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Want to hear a plausible, if unlikely, scenario in which LeBron James comes off the bench to play for Team USA?
It all starts with U.S. 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-foot-10 player who chose the United States over France as his team for the Paris Games, shoots nearly 40 percent from 3-point range, blocks nearly two shots per game and was named NBA MVP a year ago. Based on common sense, vision tests and other such metrics, he will be a starter.
So will Stephen Curry, who, like Embiid, has never played in an Olympics but is the greatest 3-point shooter of all time and by far the greatest current threat from the 3-point line on Earth. His NBA-leading 357 3s this season (Luka Dončić was the next closest with 284) are a testament to that. He is the ultimate floor spacer.
The third sure-fire starter is 6-foot-6 Kevin Durant, a versatile two-way player and the best clutch player in U.S. basketball history. No one has given more, and more often, with a gold medal on the line than Durant, who, in four gold medal games (three at the Olympics and one at the FIBA World Cup), is averaging 29.5 points. Beyond that, Durant is the most prolific scorer in U.S. men’s basketball history, with 640 total points (Olympics and FIBA).
Okay, now let’s look at the other two starters in this scenario who would surpass all-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist James.
First up is Leonard, a 6-foot-10 player and former NBA Finals MVP who, when healthy, is both an efficient, prolific offensive player and a menacing defender with very heavy hands. If there’s one reason the Americans didn’t win the FIBA World Cup last summer in the Philippines (there are more, but hear this out), it’s because they allowed a non-NBA German player named Andreas Obst to run wild and score four 3-pointers and 24 points, despite Kerr’s pregame instructions to pay attention to Obst. Leonard, quick enough to play shooting guard on defense and a cerebral defender, wouldn’t let that happen to his team.
The other is James’ Los Angeles Lakers teammate, 6-foot-10 forward Anthony Davis. Another huge disadvantage USA Basketball had last summer — and for the past few international cycles — was size, a factor that was exploited on rebounding and defense in general. In a loss to Lithuania at the World Cup, the Americans were outrebounded 43-27 and made 17 second-chance points as well as 14 3-pointers (including nine in a row to start the game). In total, they allowed 100 points in their three losses during the World Cup, which should be difficult to do with a talented NBA roster in a 40-minute game.
Defense is Team USA’s weak spot at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, so Kawhi Leonard (left) and Anthony Davis (right) have a chance to start in Paris. (Harry How//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
Davis is one of the NBA’s best defenders, a commanding presence at the rim and on the glass, and a dominant scorer in the post. Playing him alongside Embiid against opponents like France (which will have Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama on the court), Serbia (Nikola Jokić, HELLO) and world champion Germany would allow the Americans to immediately mitigate any size disadvantage they would otherwise have with two of the game’s best big men.
In closing, Leonard is a better perimeter defender, a more committed defender, than James. Davis is taller and a better defender, too. The Americans would already have plenty of offense on the court, so if Kerr were basing his lineup decision on the mistakes of last year’s team (only two players from that team, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton, made the Olympic team), you could argue that James could be a sixth man.
And yet, this — James coming off the bench — is not likely to happen. I spoke to two USA Basketball sources, and both expressed serious doubts about the idea. So thank you for going through with this exercise, and I hope you come away from it realizing the difficult task ahead of Kerr and his staff in picking a starting lineup and finding playing time for a roster with legitimately 12 stars.
“It’s a great question,” Kerr said last week. “My team and I have talked about it quite a bit, it’s a good problem to have, but I think I’m assuming all 12 players on this roster are going to be in the Hall of Fame someday. So how do you pick five of the 12? The idea is to find combinations that work and find two-man lineups that can be effective on both ends. So our big job in Vegas is to find five-man combinations that fit and just ask all 12 to fully commit to the goal of winning a gold medal no matter what it looks like, no matter who’s playing.”
James, sources said, will likely play point guard for the Americans as a starter, taking Curry off the ball. He’s 6’8” and one of the best passers of all time, leading the NBA in assists in 2020. Even at 39, he averaged nearly 26 points per game for the Lakers last season and shot a career-best 41 percent from 3-point range (spanning 21 years!). He’ll make an already indefensible starting 5 even more indefensible (sorry, it’s training camp for me, too). He’s the U.S.’s all-time assists leader and ranks in the top 10 in points, steals, rebounds, Olympic 3-pointers and blocks.
On defense, it’s no secret that James has let that part of his game recede. He often conserves energy on that end of the court, at least in the middle months of a long NBA struggle with a full playoff run at the end. He’ll have to be more vigilant on that end of the court during the short Olympic schedule, but the international rules are on his side, too. He doesn’t have to leave the paint, and he’s heavy enough to slam bodies with the big, heavy men the Americans are sure to face. Most of his opponents won’t have four three-point shooters on the court at the same time, so James won’t have to rush to the perimeter as often.
A roster full of players from the American team
Player | NBA team | Major NBA regular season prizes |
---|---|---|
Bam Adebayo | Five-time All-Defensive | |
Devin Booker | Two-time All-NBA | |
Stephen Curry | Two-time MVP, 10-time All-NBA | |
Anthony Davis | Five-time All-NBA, five-time All-Defensive | |
Kevin Durant | 2014 MVP, 11-time All-NBA | |
Antonio Edwards | The best NBA player of 2024 | |
Joel Embiid | 2023 MVP, five-time All-NBA | |
Tyrese Haliburton | The best NBA player of 2024 | |
Jrue’s Vacation | Six-time All-Defensive | |
Lebron James | Four-time MVP, 20-time All-NBA, six-time All-Defensive | |
Kawhi Leonard | Six-time All-NBA, two-time Defensive PoY | |
Jayson Tatum | Four-time All-NBA |
Who will fill the fifth spot alongside James, Leonard or Davis? Kerr likes to play lower positions when he can, so perhaps Leonard will be the one. But there are six other highly-rated players who will be asked to play roles much reduced from those they are used to, even on the international stage.
Jrue Holiday was the second-most important player for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics. One of the best defenders in the world from his shooting guard position, Holiday made ridiculous defensive plays and was also vital on offense alongside Durant in some close games. Those three steals in a 5-point win over France in the gold medal game come to mind.
Holiday’s NBA team won a title in 2021, just before the Olympics, and the same thing happened this year with the Boston Celtics winning last month. When James, Curry and Durant led the charge in convincing veteran American superstars to declare in Paris, Holiday was not in that group, but he was coveted by USA Basketball staffers for the considerable talent, grit and FIBA-friendly style he brings to the court. At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Holiday can defend “up top” if necessary, which would theoretically allow Kerr to play Holiday and Haliburton together off the bench. Haliburton is one of the few players on the roster who doesn’t need to score to be effective, and he’s the Americans’ quickest player. He could come off the bench, as he did last summer when he recorded 45 assists (second-most in a World Cup by an American) and spearhead the U.S. offensive attack by pushing the pace and getting the ball to open shooters.
But if Haliburton and Holiday are Kerr’s backup point guards, what about Devin Booker, the Olympic gold medalist at the Tokyo Games who averaged 27 points per game last NBA season? Or Edwards, USA Basketball’s leading scorer last summer who will surely look to make his mark on this team with a ferocious performance in training camp?
There are two other gold medalists who haven’t been mentioned here yet. Jayson Tatum, fresh off his $314 million extension and first NBA championship with the Celtics, will likely take over the role he had in Tokyo when he was Durant’s backup. Tatum was the U.S.’s second-leading scorer in 2021 at 15.2 points and also made 17 three-pointers in the tournament. It’s a little odd that a three-time All-NBA first-teamer can’t crack the starting five, but that’s Tatum’s existence as long as Durant is still wearing an American jersey.
The other returning member from Tokyo is Bam Adebayo, an undersized center who started all six Olympics in 2021 and led the team with 5.7 rebounds per game. Adebayo is also one of the best defenders in the world and can defend smaller players because he is so quick. But with Embiid and Davis on the roster, Adebayo is unlikely to keep his starting spot. Kerr will find minutes for him, and Embiid’s playing time, especially during the group stage and friendlies before the Olympics begin, will almost certainly be limited to protect his knees. Adebayo can “fill in” for that position, but a player of Adebayo’s caliber typically doesn’t play such a limited role.
Welcome to the best U.S. team, at least on paper, since the 1992 Dream Team, and to the tough decisions that await Kerr starting Saturday.
GO DEEPER
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(Top photo of LeBron James during the 2024 NBA Playoffs: Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via /Keynote USA/Getty Images)
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