Team USA pulled off a dominant victory over Serbia, however, Jayson Tatum’s case has gone viral instead. The Celt didn’t even step on the court. You heard that right, no game time for the reigning NBA Champion in the first game of the Olympics. One thing’s for sure, the meme world had a field day. Some praised Kevin Durant for his masterclass, but many focused on the ‘why’ behind Tatum’s omission. But Richard Jefferson took the liberty to draw a Caitlin Clark analogy as he tried to explain his understanding behind ‘team balance’.

After the Serbia game, Steve Kerr made sure to clarify his reasons before the hoop community’s uproar. “40-minute game, you can’t play more than 10 (players),” he admitted while assuring that Tatum would play the next game. Hours later, Jefferson stepped in and said, “You also see the difficulty of fielding 12 superstars, the team won by 20 points and so much of the conversation and the discourse is going to be, ‘Oh, Jason Tatum didn’t play’. Not USA beat the 3x MVP-led Serbia.”

“I guarantee you tomorrow and all it’s all going to be about oh so and so didn’t play and what do you think about the minutes. That where it’s, you know, should Caitlin Clark be on the USA team and then you put her on there and then she doesn’t play and then pull a Jayson Tatum.”

Caitlin Clark, in case you didn’t know, didn’t even make it to Team USA-women. However, in a recent interview Dawn Staley admitted that if they were re-making the national roster again, the Fever star would be “in really high consideration” because she’s “playing head and shoulders above a lot of people.”

Coming back to the Tatum discussion, there are multiple reasons why Steve Kerr could let Tatum be glued to the bench, minimizing his role even further. Kevin Durant made his return, after recovering from a lingering calf injury. Considering his experience and seniority, he would continue playing ahead of Tatum in the first or second unit. And KD even put up a stellar show, leaving Steve Kerr with no option but to prefer him strongly over the Celt again.

Nevertheless, Jefferson didn’t end his analysis there. He offered a solution to stop a Jayson Tatum-like situation in the future when a superstar doesn’t get minutes. The Olympic Bronze medalist said, “You need 9 superstars and you need 3 players that are not necessarily guaranteed to go play. That’s my opinion,” the 2004 Team USA squad member said on the Road Trippin’ pod. However, Jefferson’s suggestion has its drawbacks. Let’s further analyze Tatum’s case.

Is it worth dropping Jayson Tatum, who once shot 44% 3p in Team USA, for “high-level” role players?

Going by Richard Jefferson’s advice, when judged at face value, it would be unfair not to select Jayson Tatum in the roster despite winning the NBA Championship. A similar sighting occurred when USA Basketball did not select JT’s Boston pal, Brown, despite winning the Finals MVP. Addressing that, Jefferson said, “If you would have had Jaylen Brown, all of a sudden, you have potential two or three superstars.”

“You want three high-level role players, All-Star caliber guys, Jrue Holiday, and Derrick White. Those are the guys they’ve had on teams before… When you get those guys and you’re like, ‘Hey we’re not sure if we’re gonna play you. You’re our utility high-level like players. That’s fine. It just becomes sh***y when it becomes the discourse about who’s going to play.”

As seen in the Showcase games, Steve Kerr is giving Derrick White quite a bit of game time considering he’s the reliable glue guy in the squad. All this time, there was no Kevin Durant in the squad, so Tatum was automatically pushed ahead, with AD and Anthony Edwards occupying the second team roster alongside Bam Adebayo.

Nevertheless, it would be unfair to drop Jayson Tatum, stat-wise, after his contributions to Team USA. The Celt made his first Olympic appearance in Tokyo, where the team went 5-1 to win their 4th consecutive Gold. The star played all 6 games, averaging 20.5 minutes! Moreover, he recorded an impressive shooting accuracy of 49.3% from the field. He had a decent stat line scoring just over 15 points alongside averaging 3.3 rebounds, and 1.2 assists while shooting nearly 45% from deep range!

So, keeping his past records and reputation in mind, will Jayson Tatum get a call-up in Game 2 against South Sudan? Or will Steve Kerr play his cards game-by-game and alter his tactics accordingly? Let us know in the comments below.

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