As Olympic start nears, Steve Kerr again sounds alarm for Team USA: ‘It’s time’

PARIS — You know how you can tell that Team USA coach Steve Kerr is serious about the Americans getting their act together — like, really together — before it’s too late in their all-or-nothing pursuit of Olympic gold?

He spent two consecutive news conferences giving the kind of candid and cutting commentary about his team that one rarely sees during his time as the lead voice of the Golden State Warriors.

The first came on Wednesday, when Kerr detailed the many ways in which the Americans fell short in their four-point exhibition win over Germany on Monday. Never mind that they were heading into pool play against Nikola Jokić’s Serbian squad on Sunday with a perfect 5-0 record in the “preseason.” This marked the first time Kerr had been critical of this group of future Hall of Famers that is so often compared to the storied Dream Team from 1992.

And then, with all those lofty expectations that loom over them all demanding this sort of internal dissection, Kerr doubled down a day later. Only this time, he made it clear that Team USA’s one-point win over South Sudan on Saturday inspired some cause for concern as well.

“I think that’s what today is about — it’s the reminder (that), ‘It’s time,’ you know?” Kerr said during a group interview session with reporters at Thursday’s practice. “We’re not traveling around anymore (for exhibition games in Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, and London). We’re here. We’ve got six games. We’ve got to get into the pool play, advance, and then it’s (like the) NCAA Tournament. So we need 40 minutes of force, attention, and focus, and we can’t let teams outplay us with effort and energy like we did the other night against Germany (and) like we did against South Sudan.”

Taken at face value, that’s the sort of statement that should sound alarm bells for anyone and everyone associated with this vaunted Team USA squad. And truth be told, that’s likely Kerr’s intent.

It has been well-chronicled how the rest of the world has caught up with the Americans on the basketball front, but this particular collection of talent — from LeBron James to Steph Curry on down — was supposed to be dominant in the kind of way that would mitigate that decades-long global effect. And while the continued absence of Kevin Durant to a calf injury is certainly a major factor in their (relative) mediocrity, there is still more than enough firepower here for Team USA to have had an easier time in the run-up. What’s more, this kind of messaging comes with an entirely different tone from the one being set at the national team’s training camp in Vegas earlier this month.

Back when all these stars first met up in the desert, there was a sense of awe even among the players taking part. Bam Adebayo had captured that spirit perfectly during a visit with a small group of reporters on July 8, when the Miami Heat big man marveled at the possibilities with this all-time personnel.

“Do you see this team?!” Adebayo said then when asked about the much-improved international competition that awaited them. “Like, I don’t disrespect any other country at all. So don’t let that be (the) headline. But when you put a team like this (together), and you get compared to the Dream Team, it kind of puts it in perspective of how great this team can be if we play the right way and do the things we’re supposed to do.

“The rest of the world is trying to catch up. (But) you put a team like this together, and we play the right way, it’s gonna be hard to beat us. … I feel like you’re supposed to have that — respect people without giving them any respect. That’s a line we use in Heat Culture, man, because we respect every other country. But when we get between (those) lines, we’re trying to beat you by 40. We’re trying to make an example (out of you).”

It’s that last part, quite clearly, that is proving far more difficult than they’d hoped.

Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant on Thursday. “We’re playing against 65, or 64 NBA players now,” Durant says of the difference from 1992’s Dream Team. (Mike Lawrie / Getty Images)

To be fair, no one can fairly expect the kind of evisceration the world witnessed in ’92. With Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, and Karl Malone leading the way, and with the likes of Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler, Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson and so many other greats bringing up the back end, that once-in-a-lifetime group won all eight of its games by an average of 44 points. But times have undeniably changed. As Curry and Durant highlighted during an insightful exchange during their news conference on Thursday, the landscape that surrounds them now is far more impressive than it was back then.

“You see that thing (online) where they said the Dream Team played against nine NBA players, and …,” Curry began as if the two of them were speaking amongst themselves.

Durant, sitting by his side and facing hundreds of media members, finished his sentence for him.

“We’re playing against 65, or 64 NBA players now,” he said, referencing the total of current or former NBA players on other Olympic rosters. “They’re all the best of the best in the world now.”

At a minimum, this team needs to make sure they don’t suffer a similar fate to the bronze-medal winning team in 2004 that earned its infamy in the program’s history books. Kerr, who went into great detail describing the changes that need to be made, knows this as well as anyone.

“We have another level,” Kerr said. “I think we have another two levels that we can get to. But it’s a collaboration, always. So we can show the strategic stuff on the tape, in the walkthrough, and show them, ‘Hey, let’s do this. Let’s do that. Let’s learn (opposing) personnel. We’ve got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters and all that stuff.’ So that’s where we can help them.”

But they must — absolutely must — help themselves too.

“(It’s) just effort and energy, play after play after play,” Kerr said. “This is different. This is not an 82-game season (like the NBA). They’re not going to play 125 games total with preseason and playoffs and all that. It’s literally six games. And watching the tape, we’re jogging through some possessions, not hitting bodies on box-outs. And so it’s time. It’s time to lock in on that. And as I said, that’s for all of us — coaches and players — to get to that point.”