Team USA’s camp in Las Vegas finished up last Saturday with a nationally televised Blue/White scrimmage of the 19 remaining on the Men’s National Team roster. On Monday Team USA President Jerry Colangelo began informing the players and on Wednesday made the 15 man roster official.
These 15 players will meet again in New York for another training camp August 10-16. Then that roster will be cut to 12 before the team sets off to take on the globe in the FIBA World Championship in Turkey, which will run from August 28 until September 12.
While no members of 2008’s “Redeem Team” can be found on the roster, this version of the USA Men’s National Team has some reason for redemption itself. Similar to soccer and the World Cup, many countries consider the basketball tournament in the Olympics a mid-point between World Championships. Team USA has not won Gold in this basketball version of the World Cup since 1994.
So while we rejoiced in the redemption of claiming Gold in Beijing, the rest of the world set their sites on, what they consider, a more important international tournament.
Here is what the roster looks like after this week’s cuts:
Chauncey Billups (Denver)
Rajon Rondo (Boston)
Derrick Rose (Chicago)
Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City)
Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers)
Stephen Curry (Golden State)
Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City)
Rudy Gay (Memphis)
Danny Granger (Indiana)
Jeff Green (Oklahoma City)
Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia)
Kevin Love (Minnesota)
Lamar Odom (Los Angeles Lakers)
Brook Lopez (New Jersey)
Tyson Chandler (Dallas)
Now that list, clearly, lacks some size. But it is certainly not lacking in athleticism. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski addressed the size issue in the teleconference.
These are our guys, and we feel good about them. That means Durant and Gay will play a lot at the four, which isn’t bad. I mean, we had Carmelo and LeBron playing the four all the time and Bosh being our center for a lot of the Olympics when Dwight wasn’t in, and Bosh played a lot. He was our leading rebounder.
So we’re just trying to personalize a system to fit the strengths of this group. We’re going to have to rely on really good perimeter defense to make sure that we don’t get hurt inside. But I was pleased with Chandler’s showing the last two days. Tyson did a great job for us when we qualified in 2007, so we know him. And Odom, you know, he’s an NBA champion and an Olympian, so he knows the national game. To begin with, those two guys would be at the five. But it won’t be a traditional five for us the way we play.
That “personalized system” will likely involve taking advantage of Team USA’s athleticism, and running. A lot.
The most exciting thing about this squad has to be Kevin Durant, and the leadership role he has unwillingly assumed as the new face of Team USA basketball. Coming off his most successful season (not to mention a scoring title) Durant has expressed nothing but humility throughout the entire selection process.
“I doubt I’m the next face; I’m just another guy helping to bring a gold back to the U.S.” Durant said during last week’s training camp in Las Vegas. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was a little kid,”
Sounds like just another guy willing to put it all on the line for his country, and that should be very easy to root for come August.
