Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is going to be playing with Team USA this summer. Portland Trail Blazers star guard Damian Lillard is another player that has also confirmed he’ll be heading to Tokyo to represent the United States of America.
Team USA, just with those two, is already going to be the favorite. In the past, teams like France and Spain have given the United States problems, but ultimately Team USA normally comes out on top.
Warriors’ Draymond Green and Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard will both be competing for Team USA in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
Basketball is among the most popular sports in the USA while the rest of the world typically concentrates on soccer. That said, the bigger headline here is the players and how their comradery during these tournaments will lead to potential moves in the NBA.
Green and Lillard playing with each other may not lead to anything off the court, especially considering they’ll be with at least a dozen other NBA players. It will be terrific to watch on the court, and it’s somewhat shocking considering both players had heavy workloads this past season.
The 2020 Summer Olympics will be held in Japan from July 23 to August 8. They were obviously slated for last year, but as with just about every other live event, Covid-19 forced the scheduling to be adjusted.
As for Draymond Green, he helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in the 2016 Olympic Games. He’s coming off a highly impressive season. While his three-point shooting is absent, he’s averaging a career-high 8.9 assists per game.
He averaged just 7.0 points per game, the lowest amount since his second season in the NBA.
His 27 percent from deep was the second-worst three-point percentage as well, so it was quite the season. Green’s season did end early as Golden State lost two play-in tournament games and didn’t make the playoffs.
As for Lillard, his Blazers lost in six games to the Nuggets. Lillard was incredible in the series, averaging 34.3 points per game, the most in any playoff run in his career. Throughout the regular season, Lillard was also extremely impressive.
He averaged 28.8 points and 7.5 assists per game. He also averaged a career-high 4.1 threes per game. That said, Lillard earned Second Team All-NBA, only not on the First Team because the guards were Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic.
The Green-Lillard combination is a great start for Team USA and should attract other big-name talents to the team.