In this inaugural episode of the Draymond Green Show, Draymond Green launches a passionate critique of Team USA’s coaching decisions during the first Olympic basketball game, focusing on the decision to give Jayson Tatum zero minutes despite his recent NBA championship and historic contract. He also highlights the lack of playing time for Tyrese Halliburton and Derek White, arguing that the rotation appears arbitrary and driven by appeasing individual egos rather than strategic consistency. Green advocates for a locked lineup and rotation, emphasizing that the United States, as the world’s best talent pool, should not need to constantly tweak lineups to match opponents. He contrasts the USA’s short‑term chemistry (6‑7 weeks together) with veteran international squads like Spain, which have played together for years, noting that continuity is a strength for opponents but not a necessity for the USA. Green discusses Kevin Durant’s willingness to come off the bench, the historical reliance on Tatum and Durant in the 2020 (held 2021) Olympics, and the perceived “cover‑your‑tracks” maneuver of moving players in and out of the rotation. He concludes that while the USA is likely to finish 3‑0, the coaching staff’s indecisive rotations are a mistake that should be corrected, regardless of the team’s talent advantage. The segment ends with a brief sponsored read for DraftKings Sportsbook.
Chapters
Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. As we know, as great as Team USA is, the talk of Team USA has been what? The playing time, the substitution. With Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Halliburton not playing a single minute in game 1, Which was crazy. Like you don't, you just don't not play Jayson Tatum in game 1 of the Olympics. Because pretty much what that is saying is, if I get Jayson Tatum in for 9 to 11 minutes, because no one's looking at the minutes like, oh, this guy played less. Like I said to JT, no, when you win a gold medal, No one cares who scored the points. No one cares who played the minutes. Did you win a gold medal or did you not? That's what it boils down to. Did you win a gold medal? Did you not? However, you don't not play Jason Tatum. That man just won an NBA championship, cover of NBA 2K, cover of Sports Illustrated saying cheers. Yeah. Just signed the biggest contract in NBA history. Oh, and by the way, your reward is sit down and don't play in the first Olympic game. Now if you watched the exhibition games, JT didn't play well in the exhibition game. I don't care. Like it actually doesn't matter. And so I was a little taken back by that. Like there's usually always 2 to 3 guys on the Olympic team that don't play many minutes. Just kind of how it shakes out. If you're coming into the game 1 of the Olympics against a Serbia team that can't compete, like Joker's great and it stops there. Like no one else can compete at the level except Joker. So like, love Serbia as a country,, but they can't compete with Team USA. And we know that, like, just watch. I mean, we've seen it a couple times now actually, but I've been knew this. So when you're going into that game, my thought process was, if you're not gonna play two guys, the two guys you're probably not gonna play is Tyrese and Derek White. Reason being, Drew is great in this. He moves the ball, he attacks the paint, breaks the defense down, then he drives and kicks. He make all the hustle plays. He's defending the best guard. That's what Drew does. So Drew gonna play, obviously Steph playing, obviously Ant-Man playing. D-Book has been the X-factor. So when you start looking at the guards, Steph is Steph. Ant-Man is more special than everybody. Jrue has already won a gold medal, so he know what it takes. He knows what has to be done. Jason Tatum has won a gold medal. He knows what it takes. He knows what has to be done. And in 2021, When we won the 2020 Olympics, but it was in 2021 for those that forgot, pandemic pushed it back a year. 2020 Olympics. Our team, our offense was built around Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant. And it was almost kind of set up as though like KD was passing the torch to JT to now take it because at the time I don't think Kevin's mind was set on retiring. On Paris. I don't think really anyone was looking up to Paris. You coming out of a pandemic, no one's really even thinking about it. Like, but I think there was kind of this like foregone conclusion or thought that like, yeah, like he's passing the torch to JT. And then JT come out and not play. I couldn't believe that. But in not playing him, it was wrong. We all know it was wrong. He should play. He didn't, but he should have played. So it was wrong and we know that. What I don't like about it is now to me it feels like, like a covering my tracks, like proving a point type thing to where like, oh, now Joel's outta the lineup. And then today Drew didn't play and I'm sure It's part we could rest the ankle a little bit, but it's part we gotta not play someone. And quite frankly, I don't like it. Like, come up with a rotation and stick with it. These teams aren't good enough to where we're trying to match their lineup. They gotta match our lineup. Like, we not matching they lineup, by the way, because we got the best players in the world. We gonna match they lineup anyway. Yeah. With whoever we got on the court, we'll be fine. So the whole like, match their lineup, or you know, this guy out of the lineup, nah, I disagree with it. We're already, we're already a team of individuals that essentially come together for 6 weeks, 7 weeks, and then we go back to our lives. And these teams been together for 5, 10, 15 years. 20. Spain's case. Rudy's played in 6 Olympics. Rudy Fernandez, 6. I think Batum's maybe in his 4th Olympics. I think Rudy Gobert is in his 3rd Olympics. These guys been playing together forever. So they already have the continuity, familiarity amongst each other. Amongst their teams. They already have that. We don't have that, but we're so much better than everybody that it kind of doesn't matter. But once you find the rotations, the rotations are what they are. Let's not combat the mistake that Jayson Tatum was out with, oh no, this guy isn't playing now, that guy isn't— like, what we doing? And so I actually totally disagree with that. I think we know if, like, if Joel's going to be out of lineup, then Joel's out of the lineup. But then you start the next day, like what are we really doing? I don't get it. Like it's one of those things to me that feels like, man, we gotta keep everybody happy. And in turn, everybody ends up unhappy. It's what it feels like to me. So then KD's coming off the bench, which I'm fine with. KD is KD. And if KD wanna start, KD should start. But like K came out of saying, K is in his fourth Olympics. 12, 16, 20. Yeah, K is in his fourth Olympics. So with him being in his fourth Olympics, he's seen it all. He ain't tripping. Like, I've seen it all. I've started, I'm the leading scorer. If I'm coming off the bench, who cares? Yeah. All right, fine. So he ain't tripping. Cool. So that's one less guy in the star lineup that you have to, you don't have to worry about because he is in the star, he's cool with not being in the star lineup. Because if he wasn't cool, he'd be in the star lineup. It's Kevin Durant. So like, just lock the lineups in. The whole switching this guy out, now this guy ain't gonna play this game, that guy ain't, like what we doing? So I totally disagree with that. And as I said, just from the outside looking in, it just comes off as like a, we made a mistake as a coaching staff, as opposed to just the mistake that we made, this is what it is and moving on. You now combat it with, all right, now this guy ain't playing. JT goes from out of the starting line, out of the rotation at all, zero minutes to the starting lineup. That don't make him feel good. Because then it's like, oh, this is the story. Now I'm all of a sudden in the starting lineup. I'm Jayson Tatum. Like, it's almost like, oh, I'm giving you this so you don't feel bad. Like, that don't make him feel good. It actually, I'm sure it probably made him feel worse about it. Like, oh, now I'm starting. And so I just disagree with what's going on with the lineup stuff. Like, get the lineups, lock the lineups in, lock the rotations in. We know who's starting, we know who we going, and go with it. But somebody else in the lineup today, Nuke got him, again, we're good enough to get away with it because we're just more superior than everyone. Team USA basketball, best in the world, bar none, no question. So we get away with it. But just because we get away with it don't make it right. And I, I think it's wrong. I totally disagree with it, but we 3-0. But guess what? If our rotations were locked in, you know what our record would be? 3-0. Because we're just better.
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