Today is Decision Day #1 for Team USA, as they look to trim four or five players from the roster before refining their team and approach in New York City. As such, let’s take a look at some of the possibilities going forward.
The Likely Cuts: Based on reports out of Vegas, opinions from other writers, impressions from Colangelo and Krzyzewski, accounts of in-camp performances, and showings at the Team USA showcase, I’ve picked out four players likely to be trimmed off the roster before Team USA heads to NYC.
Tyreke Evans – ‘Reke is the easiest cut, even if he’s already an incredible player. Chalk it up to Evans’ ankle injury or the ridiculous guard depth on the roster, but his chances of making the final 12 were slim from the start, and were sickly and gaunt by the end of camp. Tyreke needed a chance to play himself into the mix, but it just wasn’t in the cards this time around. Maybe next time.
Eric Gordon – Gordon’s good. Probably better than you think. But most of the things that he does well are redundant with other strengths elsewhere on the roster. He’s not a great defender, and Team USA already has more versatile offensive players that share Gordon’s skill set. Need a spot-up shooter? Billups, Curry, Mayo, and Durant can all get the job done. Need someone to get to the line (an underrated aspect of Gordon’s game)? Westbrook, Rose, and Iguodala can draw contact off the bounce. Gordon played well in the showcase, but his talent just doesn’t stand out with this bunch.
Danny Granger – Granger has faced a minor injury and a shooting slump, but far more damning has been the slobber fest over Andre Iguodala. Iggy has played like he wants to be a focal point of Team USA both offensively and defensively, while Granger has failed to live up to his sweet-shooting reputation. The Americans will need a few zone-busters, but like Gordon, the alternatives at Granger’s position simply proved themselves in ways that he didn’t.
Rajon Rondo – Stylistically, Rondo was never a particularly good fit for international basketball. He’s ideal for games like the showcase, where he can show off his passing in the open court, find teammates cutting to the rim when the game slows down, and pressure the hell out of ball-handlers. Some of those things will translate to the World Championships, but it’s unclear how effective Rondo would be against a well-prepared zone. He can make the right passes, but Coach K and Jerry Colangelo seem more enamored with Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose as drive-and-kick type points. There’s only so much room for point guards in that mold on this roster, and despite the fact that Rondo is the superior talent, he looks like the odd man out.
My cuts: It is a little-known fact that I am not Mike Krzyzewski, nor am I Jerry Colangelo. Shockingly, I’m not Mike D’Antoni or Nate McMillan, either. Yet, due to an over-inflated sense of self-worth, I feel inclined to give you my picks to be cut during the first wave.
Tyreke Evans – If he’s healthy, there’s a discussion. While I’m always a bit skeptical of how athletic point guards will make the transition to FIBA-style ball, ‘Reke’s size and strength give him a unique advantage. That’s where I seem him as a mini-LeBron, killing it in the open court and completely abusing perimeter defenders physically. I’m still not quite sure he’d make the roster even if fully healthy, but it’d be a damn good time to see him try.
Eric Gordon - Sorry, man. I’d cut Gordon for the same reasons Colangelo and Krzyzewski will later today.
Jeff Green – Granger hasn’t played particularly well, but I still like him over Jeff Green. Green will likely get the edge because he’s technically a 4, even though he’s really something of a combo forward masquerading as a power forward because he happens to play on the same team as Kevin Durant. That’s all well and good, and if it works for the Thunder, that’s fine. But is Green really so much more uniquely capable of defending bigs than Granger? Offensively, this seems like a no-brainer — I’ll take a prolific three-point shooter, even a streaky one, over an inefficient offensive player like Green any day of the week — and Green doesn’t have enough of a defensive edge to earn a plane ticket to New York.
JaVale McGee – We’ve been through this. McGee is a safety net should one of Team USA’s bigs succumb to the same hex that claimed Robin Lopez and David Lee, but I already know what JaVale is selling and I’m not all that interested. I’ve liked the idea of Team USA only bringing along one true center from the beginning, and though McGee has actually had a pretty decent showing at training camp, there’s not much of a reason to prefer him to Kevin Love or even Lamar Odom. JaVale gets them blocks, but his all-around game isn’t quite where it needs to be in order to make this roster.
R-R-R-R-REMIX!:Reimagining the current Team USA by riffing with the same theme/identity, but changing things up just a bit.
Brook Lopez – Tyson Chandler has actually become the front-runner to make the final roster for the World Championships, in no small part because of Lopez’s struggles in recovering from mononucleosis. Frankly, Brook looked awful in the showcase game. It isn’t designed to play to his strengths, but unless the Team USA coaching staff has seen something fantastic from Lopez throughout the week, he doesn’t seem like a player that’s physically ready to lift Team USA to the gold.
Chauncey Billups – If the Team USA brass is so confident that both Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook can play off the ball, then Billups is a luxury. He’s definitely a better defender than Gordon or Mayo, for example, but in this design, Team USA opts to go with youth and speed over the all-around game and experience. They key to pulling off a pressure defense is to swarm the ball from all kinds of angles and attack the passing lanes, and having quicker, more athletic players could be more beneficial to Team USA’s overall defensive scheme than having a slower but more physical (and in most other cases, effective) defender like Billups.
JaVale McGee – It could have been fun to have JaVale around to throw lobs to, but this team could be ridiculously guard oriented. At the moment, we’re looking at seven guards (Rose, Rondo, Westbrook, Evans, Curry, Gordon, Mayo), three wings (Durant, Iguodala, Gay), four forwards (Wallace, Granger, Odom, Green), and two bigs (Chandler, Love), which is futuristic cyber-punk awesome.
Jeff Green – …is still Jeff Green. Team USA already has versatile forwards. They have players who can defend similarly, score more efficiently, and rebound better. I like Green just fine, but if this incarnation of Team USA is to go hyper-guard-heavy into infinity and beyond, then I’ll go with an O.J. Mayo or a Tyreke Evans over Green here.
