Team USA Offering Window into the Psyches of NBA's Next-Gen Leaders

LAS VEGAS — Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant sat at dinner Sunday. It was the eve of Olympic training, and most of the USA Basketball team had gotten together at Anthony's behest. Draymond Green, one of Durant's new Golden State Warriors teammates, was there along with DeMarcus Cousins, DeMar DeRozan, Paul George, DeAndre Jordan and Kyle Lowry.

Besides the prime food and choice tequila, a magician showed up to do some fancy tricks.

Yet the most meaningful moments of the night arose organically in conversation. Anthony and Durant told colorful tales from the 2012 team's past Olympic conquests, and as they did, it sank in for Durant that he and Anthony are the only two players back for the run in 2016.

"Letting the guys know how it is," Durant said.

What is happening and what will happen on this U.S. Olympic team also is letting the NBA know how it is today with some of the game's new leaders, particularly Durant and Kyrie Irving.

For the Warriors alone, this training period offers an interesting portrait that has Durant, Klay Thompson, Green and Harrison Barnes—ushered out of Golden State as Durant was ushered in—all on this USA team together.

And while Green said, "This ain't really about the Warriors," it is about melding a group of stars, and that is a job Durant has already been thinking about.

Although he was the team's leading scorer in 2012, Durant knows he wasn't the team's leading personality.

"In 2012, LeBron [James] was our guy," Durant said. "But he wasn't in here bossing people around and telling them where to go, talking all the time. We all did it together. Everybody did it together.

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"We knew he was our guy, but it wasn't like we just sit down and LeBron talks to all of us while we're sitting in chairs and he's running the huddles. We've all got to do it together. That's the best part of this group. We've got guys who lead in different ways."

Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski is aware Durant isn't the most vocal leader, which may be why he said Anthony will be the team's leader alongside KD. But in reality, it may be neither taking a dominant role. In just the first couple days of workouts, it has become clear that the only guy here with a 2016 NBA championship on his resume is ready to be more vocal.   

It was Irving, already connected to Krzyzewski through Duke, who plopped right down in a seat next to Coach K to watch the USA Select Team scrimmage Tuesday. And it was Irving whom Krzyzewski repeatedly talked to as opposed to assistants Jim Boeheim, Gregg Popovich and Tom Thibodeau on his opposite side.

The dynamic makes sense given the role Irving has assumed.

Unlike Durant, who suddenly bowed out of 2014 U.S. camp citing fatigue after seeing George suffer that gruesome broken leg in 2014, Irving was a starter on that '14 team that won the FIBA Basketball World Cup. And this year, a reasonable guess at the Olympic starting five was grouped on the same team for the first workout: Cousins, Anthony, Durant, Thompson and Irving.

An emboldened Irving has been doing a lot of talking to these teammates and frankly looks like the alpha male on this UNLV campus, organizing post-practice drills and ribbing select team member D'Angelo Russell as "rookie" at one point.

Irving has come an awful long way since he was here in 2012 as a member of that USA Select Team, assembled as practice fodder for the varsity team. Irving was newly drafted into the NBA then and still boldly challenged Kobe Bryant to a game of one-on-one, following it up on Twitter with a message: 

Most would've tabbed James as the league's greatest player in 2012, but Irving has long held a distinct admiration for Bryant's drive—even citing the "Mamba mentality" as all he was thinking about during Cleveland's NBA Finals Game 7 road victory.

It was Irving, not James, who hit the clutch go-ahead basket.

And it was Irving who has Durant still raving about that Game 7…before tacking on a token reference to James in order to be politically correct.

"The whole game, I was just thinking about how great Kyrie Irving is as a one-on-one basketball player. He was just unstoppable," Durant said. "And how LeBron James, you know, they came together as a group and won that game."

As Stephen Curry did, James passed on this Olympic run in order to rest. Although Curry and James are considered the respective headliners on the Warriors and Cavaliers, their absences create opportunities for Durant and Irving.

Even though Irving doesn't have an Olympic gold medal yet, it's not a stretch to assume that winning now would be more meaningful to Durant in light of all his recent stress and tumult.

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"To be honest, I just want to hang with the fellas," Durant said. "I just want to hang with a group of guys that do the same thing I do, that love the same thing that I love and are passionate about it. It's that mutual respect. I just want to hang out with them."

However, even that sentiment circles back to Durant's move to Golden State. He wanted to be around passionate pros such as Curry, Green, Thompson and Andre Iguodala and put himself in position to win it all in the NBA by pairing his commitment and talent with theirs. So he did.

And even though he doesn't have Anthony's experience or Irving's chutzpah, Durant's new Warriors teammates are indeed getting a sense of how he will fit with their leadership council when he joins come fall.

"He doesn't walk around like he's better than anyone else," Thompson said. "That is what makes him so likable and so easy to play with. It's like getting a head start on our relationship, which is great for me, Draymond and him. It still shocks me that he's on our team. It's unbelievable."

Green referred to Durant as very different from the "typical star personality."

"He's just a regular guy," Green said. "That's not always normal."

As much criticism as Durant has gotten for his free-agent move, there is no disputing what he wanted: a situation where he could win with more help…and more togetherness.

In that way, Team USA now is Durant's perfect prelude.

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.