Why Team USA is willing to wait for Kevin Durant’s Olympic debut: ‘We need him’

Follow our Olympics coverage in the lead-up to the Paris Games.

LONDON — The Olympic exhibition season is over for Team USA, and Kevin Durant didn’t play. But he’s not going home like Kawhi Leonard.

He’s headed to Paris with the hope that he can still help the American team win a fifth consecutive gold medal.

“There’s no thought of replacing Kevin,” USA coach Steve Kerr confirmed after his team beat Germany 92-88 without Durant on Monday.

Durant missed Team USA’s five tune-up games and most of the practices due to a Grade 1 strain of his left calf, suffered while working out before the start of training camp. He asked for an MRI upon arriving in Las Vegas and was not able to return to practice until the team convened for its first workout in London on Friday.

USA coaches and executives consider Durant “day to day” and cast some doubt on whether he will be available to play in the Olympic opener against Serbia on Sunday.

“I talked to him today, he said he was feeling better,” Kerr said Monday night. “We’re hoping that he can put together a couple of practices in a row and a scrimmage and get through that well and that he’ll be available for us.”

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It was during camp when USA executives excused Leonard from the team, even though he wanted to play. They felt he wasn’t moving quickly enough during practices and scrimmages, which he was healthy enough to participate in. Leonard was replaced by Derrick White, who, at least for now with Durant out, is a player Kerr relies on for defense. White overtook Tyrese Haliburton in the rotation for the second half of a narrow win against South Sudan and for the whole game against Germany.

The Americans have until Friday to make a roster change. If they do not remove Durant before then and his calf doesn’t heal enough for him to play, then they would only have 11 players available at the Olympics. At this point in the summer, though, most NBA players who were passed over for the Olympic team have moved on. The time to replace Durant with someone who could walk in and contribute, as White has, was much earlier during the preseason.

Durant has yet to be healthy enough to play and hasn’t had time to build any kind of cohesion with Kerr’s starters or reserves. When the team left Las Vegas for Abu Dhabi, the hope was Durant would practice and maybe play. When that didn’t happen, Team USA was hopeful to see him on the court against either Germany or South Sudan, and that didn’t happen either.

The Americans have decided to bet on Durant. Even if he is not ready for Sunday’s game, he should be ready by the time the Americans reach the knockout stage of the Olympic tournament. As the program’s all-time leading scorer, who is averaging better than 29 points in elimination games, Team USA would rather have him for those games than bring someone else in.

They believe, strongly, he is worth the gamble.

“It’s Kevin Durant,” Jrue Holiday said. “What are we talking about — we need him out there.”

In Durant’s absence, Kerr has developed his rotation. Devin Booker and Holiday start on the wing, and Jayson Tatum and Anthony Edwards come off the bench in those spots. Still, there is concern among USA executives about the challenge of maintaining the continuity built by the other 11 players and utilizing Durant, who remains one of the best NBA players.

LeBron James is Team USA’s leading scorer at 14.6 points per game. Edwards has been effective in a hybrid role and is averaging 13 points. Steph Curry remains who he is — 12.4 points per game with a team-high 14 3s on 38 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Statistically, both Booker and Tatum are producing at the level of role players (Booker is averaging 7.2 points in 20 minutes; Tatum is contributing 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds).

Inserting Durant into the rotation, which is the plan when he’s ready, will likely mean a reduction of minutes for both Booker and Tatum. One of them could fall out of Kerr’s rotation.

Kerr didn’t flinch when asked if there was any concern about chemistry and rhythm with regards to Durant missing the entire preseason. Kerr said he had managed Durant’s notorious past calf injuries before when the two worked together with the Golden State Warriors and expects similar results.

Why wait for Kevin Durant to get healthy? “It’s Kevin Durant,” Team USA teammate Jrue Holiday said. “What are we talking about — we need him out there.” (Christopher Pike / Getty Images)

“When he missed time, he came right back and he is who he is,” Kerr said. “He’s one of the most skilled players of all time. So we hope he comes back soon, and I think he’ll fit right in.”

Durant was sprinting up and down the court during warmups before the Germany game. His cardio, planting, cutting and jumping have increased daily. But when he hits the floor in uniform, it will be his first game since April when the Phoenix Suns were eliminated from the playoffs. All of which is to say, it is difficult to predict how close to the best version of Durant will be when his name is called.

That version, the best one, is a prolific scorer, a heady passer, a floor spacer and a vigorous defender who adds a shot blocker to the starting unit. Anything less than that, though, still helps the Americans. His mere presence adds pressure to a defense, perhaps creating even more space for James, Curry and Joel Embiid (who is up to averages of 10.8 points and 6.8 boards).

Not that Booker or Tatum are slouches — they of course are two of the best players in the NBA — but having to choose who to guard between James, Curry, Durant, and Embiid … well, the pressure that goes along with having to choose is what the Americans feel gives them the best chance to win gold.

If it happens, another Olympic title would be Durant’s fourth. No male basketball player has ever won four Olympic golds before.

Another reason to keep him around for a while.