The 2024 Paris Olympics has concluded and america males’s basketball workforce introduced dwelling a fifth straight gold medal by the pores and skin of its tooth. Serbia had the People useless to rights till it went darkish from 3 (0 for 10 within the fourth quarter) as Stephen Curry was on an all-time heater.
France adopted that with a scare of its personal within the gold-medal recreation, however Curry as soon as once more placed on his cape with 4 3-pointers in a two-minute stretch because the U.S. breathed a large sigh of aid.
For me, that was essentially the most entertaining Olympic basketball event I’ve ever watched. Curry was in full “no freaking method he simply did that” mode, and the 2 white-knuckle endings the People needed to navigate weren’t as a result of they had been taking part in all the way down to the competitors. Quite the opposite, they had been compelled to boost their degree to the apex of their particular person and collective expertise to win this gold medal.
Serbia and France gave us all an exquisite reward by bringing these two performances out of the People. It was simply a unprecedented couple weeks of basketball, and alongside the way in which, as has been the case with each Olympic competitors since we began sending NBA gamers in 1992, some of the enjoyable components of all of it was attending to see all these superstars taking part in collectively.
It makes you surprise: Who could be the Olympic duos you’d most like to see paired up within the NBA? There are literally a bunch, however I’ve narrowed it down to a few — two of that are in all probability pure fantasy. However hell, it is the offseason. Let’s have just a little enjoyable.
Not solely have these two been the main males in some of the epic rivalries the NBA, and actually the entire sports activities world, has ever seen, however as we noticed over these previous few weeks in Paris, they’re completely suited to enrich each other on the court docket.
Watching James conduct the U.S. offense felt in some ways just like the purest type of basketball he has ever performed. At his most mobile degree, he has all the time been extra Magic than Michael, a grasp manipulator with the ball in his arms and the readability of a 6-foot-8 view. With Curry being not simply the signature shooter but in addition essentially the most deadly route runner in NBA historical past, what we might get is basketball’s model of Montana to Rice.
The best quarterback. The best receiver. Two gamers with sixth-sense intuitions seeing the court docket as one, sensing house earlier than it even materializes, LeBron passing to not the place Curry is, however the place he is going to be. As Curry emerges from the maze of his personal random making, he meets the ball, or the ball meets him, it is too synchronized to inform, however both method its on time and goal and in good place for the world’s most masterful marksman to tug the quickest set off recognized to man.
“You simply marvel at his expertise,” James mentioned of taking part in with Curry in Paris. “Clearly, I’ve seen it earlier than, you already know, on the other facet. However having him in your facet, you simply attempt to get stops and work out different methods on the opposite finish, however hold discovering him. Maintain getting him the ball.”
That is one web page of the playbook. Decide and rolls grow to be a complete different unsolvable riddle. Make Curry the screener, as Steve Kerr did in essentially the most essential stretches Crew USA confronted in Paris, and he both pops up prime for an open 3 otherwise you chase LeBron from behind as he barrels downhill.
Now flip it. Put the ball in Curry’s arms and watch him feast on pull-up 3s till double groups grow to be a obligatory evil, at which level he passes excessive to what would fairly merely be essentially the most harmful quick curler in historical past as LeBron Freaking James, essentially the most prescient passer since at the very least Magic Johnson, shortly conquers the 4-on-3 chess board earlier than him. Defenses, even with LeBron on the doorstep of 40 and Curry only some years behind, would not stand an opportunity.
Now, is an NBA marriage of the previous decade’s two best gamers a good midway practical risk? Virtually definitely not. That is what made watching them work magic collectively in Paris so particular, as a result of we have by no means seen them on the identical workforce and sure by no means will once more.
However hey, no person ever thought Curry and Kevin Durant would play collectively, and it isn’t just like the Warriors or Lakers are ready to compete for a title. We all know the Warriors really pitched the Lakers on a commerce for LeBron eventually 12 months’s deadline. LeBron, in keeping with ESPN, shot the concept down, however what if this Olympic expertise has planted a seed in his head? What if Klay Thompson leaving the Warriors, who’re clearly not prepared to go all-in on one final run at a fifth championship, has left Curry, if solely in his most non-public moments, extra prepared to at the very least entertain the concept of ending his personal profession some place else?
Once more, it is virtually absolutely by no means going to occur. But when we will dream, we’d as effectively dream huge.
The fantastic thing about Durant is he suits on any workforce with any co-star. He is Paul George if he wakened one morning with superpowers. Edwards, in the meantime, is Devin Booker strapped to a rocket booster. The KD-Ant pairing in all probability would not equate to the multiplicative powers of a LeBron/Curry marriage, however man, wouldn’t it be enjoyable to look at them take turns as equally spectacular scorers.
Edwards is already some of the joyful performers within the league, and watching his thousand-watt smile mild up on the alternative to play in Paris alongside Durant, his childhood idol, was fairly cool. When Ant caught a lob cross from Durant for a dunk within the Olympics, you would see the dream-come-true pleasure written throughout his face as he floated again down the court docket.
We all know Durant can thrive alongside different stars; he is the best Olympic participant in historical past and stepped proper into the Golden State machine on the top of its energy and solely added to its effectivity. That was a query many individuals had about Edwards as he declared himself Crew USA’s No. 1 possibility: Would he be capable of curb his takeover instincts when deference was known as for? He had no downside doing that in Paris, the place he naturally toggled between famous person scorer and supremely overqualified help employees.
In a hypothetical world, maybe the Suns would need to align a youthful co-star with Booker’s longer timeline whereas the Timberwolves intention to maximise this present window, which could possibly be the logic behind a deal sending Durant to Minnesota in trade for Karl-Anthony Cities.
I will inform you this: Durant and Edwards, with that Minnesota protection, could be unbelievable, and Cities might quietly flip Booker and Bradley Beal right into a famous person duo with five-out spacing. I am making an attempt to speak myself into this!
This one really appears practical. After watching these two work collectively for the Serbian workforce that got here this near upsetting the People in Paris, Denver could be justified in giving Atlanta a name and making an attempt to determine a method to make some salaries work with the sweetener of a future first-round decide to get it finished.
The Hawks would virtually definitely be open to a deal, and boy would Bogey, a completely deadly 3-point shooter, tackle a big-time want for the Nuggets, who ranked useless final in 3-point makes an attempt and twenty fifth in 3-point makes per recreation final season. Even with Jokic, the most effective participant and most bankable creator of offense on this planet, that is a troublesome gap to dig out of each evening.
Bogdanovic was one in all three gamers on the Olympics to make at the very least 18 3-pointers, becoming a member of Germany’s Dennis Schroder (18) and Curry, who made a preposterous 17 triples within the last two video games and completed with 22 for the event.
I’d like to see Jokic and Bogdanovic hook again up on an NBA workforce, and once more, it really appears practical.
