide open, Lebron hits him wide open layup, and that you gotta have a guy that can like kind of make those reads and can see over the top of the defense and actually get to pass on time and on target.

Lebron's done an amazing job with that. In the second half, he really started to get that pick and roll chemistry with Anthony Davis going. He had one on the right wing where he hit Anthony Davis, he got a left handed layup, he hit Anthony Davis for an and one for a lob dunk at one point. Lebron is just continuing to do a masterful job of just orchestrating this team USA offense. Twenty one points, seven rebounds, and nine assists,

another monster stat line for him, just thirteen shots. Devin Booker, I thought, hit a couple of huge threes early in the game and help situations that kind of loosen things up when the USA team got off to a slow start. Steph's gravity, just him running around has been a huge help. I talked about the play again, like the reason why those two defenders make that mistake of running out with

Steph so that Drew gets open. Is because as a defender, you're terrified of Steph getting open, and you're gonna default, or if you're gonna make a mistake, you're gonna you're gonna accidentally leave the other guy open. You're never gonna accidentally leave Steph open. And so that's gravity, that's that's just the inherent fear of Steph's shooting ability that creates opening else openings elsewhere on the floor and just in general.

He's running around like absolutely crazy throughout the game, and it's just creating openings. There was a dribble hand off with Lebron where his man is top locking him. It's on the left wing, his man's top locking him, making it really hard for him to fight over. He curls around Lebron. Lebron does a nice job of like pivoting into the DHO to get some more contact on Steph's man. Hits Steph with the bounce pass as he's going towards

the rim that draws embiids man over. He drops it off to Embid easy little short five foot jump shot generated by just Steph being willing to run and run and run and run, and it's just helping to keep things open. Drew Holliday hitting open threes. He had fifteen points.

His cutting one of the things that I've talked about a lot with Drew Holliday with the Celtics, and they do this with Derek White too, but Drew Holidays as a really a really good grasp of openings to cut and not be lazy and go to the three point line. Generally speaking, you feel like you're doing your job by staying at the three point line because you're giving three

point spacing. But as I've always said, three point shooting, while it is the most efficient shot outside of the rim, it is not as efficient as shots at the rim. Those continue to be by far the most efficient shots in basketball. There was a play steph ended up missing to three on this sequence, but Drew Holliday's running up the right side of the floor. His man's playing a little on the high side. There's nobody under the basket, and there's nobody in the corner, and Drew sees an opportunity.

He could run to the corner or just stay on the wing. And he's still spotting up and creating spacing right, but his man was playing on the high side and staring at the ball, and so Drew's like, screw it. I'm just gonna cut to the basket, cuts to the basket, catches underneath all the Serbia dudes just close in on him. He ends up throwing it out to Steph. Steph gets a wide open three. He just happened to miss it.

But like Drew has just been a really nice connective piece on this team because of his ability to cut, because of his ability to make those extra passes. There is a play where one of Joel Embid's good plays in this game, Joel and bad cuts in the middle of four. Drew Holiday cuts back door and be beautiful pass to Drew on the cut that draws Lebron's man and help Lebron cuts and Drew drops it off. Lebron

gets it dunk again. You'd think and be posting, what if Drew and Lebron just stayed on the wing in the corner. Yeah, that's technically creating space, But what do I say? Off ball, cut, relocate screen. Those three things make it a lot harder for the off ball defender. Drew cut, his defender got lost as a result, that forced Lebron's man to step up Lebron could have been like,

I'll take a corner three. No, why would I take a corner three when I can get a dunk that's worth that's worth two points every single time he cuts back door. That's two cuts instead of two spot ups that leads to a dunk instead of a three. That might be worth one point four points per shot for a good shooter. Right, So, like the these are the kinds of things that I think are vitally important, And like Steph is doing that all the time. He's just

running and sprinting and running and sprinting. Drew's doing that, he's cutting, Lebron's cutting. That's what I like about that starting unit. Like Drew, Steph and Lebron, they're like professional cutters, that's what they do. And that that sort of thing has just kind of helped loosen things up for that offensive unit on the Serbia front. Like I talked about, same thing that happened last time. They just got really really Oh one last note on Drew Holiday. Drew Halliday's

defensive pressure continues to be really impressive. He had two steals that both led to pick sixes. He ripped Jokic on a post up right around the foul line that led to Lebron getting it dunk and then he jumped a passing lane and got a left handed layup out of it. I think Drew has been amazing, Like it's interesting on a team like this that he just seems like he has to start, but he just does like I think Drew. I think Drew just has to start

on this team Serbia. The cold shooting again, same thing that happened last time. The swarming of Jokic again. Tmusa is just constantly throwing three of the best possible dudes in the world that you can throw at Jokic. I think embiads a little overrated defensively, and I think that's been on display in this in this Team USA situation. But he's one of the few big bodies that can kind of make things tougher for Jokic in the post. And he still had twenty points in eight assists. Serbia

played Team USA even in Nikole Jokic's minutes. He played thirty one minutes they were even. They got outscored by twenty six in the other nine minutes, which is insane. He had nine post ups for fourteen points, including passes that equals one point five six points per possession. Just Jokic continues to be incredibly impressive. The one thing that continues to concern me with him though, one for seven on jump shots against Team USA, struggle to knock down

jump shots in the exhibition game as well. That's the one thing with Jokic that I can't figure out, Like he just has not shot the basketball well since he won the title in twenty twenty three, and I think he's going to have to fix that, especially in light of some of the personnel downgrades that Denver's dealing with going into next season.

And the main case that I saw floating around was like Katie wasn't ready to start, so Katie would typically start, but he wasn't, so Katie was kind of in that bench forward role that Tatum would typically be in. And then Devin Booker they considered to be like a better ball mover, a guy who's like a really quick decision maker in five out, and again that's really what I

think drives most of this for Steve Kerr. There's a lot of like Celtics fans that are making it like, oh, the Warriors are just mad because the Celtics are kicked our butt last year. This is a jealousy thing. It's I don't think that's the case. Guys like the Warriors beat the Celtics in the finals two years ago. There's no reason for them to be insecure about this matchup. They beat the Celtics on the biggest possible stage to win the title. They're just old now, that's why they're

bad that that's that's not an issue. So I don't think it has anything to do with that. I don't think Kerr has some sort of personal vendetta against Jason Tatum. I think this is about basketball worldview. This is something I talk about all the time, Like I have a basketball worldview. I have a specific way that I like to play, that I think teams should play, but like, that's not the only way that teams think, and that team strategize, and that teams want to play, that coaches strategize,

and that coaches want to play. Everyone's got different strategies here, and I like and I think I think in retrospect, we can look at the way that team, that the Golden State Warriors have played and look at it and go like wow. Like often Steve Kerr would leave two

of his forwards on the bench. He'd go with like he'd have you know, Moody and Kaminga on the bench, and then he would have Brandon Pizemski, Steph Curry, and Klay Thompson all out there at the same time, and you're like, wow, they're way too small and not athletic enough. But what Steve Kerr is thinking there is Steph Lightning, quick decision maker, lightning, quick read and react guy in five out, same for Clay, same for Pozamski. That's what

he's thinking. I think that that Jason Tatum as a guy that has a little bit of a tendency to catch and hold. I think that Steve Kerr just kind of like doesn't like his his play style as a fit within Team USA. I don't buy that, though. I don't think that's nearly enough of an excuse to leave a guy who is at Here's the thing do think. Do I think Tatum is a top five player in the world. No, he got First Team All NBA because his team has five thirty million dollar players and they

won sixty four games. I do not think Jason Tatum is one of the five best basketball players in the world. But like in this setting, he's still a guy that absolutely has to be in this rotation. He's at least he's a top ten player. He's in that six seven, eight nine range. He belongs in this rotation. He specifically plays a need. You can't justify starting three guards on a team that has Tatum, Lebron, Katie, Anthony Davis, and Bam, all guys that can play the like Bam and AD

can play the four, Lebron can play the four. There are lots of minutes at the three available that needs. That is a misallocation of resources to have a top ten player that plays a specific position of need. You're starting three guards, Steve Kerr, You're starting three guards, and yeah, Like Tatum is a bit of a slower decision maker than most, but I still think he's above average at reading the floor. I know he hasn't played as well with Team USA as he's capable of. He's still in

this nightmare shooting slump. His form is all jacked up. He's got a hitch in there, He's got multiple hitches in there. His form looks crazy. He's got bad misses, jumpers off the reservation. But he still brings so much to the table. We're gonna talk about EMBID in a minute. The EMBIID thing is so much more complicated because he's struggling on both ends of the floor. He's jankin things up for them on offense, and he's not doing enough

on the defensive end of the flour. Tatum is an elite defensive rebounder and an elite front court defender, So like, there's literally no excuse that lack of like quick decision making is not nearly enough of an excuse, in my opinion, to leave a player of this caliber on the bench. You can't DNP Tatum and start three guards. That is a decision that I can't get behind. And so again what I would do. I think you start Kevin Durant and Devin Booker spot. I think that's very simple. Shoe

and fit there. Now you don't have three guard lineup. Katie makes sense with the starters. Then you put Tatum in Kd's slot with the bench guys. And again, this is not about the Celtics, Like I saw Bill Simmons saying that, like Jason Tatum should be in Lebron's spot running the show because Tatum won a lot more games. That's stupid, Like you swap Lebron and Tatum this year, the Celtics still win the title. They have five thirty

million dollar players. We don't need to overthink this, Like, it's not about what Tatum deserves in terms of what he accomplished in the NBA. It's about the fact that Tatum is too fucking good to leave him sitting when you're starting a three guard lineup that is getting rolled at the start of every single game. Slide Katie into the starting lineup, put Tatum in with that bench group, make sure he gets his opportunities. He's too good of a player to not take advantage of what he brings

to the table. But I think this is all about Steve Kerr's offensive philosophy. He's obsessed with lightning quick decision making and his blender of an offense and Tatum is a little too deliberate, and I think as a result of that, Kerr has favored his guards. That's why he's playing Devin Booker, That's why he's playing Derek White, that's why he's playing Drew Holliday. Guards from birth are trained to be lightening quick decision makers. That's what guards do

at every level. And so I think that's why Steve Kerr just kind of gravitates to those sorts of guys. I actually think, like I said, I think it's hilarious in retrospect watching the way that he was coaching that Golden State Warriors rotation. And again, this is the thing, there are different basketball philosophies guys like I talked about earlier,

like there's a trade off. Steve Kerr knows the tradeoff Steve Kerr knows that when he decides to play three guards, whether it be with the Warriors or with Team USA, he knows he's making gains in offensive decision making and quickness, he's making gains in ball handling, and he's losing ground in physicality, defensive, rebounding, transition athleticism. Like he's making a trade off, right, and we, by the way, we've seen the opposite version of that. The twenty twenty Lakers were

the exact opposite version of that. They sacrifice ball handling and quick decision making and had some moments where they struggled in half court offense, but they had Alex Crusoe and KCP and Danny Green, Lebron and Anthony Davis out there. They were so damn big and sodamn athletic. They were a monster defensive rebounding team. They were a monster defensive team. They were a monster transition team. That was a trade

off that Frank Vogel took. Frank Vogel said, I want to lean into my team's strength, which is size and size and mobility on the perimeter, size and mobility underneath the basket. We're just gonna be a wrecking ball, physical team, right, And that's the thing. Like Steve Kerr has looked at a very similar roster. Steve Kirk could do that with this group. Steve Kerr could look at this group and he could go, I'm gonna go Steph Tatum, Kadi, Lebron

ad We're just gonna be huge. We're gonna switch everything, We're gonna lean into that. He could go super athletic. He could bench KD and he could go we're gonna go eighty bam, Lebron, Tatum and Anthony Edwards at the point and be like offense can be a little JANKI, but we're gonna beat the shit out of people because we're bigger and stronger and faster at every single position. Like he has different angles he can go and it's

very clear to me. Again, I don't think this has anything to do with Kerr having hang ups about the Celtics or about Tatum. I don't think this has anything to do with what Tatum accomplished with the Celtics. I think this is strictly just a basketball philosophy that Steve Kerr has. He prioritizes quick decision making on the perimeter. Therefore, he has gone with more of his guards instead of his forwards. But there's no justification. Look at the course.

Look at the course. The guard corps on this team is Steph Ant, Derek White, Drew Holliday, Devin Booker. The ford core on this team is Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Jason Tatum, Anthony Davis, bam at A Bayo. I would argue that's the strength of the roster. Lean into size, Lean into your forwards. So there's no excuse for having Tatum outside of the ten man rotation. Has nothing to do with him winning the title, has nothing to do with winning sixty four games, has nothing to do with

making first team All NBA. It had has everything to do with the fact that he's too good at basketball to leave what he brings to the table on the bench. All right, let's talk to Joel Embid, then we'll get out of here. So he got off to slow start again, missed a little short jumper on a catch and pick and roll. He missed a couple of free throws after

getting fouled underneath the basket by Jokic. He got beat to the rim by a small guard and drop coverage like he's in drop coverage, but he's standing really upright. And then this little unathletic guard just went right around Embiid and made a layup off the glass. I'm like, dude, what are you doing? Like this is the bare minimum of what they have to get out of you in

this role. He immediately on the same play, gives up the layup, takes the inbound pass and just throws it right to the other team and they get another They were down ten two like this, like it. It was a complete disaster. He was minus eight in a game that Team USA won by twenty six points. That's that's legitimately hard to do. And again, like guys like Embiid has had high moments with this team, He's had good moments.

I had good moments in this game. The back door cut pass to Drew Holliday that led to the dunk for Lebron. He had an and one little right shoulder fade against Jokich, hit a little pocket pass or drop off pass, short jump shot off a pass from Stapf like he made. He had a big block on a play where a guy got behind him and he swatted him off the glass out of bounds. In the second half, like Embiid had his moments, but it's these disastrous stretches of mistakes like he had at the start of the game.

You can't afford to go down ten to two in single elimination basketball like that could get you beat, that could cost you a gold medal. And so this is like a legitimate concern that I have for this team. And like, and here's the thing, I don't think it's that complicated. I still think that Joel Embiid is a better franchise cornerstone, a better best player on the team than Ad and Bam by a pretty sizable margin. But the reality is there are different ways to play the

game of basketball. And what Joel Embiid plays with the Sixers, that style of basketball is it's very different than the style of basketball the team USA is playing, for instance, it's very similar. Let's just take it like this put embad on the seventy six ers. It's a brute force attack right, much less ball in player movement. The seventy six Ers had the fourth fewest assists in the entire

league last year by total assists. They're not a team that it's just flowing from side to side, and there's a ton of ball in player movement. That's not what they do. Embiid can catch, he can hold, he can cook, he can throw two or three jab steps. He can hit dribble combinations if he wants. Why Because the Sixers need thirty five points and six assists out of him every single night. So it's a great fit for Embiid there.

If you took Bam and Ad and put them on the Sixers, they're immediately a way worse team because they don't they're not equipped for that style of basketball. That's not what they do. But if you put Embad on Team USA, they need him to set ball screens. They need him to roll quickly into openings in the middle of the floor. They need him to make decisions when

he catches, their quick decisions off the catch. They need him when another guard drives to quickly catch outlet passes and to quickly flow into the next action on the other end of the floor. They need him to sprint up and down the floor and transition. They need him to defend at a high level. They need him to rebound at a high level. Bam and Ad, that's where they are in their money. They are professionals at that

kind of thing. That's why those two guys look excellent in this format, playing this style of basketball, and Embededd struggles. And this is different from the Tatum thing because it's similar to the Tatum issue, right, Like Tatum on the Celtics where they need him to be more of an advantage crater and more of a screener. It like he's involved more frequently with the action. It makes sense for Boston, right. But there's two huge differences between the Tatum thing and

the Embid thing. One, a ball stopper, specifically at the center position is the worst place for one in five out offense. That is the bridge guy, that is the guy that bridges the action from one side to the next to ball mover at that position. And Secondly, Jason Tatum is an excellent athlete who's very durable and in great shape, and he sells at the dirty work stuff. Embiid doesn't. He looks out of shape and he's struggling.

So like with Tatum, it's like, you're willing to live with some of this because he's gonna bring so much other good to the table. Embiid's been a borderline disaster on both ends of the floor. And like, and we're getting to the point now, guys, like the sample size is too small to just hope that Embiid figures it out. Like they play Sousedan on Wednesday, Puerto Rico on Saturday, quarterfinals on Tuesday, semi finals on Thursday, next week, finals

on Saturday. That's five games, guys, we have five games left with this group, Like, there's not enough time, Like Embiid is miles and miles and miles away from figuring out how to play this style of basketball, and so he's not going to figure it out before the end of the gold medal game. And again, if you keep starting him and you keep dropping down ten two to every single team, that could be something that's very dangerous. When you get to the elimination round, you could make

the case that Embid should benched entirely. Both Bam and AD are better players in this setting, and you need to find minutes for Tatum. And an easy way to do that is stop playing three centers. If you play a D with the starters and BAM with the bench, guys Tatum, all of a sudden, all these minutes open up for Tatum and then Steve Kirk and keep playing

all the guards that he loves to play. Right, you could argue it should be a Lebron ad front court and then a Tatum Bam front court for the bench unit. You could argue that's the way it should be. But I don't think they're going to bench Embiid entirely for all the obvious political kind of backlash that would come from that. Right, But you also can't keep starting him. If you keep digging a hole like that every game, that could be really dangerous when you get to the

elimination round. So what I would do is just put m b with the bench group. At least there you're surrounding him with more size and athleticism to cover for his defensive deficiencies. You can't play Embiid alongside thirty seven year olds about to be thirty seven year old Steph and about to be forty year old Lebron, especially if you move Kde and the lineup. He's getting old too. You can't just play Embiid, the out of shape guy who sucks at the dirty work stuff, alongside the old guys.

Put him on the bench with Ant and Tatum and Bam and these freaky athletes. Put him out there with them. They'll cover for his shortcomings in the dirty work, and that unit needs help on offense. He can bring that there. It's just less of a big deal if he co ops possessions there. But again, like this is not an indictment of Himbiid as a basketball player. He's one dimensional in terms of his play style right now. He needs to play the style he plays with the Sixers, but

he is a world beater at that style. It's unrealistic to expect him to slot into a five out read and react, trust your teammates, keep the ball moving type of offense in a few weeks when he's never done that in his career. It's just hard to do. And so I'm not surprised that he's struggling, and I just hope that Steve Kerr makes the adjustment before it turns into an issue in the elimination round. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. Like I said,

TOMORROWM gonna start peeking at player rankings. I'm also going to start taking a look at some of the other Olympic games see if there's anything worth hitting on that front. As always, I appreciate you guys for supporting the show the game plan for the rest of the week on Wednesday, south to day in game. I think I'm going with Colin Coward after the game, so it's very possible that we won't have a show until Thursday morning because I'll be going with Colin that day, and then I plan

on doing a mail bag late in the week. I don't think we'll cover Puerto Rico because it's just not an interesting enough matchup, and then we're going to head it in next week and it's pretty quickly going to be the Metal the elimination round, so it should be fun from there. Again, I appreciate you guys for rocking with me. I will see you on Wednesday.