Blake Griffin USA Basketball Withdrawal Suddenly Opens Door For Draymond Green (2014 FIBA World Cup, Spain) (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
As tweeted by Marc Spears of Yahoo yesterday, power forward Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers withdrew his name from USA Basketball‘s 19-man preliminary roster yesterday, suddenly opening the door at the power forward position for Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors.
Per Sam Amick of USA Today, Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans, Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets, and Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves are now the remaining power forwards on the Men’s National Team (#USMNT) roster. Power forward LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trail Blazers did not want to play from the get-go and DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings and Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons are the centers.
The power forwards on the so-called “Select Team” who have been invited to train against the #USMNT include Green, Mason Plumlee, recently-drafted Doug McDermott of the Chicago Bulls, and Tobias Harris of the Orlando Magic.
At the 2012 Olympics in London, the #TeamUSA roster carried only big men Tyson Chandler, now back with the Dallas Mavericks, Davis, and Love. In fact, Davis was listed as a center and Love was the only power forward.
It remains to be seen how coach Mike Krzyzewski and managing director Jerry Colangelo will shape their roster for the 2014 Basketball World Cup in Spain. Davis and Love are obvious locks to make the 12-man team that will travel to Spain and begin play in late August. Tyson Chandler is no longer on the roster, so it’s more than likely either Drummond or Cousins takes the position at center that Chandler once held.
Spain’s roster includes Pau Gasol, Serge Ibaka, and Marc Gasol, an imposing frontline no matter how the power forward and center combinations are mixed among the three.
“I’m very open minded, so it could be someone who comes in from the (Team USA) Select team. Who knows? We want to present the best team we possibly can. But there’s no additional player from outside this group that we’re going to add at this point,” Colangelo told Amick in the USA Today interview.
Green got noticed by the #USMNT management team with his stellar defense of Griffin during the Western Conference playoffs, so despite being under-sized, if Draymond can demonstrate similar defense at the camp next week, he may create an outside chance for himself.
Improved three-point shooting as a “Stretch Four” might also help.
LetsGoWarriors will be at the #TeamUSA training in Las Vegas starting next Monday and we will be covering Green and Barnes’s experience at the #USMNT camp, as well as Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson‘s, extensively, as we did last summer. Stay tuned!
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