Team USA’s men’s basketball team made good on their promise to have every superstar to their 44-man preliminary roster for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Along with NBA luminaries like Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook, Team USA has listed the Golden State Warriors’ iconic duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — the Splash Brothers — along with fiery, versatile forward Draymond Green.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr will return as an assistant coach for Team USA’s men’s basketball team.
Curry has only played in five games this season (though he’s expecting to return in early March) and Thompson hasn’t played at all this season (but will be re-evaluated around the All-Star Break), with the duo rehabbing a broken hand and a torn ACL, respectively. However, there’s no doubt that when healthy they’re two of the most dominant players in the league and the two best outside threats in the league as well.
It’s, frankly, more likely that Curry participates in the Olympic Games than Thompson due to the differences in the severity of their injury and the latter’s cautious approach to his injury rehab. However, Team USA would undoubtedly love to have both available and if healthy they would be shoo-ins to make the final 12-man roster. Interestingly enough, it would be Klay’s second time as an Olympian while it would be Steph’s first.
Green could also be named as an Olympian for the first time, although his ability to make the final 12-man roster is far from guaranteed, especially with players like LeBron, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Kevin Love and Tobias Harris all battling it out at power forward.
As a center, Draymond would be attempting to beat out the likes of Andre Drummond, LaMarcus Aldridge, Bam Adebayo and Brook Lopez. A far easier task than the former but still plenty of competition.
Green is the lone member of the Warriors core that’s been healthy throughout the 2019-20 season, averaging 8.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 steals per game but struggling from the field with a true shooting percentage of 49.1 (his worst since his rookie season).
