Gilbert Arenas recently expressed his frustrations on why Team USA didn't invite Jaylen Brown to play in the 2024 Olympics. Brown, alongside Boston Celtics teammates and Olympians Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, and Derrick White, won the 2024 NBA championship while bagging the Finals MVP award. Given his accolades, the star forward seems to be the most deserving member over Tatum and White.
While Tatum getting invited to the Team USA roster makes sense, Arenas can't wrap his head around the fact that they selected White over Brown. White, while playing a crucial part in their championship victory, is a role player for the Celtics. Compared to Brown, his resume doesn't match up, which confuses people. However, Josiah Johnson claimed that the reason Team USA picked White over Brown was due to his defense.
In a recent episode of No Chill with Gilbert Arenas, the hosts briefly discussed the probable reason why Brown isn't representing Team USA. Rashad McCants initiated the topic then Johnson simply pointed out that White plays solid defense compared to Brown. Arenas then questioned his co-hosts and thought that the reason was dumb. The former NBA star pointed out that Brown also played defense, which should give Team USA more reasons to recruit him.
Should Jaylen Brown have been a member of Team USA?
When Derrick White's name was called to join Team USA, this raised a lot of eyebrows among fans and basketball personalities. In everyone else's book, Jaylen Brown being the 2024 NBA Finals MVP award winner should've been on the Olympic roster. Honestly speaking, we can't blame them for thinking so.
In the 2024 NBA Finals, Brown averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.6 steals and shot 44% from the field. However, for some weird reason, Team USA called White over Brown to add more defense to their lineup. It's honestly a weird reason. The Finals MVP's 1.6 steals per game alone is a clear indication that he can also play solid defense.
However, if we're going to analyze how head coach Steve Kerr and the rest of the crew built their team, it kind of makes sense why Brown isn't around. There's no question that Team USA is stacked with practically an All-Star team, with the exception of White. Despite that fact, everyone has adjusted and embraced playing a certain role for the team. With that in mind, adding Brown might cause imbalances in the lineup.
Looking at how coach Kerr is running his team, the aces of the team are Kevin Durant and Anthony Edwards. Then running the floor to create shot opportunities for their teammates are LeBron James and Tyrese Haliburton. Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid are in charge of defense inside the paint. Then everyone else tries to contribute on both ends of the floor.
With Brown being the NBA Finals MVP, there's a possibility of him wanting more opportunities to carry the team. If that were to happen, that would be the last thing coach Kerr would want to see in his team. The goal of Team USA at the moment is to prove that NBA players are worthy of the moniker “world champions”. To achieve that goal, everyone needs to get on the same page.
Having all that said, Brown is undeniably a good addition to the team. However, it all comes down to what coach Kerr and the rest of the organization need.
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