Gold Medal or Bust: Team USA Basketball Olympics Insights
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00:00Kyle Irving is with the Sporting News and he's got a much better life than us because
00:07he's in Lipstick City living large in Santa Monica styling and he left that wretched smelly
00:14city of Boston to go to Los Angeles and he left all of his fandom with his family back
00:21home so that he could form new relationships with not only West Coast women but West Coast
00:27teams and he's covering the USA Basketball Olympics with us and all of the tournament
00:35games are going to be fantastic. Kyle, good to see you. I want to say we were talking
00:41earlier about Durant's calf, right, and the argument was that he won't play Sunday against
00:49Serbia and then I wasn't arguing about whether he would play. I could give a rat's ass if
00:55he plays or not. I've been around Kevin in Brooklyn forever and, you know, what he was
01:01in Brooklyn was always sitting with his bad calves and never playing. So that's what I
01:06remember the guy that never played and never won. So that's what we got here in New York.
01:12That version of KD. I will say I have like 12 pairs of his shoes. I like his shoes. Anyway,
01:18so my argument was that he's played two straight scrimmages, two straight full practices. He's
01:24been on the floor. I just saw him dunking and running reverse dunks and like, you know,
01:33afterwards I heard it right out of his mouth. If the game were tomorrow, I could play. No
01:37problem. But I want to see how I feel here after this second scrimmage and why would
01:45they not play him if he's capable of playing? What are they, saving him for what? Saving
01:52him for what? Like, do you think he'll go if he's okay to go?
01:59Load management, even taking over the Olympics. It's incredible. But no, I mean, if he's ready
02:03to go and he believes he's ready to go, I don't know why he wouldn't go. It's not like
02:07this is a player who, you know, let's say it was Joel Embiid who was out with an injury
02:11and you have to change so much of what you do. If Joel Embiid is all of a sudden the
02:15guy that you're implementing in your lineup. I don't think it's that hard to implement
02:18Kevin Durant into this lineup. I mean, the guy can score from anywhere on the floor,
02:22but he's also a solid passer and playmaker. So it's not like they'd have to make catastrophic
02:27changes to what they've been doing with that first unit. If he were to slot into the first
02:31unit and honestly, because he hasn't played yet in the first five games, it wouldn't surprise
02:35me if they decided to bring him off the bench. So Kerr is going to have to tinker with the
02:38lineups a little bit. But to me, if he's ready to go, he has to be able to go for team USA.
02:44I don't know what they would be saving him for. They have their toughest matchup in their
02:47entire group right off the bat against Serbia, against Nikola Jokic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nikola
02:53Jovic. This is a deep team. One of the teams that, in my opinion, has one of the best chances
02:58to knock off team USA and have a potential chance to win gold. So they're going to need
03:02Kevin Durant if he's available to go. And whether that's the first unit, second unit,
03:06like you said, he's been scrimmaging. He went through live scrimmages today. We saw him
03:10getting shots up after practice with Curry and Booker. He looks good. I don't know what
03:15they would be waiting for to just deploy him and say, you know, go out there and we
03:19need you right now because this is our biggest game at the group stage.
03:21Right. Do you remember when they had like the game against Germany and nobody wanted
03:27the pill at the end except LeBron? He's like, sorry, give me the ball. And then he's like
03:32knocking down a three. Then he had the and one and he's like, and showing his muscles
03:36like I'll take this thing over myself. If I don't believe for a minute that Curry's
03:42afraid to shoot the last shot. But I'll tell you another guy who's not afraid to shoot.
03:47I mean, every he shoots from bed while he's sleeping is Durant. I mean, Durant, he's done
03:52this in the Olympics before carried the USA team. If they need like guys, the young guys
03:58are afraid to shoot. I've been hearing that. Well, Durant's not afraid to shoot.
04:03Yeah. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing is that they're putting the ball in the hands
04:08of LeBron James right now because he is willing to be that alpha dog. And there's so many
04:12different alpha dogs on this team. But when there's four future hall of famers on the
04:16floor and the game gets tight, they're giving the ball to the 39 year old and getting out
04:19of the way. So LeBron is still going to be that guy in my opinion. But what I, what I
04:24think is unique about that situation is that LeBron always talks about it over and over
04:28and over again. He's going to make the right play at the end of the games. That doesn't
04:32necessarily mean force up a bad shot or a step back or a fade away or something like
04:35that. If that's not the shot that's available, he's going to drive, he's going to draw, draw
04:39three bodies and he's going to be able to kick out to whether it's Kevin Durant, Stephen
04:43Curry. So just because the ball's in his hands doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be
04:47downhill to the rim for a layup the way that it was against South Sudan, the way that it
04:51was you know, against Serbia in the group stage. But I do feel, or sorry, Germany, not
04:57Serbia, but I do feel like Kevin Durant is another player who, to your point, if a team
05:00loads the box and decides to try and stop LeBron, Durant's a player that he can just
05:04give the ball and then everybody can get out of the way too. It just depends on how
05:07healthy he is. So Durant, the all-time leading scorer in USA basketball history, to me, is
05:12a great 1B to LeBron's 1A if LeBron is going to be that alpha dog for Team USA.
05:17So do you think that like, because I'm going to look at the other side of this thing. You
05:21talked about Jovic and Bogie and we already know what the Joker's capable of. I got to
05:26tell you though, like I'm not afraid of Jovic. I think he's, I think he's an up and coming
05:32player in the NBA. I think he's decent. I think when I saw him play with the Heat, you
05:39know, he's relatively sloppy sometimes with his shots. I'm not afraid of this guy in the
05:44Olympics. I am afraid of Joker, but, and even Bogie. I believe, I firmly believe that it's
05:52the old Gino Ariyama. Everyone's a great shooter until someone's in their face. Okay. So I
06:00do not believe that that old man can light up the USA if they just defend him and stick
06:08someone in his face. I don't think he's going off. The one they got to worry about is, is
06:13Joker. That's the guy because he'll make everyone else look good, even if they suck. And he's
06:19going to get his, but if they defend these other guys that they have on Serbia, it shouldn't
06:25be a problem. I mean, this to me is about speeding up their offense, move the ball
06:30quicker and actually play some oniony defense, like have some stones and play defense. And
06:38that's how you win.
06:40Yeah. I mean, that's what the second unit has brought. Like that's where, you know,
06:43there's all these calls for Anthony Davis to slot in the starting lineup over Joel Embiid.
06:47But in my opinion, I felt that way after the first couple of games, because honestly, I
06:51think through and through Anthony Davis was team USA's best player through the five
06:54exhibition games. But I agree. I kind of shifted. I kind of, I kind of shifted my stance
06:59because BAM and AD have sent away any drives, any shot attempts in the paint. They have
07:04been a brick wall back there. So to mix that up, I don't think Steve Kerr should break
07:09that second unit up. They are playing lockdown defense. Tatum can defend. Anthony Edwards
07:13can defend in that last game. He actually subbed out Tyrese Halliburton and gave Derek
07:18White his minutes and Derek White can defend. So that's a second unit that you're
07:21talking about having the stones to lock in and play some defense. That's a second unit
07:24that can do that. And then if Kevin Durant ends up in the starting lineup and let's say
07:28Drew Holliday happens to go to that second unit, we're talking about a team that is
07:31going to lock down anybody that any other country can put on automatic. So, you know,
07:36you talk about Bogdanovich like he's a he's a scary score, but he's not an unstoppable
07:41score. And Jokic is obviously the player they have to worry about. But I really like how
07:46they defended him in the exhibition game where they would have A.D. guard him straight
07:50up and then have Bam Adebayo help side anytime that Jokic tried to, you know, play bully
07:55ball with those two guys. Those are two of the best interior defenders in the NBA. And
07:59then sometimes they switch off. They would have Bam play him straight up and have A.D.
08:02help off and same deal. So, you know, that's a second unit that if they really need to
08:07dig in and get a stop, that's the front court that I'm putting out there. Joel Embiid, great
08:11offensive talent. He's struggling to find his role on this team. But those two in the
08:15front court together, that is Team USA's key to victory, in my opinion.
08:19Respectfully, I got about 45 seconds. How well do you think Tatum can play in this Olympics
08:26after what he just did to win the first ring for himself? I thought he was phenomenal carrying
08:33the Celtics. I thought Brown was as well, but he's not on this team.
08:37Yeah, I think Jason Tatum is someone who that actually was kind of a, you know, it led into
08:43what his role is going to be with Team USA. He's going to be asked to defend. He's going
08:46to be asked to play make. He's not going to get 20 shots a game the way that he does with
08:49the Celtics, but there are going to be some games that he's going to have to get a little
08:52bit more aggressive on the offensive end. He was the player that closed out that gold
08:56medal match against in Tokyo in 2020 against France. So he's going to have those moments
09:01offensively, but look for him to be a solid defender and a playmaker for this team.