The first round of Team USA cuts have been made. Adios John Wall, Bradley Beal and Paul Millsap. The roster now stands at 16. They have to cut it to 12 — and they’ve said they will cut it to 12 before leaving later this month for the World Cup in Spain. They still have four point guards. They are back to having just one power forward. They have four centers, one of whom — Andre Drummond — played horribly in
LAS VEGAS — This summer’s USA team does not yet have a nickname or a real identity, so I decided after talking to several staff members I would call them “The Unknowns.” Team USA history is replete with nicknamed versions, from the Dream Team to the Redeem Team to the Nightmare Team to the B-Deem Team that won the Worlds four years ago. Why “The Unknowns” for this group? There is a fear of the unknown for the staff in trying to
LAS VEGAS – Day 1 of Team USA’s training camp was point guards. Day 2 is frontcourt bigs. Right now, it seems as though the consensus is condor-like Anthony Davis is the only sure thing to make the 12-man roster going to Spain for the World Cup. After that, everything else is up in the air. The other candidates are power forwards Kenneth Faried and Paul Millsap and centers Andre Drummond and DeMarcus Cousins. And the guy I want to talk about is
Is the white American player making a comeback this summer? All of the recent offseason buzz is centered around Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star forward Kevin Love and which team can put together the most appealing trade package to acquire him. Meanwhile, two of the top three salary bumps also went to white American players – Chandler Parsons and Gordon Hayward. As restricted free agents, both got max salary offer sheets and cashed in. So while white men can’t jump, they certainly can jump in
The 2014 NBA Summer League finally came to a conclusion on Monday with the Sacramento Kings coming out on top against the Houston Rockets 77-68. Ray McCallum, who is expected to see more playing time for the Kings next season with the departure of starting point guard Isaiah Thomas, scored 29 points in the contest – including this impressive game-clinching basket – to win the MVP honors. Thomas actually saw all the action and was proud to see his former teammate
After coming off one of his best seasons ever and winning the Sixth Man of the Year award over Jamal Crawford in 2013, J.R. Smith spiraled down in the wrong direction last season. Due to off-season knee surgery, Smith had no time to work on his game or stay in shape. Consequently, he started the 2013-2014 season comically bad, scoring 11.7 points on just 32.8 percent shooting in November and 12.4 points on 36.8 percent shooting in December. To be fair, Smith
Kevin Durant, Mike Krzyzewski, Jerry Colangelo and Kevin Love at a USA Basketball announcement in 2013. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) The World Cup just ended, right? I’m sure of it. I watched it. Germany beat Argentina one-to-nil in extra time, thus ending two months of highly anticipated, very engrossing fútbol (spelled as such so as to not confuse it with American football). Well, it is and it isn’t over. FIFA has had its fun,
The NBA took a day off as a courtesy to the national championship game between Kentucky Wildcats and UConn Huskies, and most around the league were glued to the television on Monday night. The quest for the NCAA title always draws massive interest, but this one was particularly special for so many that are and have been in the NBA because of Kevin Ollie – the long-time, respected NBA veteran turned head coach of the Huskies. With his great leadership and