Phoenix Suns and Team USA superstar Kevin Durant is going to keep coming off the bench for the the foreseeable future in the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to coach Steve Kerr.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“There’s no plans on changing (Durant coming off the bench),” Kerr said. “But of course as the games get more difficult, my guess is Kevin will be playing more and more minutes. Keep coming off the bench for now, but we will lean on him more and more as we go.”
Team USA opens the quarterfinals on Tuesday against Brazil. Durant, Team USA men’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer and now rebounder, missed all five of the team’s exhibition games with a calf strain and has come off the bench for the first three Olympic games as he returns from the injury.
Still, Durant is second on the team averaging 16.0 points per game and is fifth in minutes played at 19.2 per game. He has also shot 63.6% from the floor and 71.4% from 3.
Before the Paris Olympics, Durant had started every single competitive international game he played in for the United States (31 contests across the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics and the 2010 FIBA World Cup). Still, he’s not sweating his role on this summer’s team.
“It’s basketball, it really doesn’t matter who starts,” Durant said after Saturday’s 104-83 win over Puerto Rico.
“It’s about really who finished the game, who put their impact on the game while they’re in the game. So I just try to do my best to impact it any way I can.”
Kerr has consistently used three players in the starting lineup: Devin Booker, Stephen Curry and LeBron James and changed the other two starters on a game-by-game basis. With the stars the U.S. has, international play is always finding about which lineups and players compliment each other the best. Durant has thrived next to Anthony Edwards, who is averaging a team-high 16.7 points for the tournament, off the bench.
“If Kevin had been here from Day 1, chances are he’d be starting,” Kerr said.
“That was the plan coming in. But given that he missed all of our friendlies and came in late, we had kind of established a lineup that we liked. When we brought him back, he was only going to play a certain amount of minutes against Serbia. And he played so well and he fit so well with that group. It was devastating to see that group together.”
Kevin Durant becomes Team USA’s all-time leading rebounder in win over Puerto Rico
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
