Warriors’ Trayce Jackson-Davis holds his own against Team USA’s big men – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

LAS VEGAS — There was a sequence Monday during Team USA’s second and final practice game against the U.S. select team that highlights the many valuable lessons Trayce Jackson-Davis can take home to San Francisco.

The Warriors’ second-year center set a high screen on Steph Curry above the 3-point line for USA Select teammate Jaime Jaquez Jr., drove to the basket and the left-hander finished with his left hand on Joel Embiid. Jackson-Davis then drove deep into the paint on defense thanks to LeBron James’ driving ability, leaving Embiid free at the top of the arc.

And just like that, Jackson-Davis recovered a split second too late.

He raised his hand, but Embiid was unfazed by ample space and made a three-pointer over Jackson-Davis. A teaching moment that was surely replayed on film later in the day.

“It’s as good as it gets,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who is currently coaching Team USA for the last time, told NBC Sports Bay Area.

Earlier in the scrimmage, Jackson-Davis started to set a screen for Brandon Miller on his left side near halfcourt, adjusted his body to the right, rolled and came down with a high pass over Embiid. The Warriors’ steal of a second-round pick a year ago then calmed down, jumped two feet and was fouled by Anthony Edwards as he went up.

In that same game, Jackson-Davis was also pushed all the way to the basket by Embiid before the 2022-23 NBA MVP made a spinning layup over him, and Jackson-Davis lost Curry on an overhand cut but was fortunate to see Steph miss his reverse layup attempt.

Another mental note, another lesson to learn.

It was evident throughout the day that value could be found in the ups and downs. The agility and fire of Golden State’s starting center late in the season, which forced Kevon Looney to the bench, also prompted Jayson Tatum to punt the ball when Jackson-Davis swept Tatum, exposing the ball downfield.

But Jackson-Davis’ best play Monday may have come on a missed shot.

After defending Curry at the 3-point line and using his size to force him to pass the ball to Anthony Edwards, Jackson-Davis sprinted to the other side on a mistake by the Minnesota Timberwolves star and noticed poor positioning by Curry who was supposed to be defending him in the post. Jackson-Davis took a powerful dribble that forced Edwards to leave 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 the corner three. The outcome didn’t matter. This was Warriors basketball on UNLV’s practice court.

“I just think about my feel,” Jackson-Davis said when asked where his game has improved the most since the beginning of his rookie year. “I’ve grown a little bit this year. I started the year in the G League, then I got a little bit of playing time here and there, spot minutes, and then at the end of the year, I feel like my growth, I just have to continue to get better at that, continue to get better at what I have to do as a player to get my guys to shoot freely and then finish.”

Sunday’s first game had to be more edgy and exciting for the young Select team. The flashes of Jackson-Davis having success against some of the game’s biggest and best giants like Davis and Bam Adebayo were hard to miss. The same was true for them when they asserted their will on Jackson-Davis.

Invaluable lessons accumulated day by day.

Embiid didn’t specifically mention a Select Team player who stood out to him, but after a day of battling Jackson-Davis, he was keen to highlight how they’ve prepared them for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

“They challenged us,” Embiid said. “That’s pretty good for us. They play hard, they play fast. They run a lot of plays that we would see, especially at the level of some of these Olympic teams. They did a great job.”

A four-year college career at Indiana wasn’t enough for Jackson-Davis to become a top draft pick. He didn’t start in the NBA until the Warriors’ final game of the 2023 calendar year, when he scored 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting against the Dallas Mavericks.

A little over a year after slipping to the second round of the draft, Jackson-Davis and Warriors teammate Brandin Podziemski find themselves in a situation similar to the one that marked the beginning of Curry’s path to stardom.

“I wasn’t on the All-Star team, but my freshman year I was on the 2010 World Series team,” Curry said. “You kind of get to expand your game, get tested a little bit, work on some things and make the most of the summers. It’s pretty cool to see them go through that same kind of process.”

Every step of Jackson-Davis’ journey has seen him blossom into bigger opportunities. Brick by brick, step by step, the big man with the bowl cut and clean-shaven chin hair knows he comes out the other side better after facing the likes of Embiid, Davis, Adebayo and others in back-to-back games.

“Ultimately, being on the field with those guys was a blessing,” Jackson-Davis said.

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