Team USA knocked off Serbia 110-84 to claim their first victory of the 2024 Olympics, but the recap of the contest had less to do with the action and more to do with a questionable coaching decision. To everyone’s surprise, Jayson Tatum failed to log a single minute in the blowout victory despite making five consecutive appearances during the exhibition stage. Steve Kerr, who is fully responsible for keeping the NBA champion on the bench for the entirety of the game, was bold enough to own up to his mistake during his postgame press conference.
“Jayson will play [on Wednesday],” Kerr said after Team USA’s dominant win. “I’m not going to answer your next question, which is if he plays, who doesn’t. But we’re going to need him, and part of this job for me is to keep everybody engaged and ready, because my experience with this is crazy stuff happens.” Kerr also recognized that “The hardest part of this job is you’re sitting at least a couple of guys who are world-class, some of the very best players on Earth. On one hand, it makes no sense at all. On the other, I’m asking these guys to just commit to winning one game and then move on to the next one. I have to do the same thing. And so, I felt like last night those were the combinations that made the most sense.”
While this doesn’t necessarily mean that Kerr views the 6-foot-8 wing as a liability on the roster, it is telling that he elected to give Anthony Edwards and Devin Booker the nod over Tatum. Yes, it’s no secret that he’s one of the most talented one-on-one offensive threats in the league, but he does have a tendency to struggle with his efficiency on that end of the floor. In 19 total postseason contests last season, Tatum notched 25 points a night on just 42 percent shooting from the field and 28 percent shooting from three. With Team USA gearing up for a championship run at the Olympics, I suppose that Kerr believes that the last thing they need is for Tatum to shoot them out of contention for a gold medal. With that said, it’s preposterous that Tatum didn’t see the floor when the game was clearly out of reach. If Kerr is truly a man of his word, you should expect a Tatum sighting at some point during Team USA’s clash against South Sudan on Wednesday.
