Jerry Colangelo is expected to announce the cuts from Team USA later today via conference call, but the internet is hardly so patient. According to Chris Tomasson of NBA FanHouse, Tyreke Evans, Gerald Wallace, and O.J. Mayo will receive a firm handshake and be sent on their merry way, while the remaining players will go on to NYC to resume camp. The only pressing question is how many players will actually make it to New York.
That’s not quite as ominous as it sounds. The initial plan was to cut four or five players from the current bunch, yet when Colangelo moved the announcement of the cuts from Monday to Wednesday, Chris Sheridan supposed that it could be due to an unexpected amount of internal debate. Sheridan also noted the possibility of Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski only cutting three players before the trip to New York, and Tomasson’s report seems to confirm that as a possibility.
Then again, there could still be another player sent home along with Evans, Wallace, and Mayo, bringing the current pool to a nice, round, 15. We’ll only know for sure around midday, but do you really want to wait around?
Danny Granger and Eric Gordon were definitely borderline to stay with the team, but Mike Wells and Jeff Rabjohns of the Indianapolis Star reported that both are locks to continue. If Wallace and Mayo are indeed dropped, that makes sense; Gordon and Mayo fill similar roles, and though Wallace and Granger have ridiculously different skill sets, their position mandates that they fight for the same roster spot.
To me, that means one thing: If there is a fourth cut — and it’s entirely possible that there won’t be, yet — it’s likely to be Rajon Rondo.
The lights of the FIBA World Championships were never going to be all that kind to Rondo, as the imperfections of his game would be in full view in international basketball’s unique hue. Defensively, he falls in line with everything Team USA wants to do, but on offense, it’s unlikely the Americans would be able to overcome having two quasi-liabilities (Rondo and say, Tyson Chandler) on the floor at the same time. Rajon may have forced his way into the top tier of point guards in the NBA, but properly executed zone defenses will smother him. Rondo could find ways to be effective, but if I’m betting on one of the team’s unimpressive shooters (Rondo, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook) to succeed in FIBA-style ball, it’s not Rondo.
He’s talented, he’s productive, and he clearly can run an offense. Yet with this glut of point guards putting on a hell of a show every day in camp, it’s likely Rajon that feels the pinch. The Team USA brass is just too infatuated with Westbrook and Rose to decide otherwise, and unless Team USA takes a ridiculous and unprecedented amount of point guards with them to Vegas, it’s Rondo that will feel the pinch. If not today, then later. If not in Vegas then in New York. It’s an awkward situation considering how bizarre Team USA’s courting of Rondo was, yet due to reasons that have so much more to do with skill set and fit than talent or overall production, Rajon won’t be going with the national team to Turkey.
