James, Curry Among Current Team USA ‘Locks’ for 2024 Olympics

Highlights

• Five “locks” for the 2024 Team USA roster include Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, and Jayson Tatum.
• Jrue Holiday quickly moved into the conversation and is “expected” to make the final roster.
• Holiday’s stats prove he is a top two-way player, showcasing consistency and efficiency, a major selling point for Team USA.

Team USA’s roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics finally appears to be taking shape and it’s headlined by a few of the names that would be more surprising if they were left off, than hearing they’ve made the cut.

According to The Athletic‘s Shams Charania, there are five “locks” to make the roster: Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum.

But even more interesting is the surprise name who quickly moved into that same conversation and is now “expected” to be among the 12 players on the final roster, per Charania: Boston Celtics guard and Tatum’s teammate, Jrue Holiday.

The report cites that “barring unforeseen circumstances,” Holiday, who was exceptional in helping the 2021 Olympic team win the gold medal in Tokyo in 2021, will join the shortlist of locks to make the roster. While it may seem a bit surprising to hear Holiday’s name among the first to join the nucleus of the Paris roster, it shouldn’t come as a total shock.

Jrue Holiday’s strong case for being a lock on Team USA

The Celtics guard checks in as one of the few players statistically thriving on both ends

Holiday is one of the rare NBA “unicorns” who consistently produces on both the offensive and defensive ends. Even while taking on a smaller role for a loaded Celtics team this season, he checks in as one of just four players who’ve played 40 or more games and averages 30-plus minutes to post an offensive rating north of 120 and a defensive rating of 111 or better.

Even more impressive is the fact that Holiday’s assist ratio (number of assists average per 100 possessions) is the highest of all four players despite checking in with the lowest usage of the group. And for a unique plot twist to all of that, three of the four names who made the cut are members of the Celtics, as seen below.

For good measure, Holiday’s assist ratio checks in at 27.3, ahead of White (25.2), Gilgeous-Alexander (20.1) and Tatum (16.5). The Celtics guard is the epitome of an elite two-way player, and showcased that ability during the previous Olympics, something the national team officials certainly took note of.

Holiday’s consistency during 2021 Olympics a major selling point

He ranked in the top three statistically of numerous key categories

Holiday landed behind only Durant when evaluating Team USA’s most efficient players during the 2021 Olympic Gold Medal run. The now-Celtics guard was No. 2 in efficiency, No. 3 in points (11.8), No. 3 in rebounds (4.8) and led the team in assists per game (3.8).

And for good measure, Holiday also tallied the most steals per game with 1.7 and had the third-highest plus-minus of all players on the roster at +12.5.

In terms of the type of “glue guy” or “do-it-all” player Team USA covets and has seen make a major impact playing alongside numerous superstars, there may very well be no better option out there than Holiday.