Jayson Tatum's benching is a fake controversy

Steve Kerr got a torrent of criticism for not playing Jayson Tatum in Team USA's opening game even though his team won by 26 points, 110-84.

Stephen A. Smith joined a chorus of voices, including virtually every Boston Celtics fan on the internet, in complaining that Tatum sat for the entirety of Team USA's 110-84 win over Serbia Sunday. NBA pundits think it was disrespectful not to play a first-team All-NBA forward who just won a championship, while Celtics fans have attributed Kerr's decision alternately to a lack of coaching ability or bias against the Celtics.

But Team USA won definitively, while Tatum's replacement, Kevin Durant, was Team USA's best player , scoring 23 points as the team's backup forward. It's hard to criticize Kerr's coaching when Durant took over the game in the first half.

Tatum is clearly a great player, but it's not like he was lighting it up in Team USA's exhibition games. He averaged 6.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists while playing just under 18 minutes per game. Tatum shot 46.7% from the floor, but he didn't make a single three-pointer. That's after a playoff run when Tatum went 28.3% from three-point range.

That's the reason Tatum has found himself the odd man out in these Olympics. He's a very well-rounded forward, but he can't shoot like Durant, nor run an offense like LeBron James, nor play post defense as well as Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis or perimeter defense as well as his Celtics teammates Derrick White and Jrue Holiday, who both made the All-Defensive teams.

Tatum isn't bad at any of those things, but he's not as good as many of his teammates in very specific roles. While Tatum's skill set is incredibly valuable over an NBA regular season and on a normal team, on a squad of All-Stars, he might not be the ideal option.

Against a team like Serbia, when Kerr is leaning on three-guard lineups featuring Devin Booker and Anthony Edwards, Tatum is a worse fit than James or Durant.

Kerr even said Tatum would play against South Sudan, so the hysterical pundits should tone down their outrage. It's the Olympics, not youth soccer, so no one should expect any player to definitively get minutes, but when Tatum takes the floor, the pseudo-controversy should die down.

But all the chatter is simply a sign that fans and media are bored with Team USA's dominance. Should a coach really be under fire after blowing out a really good international team? Serbia was second at the FIBA World Cup in 2023 without Nikola Jokic.

Critics may want Kerr to worry about the egos of all 12 of his players, but shouldn't he be worrying about winning a gold medal instead?