{"id":14129,"date":"2016-02-17T09:04:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/picking-olympic-roster-is-tough-task-for-us-mens-basketball\/"},"modified":"2016-02-17T09:04:52","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:04:52","slug":"picking-olympic-roster-is-tough-task-for-us-mens-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/picking-olympic-roster-is-tough-task-for-us-mens-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking Olympic roster is tough task for US men’s basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014<\/strong> In another Olympic sport, the U.S. might be dreaming of a gold-silver-bronze medals sweep.<\/p>\n

But in basketball, countries only get one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could send over three teams, I think we\u2019d be successful,\u201d Golden State\u2019s Klay Thompson said.<\/p>\n

The Americans are so loaded with talent that their biggest challenge this summer might not be the games themselves, but rather determining which 12 players get seats on the plane to Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s hard, but it\u2019s a good problem to have,\u201d Clippers star and two-time gold medalist Chris Paul said. \u201cOther countries aren\u2019t that fortunate to have a pool of this many great players to choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo faced a different problem not long ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone made the point, \u2018Look, you have so many players now, that\u2019s a real problem,\u2019\u201d Colangelo said. \u201cI said, \u2018No, it was a real problem when I started in \u201805 when we didn\u2019t have players who wanted to play.\u2019 We were looking for players and now we have a big-time problem because supposedly we have too many.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colangelo said the selection of this team will \u201cabsolutely\u201d be the toughest yet.<\/p>\n

The Americans list 31 Olympic finalists in their pool, including MVP winners Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and LeBron James,, though James has said he is undecided about playing. Many of the players were in Toronto for the All-Star Game, yet Colangelo said he isn\u2019t looking for an All-Star team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the 12 best players,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll go back to where we started the whole thing is, it wasn\u2019t going to be 12 All-Stars, it was going to be a team and we want complementary pieces on this team. So when we end up picking up our 12, it could be revealing to say look, we took this guy and that guy because that\u2019s the best blend of talents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul was there when it started, part of the U.S. team that won bronze in the 2006 world basketball championship after Colangelo had revamped USA Basketball following the Americans\u2019 third-place flop in Athens two years earlier.<\/p>\n

Teammates he recalled included Kirk Hinrich and Brad Miller, solid NBA contributors who would have no chance of making the team the U.S. will field in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Curry and Paul are among the point guard choices that include Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, John Wall and Damian Lillard. For big men, there\u2019s DeMarcus Cousins, Dwight Howard, Andre Drummond and Anthony Davis.<\/p>\n

And imagine being in Thompson\u2019s spot.<\/p>\n

He played well for the Americans when they dominated the 2014 Basketball World Cup, is a great shooter and defender, and his game and demeanor fit perfectly for Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski.<\/p>\n

Yet he figures to be competing with the likes of James, Durant, Carmelo Anthony, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Warriors teammate and NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala for a spot among the wings. And let\u2019s not forget Paul George, an All-Star again and who has recovered from his broken leg in U.S. camp two years ago. He would seem to have a spot if he wants it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be special for me. Olympics was always on my bucket list,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWon\u2019t be the end of the world if I don\u2019t make it, but it would be a true honor because I love playing for the USA. It\u2019s one of the most fulfilling things you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Americans have traditionally favored smaller, versatile teams, but switched things up two years ago when they carried Drummond as an extra big. Colangelo doesn\u2019t know which way they\u2019ll go now.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, because we\u2019re loaded at the smalls and wings, but we\u2019re better at the bigs. We\u2019re deeper at the bigs than we\u2019ve been,\u201d he said. \u201cSo again, that\u2019s kind of a high-class problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

He isn\u2019t rushing into any decisions, knowing injuries and contract situations always knock out some players. He plans to announce the U.S. team around the NBA draft in late June and will be watching candidates all season.<\/p>\n

And after years of stressing the \u201cequity\u201d of those who have played before, Colangelo can\u2019t take that into account this time. Too many players have been on winning U.S. teams to let that be an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s down to who do we feel would be the best 12,\u201d he said, \u201cthe best makeup in terms of 12 players to help us win another gold medal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 In another Olympic sport, the U.S. might be dreaming of a gold-silver-bronze medals sweep. But in basketball, countries only get one. \u201cWe could send over three teams, I think we\u2019d be successful,\u201d Golden State\u2019s Klay Thompson said. The Americans are so loaded with talent that their biggest challenge this summer might not be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14129"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}