Question: does Anthony Bennett even make the Canadian national team?
The Canada Basketball website has made no similar announcement aboot a 2014 roster. They do have a section called "Canadians in the NBA," which offers this tidbit:
Oh, so THAT'S what happened. ("Inexistent"? It's a word.)With the acquisition of Luol Deng, playing time has been virtually inexistent for young Canadian, Anthony Bennett.
You know what, that could be fun to watch. Off the top of my head, Houston would be cool with Howard/Harden/Lin/Asik (with Asik as sign/trade bait?). The Lakers could work with only Kobe and Nash tied up for the 14/15 season. Nash could retire, creating more space. But that's a building project.
I would think with Howard/Harden on the USA roster, that just may be the one likely big market team where friendships could help pull Lebron one way or another.
How about Phoenix? Fantastic PG in Dragic, exciting 2 in Bledsoe, little talent at the 3 and 4, and a rim protector at the 5 in Plumlee with tons of big men options off the bench. Plus, they have a ton of cap room and 3 first round picks.
Bottom line - invest in Phoenix stock.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
I like your focus, Olympic Fan. Whenever they announce the "Cycle Roster", the only topic to realistically dive into, after noting the names missing, is to start to predict the next squad - as you say - the one representing the US at this summer's World Cup of Basketball (formerly the World Championships).
Hoops scribe Chris Sheridan has been covering Team USA for about 20 years and here is his prediction:
Bigs:
Anthony Davis, David Lee, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge
Guards and Wings:
Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Paul George, Steph Curry, Kyle Korver, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving
I think Sheridan did a pretty good job, but he neglected to include Love who has already committed. I'll add Love and remove Lee. I also think Dwight Howard is actually thinking about playing this summer. If he does, I'd say to remove Griffin, but he may be a lock for popularity reasons. I also feel like Westbrook with his recent injury might want to sit it out. But, if he doesn't, I can't imagine them not also taking Harden, in which case I'd replace him with Korver. If all those guys played, I'd say to swap Iggy for the young equivalent, Kawhi! If they think they need more pure shooting, maybe Thompson for Lillard.
Here's how ESPN's Marc Stein sees it
Guards: Curry, Harden, Irving.
Forwards: Aldridge, Durant, George, Griffin, Love.
Centers: Davis, Howard.
Last Two Spots: Lillard and one of the following three: Iguodala, Korver or Thompson.
Personally the key for me this summer is winning. For both Duke and USA Basketball's benefit, it would be best to win this title, take next summer off from competition, and then gear up for 2016. One untimely loss and our coach will be gone for probably a month in 2015 to the FIBA Americas Championship. Remember that Spain will likely be at full strength in an attempt to win in front of their home fans.
I saw one Colangelo quote suggesting that about half of this team could be carryovers from the Olympic team.
Assuming no healthy Westbrook, here would be my 2014 roster:
Williams
Curry
Irving
Harden
George
Korver
Durant
Griffin
Aldridge
Love
Howard
Davis
Here would then be my ideal 2016 roster given what we know today:
Paul
Westbrook
Curry
James
George
Harden
Anthony
Durant
Griffin
Love
Howard
Davis
Andrew Wiggins has already played at youth level for Canada, so he is pretty much locked in there. Just like FIBA is not giving Hibbert dispensation to switch, they are not going to let Wiggins play for the United States. As for teams with players born in other countries, Nigeria has trotted out multiple squads with 11 out of 12 players born in the United States.
Bennett has played for Canada in the past, so I assume he would be given the chance to do so again. Canada does not even know if they'll be competing anywhere in 2014, so don't expect an announcement. It is not like there was a deadline or anything. USA Basketball just released a list. Personally I would have waited at least until after the upcoming draw to do so.
We are soon going to find out the identity of the four wild card teams to complete the field. All sorts of wild rumors have been make the circuit. Apparently you can scratch Italy, Germany, Russia, and China off the list of contenders.
The draw is set for Monday and will be on ESPN3 at 1:00pm Eastern. I will post another reminder before then as we should get the final list of teams and learn the procedural details.
Three of the four wild cards were pretty obvious as Brazil, Greece, and Turkey will go to Spain. The fourth was more surprising as Finland beat out a bunch of other European contenders as well as Nigeria, Canada, and Venezuela to grab the last spot. At least Qatar did not win.
Here is the full list of 24 teams:
United States
Spain
Australia
New Zealand
Iran
Philippines
South Korea
Angola
Egypt
Senegal
Puerto Rico
Mexico
Argentina
Dominican Republic
France
Lithuania
Croatia
Slovenia
Ukraine
Serbia
Brazil
Finland
Greece
Turkey
Any matchups that you want to see in the first round? Obviously the United States will be an overwhelming favorite in its group of six teams in the first round. Teams I would like to see include Mexico (since we rarely get to play), Puerto Rico, New Zealand (in the event they can do the Haka pregame), Australia (Kyrie vs his birth country?), Philippines (because of how much it means to their country), Greece (revenge), and Ukraine (K vs The Czar).
I'd like to watch how the teams just happy to be there play against each other. Phillipines/Iran? Egypt/Angola? And I'd love to see everyone kick the holy crap out of Greece. For domestic reasons, I've spent a lot of time there, and their cultural superiority complex, in the face of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, is insufferable.
FIBA has announced their draw procedure:
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/new...sReleArti.html
We will be in Group C and Spain will be in Group A so the teams cannot meet before the final set of games. Finland will be in either our group or Argentina's. Australia and New Zealand cannot be in the same group.
All of the group games will be in one venue to be announced. Figure that Group A will be either in Bilbao or Seville depending on political sensitivities. Ideally our group would be in Bilbao or Las Palmas (homecoming for Jon Scheyer if he's not too busy keeping things humming in Durham?). The only concern in the Canary Islands would be the weather. Barring complete disaster, our knockout stages will start in Barcelona alongside the other top four Group C and D teams. I actually thought it would be the opposite so that Spain could play in both Barcelona and Madrid, but the Group A and B teams will play all of their knockout games in Madrid.
My current dream draw is Finland, Philippines, Ukraine, Mexico, and Australia.
A reminder again that those of us in the United States can watch the draw on ESPN3 at 1:00pm Eastern tomorrow. Those outside of the United States can watch here if there is no other coverage in their country:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZe2uTRgAeA
Here is an image of the draw pots:
We're in "Pot 1"? What exactly are they implying?
Oh, I see. British Columbia isn't fielding a team.
I think the image that I linked to is the unfixed one. Apparently FIBA had the wrong flag graphic for Spain originally, using the one from Franco-era Spain instead. Not like that's a big deal or anything (oops).
Well tomorrow you'll see there are actual pots or at least glass bowls involved. Pot 1 is the top four teams. The other ones are semi-geographically/ranking arranged.
Here are the groups:
http://fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/14/wcm/...s-release.html
Group A (Granada): Spain, Serbia, France, Brazil, Egypt, Iran
Group B (Seville): Philippines, Senegal, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Greece, Croatia
Group C (Bilbao): Dominican Republic, Turkey, United States, Finland, New Zealand, Ukraine
Group D (Las Palmas): Slovenia, Lithuania, Angola, South Korea, Mexico, Australia
Here is the schedule before tip times are decided:
http://fiba.com/downloads/fe/2014/FB...aw-Results.pdf
We play Finland on the opening Saturday, Turkey on Sunday, New Zealand on Tuesday, the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, and Ukraine on Thursday.
Here is the coverage from USA Basketball including quotes from our coach:
http://www.usab.com/mens/national/14_mnt_draw.html
My quick thoughts include how easy our draw is. While any draw would have been considered easy for us to navigate, our draw has had the side effect of making other groups tougher and we may not have much of a challenge until late. On the flip side, I would have liked to play a more representative European side in our group to prepare us for the late stages. None of the teams really play that style although Turkey is the closest. Finland plays a very up tempo run and gun, New Zealand is more of a mix of styles, the Dominican Republic is more Americanized, and Ukraine has a lot of American influence with Mike Fratello coaching.
Some quick storylines in our group:
Finland: Will we see some Murphy brothers? They are some of many Finnish players who are sons of American former pros playing overseas. Hopefully the legend that is Hanno Mottola gets a final shot at a major tournament.
Turkey: Rematch of the last final
New Zealand: Can Nick Horvath (with a beard) make a final major summer appearance? Will we get to see them do the Haka in front of the NBA stars?
Dominican Republic: Lots of players with ties to this country. Will Al Horford make it?
Ukraine: Coach K vs the Czar. In the naturalized player category, how will Pooh Jeter do?
I'm really excited about the rematch of the FIBA Championship with Turkey if only because it was such a good game the last time. I watched the FIBA Americas championship with Puerto Rico vs Mexico and was entertained. I was really hoping to see Mexico in our group, but it was not meant to be. Spain has it rough though. That's a tough group, but they are the number 2 team in the world for a reason. They'll make it to the knockout round.
Our pre-tournament games are now determined:
http://www.usab.com/mens/national/14_mnt_schedule.html
Good news for those in Chicago and New York City and anyone on Gran Canaria.
We only play one European opponent in Slovenia, a possible semifinal matchup. I would have like to see us play more, since that style has given us trouble in the past, but it is good to get a few games in for the home fans.