US chooses 19 players for men 's basketball

[Kevin]

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/07/14/us-t ... roster.ap/

(AP) -- Coach Mike Krzyzewski hopes Derrick Rose's NBA comeback begins in a USA uniform.

Even if Rose isn't ready, the Americans have plenty of talent for another run at a world championship.
Rose and four returnees from the 2012 Olympic men's basketball champions were among the 19 players selected Monday for this summer's U.S. national team roster.

Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, James Harden and Anthony Davis were the four holdovers from London, and there were new additions of Toronto's DeMar DeRozan and Chandler Parsons, who is leaving Houston for Dallas.

[Andrew]

Encouraging news as far as Rose's health is concerned, I suppose.

[shadowgrin]

Ignoring injuries or players opting out I'd say the players that would be cut are DeRozan, Parsons, Beal, Faried, Hayward, Cousins, and Korver.


C Love/Drummond
PF Davis/Griffin
SF Durant/George
SG Harden/Curry/Thompson
PG Irving/Rose/Lillard

[Stress Fracture]

I think Curry and Rose must be interchanged. And I guess Korver will be like Michael Redd.

[shadowgrin]

I don't think Korver will make it since there are already decent shooters in every position and could even have a lineup composed of shooters.

C Love
PF Durant (Seen coach K use Durant at this position in past tournaments)
SF Thompson
SG Harden
PG Curry

[[Q]]

Taking those lineups, what will our 2016 Olympic team look like?

C Davis/Love
PF Durant/Griffin/Melo-Aldridge
SF Lebron/George
SG Harden/Curry
PG CP3/Irving/Lillard

[NovU]

I think the starting line up should be something like this.

David
Love
Durant
Harden
Rose

They could go small and do Love at C and Durant at PF but they give up too much size. I'm not sure how would that fare because Durant is no LBJ in the post imo.

[shadowgrin]

iirc Durant at PF worked just fine in FIBA WC 2010 and last Olympics in 2012 same way playing Rose at SG and Westbrook at PG worked in 2010.

Don't know if Coach K will still stick to speed over size in constructing his lineup this time around like he did in the past.
Love and Chandler were the only ones he used at C in 2012 with then rookie Anthony Davis being the team's Christian Laettner. Durant and Melo doing time at PF iirc.

If size is a concern more than speed for this year's roster, in my predicted lineup center-guard Andre Drummond will be replaced Cousins. Since the team now has a 'traditional' big man, Korver/Parsons might have a chance to be included by replacing Lillard to have more shooters to take advantage of Cousins' post play.

[Stress Fracture]

The Melo/Lebron/KD frontline was widely used back in the Olympics and was effective. I wonder if Coach K will stick to this style, like PG/KD/Parsons (if Parsons make it)

[shadowgrin]

USA Basketball on Tuesday released the 13-man roster of a select team that will participate in a Men's National Team training camp later this summer.

Harrison Barnes
Trey Burke
Jimmy Butler
Draymond Green
Tim Hardaway Jr.
Tobias Harris
Doug McDermott
Victor Oladipo
Mason Plumlee
Miles Plumlee
Marcus Smart
Dion Waiters
Cody Zeller

I'm predicting either Oladipo or Barnes to do well for the select team like Kyrie did in 2012.

[shadowgrin]

Soulless ginger Blake Griffin unpatriotically withdraws from Team USA, will be replaced by John Wall in the provisional roster.

Other than withdrawing or getting injured DeMarcus Cousins going crazy is the only reason for him now not be included with Griffin gone.

John Wall's a lock imo at the cost of Damian Lillard.

Updating my lineup prediction:

C Love/Cousins
PF Davis/Drummond
SF Durant/George
SG Harden/Rose/Thompson
PG Irving/Curry/Wall

[[Q]]

Soulless ginger Blake Griffin unpatriotically withdraws from Team USA, will be replaced by John Wall in the provisional roster.

Why would a superstar waste his time by playing in a meaningless tournament that the US will win anyways? They don't give out Olympic medals in the World Championships

[shadowgrin]

It's that kind of attitude why the US got their ass handed to them in 2002 and 2006 world championships and got the same ass whooping in 2004 Olympics.

[Stress Fracture]

I guess Kevin Love is unpatriotic, too.

[shadowgrin]

Can't blame Love, he's more excited to play with LeBron James than with those Team USA scrubs.

No more replacements for Love in the provisional roster, Parsons and Faried reported as most likely to replace Love in the final roster with either of the Plumlee bros. considered too if needed.

Parsons being picked would mean more minutes at PF for Durant, while picking Faried is a bit undersized when playing against some of the yuro teams like Spain who has the Gasol bros. and Serge Ibaka.

I guess Coach K is going more small ball during the tournament.
I'm going with Parsons, with Anthony Davis now getting a lot of minutes at PF and C when Durant slides over to PF.

[shadowgrin]

Did FIBA just kill international basketball? (2012)

FIBA decided to expand the World Cup field from 24 to 32, they moved the World Cup off of the FIFA World Cup schedule and, in an apparent bid to please the NBA, they removed all extracurricular importance from the continental championship like EuroBasket. In the past, these tournaments -- EuroBasket, FIBA Americas, etc. -- were used to qualify teams for the World Championship and the Olympics. No longer. Now the tournaments will be held once every four years, and won't be used to qualify anyone for anything.

Like FIFA, FIBA will now qualify teams for the World Cup and Olympics through a separate system. This separate system includes new qualification windows throughout the year (as in soccer). The windows: February, June, September and November. Weird, because three of those months are during the NBA season. FIFA international qualification works because FIFA is dominant and all of the other leagues adjust to allow players to return to their national teams for qualification. FIBA isn't in that spot.

Here's the thing about this new schedule: it kills Team USA, right? The entire Team USA roster is in the NBA. So that entire roster will be out of luck when qualification hits. Use college kids? OK, let's go tell Roy Williams he needs to give up his players for a couple weeks in February to play for a team they aren't likely to make in the end anyway. That makes sense. So ... are we going to use high school players? Americans who aren't in the NBA? Retired NBA players?

The only solution for Team USA will be to win every World Cup (which qualifies the team for the following Olympics) and win every Olympic tournament (which qualifies the team for the next World Cup). Then Team USA would never need to worry about qualification windows. But lose one tournament and it's mayhem.

Other national teams? They can't rely on that. As such, the teams with NBA or Euroleague players will be at a distinct disadvantage.

So this is what we're left with: primarily second-string teams will compete for spots in the World Cup and Olympics during the traditional league season (when no one will be paying attention), and then the stars might be helicoptered in to perform in those big events, which will be held in back-to-back summers. We're left with a Team USA that needs to win every big tournament to avoid playing high school kids in qualification rounds.

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/11/15/fiba ... index.html

World Cup qualifiers in June and September 2018 would be most attractive to top players, he said. FIBA aims to schedule matches in late-June to avoid clashing with NBA playoffs.

Baumann said the governing body has good relations with the NBA, and kept the league and franchise owners informed "since day 1" of a two-year project to improve the existing calendar.

tl;dr
FIBA changed the schedule and format of qualifying tournaments for the world championships and the Olympics to better please the NBA which is disadvantageous to teams that rely on a small core of its own NBA players, basically giving the USA an advantage.

[Andrew]

Sounds like Team USA is potentially at a disadvantage as well, should they blow a tournament.

[shadowgrin]

Team USA could just send NBA players from tanking teams as early as November and then in February. Tanking done right, for the country!
Even though there's only one month available for NBA players, the September qualifying period looks the best for Team USA, the tournament qualifiers can serve as a training camp for NBA players selected in the roster.

[shadowgrin]

So...Parsons or Korver now guaranteed for Team USA...or DeRozan considering the team needs someone to play the Iguodala-type role (defend, hustle, bit of scoring) now that George is gone.

C Cousins/Drummond/(Davis)
PF Davis/(Durant)
SF Durant/Parsons/DeRozan
SG Harden/Rose
PG Irving/Curry/Wall

[[Q]]

Cousins would be necessary for a well-balanced roster, but I think they could do without him. Leftos's man-crush plus the brow should be enough for the bigger teams. There's so much talent in the backcourt, why not play 4 guards with Durant??

video game lineup: Durant, Rose, Curry, Lillard, Irving all on the floor at the same time

[Kevin]

Dude. Just....no.

[shadowgrin]

Someone needs to get easy rebounds and play defense if Durant is the C with 4 other guards and Durant does neither.

Cousins could be out if Faried is in.

[Jackal]

Cousins won't make it based on his reputation and whiney-ness alone. Heard he punched a wall or some shit at one of the practices.

[Kevin]

Cousins won't make it based on his reputation and whiney-ness alone. Heard he punched a wall or some shit at one of the practices.

Cry baby.

[[Q]]

Someone needs to get easy rebounds and play defense if Durant is the C with 4 other guards and Durant does neither.

True, but this would be D'Antoni's wet dream. Is he still an assistant?