Four Team USA players who could make MVP leap in NBA this season

One of the coolest parts of Team USA basketball is the best American players spend months together, observe one another's preparation and craft and push each other to new levels. 

There are famous instances of players leveraging their Olympic experience into an MVP leap shortly thereafter: 

• In 1992, Charles Barkley battled with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen while on the Dream Team and won the MVP the following season.
• In 2008, LeBron James witnessed Kobe Bryant's maniacal workouts while on the Redeem Team and won his first of four MVP trophies the next season.
• In 2012, Kevin Durant took his game to new heights after spending the summer going head-to-head with LeBron and won his only MVP in 2013-14.

There's clearly something magical that happens to a star when he spends his summer around greatness. But who from 2024 Team USA could make that kind of MVP leap this season?

Anthony Edwards | Minnesota Timberwolves

Edwards is an obvious candidate after spending the entire summer attached to the hip with his childhood idol, Durant. He got an up-close look at the work KD, James and Steph Curry put into their craft. 

Someday we may hear an anecdote about Edwards returning from a night out and crossing paths with the "old heads" on their way to a workout the way LeBron did with Kobe in Vegas before the 2008 Olympics. That caused LeBron to take his work ethic to a new level — could it do the same for Edwards? 

Joel Embiid | Philadelphia 76ers

Though he has already won an MVP, Embiid has plenty of room for improvement as a teammate and face of a franchise. He has underwhelmed when it has mattered the most, yet always attempts to escape culpability. 

Well, he just played the past few months with a handful of players who not only are peers in terms of talent, but absolute professionals when it comes to their preparation and leadership. Did anything rub off on him? 

We'll have a better idea when we see what kind of shape he's in when the season starts and know for sure when he faces adversity in the playoffs. 

Devin Booker | Phoenix Suns

Booker could reach a new level of superstardom if he competes on defense the way he did for Team USA. 

Booker did the little things so well that head coach Steve Kerr concluded his post-championship game news conference by giving unprompted praise to Booker, per Ben Golliver of The Washington Post.

"Devin Booker is an incredible basketball player," Kerr said. "Nobody asked about him. He was our unsung MVP." 

Jayson Tatum | Boston Celtics

This season is set up for a Tatum revenge tour in which he drops 50 on everyone who contributed to his benching this summer —Kerr, Erik Spoelstra, Ty Lue, LeBron, KD — but he may not have that in him. 

Thus, a leap for Tatum could be more subtle, perhaps as simple as him learning how to gradually build momentum during the season so that he's peaking during the playoffs. The great ones always figure out the right balance.

Tatum played a staggering 287 regular-season and playoff games the past three years. That probably has something to do with him shooting an ugly 28.3 percent from three this past postseason and going 0-for-11 on jump shots in Olympic play this summer. Easing back into things this season would do him well. 

Bonus: Noah Eagle | NBC broadcaster

Play-by-play commentator Noah Eagle, the 27-year-old son of outstanding commentator Ian Eagle, has a chance to leverage his excellent Olympic performance with Dwyane Wade into becoming this generation's voice of basketball à la Marv Albert or Mike Breen. 

In addition to making memorable calls — "The Golden Dagger" and "LeCaptain America" — Eagle nailed a number of difficult last name pronunciations and found the right balance between analysis and banter with Wade.