Is Steve Kerr the Right Team USA Head Coach for 2024 Olympics?
Team USA failing to medal at a major international basketball tournament is always going to be noteworthy.
Yes, countries from around the world have gotten better over the last couple decades. Yes, the United States has only won two of the last seven FIBA World Cups. And no, this roster didn't feature the best collection of American talent.
However, the game was invented in Massachusetts. Its best league, the NBA, is primarily operated in the U.S. And the country has dominated the men's and women's Olympic basketball tournaments since their introductions to the Games.
So, naturally, there are questions about why this squad failed in 2023. And while there's plenty of blame to go around, it's easy to settle on head coach Steve Kerr.
Plenty of slings and arrows on social media are pointed that way, but Team USA won't make any decision on Kerr's future based on that. It could, however, make a change ahead of the 2024 Olympics based on the performance this team just had.
Kerr was right when he said, "Players are better all over the world, teams are better, and it's not easy to win a World Cup or an Olympic game." But that doesn't absolve him (at least not entirely) of Team USA's shortcomings.
Missed Defensive Adjustment
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The Americans were dreadful on defense. In games with 10-minute quarters, they gave up 110, 113 and 127 points to Lithuania, Germany and Canada, respectively.
Lack of motivation on that end can be coaching-related. Kerr's unwillingness to deviate from his "play small and switch everything" philosophy hurt too.
He didn't adapt to the tournament or its participants, despite several vivid in-game warnings that he should.
Beyond centers and big wings being able to punish his smaller lineups inside the arc, Team USA also got crushed on the boards by multiple countries, including Lithuania and Montenegro.
And while Team USA managing director Grant Hill may not have given Kerr the most FIBA friendly roster to deal with, he at least had Walker Kessler on the bench. Instead of using him as something of a Steven Adams facsimile for Jaren Jackson Jr., he merely allowed JJJ to get dominated for the entire tournament.
Jackson is a 4, and not a good rebounding 4. That's why he starts alongside Adams in the NBA. Kerr never made a real effort to put him in his natural role. Instead, he tried to square-peg him into a round hole and missed out on the medal stand.
Missed Offensive Adjustments
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On the other end of the floor, there was too much one-on-one and isolation ball from Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards and Brandon Ingram. And here again, there may have been an adjustment that could have helped.
As difficult as it may have been to make a change, Tyrese Haliburton was arguably better than Brunson during the 2022-23 NBA season and almost certainly makes more sense in the FIBA setting.
More minutes with Austin Reaves' shooting and playmaking against starters might have helped, too.
But Kerr just wasn't able or willing to make those moves, while one of his assistants, Erik Spoelstra, may have been.
The Replacement?
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Few current coaches in the NBA have proved more adaptable than Spoelstra.
The 52-year-old started with the star-laden Miami Heat teams, where he learned to coach superstars with huge personalities (and egos). He built a defensive culture with those squads and made a crucial adjustment by playing a small-ball front line with LeBron James, Shane Battier and Chris Bosh that helped win two championships.
Four years after LeBron left, Spoelstra made the playoffs with a team that was led in wins over replacement player by Kelly Olynyk, Josh Richardson and James Johnson. And of course, since the acquisition of Jimmy Butler, he's made two NBA Finals in four years while playing several undrafted players.
Spoelstra will make the best of any roster presented to him, and that could include one with LeBron, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and several other superstars...
Roster Remains Priority, Not Coach
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According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, LeBron, Durant and Curry could bring Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum, Draymond Green, Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, De'Aaron Fox and Kyrie Irving with them to Paris next year to join the USA men's Olympic team.
With a fully loaded American roster, there may not really be such a thing as a wrong coach to lead them to gold, though.
When Kerr was tabbed as the coach for this program, it was with the understanding that he'd lead the team at both the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics. And in Paris, assuming Charania's reporting proves accurate, he would have the same security blanket he's had throughout his NBA head coaching career.
Curry has never played in the Olympics, and his shooting would undoubtedly change the games he plays in. Those two World Cups USA won in the last seven? Curry played in both, and he shot 41.8 percent from deep in those contests.
Giving Kerr a roster led by the superstar who's helped him win four NBA titles would start to tip the scale in Team USA's favor. Add in LeBron, KD and a few other superstars, and it would almost make Kerr (and just about anyone else) the right coach for 2024 by default.
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