The burgeoning rivalry between the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies didn't exactly live up to the hype last season. Apart from the Steph Curry-less Warriors' boastful beatdown of the Grizzlies at Chase Center on Christmas, Golden State's rollercoaster regular season and Ja Morant's off-court drama largely kept the teams' focus off of one another.

Jaren Jackson Jr., inadvertently or not, may have changed that dynamic as 2023-24 fast approaches. Discussing how Team USA's schemes broadly mirror the Warriors' under head coach Steve Kerr, Jackson name-dropped Draymond Green and Kevon Looney with a casual off-hand remark that the Americans have “better players” than the Dubs.

“Coach Kerr is using his system. It’s just more or less what Draymond [Green] would have ran or [Kevon] Looney, and just with better players,” he said, per Yahoo! Sports' Jake Fischer. “A lot of delay actions and stuff like that.”

Shots fired? Maybe not.

It goes without saying that USA Basketball's FIBA World Cup squad boasts much more overall talent than Golden State. Steph Curry is still clearly better than anyone currently wearing the country's colors, but the likes of Jackson, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton would definitely be the Warriors' second-best player. That case could be made for pretty much anyone on the Team USA roster besides Bobby Portis, Cam Johnson, Walker Kessler and Josh Hart.

But a better indicator of how tepid Jackson's seemingly inflammatory remarks really are is the context under which they came. Referencing “delay actions and stuff like that,” the Americans' starting center might simply be acknowledging how he and backup five Paolo Banchero are more dangerous than Green and Looney—whose widespread scoring limitations even the most biased Golden State fans can't deny—functioning in the Warriors' most typical offensive actions.

Jackson and Banchero are multi-level scorers, fully capable of splashing deep jumpers, beating opposing bigs off the bounce and finishing with touch, creativity and power at the rim. Does that sound like Green and Looney? Both are superior passers and screeners to any Team USA big, but that's the extent of Green and Looney's offensive advantages over Jackson and Banchero, the Americans' primary players on the interior.

The Warriors and Grizzlies have never hesitated to trade verbal barbs through the media. Maybe Jackson was playing on that back-and-forth while comparing Team USA's talent to Golden State's. Either way, rest assured his comments will rile up Dub Nation regardless.