Did Team USA’s Jaren Jackson Jr. take a shot at Draymond Green, Kevon Looney and the Warriors?

The Warriors and Grizzlies’ rivalry didn’t live up to the hype last season. Jaren Jackson Jr. might be changing that as 2023-24 approaches.

The burgeoning rivalry between the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies didn’t exactly live up to the hype last season. Apart from the Steph Curry-less Warriors’ boastful beatdown of the Grizzlies at Chase Center on Christmas, Golden State’s rollercoaster regular season and Ja Morant’s off-court drama largely kept the teams’ focus off of one another.

Jaren Jackson Jr., inadvertently or not, may have changed that dynamic as 2023-24 fast approaches. Discussing how Team USA’s schemes broadly mirror the Warriors’ under head coach Steve Kerr, Jackson name-dropped Draymond Green and Kevon Looney with a casual off-hand that the Americans have “better players” than the Dubs.

“Coach Kerr is using his system. It’s just more or less what Draymond [Green] would have ran or [Kevon] Looney, and just with better players,” he said, per Yahoo! Sports’ Jake Fischer. “A lot of delay actions and stuff like that.”

Shots fired? Maybe not.

It goes without saying that USA Basketball’s FIBA World Cup second-best player. That case could be made for pretty much anyone on the Team USA roster besides Bobby Portis, Cam Johnson, Walkersquad boasts much more overall talent than Golden State. Steph Curry is still clearly better than anyone currently wearing the country’s colors, but the likes of Jackson, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton would definitely be the Warriors’ Kessler and Josh Hart.