Draymond Green isn’t shy to share his opinion, even when it involves his own NBA head coach.
The Golden State Warriors forward believes Steve Kerr, currently the head coach of Team USA, and his staff were crazy to bench Jayson Tatum in their Olympic opener against Serbia.
Tatum did not see the court in the first game of the Olympics in what was labelled as a coach’s decision. It has left many scratching their heads, including Green.
“Not playing [Tatum] was wrong,” Green said on his podcast, The Draymond Green Show. “We all know it was wrong. He should’ve played. He didn’t. What I don’t like about it is, now, to me, it feels like a covering my tracks, proving a point type of thing to where, oh, now Joel [Embiid] is out of the lineup. And then today, Jrue [Holiday] didn’t play… From the outside looking in, it comes off as, ‘We made a mistake as a coaching staff.’”
Kerr explained that his decision to not play Tatum had more to do with having the right combinations to play against Serbia and also to give Kevin Durant minutes in his return from injury.
Tatum would draw into Team USA’s starting lineup in Game 2 against South Sudan with Embiid sitting on the bench.
The constant reshuffling of the lineup has raised some concerns, which Green made known in his message to the coaching staff.
“I’m sure it’s part ‘We can rest the ankle a little bit’, but it’s part ‘we gotta not play somebody.’ And quite frankly, I don’t like it. Come out 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 … We got the best players in the world. We’ll be fine.”
The U.S. will take on Brazil in Tuesday’s quarterfinals of the tournament, which also includes Canada, Germany, France, Greece, Serbia and Australia.
If Team USA comes away victorious, it will face the winner of Serbia and Australia.