Expectations for Celtics trio as Team USA preps for Olympic opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The United States men’s basketball team and its triumvirate of Celtics champions starts its quest for gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday with a group-play matchup against Serbia (11:15 a.m. ET on NBC).
What are reasonable expectations for the three Boston players — Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White — who comprise a quarter of Team USA’s roster?
Here’s what we’ll be watching for in Paris as these green-teamers hunt gold:
Jayson Tatum
Tatum might be the future face of USA Basketball, but even coming off an NBA title, he’s more likely to play a supporting role in Paris. The question is whether he will be given the sort of minutes — and touches — that might allow him to leave his superstar mark on the quest for gold.
As part of Team USA’s 2021 gold medal squad, Tatum had some notable outbursts, including a 27-point night in a group-play tilt against the Czechs. He also put up 19 points on efficient 8-of-14 shooting in the gold medal game against France.
Alas, the absence of players like LeBron James and Steph Curry that year created opportunity in Tokyo. Tatum came off the bench for most of those games, too, but simply might not see as much usage with players like Joel Embiid and Anthony Edwards also now on the roster. There are a lot of mouths to feed.
The key for Tatum will be efficiency. Over 123 minutes at the Tokyo Olympics, he totaled 91 points while shooting 55.2 percent from the floor and 44.7 percent beyond the 3-point arc. He was +78 in plus/minus during his court time, maintaining a career-long trend of making good things happen whenever he’s on the floor.
Emboldened by both a previous gold medal and now an NBA title, it’d be easy for Celtics fans to yearn for Tatum to dominate play, to further cement his place among the league’s elite. That simply feels like it’s more likely to happen in four years when the Olympics are stateside in Los Angeles.
Tatum can still leave his mark on this Olympic squad, it simply feels like the spotlight is more likely to land on players like James and Curry. If Tatum brings 2021 efficiency to the court, he’ll force coach Steve Kerr to make sure he’s a key piece in the Team USA puzzle.
Jrue Holiday
Does the role ever really change for Holiday? We’ll cut and paste that same statement when we eventually get to Derrick White, too.
Holiday, a Team USA veteran who already knows a whole bunch about winning gold immediately following an NBA championship season, will be asked to set the defensive tone, knock down open shots, and simply make life easier for everyone else on the court.
Some nights, teams will overcommit to his superstar teammates and Holiday’s scoring will pop. Other nights, he’ll be content to make defense his priority and steer the offense for stretches.
Holiday averaged 11.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assist over 25.7 minutes per game in the 2021 Olympics, coming off the Bucks’ title victory that year. He started five of the six games in Tokyo, including the gold-medal contest.
There’s a reason why Team USA has long wanted Holiday a part of this year’s squad. On a team overflowing with talent and ego, Holiday just does whatever it takes to win.
If Team USA needs a big-time stop in a clutch situation, we suspect Holiday will be on the floor with a chance to leave his imprint on the gold-medal hunt.
Derrick White
White got the late nod to join Team USA in large part because he’ll happily do whatever is asked of him in Paris, all without concern about playing time.
But wouldn’t it be fitting if, at various points in this run, we see Boston’s Stock Exchange backcourt sharing the floor in key spots when Team USA yearns for defense and steady presences?
Team USA general manager Grant Hill stressed that part of the desire to add White in place of injured Kawhi Leonard stemmed from his ability to make everyone around him better. We can certainly make the case that Jaylen Brown deserves to be on the Team USA roster, regardless of the number of Celtics already involved, but we can also acknowledge that White is a truly seamless addition, particularly joining the fray as late as he did.
Our only hope is that White gets consistent time. There are 11 players in front of him whom Kerr can lean heavy on, but White makes good things happen even in short bursts. It’s funny to say that he deserves time in the fourth quarter over so many All-NBA players, but everyone in Boston knows how much he thrives in those situations.
Kerr needs to find the right spots to throw the White curveball. The Holiday/White backcourt can settle down a team in a hurry, and will have plenty of scoring options to feed alongside them.
It’s been a remarkable calendar year for White from his ascension to All-Star consideration at the start of the season, to another All-Defense nod, to winning a title, to earning a long-term, big-money contract extension earlier this month, and now the Team USA invite. Maybe because Tatum and Holiday have both previously won gold, we’re most excited by the potential that White might cap what we’ll call the Year of the Buffalo (in honor of his Colorado roots) with a gold medal.
The bottom line is that, in a summer of celebration for all the members of the 2024 NBA champion Boston Celtics, this trio has a chance to make the summer just a little sweeter by doing their part to help Team USA reel in gold in Paris.
NBC Sports Boston
