Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green was on his self-titled podcast where he talked about Team USA in the Paris Olympics and the lack of playing time for Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum. Green would really address Tatum's involvement in the opener against Serbia alongside Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton as they did not play a single second.
The one aspect about Green critiquing the decisions from Team USA and how they do their lineups is that the head coach for the group is Steve Kerr who has the role with the Warriors. Green would find it hard to believe that a player like Tatum who has achieved so much in his young career especially this past season where he won his first NBA championship and received a large contract worth $315 million is not in the game plan.
“With Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton not playing a single minute in game one, which was crazy,” Green said. “You don't not play Jason Tatum that man just won a NBA championship, cover of NBA 2k, cover of Sports Illustrated saying cheers, just signed the biggest contract in NBA history. Oh, by the way, your reward is sit down and don't play it in the first Olympic game.”
Green gives two players that should sit on Team USA instead of Tatum
Tatum would receive more playing time in the two games that followed, even being inserted into the starting lineup where he played close to and more than 20 minutes in both respective contests. His best game came in Team USA's win against Puerto Rico on Saturday where he scored 10 points while also collecting 10 rebounds, recording three assists, and had two steals as Green would say if there are players to sit, it would be Haliburton and Derrick White.
“So when you're going into that game my thought process was if you're not going to play two guys, the two guys you're probably not going to play as Tyrese [Haliburton] and Dereck [White],” Green said. “And in 2021, our team, our offense was built around Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant. And it was almost kind of set up as though like KD [Durant] was passing the torch to JT [Tatum] and then JT come out and not play. I couldn't believe that.”
It will be interesting to see how Tatum's role with Team USA develops as their next game will be against Brazil in the first outing of the knockout stage on Tuesday, August 6.
Follow Us
Subscribe