NEW YORK — Two pieces of news to report after Team USA’s final exhibition game on American soil: They are going to bring only 12 players on the plane tomorrow when they fly to Grand Canary Island, and while they are in the air they will discuss whether Derrick Rose should remain the starting point guard. Four players will be cut Saturday morning, and the educated guess here is that those four will be Gordon Hayward, Kyle Korver, Chandler Parsons and
Derrick Rose expects to play Friday night for Team USA against Puerto Rico, which will end a six-day reprieve from actually playing basketball. He has not taken part in scrimmages at practice since playing 24 minutes in a victory over Brazil last Saturday. Knee soreness and general precautionary reasons are what is keeping Rose sidelined, and should that really be a surprise? He has had surgery on each of his knees overt the past two seasons, and it takes players time
The summer is winding down, and things are about to get interesting for Team USA as they depart for Spain and push forward toward a much-anticipated matchup with the host nation in the gold medal game. Unless, of course, the United States and Spain do not make it all the way to the final. Hey, a Spain-USA gold medal game is NOT a certainty. Strange things can happen along the way. Ask Paul George, who is out for a year with a
Team USA smothered the Dominican Republic at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, the inconsequential final score was 105-62, but the Americans didn’t have the tallest or most intriguing player in the game. In fact, the tallest and most intriguing player in Wednesday’s contest hasn’t even started college yet. Meet Karl Towns, the 7-foot-1 big man from New Jersey who plays for the Dominican team and will soon start his freshman year at the University of Kentucky as one of the top NBA prospects
The Phoenix Suns had hoped it would never come to this. But after weeks of playing hardball with guard Eric Bledsoe — and his agent Rich Paul — the two sides continue to distance themselves from the negotiating table. [Read more…]
NEW YORK — Derrick Rose will play Friday against Puerto Rico, we have been assured. Of course, knee soreness has a way of changing things — which was why Rose did not play Wednesday against the Dominican Republic. As I wrote Tuesday, Rose’s status and questions over his ability to play five games in six nights remain the biggest roster questions surrounding Team USA. As for the other cuts that will get the roster down from 16 to 12, Gordon Hayward now
Fans who believe that Carmelo Anthony should have picked the Chicago Bulls over the New York Knicks can take solace in the fact that one of the best basketball minds of our time agrees with them. That would be the mind of Team USA assistant and head coach of the Syracuse Orangemen, Jim Boeheim. [Read more…]
It is always great going on the air with ESPN Radio in Lexington, Kentucky, because the hosts on that station know more about basketball than most folks have forgotten. Did you know that Anthony Davis used to be a ballhandler extraordinaire before undergoing a growth spurt that has turned him into one of the NBA’s top big men? That nugget of knowledge was one of many pieces of wisdom tossed around in this interview with hosts Chris Cross, Mike Cameron and Matthew