Why Derrick White makes more sense for Team USA than Jaylen Brown after Kawhi Leonard’s departure

Three Boston Celtics are playing for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. Jaylen Brown, widely considered the team’s second-best player, is not among them. When the rosters were initially announced it didn’t seem like it was any small thing. The star-studded group had to be cut somewhere when LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant all surprisingly agreed to play after the disappointment of the 2023 World Cup. Jayson Tatum still made the cut. Jrue Holiday would probably rank lower than Brown among all NBA players according to most observers, but his stellar play for Team USA in Tokyo during the 2020 Olympics and his specialist skill set as a defensive ace make him the natural choice. made. No one despised the Browns when the rosters were announced during the season.

But when Kawhi Leonard withdrew due to a knee problem, on the surface Brown appeared to be an obvious candidate to replace him. He plays a similar role to Leonard and shares similar physical dimensions. He is coming off his first NBA championship and is a reliable, All-Star-caliber player. He had earlier also played for Team USA in the 2019 World Cup. Team USA did not medal in that tournament, but Brown’s performance was largely acceptable. However, in the end, Team USA chose Brown’s Boston teammate, Derrick White, to replace Leonard.

It appears that Brown didn’t take it too well. When this news came out, he started tweeting secretly. Ultimately, he took his anger out on Nike, the manufacturer of Team USA’s uniforms.

Brown hasn’t currently signed a sneaker deal anywhere, but he has worn Adidas in the past. However, in 2022, Brown criticized Nike founder Phil Knight for his treatment of Kyrie Irving after the then-Brooklyn Nets star shared an anti-Semitic film on social media. Knight said that Irving “crossed the line.” Brown responded rhetorically by asking, “Since when did Nike care about ethics?” Nike severed ties with Irving shortly thereafter. Team USA executive director Grant Hill rejected the idea that Nike was any kind of factor in the decision to add White in place of Brown.

Hill joked, “For a good part of my career, I wore Fila.” “It was supposed to be a joke. We’re proud of our partners, obviously, USA Basketball. It’s about putting a team together.”

Putting together a team on the FIBA ​​stage is a completely different process than doing so in the NBA. Think about the sheer degree of competition for talent in the pros and the obstacles posed by the salary cap when gathering it. In the NBA, filling your team with star power means having three or four big names. But Team USA? Even in a weak year, it is usually possible for the Americans to send 12 All-Stars to the Olympics. When you have that level of talent, the things you need change drastically.

Think Brandon Ingram. He was considered one of the faces of Team USA at last year’s World Cup. He proved to be largely invincible. In retrospect it makes a lot of sense. Ingram’s best attribute by far is his one-on-one scoring ability. He can hit powerful shots. There are a limited number of players in the world who can do this reliably. In the NBA, when there are 30 teams fighting for 100% of that player pool, getting even one of them is a major coup. But Team USA has access to 80-90% of them at any given time… and they’re only fielding one roster. Suddenly, taking and making tough shots becomes less important when Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Mikal Bridges, Paolo Banchero and Tyrese Haliburton are also on the team.

In those situations you need players who do everything else. Josh Hart is not as accomplished at the NBA level as Ingram. He was a key part of Team USA’s World Cup bid last summer because he makes his living doing the dirty work. “People ask, ‘What position does he play?’ He plays a winner,” head coach Steve Kerr said last summer. Team USA wants players like this. That’s why Tayshaun Prince and Andre Iguodala have gold medals right now.

Brown, emphatically, is not Ingram. Ingram’s defense is principled most of the time. Brown is a reliably strong defender. He’s no star playmaker, but he was one of the high-usage players in the most efficient offense in NBA history. He can do Work clearly within a team setting. But Jaylen Brown’s biggest appeal is his scoring. Remove it from the equation because Team USA doesn’t need it and White starts looking more attractive.

White is a better playmaker based on his experience as a point guard. He shot better from 3-point range last season. He has earned All-Defense honors in two consecutive seasons. The Browns have never made an All-Defense team. Perhaps more importantly, White has never made an All-Star team. Unlike Brown, he was not a high-lottery pick or a high recruiter. He spent most of his college career playing Division II ball and did not reach the NBA as a starter.

It means nothing in the NBA. This is potentially important in an Olympic landscape with so much star power. The reality of making the U.S. Olympic roster is that there aren’t enough minutes or shots for everyone. Neither Brown nor White were ever going to get much run in the Leonard slot because neither was as good as Leonard. Team USA could reliably start or finish games with him. Even if that didn’t happen, Leonard has indeed competed for the title of “best player in the NBA.” So put other players in their place. LeBron James and Kevin Durant are higher priorities here than whoever gets the 12th roster spot.

There is always one or two players sitting at the end of the bench, as “there is an option to break the glass in case of an emergency.” It is important that Team USA fill those spots with players who will not let their egos get the better of them. This doesn’t mean that Brown has any kind of bad reputation in the locker room. He is so accomplished as a player that he will probably arrive at Team USA expecting to play a meaningful role because he never No Whatever team he was a part of, he played a meaningful role there. White has been a role player his entire life. If he’s here just to practice hard and cheer from the sidelines, there’s no doubt that he’s here to practice hard and cheer from the sidelines.

There are worlds where he is asked to do even more than that. This tournament, strategically, is more geared towards guards than wings. Remember, Luka Doncic and Slovenia were eliminated before qualifying. Most of the other best wings in the world are American. But Germany won the World Cup with Dennis Schröder as its all-time leading scorer. Canada is the only team in the region with multiple perimeter stars, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray are both guards. There are even less famous players on the NBA stage who turn into megastars in the FIBA ​​game. Patty Mills has averaged over 21 points per game in Olympic play in her career. He was never a full-time starter in the NBA. Defensive guards are more important than defensive wings in this area.

Team USA’s job isn’t just to assemble the 12 most talented players available. Frankly, if that were the case, Brown would probably have missed anyway. Donovan Mitchell is not in the team. Neither is Jalen Brunson or Damian Lillard or Paul George or Zion Williamson. Almost any American can produce an all-star grudge if he really wanted to. Let’s just say, the difference between the 15th and 21st best player in the NBA is very small.

It is Team USA’s job to put together a group of 12 players that together give it the best chance to win gold. Sometimes this means capturing the most skilled player on the board. Sometimes this means identifying a specialist that makes sense in the context of the other 11 players and the 11 other teams he faces in the tournament. That thought process led Kerr and Hill to go with White over Brown, and it was the right decision.