Fred Toucher: Jaylen Brown’s absence from Team USA highlighted by Joel Embiid’s Olympic struggles
This morning on the Toucher & Hardy radio program, the guys talked about Team USA’s impressive 103-86 win over South Sudan at Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille, France. With this victory, Team USA moved to the top of Group C, as all other teams have now lost at least once. The conversation focused on Joel Embiid’s poor performance, with some critics arguing that his struggles highlight the case for including Jaylen Brown on the team. They debated whether Embiid’s lackluster play was a result of matchup issues or if Brown, who was left off the roster, would have been a better choice.
WATCH HERE:
TRANSCRIPT:
Fred Toucher: In Olympic basketball, the U.S. was facing off against South Sudan. My question is, has any player in U.S. history hurt their brand more than Joel Embiid? He has been atrocious and, in fact, didn’t play yesterday.
Wallach: Joel Embiid was the starting center for the previous six games. They asked him about it afterwards, and he said matchups were the excuse for Tatum. We thought South Sudan posed a speed problem. I’m paraphrasing, but basically, they felt South Sudan was too quick for Embiid. You can’t sit out a player who was the MVP two years ago just because the other team is too fast. When Embiid is out there, the offense stops, and he takes the basketball.
Fred Toucher: Yeah, he was a problem. My question is, has any player in U.S. history hurt their brand more than Joel Embiid? It’s been very bad for him, as a lot of discussion after every game has been about how poorly Embiid has performed. This has been the case since the exhibition season. The whole notion of Tatum not playing is ridiculous. There are three Celtics on the team, so Celtics fans should be quiet. The big problem is not including Jalen Brown and replacing him with someone like Bam Adebayo. The key players should be bigger guys who can stretch the floor—players like Jalen Brown, Anthony Davis, and LeBron James.
