Amile Jefferson named to USA Team

[jimsumner]

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=211685402&DB_OEM_ID=4200

[BD80]

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=211685402&DB_OEM_ID=4200

Kennedy Meeks is on the roster, a guess they promised him Ameal

[BandAlum83]

Kennedy Meeks is on the roster, a guess they promised him Ameal

Long protracted groan......

[Billy Dat]

Awesome! The four guys who come back from this summer's gold medal squad are all really good. This will be an excellent experience for Amile.

[MChambers]

Awesome! The four guys who come back from this summer's gold medal squad are all really good. This will be an excellent experience for Amile.
Larry Drew II?

Certainly brings back some nice memories, but he wasn't really good back then.

[Billy Dat]

Larry Drew II?

Certainly brings back some nice memories, but he wasn't really good back then.

Don't forget Travis Wear.

I watched a few games this summer and Drew II was pretty good. I guess I was talking mostly about Hearn and Warney, and Mumford wasn't bad either. MPIII and Kendall Marshall played on the squad this summer so Duke/UNC unity happens with Team USA (and on many NBA squads)

[Truth&Justise]

Happy for Amile.

We're a long way from the Dream Team.

This team should qualify for the World Cup -- 7 of the 16 teams in the Americas will qualify. But there's a lot of uncertainty using G League guys in an untested format. If USA fails to qualify it wouldn't be shocking, and FIBA will either be furious (missing team USA could harm interest and advertising) or thrilled (keeping defending champ out opens opportunities for other teams). Regardless, I hate the changes to the tournament and qualifying format.

[JasonEvans]

Happy for Amile.

We're a long way from the Dream Team.

This team should qualify for the World Cup -- 7 of the 16 teams in the Americas will qualify. But there's a lot of uncertainty using G League guys in an untested format. If USA fails to qualify it wouldn't be shocking, and FIBA will either be furious (missing team USA could harm interest and advertising) or thrilled (keeping defending champ out opens opportunities for other teams). Regardless, I hate the changes to the tournament and qualifying format.

I'm guessing 2-way players were excluded from the team as Quinn Cook is among the best players in the G League and is certainly better than the guards on this roster.

[awhom111]

I'm guessing 2-way players were excluded from the team as Quinn Cook is among the best players in the G League and is certainly better than the guards on this roster.

Two-way players are also excluded due to the same insurance reasons.

I am surprised that there was not slightly more continuity since Marshall was available and started a number of games in the summer, but it is good that they were able to pick players who have played well recently like Amile. I would have liked one spot to be reserved for a player who had experience in facing these particular opponents since we can change players for each game.

The United States is in the harder group, but if the summer is an indicator, they should be in good shape. In this stage, Puerto Rico is obviously in crisis mode while Mexico has had bad timing with injuries.

There are some countries for which this format is not great, but for the vast majority of them, this is a large improvement. There are a number of tweaks that I would have suggested, but it actually addresses most of the complaints that clubs had about national team play in the past and NBA teams had been trying to do everything they could to block their players in the old formats too so keeping their players out of most windows ahead of time increases transparency.