It’s Fine That Steve Kerr Is Benching Kevin Durant

KD hasn’t started for Team USA yet, and it’s working just fine.

Fans and haters of Steve Kerr are probably unanimous in thinking he makes some, shall we say, interesting lineup choices. He’s become infamous among Warriors fans for his regular season lineups featuring mostly guards. Celtics fans are currently up in arms over Jayson Tatum‘s lack of Olympic minutes. While it might be easy to nag on Kerr for benching the USA’s all-time leading scorer in men’s basketball, I think it makes sense to keep Kevin Durant in reserve. Here’s why.

First off, KD isn’t getting any younger or less injury prone. He’s only a few months away from being 36. Durant has a long list of injuries behind him, including an Achilles tear during the NBA Finals when Steve Kerr was his head coach. He missed much of the early action for Team USA due to a calf strain. Kerr cites this injury as the main reason KD isn’t in the starting lineup, both as a precaution and because his absence allowed Team USA to experiment with and “establish a lineup that we liked.”

Furthermore, Team USA isn’t exactly struggling so far. KD didn’t start in any of the group stage games, which did not prevent Team USA from sweeping 3-0. They beat every team by more than 20 points. The rest of the team is producing more than enough to allow KD some rest. People might have laughed when Anthony Edwards called himself the first option, but he is currently leading Team USA in scoring.

Finally, KD himself seems completely fine with his bench role. He joked about it with fellow Olympian Bam Adebayo on Instagram. He came off the bench against Serbia and dropped 23 on 8/9 shooting, going a perfect 5/5 from deep. That sounds like exactly the kind of guy you would want well rested and in reserve on a squad as stacked as team USA.

Kevin Durant and Team USA will be fine. All Steve Kerr said is that they’re going to keep doing what they’ve been doing, which is obviously effective. Durant is already a 3x gold medal winner and the all-time points leader for men’s Olympic basketball- what more does he have to prove? Instead, I would suggest to view this as a changing of the guard. It’s an opportunity for aging stars like KD, Steph Curry, and LeBron James get to pass the torch to the next generation. It’s only fitting that Anthony Edwards is getting so much spotlight, since KD is his favorite player. Let’s enjoy the moment.

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