Making the Case for Anthony Edwards as the No. 1 Option on Team USA

Maybe Anthony Edwards should be the No. 1 scoring option for Team USA during the 2024 Olympics after all.

This is not what you'd call an innovative hot take, mostly because the take has already been disseminated to the masses. And it was delivered by the first-option candidate himself.

"I'm still the No. 1 option," Edwards told reporters when asked about his role on Team USA. "Y'all might look at it differently, but I don't. "

"I just go out there and be myself," he added, when pressed further. "Shoot my shots, play defense. They've got to fit in to play around me. That's how I feel."

The 22-year-old caused quite the stir with these comments, the kind of furor that incites analysis made on this very platform. And hey, you can understand the reaction. Edwards is on a Team USA roster that features a who's who of household names. Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Jayson Tatum—the list of megastars goes on.

On the heels of Team USA's Wednesday exhibition victory over Canada, though, it's important to note two things.

First and foremost: Edwards' bravado, while entirely on-brand, wasn't altogether serious. At the very least, his thoughts aren't a harbinger of discord or disrespect in advance of Team USA's trip to Paris. He was nothing but complimentary of everyone else on the roster.

Secondly, and equally important, it turns out Edwards was galaxies from out of line.

On the contrary, he may have been right, speaking truth to an alternate, potentially flawed reality.

Other players on Team USA usurp Edwards in experience and status. And yet, you wouldn't know any of that watching Wednesday's tilt versus the Great North.

Team USA ended up winning by 14 points, 86-72, but the score doesn't come close to showing just how rickety and sloppy and out of sync the squad looked.

The opening of the first quarter, in particular, represented the cross section of unspectacular and awkward. Team USA committed all the turnovers, couldn't seem to fathom that Canada's players had limbs with which to disrupt and deter, missed a bunch of shots and just churned out a general lack of energy.

It was not pretty. And it seemed to portend potential disaster, relative to the standard to which this group will be held.

Then Anthony Edwards checked in.

The difference in how Team USA played with Ant—as well as Tatum and Anthony Davis—was equal parts immediate and palpable. He moved away from the ball and attacked at every level when on it.

He was, in no uncertain terms, a human turbo button:

Edwards parlayed his standout energy into a Team USA-leading 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including a 5-of-8 clip from inside the arc. The way he kept the ball moving when he wasn't scoring, and his body in motion away from the action, was a huge boon—an injection of life into what was, initially, a latent product.

That infusion proved infectious. Team USA looked better as the game wore on. Especially on defense, where Davis and Jrue Holiday remain ruiners of lives.

Curry delivered a mini flurry from beyond the arc in the second half. Team USA's timing on passes and screens and slips improved.

Tatum closed the first half with a "This is why I'm on the cover of 2K25, dammit!" exclamation point:

LeBron and Steph linked up on the break, in a way that's sure to inspire photoshops of a Lakers Big Three featuring both of them alongside Bronny James:

Hiccups continued to permeate the overall product. Team USA finished with more turnovers (15) than made threes and free throws...combined (12). Joel Embiid fouled out in 12 minutes of action, through which he also committed four turnovers.

As Edwards alluded to during his halftime interview, Team USA has a lot of wrinkles to iron out. So much of what dogged them on Wednesday likely comes down to a lack of chemistry. Timing on passing and cuts will improve with more reps. Their efficiency from beyond the arc (30.4 percent) and the charity stripe (41.7 percent) should progress to a more acceptable mean as players get acclimated to FIBA rules and court dimensions and, you know, working alongside one another.

Drawing profound conclusions from the team's first exhibition would be an exercise in exaggeration. But to write off Edwards as, potentially, Team USA's offensive heartbeat would be comparatively premature.

You don't emerge as the most valuable player on a team with active legends and superstars by chance. Exhibition or otherwise, one night or multiple games, it doesn't matter. Standing out in this setting, among these peers, has value.

And let's not pretend Edwards' original assessment, whether serious or in jest, lacked any basis or merit. He is a superstar in his own right. And Team USA, for all its top-to-bottom star power, is not without question marks.

Durant, the program's all-time leading scorer, missed Wednesday's victory with a calf injury. Kawhi Leonard already stepped down amid knee concerns.

Pretty much all of the bigs, meanwhile, are best suited as play-finishers in this setting. Embiid is typically an offensive system unto himself. But his gimmicky foul-hunting won't always (or necessarily ever) fly in a FIBA environment.

Steph and LeBron remain mesmerizing. They are also 36 and 39, respectively. Their energy and returns are more liable to vacillate game-to-game. The same goes for a 35-year-old Durant when (if?) he's healthy enough to take the floor. This roster could use an in-their-prime guiding force who plays like they have an emotional attachment to the outcome of every single possession.

Edwards can be #thatguy. So can other players. Booker (27), Tatum (19 27) and Haliburton (24), specifically, are all in the thick of or just entering their primes. Edwards puts more pressure on the rim than any of them and is (arguably) the best defender of the gaggle. Hali and Booker have him beat as passers in transition and from dead stops, but his on-ball thrust transcends theirs and generates the space necessary in the half-court to defer off collapsing defenses.

Look, getting caught up in pecking-order politics for a two-syllable stuh-acked roster is an intellectually strained endeavor. Team USA's best player will almost assuredly be fluid, changing by the game and matchup.

This is more about recognizing Ant's indispensable utility to a roster that, on paper, seems like it should be above singular dependence. As we're coming to see, though, it's not. And while Edwards isn't the only one who falls under this bucket, his age and energy and attitude and play style ensure he's among the most complete packages Team USA has in its employ.

Does that mean he should be the No. 1 option, the person through whom everything runs when he's on the floor? Answering that question is hard, particularly when Team USA has yet to play a game that counts or dip its toes in higher-stakes crunch time.

Perhaps the best way to frame this, then, is through that lens.

Whether he starts or continues to come off the bench, regardless of whether he's on or off the ball, Edwards has shown that he should—that he must—be on the court when it matters most.

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Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.