July 6 news, Despite nearing 40 years old, LeBron James is reportedly set to start for the United States men’s national team this year.
The U.S. men’s team is already in Las Vegas to begin training camp, and one of the main tasks for head coach Steve Kerr during the camp is to finalize his rotation plans, which could include whether James comes off the bench.
Earlier, The Athletic’s Joe Vardon reported that a source within USA Basketball said, while there’s a possibility James isn’t in the starting five, it seems unlikely to occur.
Last week, Kerr spoke to reporters regarding his starting lineup, saying he and his staff haven’t made any final decisions yet: “That’s a great question, and my staff and I have discussed it a lot. That’s a great question, but I would venture to guess that every single one of the 12 guys on this roster will one day be in the Hall of Fame. So how do you pick five from 12? Our thought is to try to find combinations that fit together and find lineups that can be effective on both ends.”
“So the main thing in Vegas is figuring out those five-man units and getting all 12 guys fully bought into the goal of winning gold, no matter what it looks like, no matter who is playing.”
Under normal circumstances, James would be a lock for a starting spot. Vardon also mentioned that Joel Embiid, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are considered locks for starting roles on the U.S. team.
The main players who could be competing for the other two starting spots with James are Leonard and Anthony Davis, with Davis being the more likely to earn a starting role considering the U.S. struggled with rebounding and interior defense at the recent FIBA World Cup due to a lack of size.
Leonard remains a strong defender at this stage of his career, but he’s not at the same level as he was in 2014-15 and 2015-16 when he won back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year Awards. Needless to say, it would be a strange sight if James wasn’t in the starting lineup of any team he was on. During his 1492-game NBA career, James has only come off the bench twice.
This will be James’ first Olympic appearance since 2012, and the Paris Olympics are likely to be the last for the 39-year-old in a USA basketball uniform. James has played in 68 games for the U.S. team since 2004. In international competition, he averages 14.4 points on 60.1 percent shooting, 4.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
Team USA’s first game of the Olympics is scheduled for July 29 against Serbia.
This article is from a user submission and does not represent the views of Soccer News Pick. If you repost it, please indicate the source: https://www.soccernewspick.com/other/6745.html
