Kara Lawson chose to bring Caitlin Clark off the bench, behind five players who aren’t even in that MVP conversation. This decision has received a lot of criticism, and former ESPN host Linda Cohn has called out Team USA’s head coach following her comments on Monday.
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“Maybe Kara Lawson loves having [Clark] coming off the bench. But maybe, just maybe, she looks at Caitlin Clark almost like a sixth-woman weapon,” Cohn said on her podcast on Monday. “‘Let the veterans start the game, then let me bring in Caitlin and ease her in and then completely change the pace.’ But why wait?”
Cohn has consistently maintained that Lawson should include the Indiana Fever star in the starting lineup, and she picked out Lawson’s own comments to call out the coach.
“I get where she’s coming from, but I just wouldn’t do it that way,” Cohn added during the podcast. “I would start Caitlin Clark…Why don’t you want to change the tempo from the opening tip? That’s what I don’t understand.”
During the postgame conference after the win over China, Lawson said that Clark “changed the tempo of the game.” After the win over Czechia, Lawson said that Clark provided a playmaking aspect to the team
“She gets the ball and she just motors. She sees passes other players do not see…She gets teammates running and creates easy baskets. The defense has to pick her up, and that leaves everyone else open. The geometry of the floor changes when Caitlin Clark is running this offense,” Cohn added.
Clark has been their leading playmaker despite Chelsea Gray starting as the point guard. While Gray comes with a lot of experience, Clark has had a better outing. However, Lawson has barely treated her as a bench player. Clark hasn’t been the starter, but she averages the most minutes on Team USA. In games against China and Czechia, she led the team in minutes.
She played over 25 minutes in a dominating win over China and recorded 14 points and 11 assists, both team-highs. On Monday, she played over 21 minutes (only player on the team to cross the 20-minute mark) and ended the game with 9 points and a team-high 7 assists.
However, when the Americans struggled against Italy before coming off with a 55-52 win, Clark was one of the two players who failed to make a shot despite playing over 10 minutes. She had one point and one assist and missed all of her six attempts. In the end, Team USA veterans came up big and held the fort before escaping with a win.
Caitlin Clark’s lack of experience might have been a factor in her poor showing. During the postgame presser after the win over Czechia, Lawson might have hinted that Clark’s inexperience was a reason behind not including her in the starting lineup during group stage games.
“She is another young player who’s feeling her way through her first World Cup,” she told reporters while addressing Clark’s shooting struggles.
While this is Clark’s first senior World Cup, she has won gold at various junior FIBA events, including the U19 tournament where she was the MVP.
Lawson defended her young star, but the weight of experience is reflected in her lineup decisions. The starting lineup features all the veterans with previous international experience.
The USA head coach also added that group games were a learning experience for her young stars, which would eventually be useful in the knockout stage. Who knows, Lawson might change her lineup strategy going forward and feature a mixture of veterans and young stars in her starting lineup.
Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and Angel Reese have all proved that they are deserving of the starting spot. It will eventually fall on Lawson to determine the kind of balance she wants to have going forward.