Steve Kerr discusses benching Jayson Tatum for the second time

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The United States narrowly beat Serbia to earn the right to face France in the gold medal game, and Steve Kerr spoke about the decision to bench Jayson Tatum for a second time despite Team USA’s struggles in the comeback win.

There’s a reason America was the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal heading into the Paris Olympics, because no country can match the talent of an All-Star team that has more than 125 seasons of NBA experience between them.

Steve Kerr obviously benefits from having such a deep roster at his disposal, but one of the downsides of having a roster brimming with superstars is knowing that some of them are inevitably going to be shortchanged in terms of playing time.

Jrue Holiday and Joel Embiid were both benched when the United States faced Puerto Rico in the final group-stage game, and on Thursday, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton found themselves in the same position against Serbia for the second time in the rematch where Team USA had to overcome a 17-point deficit to secure the victory.

Tatum’s absence was particularly surprising considering the forward is coming off a season in which he led the Celtics to a championship (and arguably earned Finals MVP honors) while earning All-NBA First Team honors for the third straight time, and his mother made it clear she wanted an explanation after seeing her son on the bench at the Olympics for the second time.

On Friday, Kerr did what he could to address her concerns while explaining his reasons, such as The Boston Globe He said the decision came down largely to logistical issues, noting:

“It’s not what I don’t see from Jayson. It’s what I’ve seen from other guys. As I’ve said many times throughout this tournament and the last six weeks, it’s just tough to play against 11 guys, even in an NBA game…

“It’s just a matter of combinations and how the group has played together, how Kevin (Durant) has stepped up since he came back from injury. It’s more of a math problem than anything else.”

While it could be argued that Kerr should have deployed Tatum to turn things around based on how Team USA performed for most of the game against Serbia, the fact that they were able to pull out the win means it’s slightly harder to criticize the decision.