"Why doesn’t he get the shame Kawhi and Embiid get?" - NBA fans outraged over Kevin Durant sitting out for Team USA vs Germany

Although Kevin Durant's absence left it underpowered, Team USA successfully triumphed in all five of its pre-Olympic games. The Phoenix Suns star is nursing a calf injury, and his absence from USA's game against Germany was announced through X/Twitter.

According to The Athletic's Joe Vardon, KD will travel with the team to Paris for the Olympics, where he is expected to suit up.

The NBA All-Star's absence from Team USA's pre-Olympic games has drawn the ire of some fans who expressed their feelings on X.

"Why doesn’t he get the shame Kawhi and Embiid get about injuries???" @SwipedBySlavin asked.

"Load managing as usual," @ken89681189 tweeted.

"Just kick him off the team at this point," @Lebronin1 suggested.

On the other hand, some fans voiced support for KD and were optimistic for his eventual return.

"Once he’s healthy it’s actually over for the world lol," @theofficialkat wrote.

"No need to rush back before the Paris Olympics", @chriscampasano added.

"I hope he's healthy come Sunday," @StLogicSports chimed in.

Kevin Durant has been dealing with several injuries since the 2019 NBA Finals. He ruptured his Achilles in Game 5 of that Finals series and was sidelined the following season.

In the first three seasons following his return from his Achilles injury, he never played in more than 55 games until making 75 with the Phoenix Suns last season. He also played in all four of the team's playoff matchups against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

While KD has remained with Team USA through his injury, the same cannot be said for Kawhi Leonard.

USA basketball and the LA Clippers reportedly decided together to withdraw Leonard from the 2024 Olympics roster and replace him with Derrick White. The decision was made with the 2024-25 season in mind as well as the fact that Leonard has been sidelined with several injuries in the past few seasons.

In fact, he missed the last eight games of the previous season as well as four of the Clippers' six games against the Dallas Mavericks in the opening round of the playoffs.

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How will Kevin Durant's return affect Steve Kerr's rotation?

Steve Kerr's starting lineup in Team USA's exhibition games featured Steph Curry, Jrue Holiday, LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid. This starting five took the court together in all but one of the team's tune-up games. The only time that Kerr shook things up was against Australia when he started Anthony Edwards over Holiday.

This suggests that Kerr will go with the Curry, Holiday, Tatum, LeBron and Embiid lineup at the Olympics. That is until Kevin Durant can suit up.

If he is deemed healthy enough, KD will likely take over for Jayson Tatum permanently. KD could spend one game or two coming off the bench just to ease him in depending on when he makes his return.

Steve Kerr knows just how deadly the duo of Steph Curry and Kevin Durant can get. After all, Kerr successfully coached them to back-to-back NBA titles with the Golden State Warriors. As such, there's no reason to think that he wouldn't want to see them in the same starting five again.