What’s happening with US national team?

haha    everyday i read another player has dropped out.

Last i heard they were getting down to Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Juluis Randle

You wanna hear the truth?

 It’s political…

They are all running scared from the threat of summer league legends Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Brandon Clarke, and Mfiondu Kabengele leading Canada to gold while also plotting their long-term plan to force the Grizzlies back to Vancouver and form a true Big 3 there once their rookie deals expire.

The legendary Greek team led by Tyler Dorsey from the famed Greek island of Pasadena is also going to be a problem.

I joke, but once there are enough defection where the tournament is no longer spoken of in a manner where there needs to be a perfect storm scenerio for the US to lose, I think some guys have started to get scared of what losing would do to their reputation. Harrison Barnes and Kyle Lowry are the only ones left from the 2016 team, and I tend to believe the likes of Canada, Spain, France, Serbia, and Greece not only aren’t going to be scared but will see this as their best chance at winning gold. With Jokic and Giannis, the US will likely play games where they don’t have the best player on the floor for the first time since Arvydas ended the era of college players.

If star X is not playing star Y wont play are does feel the need to.

Contracts have just been signed for a few of them plus a few more entering the last year of the contract. Soplayers protecting themselves ‘ load managemen’ however teams protecting themselves asking guys to skip it (Zion)

Looks like they might have to put an actual ‘team’ together 

plus its only the world cup…..

 Winning the "World Cup" is not specticular on your resume..winning the olympics is…US should only send 25 years and younger players to the World Cup to give them international experience..US was winning the world cup back in the day and was only sending college players. 

right now, per my math, they still have this lineup:

PG: McCollum, Kemba, Lowry

SG: Donovan Mitchell, Eric Gordon

SF: Khris Middleton, Jayson Tatum; Harrison Barnes

PF: Millsap, PJ Tucker, Kuzma, Love (?)

C: Brook Lopez, Miles Turner, Andre Drummond

I think they could use one more 3pt specialist (Danny Green, JJ Redick etc) but other than that… 

It’s simple. There just isn’t a whole lot to gain from playing for the established stars. Guys aren’t getting paid to go and the thrill of “representing your country” simply doesn’t mean what it used to for most of these guys. It means a whole lot more for the majority of the international players. Guys just don’t feel any obligation to play. If you have a career to think about, having an offseason to recover and train for the upcoming season is really the priority. 

To be honest, as an overall fan of the game I’d actually rather see the US send it’s b team. Even the odds a bit and makes for a more competitive event in my opinion. 

has to do with Space Jam 2? 

 CJ McCollum has dropped out.  I think team will look like

C Drummond/Lopez

PF Love/Millsap/Kuzma

SF Middleton/Barnes

SG Mitchell/Gordon/Smart

PG Walker/Lowry

 Love just dropped out..

As of right now these are the players confirmed for tryouts (they’re trying to add guys like D-Lo and Conley, but this list is current):

C: A. Drummond, B. Lopez

PF: P. Millsap, K. Kuzma, M. Turner, J. Randle, T. Young

SF: H. Barnes, K. Middleton, P. Tucker

SG: D. Mitchell, J. Brown, J. Tatum

PG: K. Lowry, K. Walker, M. Smart

My team would be: 

PG: Kemba Walker, Kyle Lowry, Tre Young

SG: Donovan Mitchell, Marcus Smart, Landry Shamet

SF: Jayson Tatum, Kris Middleton

PF: Julius Randle, Jaren Jackson, Jr.

C: Brook Lopez, Mitchell Robinson

This would add more youth, explosiveness, and 3 point shooting.

 Honestly, this happens every year. And no its not because the thrill of playing for your country just isn’t there. That ‘s part of it, but not the main reason why.  (If that was the case, we’d have some serious issues with patriotism to deal with)

Here are the main reasons why I think this is happening:

1.  the word cup is set very close to training camp that it conflicts with teams wanting to incorporate new players into their roster.  Honestly, this should have been expected with a ton of players changing teams. This is the first year, the world cup is set this close to training camp, so I can see why a lot of stars are doing this.
2. basketball is a worldwide sport now. So there is another outlet for stars to travel. A lot of stars already travel as part of their offseason routines, so to have to do that as well as participate in training camp at practically the same time is really asking quite a lot.
3. the World cup is not the Olympics like HobbyOG said. So if this continues to happen next year when it is the Olympics then we are in trouble, but I don’t expect it to.

Now, do we have anything to fear, is their cause for concern? No, I don’t think so. If D-Lo is added and Mike Conley to the current list that projectpat310 listed than I don’t see a problem. 

 They should still win due to depth, but it will be interesting because they won’t have the best player in the floor in some games. When other teams can now put out 5 players with NBA experience at once, or dont have the best player on the floor, there’s a risk USA loses when they switch off.

Just off the top of my head –

Serbia has Jokic, Bogdanovic, Teodosic
Greece has 3 Antetokoumbros, Calathes, Koufos, Dorsey
Australia has Simmons, Baynes, Mills, Bolden, Bogut, Exum, Delly, Creek, Broekhoff, Maker
Canada has Murray, SGA, NAW, Barrett, Wiggins, TT, Mfiondu
Are Cameroon playing? They have Embiid and Siakam.

 Man I feel so bad for those people who paid a small fortune for tickets to see the USA team here in AUS.

 Just send whoever wins TBT. 

Just my opinion with the odd exception:

Most of the so called star players will be bailing due to this being at least IMO the first year that people believe the league is wide open with injuries and K.D leaving GSW looking like a fringe playoff team(no clear cut favourite like GSW years).

So most of the duo’s don’t want to be the reason that their team didn’t go far this year. Less mileage on the body before the season starts the better.Meaning hopefully freshier for the playoffs.

But the other reasons could be: offseason surgeries that players hid until playoffs finished,Next deal around the corner so don’t want a Boogie/I.T happeing to them if they aren’t locked up to longterm deals.

The wild card reason could be that they don’t want to be on the team that doesn’t bring home the gold…Especially if no Franchise level player doesn’t go to be the scapegoat..See K.D,A.D or other players of that level that you can force to be the focal point/face of team not going..

I wouldn’t mind seeing Canada making some noise though. SGA,His cousin,R.J barret,Jamal Murray…Sorry I can’t remember what bigs or wings they have(Wiggins and T.T not playing obviously)

This is a big opportunity for Mitchell and Tatum. I hope they both make the final cut and play major roles for Team USA. 

After playing under Coach K in the Summers, most players went on to have very successful indivudual and/or team seasons. Curious to see how the players do after a Summer under Coach Pop. 

 I smell complacency. This is a making of that 2002 World Championship team. 

According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, Julius Randle has withdrawn from Team USA training camp due to a family issue.