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Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. Kurt, how are you, man? I'm doing good. How's it going, man? I'm very well.
Thank you for taking the time to hop on amongst everything going on. I heard this report that the players have said LeBron James, amongst all of these stars, the Tatum's, the Embiid's, the guys who are 10 years younger than him, that LeBron is still the best guy out on the team. Is that accurate? Yeah, Joe Vardon over at The Athletic just polled a bunch of guys, both from the select team and, you know, the Team USA, and just said, hey, who's done the best? And LeBron won.
It wasn't unanimous, but LeBron won pretty handily. He has looked good in the bits of scrimmage we've seen. He is moving well. He's got an understanding of, look, he's certainly seen every coverage, knows everything, he's done the international ball thing before.
And I think in some ways, sort of like the end-season tournament last year for the Lakers, it suits him because this team is so deep and you get a shorter game anyway. He can give me 20 hard minutes. It's just massive, right? Like, that's just huge. You don't have to break everything, you know, you don't got to play 38 minutes to keep Garvin Ham, you know, you didn't really keep his job, did you?
Just go out there and give me 20 hard minutes. Same with Durant, same with Curry, and there's enough talent on this roster that we're going to win out. And I think that that's kind of their plan. And Curt Heelan is joining us from NBC Sports. You know, speaking of Kevin Durant, we heard that he will not play in this friendly tomorrow against Canada because of a sore calf. When you think about Kevin Durant, his history of leg issues, no big deal or what are we looking at here? I don't think it's too, look, he spoke today about it and just said, look, we're just being cautious, basically, that he feels good and he wants to get back out. But he's not he's wants to get back out there.
But again, look, this is a guy with a history of cashew calf issues, a history of Achilles. So you can't really mess around with this. So I think they're just being overly cautious. Not going to run him out in the game tomorrow. But I imagine you'll see him there's a series of tune ups and bigger Abu Dhabi and then in Paris beforehand in France. So I imagine you're going to see him pretty soon, but he won't be out there tomorrow. Well, Kurt, you talk about someone that we've heard and seen clips and footage of.
I know you're out in Vegas. A lot of people are finding out more and more about Cooper Flagg. It seems like every every day, every week, he's a part of the select team that's trying to get the main team all warmed up and ready. The word was that he was not just impressive, but he took over a stretch.
What's the reality of what a 17 year old did against these these stars? He was arguably the best player on the select team the second day. And the first day, my reaction was he had a dunk at the end of practice, at the end of the scrimmage and a couple other players.
We were just like, oh, he's sitting in. And I think by day two, like he's just got so much confidence in his game and his skill set that he was willing to take over. Like you said, he took over first stretch. He made some other big shots and big plays. He's been incredibly impressive.
I mean, first off, he's 17. I just expected him to be skinny because every 17 year old basketball player is really now he's he's got some muscle on him. He's moved really well. He's got a really smooth stroke and he was starting to find places to really use his athleticism. And he looks I mean, there was one he had one three pointer where he came up the screen and wasn't bothered by Drew Holiday, kind of rubbed him off. And then Anthony Davis switches on to him and he shot a jumper over him and knocked it down from three.
Like he's just been impressive. And Curt Heelan is joining us from NBC Sports. We know the NBA draft is only a couple of weeks ago as Zachary Rissache was selected number one overall.
A lot of people had to kind of shrug their shoulders. No doubt, unless there's some surprises that Cooper Flag is going to go number one next year after playing at Duke. Yeah, it's early. So obviously, stuff can change. Remember, you know, to use the easy example, Isaiah Collier, the USC guy was top three, top five at the start of last year and fell to the 20s.
So like, stuff happens. But I can't imagine him not being that just from what I've seen again, not a scout, but what I saw in this scrimmage, what I heard, I can't imagine him not being in the in the at the top of the draft. I know that this is a pretty deep draft. So maybe there's somebody else who climbs up and challenges him.
But I don't know. I watched him yesterday and thought, yeah, I'd tank for that guy. Yeah, well, I know we're going to have some teams that are certainly doing that. Well, he's 17 years old. We have a couple of guys who are well, we got we got a couple of dudes who are more than 20 years on top of him. When you think about Steph Curry, going for his first goal, when you also take a look at someone like LeBron, how is the team kind of jelling and coming together? I mean, they're expected to walk away with gold.
If they don't, anything below that is your fail. They've discussed the expectations that that's just part of what you accept stepping onto this, stepping into the jersey. And it's, you know, Steve Carter has said this and a lot of Popovich perform and others. The difference between this team and the dream team may be less the talent on the roster and more the rest of the world isn't is caught up right in 1992. Those guys slept walked. You know, there was nobody who could get within 40 points of them.
That is just not the case today. And starting with tomorrow night, like Canada beat them at the U.S. at the World Cup last year. He's led by shade, Gil, just Alexander and Jamal Murray in the backcourt. NBA players all over the floor. Same with a bunch of other teams. Serbia is going to have that yokich guy middle.
He's he's pretty good. And the French front line is going to be Rudy Gobert and Victor Wambayama. Like they're legitimate teams who can threaten the U.S. out there. And they're that's why Joe L. Embiid becomes so important to the U.S. Everybody I just mentioned outside. I mean, that's not the Canadian guys, but the size is there's just more size and more physicality allowed in international ball. And Joel Embiid is going to have to be the anchor for this team for them to win.
Wow. Curt Heelan joining us from NBC Sports. When you talk about Joel Embiid, a lot of opinions have been strewn about about him choosing to play for Team USA versus Cameroon or France. Has that kind of this died and subsided now that the initial media is kind of chilled out? Well, yeah, at USA training camp, everybody's pretty happy about it. I don't think the French have let it go. And I'm not sure that they should. He, depending on who you ask, either told or certainly insinuated that he intended to play for France in the Paris Olympics and then chose not to for whatever his personal reasons are, a variety of reasons, I imagine. But they that's not and they're understandably a little a little a little taken back.
I'm not sure that he is going to get the warmest of reception from French fans, especially if we end up playing France in the medal round somewhere. Well, Curt, we know this is a stacked team. You talked about how important Joel Embiid is.
But when you have a roster of LeBron and Tatum coming off of a championship, Kawhi Leonard, God bless him. He's healthy. You got a young Halliburton. Anthony Edwards says I'm option number one. Realistically, which of these players is going to be tethered to the bench unless it's a blowout? Yeah, I'm really curious to see how this shakes out.
You know, I'm not sure you're going to get a lot of Halliburton. He is. Well, he plays fast and they want to use him off the bench to keep the tempo up, which is a role he played.
I think he ended up starting, but played a lot of in a year ago in the Philippines in the World Cup. Anthony Edwards is going to get some run just because they need his athleticism. I mean, as much as we talk about all the talent on this roster and the old guys on this roster, you need that that youth and explosive athleticism that Anthony Edwards springs along with a little bit of confidence. He's pretty sure of himself, but I can't really blame him. But yeah, I think it's going to be interesting to see how that rotationally shakes out and it could change. Kurt implied this too.
Kurt kind of talked about it. It could be game to game, man. In this game, maybe Drew Holliday has it going.
Maybe it's somebody else. And once we once we get a look at who's hot that night, he's going to ride the hot hands because he's got 12 guys on that roster used to taking over games. Wild, wild stuff. Well, listen, Kurt, we are going to be paying attention to everything going on out in Paris. We're going to see who plays, who doesn't play. Hopefully Durant will be fine. Hopefully Kawhi is fine. Hopefully Embiid is fine. Hopefully LeBron is fine. That's a lot of hopes, but I think everything will be cool.
Last question for you, Kurt. Thoughts so far on Bronny James. I hear he's expected to play again tomorrow after sitting out the last game with a sore knee. What are your impressions on what this next year is going to look like for him? It's going to look like the G League for a lot of it. He'll start with the Lakers at the start of the season. Remember, the G League season starts three weeks, four weeks after the NBA League season starts. So he'll start the season with the team.
I am sure they will run him out there with his father at the end of some game just to have that moment, right? But most of his season has got to be spent in the gym and in the G League just getting better. He is not an NBA player right now. And he didn't really look, you know, two of nine, three from three, you know, in that summer league game. I think the real question for him becomes how much better is he as we get towards the end of the Vegas summer league?
How much better is he in game four than he is in game one? If you see that development, that's what you're looking for. Well, everybody is certainly going to watch both the development of him, whether they want to hear or no, and exactly what Team USA Basketball does out in Paris in a few weeks. Hey, Kirk, where can people follow you in all your work with NBC, Pro Basketball Talk, et cetera? Of course, you can follow me on X at Basketball Talk.
And I'm on all the socials. You can find me on X or on TikTok or Instagram, wherever, but also just NBC Sports and soon enough, NBC Olympics dot com. I'm doing some writing for them. Some of the stuff I'm writing will end up on NBC Olympics dot com, especially once the games get going. Amazing.
A man of many talents. Kurt, thank you so much for taking the time. Enjoy the rest of what is going to be a busy basketball summer. OK, we'll catch you soon.
Take care. Look around. What do you see? Cars? Lots of them.
And guess what? They're probably on Auto Trader, whether you're into timeless classics or the latest trends. Did somebody say solar powered, eco friendly, vegan, leather wrapped, aroma therapy, scented disco ball equipped self-driving car? If you see it on the road, you can likely find it on Auto Trader. Big cars, small cars, blue cars, new cars and used cars, electric cars. And one day, maybe even flying cars with millions of options to choose from. Buying a car becomes a whole lot easier. See it. Find it.
Auto Trader. It's been a three year wait, but the Olympics are back and the CBS Sports Podcast Network has you covered with everything happening in Paris. It's a new era for the US women's national team and attacking third will tackle all the women's soccer action. First cut will keep close tabs on golf while beyond the arc will follow the US men's basketball team on a quest for another gold. And we need to talk now. We'll provide comprehensive coverage of women's athletes at the Olympic Games.
Follow and listen to all CBS Sports podcasts for free on the Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. Here's why April chose to vaccinate her child. I think actually meeting someone who was not vaccinated and now has a lifelong struggle with a childhood disease really cemented for me that it's super important that we as parents continue to vaccinate our children. Talk to your pediatrician or visit YVaccines.com. Brought to you by Merck.
