Devin Booker serves reminder of ability to star in his role with Team USA

LAS VEGAS — It was only an exhibition matchup, and it was only one game, but Team USA’s win over Canada Wednesday night gave Devin Booker the opportunity to prove his worth as a potential fifth starter in the 2024 Summer Olympics. And contrary to what NBA Twitter would have you believe, he did exactly that.

In Team USA’s 86-72 win over a Canadian roster loaded with NBA talent, Booker finished with 9 points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds on 4-of-6 shooting in 20 minutes of action. On paper, it looked like a ho-hum performance.

If you only watched the first 5-10 minutes, you might feel tempted to join the throngs of people online complaining about Anthony Edwards or Jayson Tatum not getting the start instead.

With Tatum winning his first title and Ant’s team sweeping the Phoenix Suns out of the playoffs, many people believe one or both should be higher in the pecking order. Just search “Devin Booker starting” on Twitter, and it’s not difficult to find people advocating for Edwards or Tatum to replace Book in the starting lineup.

And true enough, both Ant (13 points on 6-of-10 shooting) and Tatum (8 points on 4-of-7 shooting) had louder nights in terms of their self-created buckets off the bench.

But FIBA basketball is not the NBA, and those people are missing the point, which grew clearer as Wednesday’s exhibition wore on and Team USA managed to create separation after a slow start: On a team full of superstars, having players who are willing to star in their role and do the dirty work is vital. And Devin Booker has a proven track record of doing exactly that for USA Basketball.

Devin Booker stars in role against Canada

The days of the United States being able to overwhelm opponents on the international stage with NBA star power are over. The game has more international superstars than ever, and those rosters spend a lot more time together carving out an identity, learning each other’s games, and building chemistry within the FIBA game than Team USA typically does. Most of those teams have clearly delineated roles and smart role players willing to embrace them.

The Americans’ best path to overcoming that continuity disadvantage?

“Basketball IQ,” LeBron James explained. “It’s easy to jell when you have one common goal, and the only goal is for us to play hard and win the gold, so it shouldn’t take a long time for us to jell.”

Go back to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and one might recall Devin Booker being an engaged defender, a committed offensive rebounder and a pivotal glue guy who played crunch-time minutes and helped Team USA bring home the gold medal. To do it again, they’ll need more of that mentality.

“It’s a great opportunity to go try to get a second one,” Booker said. “We know the world’s getting better, and we just want to show how good we are.”

Booker showed coach Steve Kerr what he could do three years ago in Tokyo, when Kerr was an assistant for Team USA, and that trust was on full display again in Wednesday night’s exhibition — despite getting off to a slow start.

The Americans trailed 11-1 in the first five minutes, and it was their bench unit that provided the first spark, with Ant in particular looking electric. Edwards had 6 points in that first quarter, and tied Tatum with a team-high 8 points apiece going into halftime. At that point, it was easy to wonder if their explosiveness would be a more natural fit for the starting unit.

But in the second half, Edwards and Tatum were prone to a few bouts of stagnant, iso offense, which runs counterintuitive to the capable passers, shooters and all-around scorers that Team USA possesses. The Americans will be at their best when the ball is humming around, and it stuck at times with Ant and Tatum. Their ability to create offense feels like a more natural fit for a bench unit that doesn’t have the same scoring punch as the starting five.

Booker, meanwhile, made the quiet, understated plays that helped stifle Canadian momentum. In the second quarter, he went on a personal 5-0 run, pump-faking and pulling up for a fundamental, midrange jumper off the glass to give the Americans their first lead:

The very next play, after an epic LeBron James chase-down block, Booker followed up with a 3 in transition that had Steph Curry fired up and prompted “U-S-A” chants from the crowd during the timeout:

It wasn’t just because of Devin Booker, of course, but he had a pair of timely buckets in the second half too. His tough midrange jumper over two defenders quietly stopped an 8-0 Canada run that had chopped the American’s 13-point lead down to 5:

And his put-back layup off a James miss in transition forced Canada to burn a timeout as Team USA has pushed their lead back to 10:

None of these plays are likely to make the highlight reel, but that’s exactly why they’re so important: Let Steph Curry, LeBron James, a healthy KD and (a hopefully more impressive) Joel Embiid make the decisive plays, and let Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum rack up the highlights as they overpower opposing benches.

But don’t forget the importance of having someone like Devin Booker who will continue doing the dirty work, which is what this super-powered team needs. Not everyone can be the superstar they normally are for their respective NBA teams. But Book has shown an ability to embrace a lesser role far better than Ant or Tatum, who may be better off being unleashed off the bench anyway.

Keeping him with the starters would ensure Booker can continue playing the type of gritty defense he’s shown before in a Team USA jersey:

And his impact wasn’t even limited to the clips above. Booker only had 2 assists, but he should’ve had twice as many, since he made a brilliant, connective pass on the move to Curry in the corner for 3 (Curry missed it) and a gorgeous alley-oop feed to Anthony Davis in transition (Davis missed it). Book also crashed the offensive glass, plying pressure in ways that didn’t show up on the stat sheet.

“The defense was there,” Booker said of Team USA’s performance. “I think we can clean up the little things, offensive rebounding, back-cutting, but good first day, for sure.”

To that end, Devin Booker’s willingness to do the dirty work stands out as a more natural complement to the starting group, and a superior way to capitalize on Edwards’ and Tatum’s ability to create offense for the second unit. It could be the path to a more balanced rotation, especially once Kevin Durant returns from his minor calf injury to add another plus-sized wing to the lineup.

Team USA’s options for the fifth starter

With Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid being locks to start, that fifth spot will likely come down to Booker, Edwards, Tatum or Jrue Holiday, who was also in the starting five against Canada.

Replacing Booker with Edwards would just add another guy who needs the ball and envisions himself as the team’s No. 1 option — not a bad trait for an alpha scorer to have, but one that doesn’t necessarily jive in comparison to KD, a more gifted scorer and the greatest USA Basketball player to ever do it. Starting Tatum next to Durant and LeBron, meanwhile, would deprive the bench of trustworthy wings.

That leaves Booker or Holiday, depending on the opposing matchups and what Kerr choose to prioritize, since the Team USA coach said earlier in the week that they’d experiment with different lineups.

In his last Olympics, Booker flew to Tokyo right after the Finals, missing out on all these types of exhibition matchups that provide opportunities to build cohesion and see what works or doesn’t work. Book understands the importance of that process, and he could be even better in filling Team USA’s gaps because he gets to partake in it this time around.

“Just build chemistry,” Booker said of the remaining exhibition games. “I think experience is the best teacher, so getting out there with each other and just figuring out, trying different lineups and just see how things work.”

Team USA has four remaining exhibition matchups: two in Abu Dhabi on July 15 and 17, and another pair in London on July 20 and 22. To the point about trying different lineups, there’s no question that Holiday provides elite point-of-attack defense, which could make him a worthy choice when Team USA encounters guard-heavy opponents. Once Durant is back, Holiday may have a strong case to hang onto that fifth starting job.

“He does everything,” Booker said of Holiday. “Makes no mistakes, a big reason why Milwaukee and Boston have won their championships. We went to Tokyo together too, and he was a big part of winning gold. So he’s a winner through and through.”

Because of the sheer talent at Kerr’s disposal, don’t be surprised if Edwards or Tatum gets a starting nod in any of these remaining exhibitions either. The Americans are not hurting for quality players who could make a case for a starting spot, and Kerr should be thorough in trying everything.

But most importantly, if Devin Booker does continue to start on this loaded American roster, don’t be surprised or act like it’s some baffling decision. If anything, he’s the perfect fit for a prominent role — either as the fifth starter or one of the first guards off the bench — simply because he’s willing to star in his role, rather than force his role to be that of a star.

“We’re just gonna get after it in practice,” Booker said. “We know Abu Dhabi, these friendly games are important for our development and figuring out the chemistry and trying different lineups and just seeing how things work.”