When Team USA takes the court in Rio in 2016 to defend its gold medal, you can expect to see somethings old and somthings new — guys who won gold in London and Beijing will be mixed with newcomers who got their real first taste of USA Basketball this coming summer in Spain for the world Championships.
USA Basketball released its player pool for the 2014 World Championships and 2016 Olympics on Thursday, and while that pool is fluid you can expect that the rosters of those teams will almost all come from the names below.
The pool of veterans includes every member of the 2012 London Olympics team except Kobe Bryant, who has said before he was retiring from the international stage.
“I talked to Kobe last night and he said ‘I’ll be there but you probably don’t want to play me,’” Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
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Here is the pool of players, starting with those returning from previous Olympic teams:
Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks)
LeBron James (Miami Heat)
Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers)
Deron Williams (Brooklyn Nets)
Tyson Chandler (New York Knicks)
Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans)
Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder)
James Harden (Houston Rockets)
Andre Iguodala (Golden State Warriors)
Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves)
Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Dwight Howard (Houston Rockets)
Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers),
Remember Griffin was named to the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team roster but injured his knee and had to drop out. Also, Howard was a member of the 2008 team in Beijing but has not played since.
The new names in the Olympics pool are:
Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors)
LaMarcus Aldridge (Portland Trail Blazers)
Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards)
DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings)
Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons)
Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets)
Paul George (Indiana Pacers)
Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz)
Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Kyle Korver (Atlanta Hawks)
David Lee (Golden State Warriors)
Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs)
Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers
Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors).
Curry did participate in the 2010 World Championships, but not the Olympics.
Durant and Kevin Love announced last summer that they would participate, and Krzyzewski said Thursday in a conference LaMarcus Aldridge said he wants to participate this summer. Expect this summer’s team to have a lot of guys from the bottom list above, with some of the veterans wanting to step back in for the trip to Rio. Hence, you end up with a mix.
Obviously injuries will play a role in who plays when. Coach K hinted that guys like Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook likely would not play this summer coming off their injuries, but they could be added to the pool and play in 2016.
There are other guys on the cusp of making this pool, Krzyzewski singled out Greg Monroe of the Pistons as one, and he could be added later.
Krzyzewski’s staff for both the World Championships will be Syracuse University veteran coach Jim Boeheim (bringing his zone defense knowledge among other skills), Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau and New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams.