Team USA camp: Kawhi Leonard’s decision not surprising; Bam Adebayo still upset with DPOY

LAS VEGAS – Many people were surprised to see Kawhi Leonard commit to Team USA for the Summer Olympics after the Los Angeles Clippers’ inability to finish the season, so no one was really surprised by his decision to opt out and focus on the upcoming season. I was not surprised. NBA season.

The media were only allowed to watch a lot of the skirmishes between the Olympic team and the selection team, but Leonard was not there, which caused a little concern. Clippers front office officials were in attendance for the early workouts, and it is possible that they influenced Leonard’s decision to withdraw.

“Kawhi has been preparing for the Olympics for the past several weeks and has done some strong workouts in Las Vegas. He felt ready to compete. “However, he respects that USA Basketball and the Clippers have determined that it is in their best interests to spend the remainder of the summer preparing for the upcoming season rather than attending the Olympic Games in Paris,” USA Basketball said in a statement. Said in the statement.

It’s all heightened by Leonard’s injury history, but the scene was only a small sample. Team USA assistant coach and Clippers head coach Ty Lue ended things by saying that it was better for Leonard to prepare himself to play by being on the team rather than doing it in training camp.

But that was just a misdirection, even though Leonard seemed optimistic after practice on Tuesday, with an exhibition game against Canada coming up in Las Vegas on Wednesday night.

“Yeah, I think I’ll be ready tomorrow,” Leonard said Tuesday. “Everything has been good so far. “It is in a neutral position and hopefully it will remain that way.”

Apparently that was not the case, and he would be replaced by Boston Celtics guard Derrick White, making it three Celtics members to play deep in June’s run to the NBA title. For Leonard, this appears to be another setback in a fraught season since becoming a Clipper in 2019.

He missed the 2021 playoffs, suffering a torn ACL during the second round – when the Clippers later advanced to within two games of the NBA Finals. He missed the entire 2021–22 season, and after a slow 2022–23 season, he played only two games in the Clippers’ first-round series against Phoenix.

And this past season he was unable to complete the first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks after playing 68 games – the most he has played since 2016-17, when he finished third in MVP voting.

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Adebayo discusses DPOY being overlooked: ‘It’s not my fault, I’m versatile’

Miami’s Bam Adebayo has been one of the friendliest stars in the NBA, always friendly, but he can have his moments of frustration. He has made the All-Defensive team every year since 2019-20, but has not won the top award — finishing third last year behind Rudy Gobert and rookie Victor Wembanyama.

Antennas stood up when he ruled out the possibility of going up against the French pair at the Olympics, so he talked about it after his media session with a small group of writers in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon.

“I have to do it all and average 20, 10 and 5,” he told Yahoo Sports while muttering in the hallway of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas recently.

“That’s one thing that bothers me, it’s not my fault that I’m versatile,” Adebayo said. “I have been in the top five in DPOY voting for the last five years, there are people who say you (the media) are blowing it out of proportion.” Me.”

Because the CBA stipulates that individual awards can inflate contract values, if Adebayo had won one of these years, he would have been eligible for a higher contract extension than his three-year, $166 million deal. To which he had recently agreed. If he had waited and signed a four-year deal, he would have earned over $100 million.

But you get the feeling it’s less about money and more about recognition.

“A point guard (Marcus Smart) got on me, a center (Rudy Gobert) got on me, a power forward (Jarren Jackson Jr.) got on me,” Adebayo told Yahoo Sports. ” “The goalposts move to some extent for me. It’s me and a lot of undrafted guys, and we still have a top-five defense.”

“These other guys have All-NBA dudes (around them). Some of it is that they don’t really care about us and that’s okay. I think they should focus on consistency because being a top-five DPOY, I think I have the longest streak of All-Defensive teams, so the goalposts move for me.

Among those players, he is the only player with offensive responsibility and is also the center of aggression.

U.S. Olympic assistant coach Erik Spoelstra was surprised when it was brought up.

“We’re still talking about that? Well, the Miami Heat coach said somewhat sarcastically.

“It all depends on how you look at it. There are a lot of factors involved. It’s about having a great defensive team. It’s about fielding a great defense, making the players around you better defensively, and having exceptional defensive talent. He checks all those boxes.

“But the logic, we’ve moved beyond that now.”

Maybe he is, but Adebayo is still nervous about it – and probably plans to take it out on the French when the time comes.