LAS VEGAS — It was Team USA’s second and final scrimmage against the USA Select Team on Monday that underscored the many valuable lessons Trace Jackson-Davis can take back home to San Francisco.
The second-year Warriors center set a high screen on Steph Curry from beyond the 3-point line, USA Select teammate Jaime Jaquez Jr. rolled to the basket and finished with his left hand over Joel Embiid. Jackson-Davis gets deep into the paint on defense thanks to LeBron James’ driving ability, leaving Embiid open from the top of the arc.
And just like that, Jackson-Davis recovered a split second too late.
His hand went up, but Embiid wasn’t fazed by having enough space and drilled a three over Jackson-Davis. An instructional session that was definitely reviewed on film that same day.
“This is as good as it gets,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who is currently coaching Team USA for the final time, told NBC Sports Bay Area.
Earlier in the scrimmage, Jackson-Davis began setting a screen for Brandon Miller near half court on the left side, adjusted his body to the right, rolled and dropped a high pass on Embiid. After being the steal of the Warriors’ second-round pick a year ago, he jumped on both feet and was fouled by running back Anthony Edwards.
It shows Jackson-Davis going back to the hoop with Embiid before the 2022-23 NBA MVP puts a twist on it, and Jackson-Davis misses Curry with a yard cut but was lucky to see Steph. He missed the reverse sort attempt.
Another mental note, another lesson to be learned.
Finding highs and lows was evident throughout the day. Golden State’s late-season flurry and flurry that forced Kevon Looney to the bench led to Jayson Tatum getting the ball out, exposing Jackson-Davis as he slid down on Tatum.
But Jackson-Davis’ best game Monday may have been at the hands of a missed shot.
After guarding Curry at the 3-point line and using his length to hand off the ball to Anthony Edwards, Jackson-Davis found himself running the other side of the Minnesota Timberwolves star’s missed pass and needing to defend against Curry. He’s in the mail. Jackson-Davis Edwards took a hard dribble that left Brandon Miller wide open in the left corner.
That’s when Jackson-Davis found Miller without hesitation, but the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NBA draft hit a corner three. The result was nothing. It was Warriors basketball on the UNLV practice field.
“I think I can feel it,” Jackson-Davis says when I ask where his game has grown since his rookie year. “I’ve grown a little bit this year. I started the year in the G League and getting a little bit of playing time here and there, picking up minutes, and then at the end of the year – I just feel like I’ve grown, I’ve got to improve on that, keep improving, guys, to open the shot and then finish what as a player. I have to do it.
Sunday’s first race should have shown more nerves and butterflies for the young selectors. The Jackson-Davis blitz was hard to find success against some of the game’s biggest and best power forwards like Davis and Bam Adebayo. They were also proving their will against Jackson-Davis.
The priceless lessons piled up day by day.
Embiid didn’t name any Select team players in particular that stood out to him, but after the Jackson-Davis Day battle, he emphasized how he prepared them for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
“They gave us a challenge,” Embiid said. “It’s great for us. They play hard, they play fast. They perform many of the functions that we see especially at the level of some Olympic teams. They did a great job,” he said.
A four-year college career at Indiana wasn’t enough for Jackson-Davis to become a top draft pick. His first NBA start didn’t come until the Warriors’ final game of the 2023 calendar year, when he went 8-of-11 for 17 points against the Dallas Mavericks.
Now, a little over a year after slipping to the second round of the draft, Jackson-Davis and rookie Warriors teammate Brandin Podzimski find themselves in the same situation that started Curry’s road to stardom.
“I wasn’t on the draft team, but my rookie year I was on the 2010 World Championship team,” Curry said. “You can expand your game, experiment a bit, do some things and take advantage of the summer. It’s great to see them go through that kind of process.”
Each ride at Jackson-Davis has seen him blossom when given a bigger opportunity. Brick-by-brick, step-by-step, the clean-shaven big man knows he’ll come out the other side better after battling the likes of Embiid, Davis, Adebayo and others for two straight odds.
“At the end of the day, it was a blessing to get on the court with these cats,” Jackson-Davis said.
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