LAS VEGAS — Able to discuss the Team USA roster he will coach this summer for the first time, Steve Kerr said he plans to lean heavily on two of New York’s finest — the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson and the Nets’ Mikal Bridges.
“I will definitely go into this with a vision of Jalen Brunson taking on a pretty big role, given the way he plays, his success at the FIBA level in past tournaments,” Kerr said in a news conference Friday, one day after USA Basketball formally announced its 12-man team for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
“There’s no question in my mind that Mikal Bridges is going to be a huge factor for us defensively,” Kerr continued. “As a coach, you go into these things and you say, ‘Well, who is gonna guard Luka (Doncic), or who’s gonna guard Giannis (Antetokounmpo)?’ One of the reasons we built the roster the way we did is we have multiple options for these sorts of things.”
Kerr, the Golden State Warriors coach by day, is in his first season as head coach for the national team, following a two-year cycle in which he was a lead assistant under Gregg Popovich.
None of the current players have played for Team USA at a World Cup or Olympics, but, as Kerr alluded to, Brunson played for the Americans in 2014 and 2015 at FIBA World Championships for 18- and 19-year-olds.
Brunson will share point guard duties for Team USA with the Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton, whom Kerr cited for his “playmaking” as a first-time All-Star in 2023 who averaged 10.4 assists. Kerr also highlighted the Nets’ Cam Johnson’s “ability to stretch the floor and shoot.”
And that’s not all.
There is, of course, the NBA’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year (Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr.) and, a thorn in Kerr’s side from the Western Conference semifinals (the Lakers’ Austin Reaves) to consider.
“In FIBA, there’s no defensive three-second violations,” Kerr said, speaking of Jackson, who led the NBA with 3.0 blocks per game last season. “So to have a shot blocker of Jaren’s quality and a presence at the rim like him is almost a necessity if you want to win a gold medal. So we are going to rely on him for his presence at the rim, his force defensively, his ability to help from the weak side and cover up mistakes and back cuts, that sort of thing. And then on the offensive end, he’s a guy who’s a good pick-and-pop player. As he’s shown over the years with Memphis, he can step out and make a 3 but also score inside, so he is really versatile.”
As for Reaves, Kerr said, “watching him kick our butts for six straight games in the Western Conference semis, it was a pretty easy choice.”
“Austin is one of the rising young players in this league,” Kerr said. “What you look for in FIBA is versatility. You want size defensively and the ability to switch and guard multiple positions, and then you want playmaking. You want guys who can make shots but also put the ball on the floor and are good passers.
“Austin is just, to me, he’s a basketball player. He’s a guy who impacts winning at a really high level. His story is pretty amazing given that he was undrafted two years ago and now here he is, you know, playing for Team USA and being one of the Lakers’ top three players. But it’s not an accident.”
Kerr also spoke privately with The Athletic about the two players who could wind up leading the team in scoring, the Pelicans’ Brandon Ingram and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards.
“They are such dynamic scorers, they are obviously going to play big roles for us,” Kerr said, adding that he wouldn’t know the specifics of how his lineup and rotation will shake out until he sees the team practice together.
“We’ll need everybody,” Kerr said.
Also at Kerr’s disposal is Paolo Banchero, the reigning Rookie of the Year (whom managing director Grant Hill called a “neighbor” because they live in Orlando); a defensive wing in the Knicks’ Josh Hart; a rim protector in Utah’s Walker Kessler and a reserve big in Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis (Hill and Kerr were asked about Portis, and they praised, surprise, his versatility as a two-way player).
In considering how Hill, Kerr and longtime USA general manager Sean Ford built this team, think about Kerr’s comments about Reaves. Versatility on both sides of the floor. Most, if not all of these players, have it.
The Americans play exhibition games in Las Vegas (Aug. 7, against Puerto Rico), in Malaga, Spain (against Slovenia and Spain) and Abu Dhabi (against Greece and Germany), before the World Cup begins on Aug. 26 against New Zealand, in Manila.
In addition to playing for a World Cup title, which the Americans last won in 2014 (they finished seventh in 2019), also on the line this summer is a spot in the highly coveted 2024 Paris Olympics — a basketball tournament in which many of the more established, veteran American stars from the NBA are expected to want to play in.
None of the 12 on the 2023 American team are guaranteed a spot on the Olympic team, though dedicating their summer and winning the World Cup would be a good start to making a case. The USA dozen were handpicked by Hill, Kerr and Ford, based in part on fit and also on availability.
There were a number of players Hill spoke to about playing this summer who either weren’t interested or injured or prefer to play next summer.
“There was a real, genuine excitement to be a part of this, and I found that very encouraging and exciting from my standpoint,” Hill said. “And maybe a few conversations to talk about the possibility of the future came up, but for the most part it was really centered on right here, right now, this team. How it’s constructed in this opportunity that we have in front of us this summer. So there were no promises or guarantees or anything of that nature, and, you know, obviously, we’ll get to next year when we get there and go through the process again, which I would imagine will be a very different process.”