USA Basketball 2014 Roster: Plot Thickens For Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, And Harrison Barnes As Kevin Love Also Withdraws (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
Kevin Love has withdrawn his name from the US Men’s National Team (#USMNT) roster, adding to the void on the frontline that Blake Griffin left yesterday, and thickening the plot as managing director Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski try to plug the hole, possibly with a Golden State Warriors player or two, left by Love and Griffin at power forward.
Next Monday, July 28 through Thursday, July 31, 2014, four Warriors players — the most of any NBA team — that includes Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, and Draymond Green will be in Las Vegas, NV to train with #USAbasketball’s #USMNT.
Curry and Thompson were selected as part of a preliminary 19-player pool from which to select 12 to attend the 2014 FIBA World Cup of Basketball, to be held in Spain during the first two weeks of September:
- Point guards: Curry, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, Derrick Rose, John Wall.
- Shooting guards: Bradley Beal, DeMar DeRozan, James Harden, Kyle Korver, Klay.
- Small forwards: Kevin Durant, Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Chandler Parsons.
- Power forwards: Anthony Davis, Kenneth Faried.
- Centers: DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Drummond.
Barnes and Green were added to the so-called “Select Team”, a group of another 13 players, that will train against the first group that includes Curry and Thompson:
- Point guards: Trey Burke, Marcus Smart.
- Shooting guards: Dion Waiters, Jimmy Butler, Tim Hardaway, Jr..
- Small forwards: Barnes, Tobias Harris, Victor Oladipo.
- Power forwards: Green, Doug McDermott.
- Centers: Mason Plumlee, Miles Plumlee, Cody Zeller.
The camp will culminate with an intra-squad exhibition game next Friday, August 1, at Thomas & Mack Center.
Curry last played with the #USMNT in 2010 when he was part of the team that participated in Turkey that year. He came off the bench in a support role for Chauncey Billups, who became the de facto veteran leader for that gold medal team.
Curry is considered a shoo-in to make the team. With Chris Paul also not attending this year, Curry has the opportunity to emerge as the team’s point guard leader.
Thompson and Barnes were selected last year to participate in the ongoing #USMNT training, although there was no international competition during the odd year of 2013. We covered the event last summer.
This summer, Barnes and Green have the unusual opportunity to make the team, even though they are on the Select squad. Blake Griffin and — per Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports this morning — Kevin Love have both withdrawn from the team, leaving two huge voids at power forward.
The list of power forwards that remain on the roster is as follows:
In his interview with Spears, Colangelo suggested this morning that NBA small forwards such as Parsons and George could play the role of “Stretch Four” in international competition.
We’ve reported on Barnes’s Stretch Four potential from none other than #USMNT camp last summer and Green’s emerging abilities at that spot have been well-documented across the NBA blogosphere, so don’t be surprised if either of the two emerge as candidates to replace either Griffin or Love as next week develops.
LetsGoWarriors will be reporting live from training camp. We have live tweeted scrimmages before and expect to do the same, as we are made available to them.
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