2019 World Cup Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Team USA Announces 20-Player Camp Roster For World Cup

June 10th, 2019 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

USA Basketball has officially announced the group of 20 players that will participate in training camp this summer in advance of the 2019 FIBA World Cup. The camp will take place from August 5-9, and will be used to select the 12-man roster for this year’s World Cup in China.

The 20-man training camp roster is as follows:

Harrison Barnes (Kings)
Bradley Beal (Wizards)
Anthony Davis (Pelicans)
Andre Drummond (Pistons)
Eric Gordon (Rockets)
James Harden (Rockets)
Tobias Harris (Sixers / FA)
Kyle Kuzma (Lakers)
Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers)
Brook Lopez (Bucks / FA)
Kevin Love (Cavaliers)
Kyle Lowry (Raptors)
CJ McCollum (Trail Blazers)
Khris Middleton (Bucks)
Paul Millsap (Nuggets)
Donovan Mitchell (Jazz)
Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
Myles Turner (Pacers)
P.J. Tucker (Rockets)
Kemba Walker (Hornets / FA)

“I am excited about getting to training camp in August and working with all of the players that have been selected to attend the USA National Team training camp in Las Vegas,” Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich said in a statement. “We’ve got an excellent cross-section of veteran USA Basketball and NBA players, as well as some exciting younger players who possess amazing versatility.

“I’m appreciative of commitment that our National Team players continue to make, and the eagerness of the new players to become involved,” Popovich continued. “Selecting a 12-man team will be extremely difficult.”

It will be an eventful summer for many of the players on the 20-man Team USA training camp roster. Besides Harris, Lopez, and Walker, who are all headed for unrestricted free agency and could be on new teams by August, players like Barnes, Middleton, and Millsap could reach the open market if their player or team options are declined. Others – including Davis, Gordon, Kuzma, Tatum, and Tucker – have been mentioned in trade rumors.

Kuzma and Mitchell are the only players on the roster who haven’t played internationally for Team USA in the past. Five player on the roster (Barnes, Davis, Harden, Love, and Lowry) have won gold medals for USA Basketball at the 2012 or 2016 Olympics, while two others (Drummond and Gordon) have taken home gold at previous World Cups.

Previous reports indicated that Zion Williamson, John Collins, and Marvin Bagley are expected to be among the players named to a 10-man select team that will scrimmage with Team USA’s 20-man roster at the training camp in August.

And-Ones: Draft/FA, Martin, Barnes, Lithuania

June 6th, 2019 at 10:45pm CST by clarkcrum

Per Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston, the Celtics front office, long a staunch supporter of flipping the order of the NBA draft and free agency, once again spoke about the idea of having free agency occur before the draft after a pre-draft workout earlier this week.

“I have been a big proponent of switching the draft and free agency,” said director of player personnel Austin Ainge. “I think that most teams build from veteran players first… you more likely are fitting in draft picks in and around a veteran core group. So I think the calendar should follow our decision-making tree. So I think it should be switched.”

The NBA has been open-minded to changes, having recently modified the beginning of free agency to 6pm on June 30 as opposed to midnight on July 1. It remains to be seen whether the league will be as open to changing the order of the draft and free agency.

There are more odds and ends to report from around the basketball world this evening:

Kenyon Martin Jr., the son of former NBA player Kenyon Martin, is bypassing college basketball at Vanderbilt to pursue a professional career, reports Evan Daniels of 247Sports. He joins RJ Hampton as the second high-profile high school prospect to turn down a college career, although Hampton was a much more ballyhooed recruit than Martin.
According to a tweet from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Kings forward Harrison Barnes will participate in USA Basketball’s August training camp ahead of the FIBA World Cup in China this fall.
Spurs big man Donatas Motiejunas was not named to Lithuania’s preliminary roster for the FIBA Basketball World Cup, per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Carchia passes along the full squad, which features Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas.

More Names Revealed For Team USA World Cup Tryouts

June 5th, 2019 at 5:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Team USA’s training camp roster for the FIBA World Cup will be announced next week, but four players have already been confirmed, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times.

Anthony Davis, James Harden, Donovan Mitchell and Kemba Walker will definitely be part of the team, while the other 14 slots are still being worked out. The roster will be trimmed to 12 when the players gather in Las Vegas in early August to prepare for the tournament, which takes place from August 31 to September 15 in China.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski drops a few more names in a full story on the World Cup tryouts, which sources tell him are also expected to include Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Bradley Beal and Kevin Love. Others planning to be part of the camp include Eric Gordon, Jayson Tatum, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, LaMarcus Aldridge, Andre Drummond and Kyle Kuzma.

P.J. Tucker will attend training camp as well, tweets ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, and league sources tell Woj that Paul Millsap also plans to be there. Other names leaked for the camp are Tobias Harris (Twitter link from Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer) and Myles Turner (Twitter link from Scott Agness of the Athletic).

Zion Williamson, expected to be the first pick in the draft later this month, has been invited to camp as part of the 10-man select team that will scrimmage against the 18-man roster, Stein tweets. Williamson will be given a chance to play his way onto the final roster if he has a standout performance in that role, according to USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo (Twitter link).

The select team will also include John Collins and Marvin Bagley, tweets Tim Bomtemps of ESPN.

The camp will be held from August 5-8, with exhibition games to follow before the start of World Cup play. Gregg Popovich will serve as head coach.

Northwest Notes: Jokic, MPJ, Exum, Wolves

May 24th, 2019 at 1:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who earned All-NBA First Team honors this season, expects to play for Serbia this summer in the 2019 FIBA World Cup and is confident the club can win a medal, as he tells Serbian outlet Tanjug (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Jokic wasn’t on Serbia’s roster for the 2014 World Cup, but he did join the squad for the 2016 Olympics. In both instances, Serbia lost the championship game to Team USA and took home silver medals.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

The Nuggets are attempting to balance optimism and caution when it comes to 2018 first-rounder Michael Porter Jr., who is expected to make his professional debut in Summer League play this July, writes Alex Labidou of Nuggets.com.
Injured Jazz point guard Dante Exum is trying to focus on the positives as he goes through another rehab process, per Aaron Falk of UtahJazz.com. “It’s frustrating to go into an offseason injured,” said Exum, who underwent knee surgery in March. “But I’ve thrown a lot of my energy and time into planning what my offseason will look like so I can be the best player I can be coming out of it.”
After participating in Houston’s free agent minicamp this week, veteran guard Xavier Munford will attend a similar camp hosted by the Timberwolves during the first week of June, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. Munford last played in the NBA in 2017/18, when he appeared in six games for Milwaukee.
Sid Hartman of Star Tribune examines the Timberwolves‘ decision to retain head coach Ryan Saunders, including how big a factor Glen Taylor‘s support of Saunders was.

And-Ones: Combine, Coach Challenges, World Cup

May 15th, 2019 at 11:28am CST by Luke Adams

Eleven prospects who participated in this week’s G League Elite Camp in Chicago have been invited to stick around to attend the actual draft combine, which will begin today and run through this Sunday.

According to a tweet from the NBA G League, those 11 players are as follows: Oshae Brissett (Syracuse), Tyler Cook (Iowa), Terence Davis (Ole Miss), Tacko Fall (UCF), Jared Harper (Auburn), Dewan Hernandez (Miami), DaQuan Jeffries (Tulsa), Terance Mann (Florida State), Cody Martin (Nevada), Reggie Perry (Mississippi State), and Marial Shayok (Iowa State).

A total of 40 draft-eligible prospects who weren’t initially invited to the draft combine worked out in front of NBA teams at the G League Elite Camp. Teams were then polled on which prospects they’d most like to get a longer look at for this week’s combine. The group of 11 prospects who were chosen will join the 65 players who were initially announced as combine participants last week.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Multiple sources tell ESPN’s Zach Lowe that the “liveliest” topic of discussion at Tuesday’s GM meetings involved the possibility of instituting a system for coaches’ replay challenges, which exist in many other major sports. According to Lowe, not everyone agreed on what should be reviewable, with some GMs arguing that coaches should be able to challenge foul calls, while others disagreed. There was also discussion about whether a challenge should cost a team a timeout, regardless of whether a call is reversed or upheld.
Sixers All-Star Ben Simmons announced this week that he intends to play for Australia in the 2019 FIBA World Cup (link via ESPN.com). He’ll be joined on the Australian squad by Jazz sharpshooter Joe Ingles, tweets Tony Jones of The Athletic. However, Roy Ward of The Age Sport (Twitter link) hears that Ingles’ teammate Dante Exum is unlikely to participate in the event due to his knee injury.
The NBA and the National Basketball Coaches Association are creating a program intended to better identify and illuminate potential coaches among groups that are underrepresented, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. “We are not talking about a quota system,” Mavericks coach and NBCA president Rick Carlisle told ESPN. “Rival leagues have proven that mandates and demands for diverse hiring practices do not work. Our goal is an absolute equal opportunity for all our members to develop their skills on a level playing field.”

And-Ones: Early Entrants, Ball, Pierce, Diaw

April 26th, 2019 at 1:22pm CST by Luke Adams

After releasing a 233-player list of early entrants for the 2019 NBA draft on Tuesday, the league followed up today by adding a few more names to that list. According to an announcement from the league, “timely letters” were received from three more prospects who declared for the draft. Those players are as follows:

Kevin Cham, G, France (born 1998)
Anthony Lamb, F, Vermont (junior)
Xavier Sneed, F, Kansas State (junior)

Leading up to the early entry deadline, there were reports that Cham, Lamb, and Sneed all intended to enter the draft, so it was a little surprising not to see them on the NBA’s official list this week. They’re on there now though, and the additions of those three names mean that this year’s early entrant total is up to 236 players, matching a record set in 2018.

As we noted on Tuesday, there were still several players who reportedly intended to declare for the draft as early entrants and aren’t on the NBA’s list, so they either had second thoughts or missed the deadline. The next deadline will arrive on May 29, when NCAA prospects will have to either withdraw from this year’s draft pool or officially forfeit their remaining college eligibility.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Alan Foster, a former associate of Lonzo Ball and the Ball family, is under FBI investigation, according to a report from Tania Ganguli and Richard Winton of The Los Angeles Times. The Bureau is looking into whether Foster defrauded the Ball family out of millions of dollars, according to Ganguli and Winton, who say the investigation has been going on for more than two months. Foster was already facing a lawsuit accusing him of embezzling over $2MM from Big Baller Brand for his personal use.
Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce has taken the place of Pacers head coach Nate McMillan as an assistant on Team USA’s coaching staff for 2019/20, according to a press release. McMillan withdrew due to scheduling conflicts, opening the door for Pierce to claim a spot on Gregg Popovich’s staff for the 2019 World Cup and the 2020 Olympics.
Longtime NBA forward Boris Diaw is reportedly poised to take over as the president of French team Levallois Metropolitans. The news was reported by Le Parisien, and relayed by Sportando and Eurohoops. Assuming it becomes official, Diaw will become the second notable NBA player to assume the role of team president for a French club, joining former teammate Tony Parker, who runs ASVEL Villeurbanne.

USA Basketball To Gauge Zion’s Interest In World Cup

April 1st, 2019 at 5:25pm CST by Dana Gauruder

USA Basketball will gauge Zion Williamson‘s interest in playing at the FIBA World Cup tournament in China this summer, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets.

The Duke freshman forward has not yet been approached by USA Basketball representatives. He still has to declare for the draft and hire an agent. Talks regarding Williamson’s participation would be held closer to the draft, Stein adds.

USA Basketball will send a 12-man team to the event, which will take place from August 31 to September 15.

Williamson’s college career likely ended with the Blue Devils’ one-point loss to Michigan State in the Elite Eight on Sunday. He is considered a lock to be drafted No. 1 overall.

It wouldn’t be unprecedented for a star talent to be added to USA Basketball’s roster before playing an NBA game, Stein notes in another tweet. Anthony Davis was handed a roster spot on the 2012 Olympic team for the London Games after Blake Griffin suffered a left knee injury.

In 33 games with Duke this season, Williamson averaged 22.6 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.8 BPG and 2.1 SPG in 30 MPG. He had 24 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and three steals against the Spartans.

LeBron Won’t Play In 2019 World Cup, Open To 2020 Olympics

April 1st, 2019 at 2:36pm CST by Luke Adams

LeBron James hasn’t represented Team USA in international play since the 2012 Olympics, and that won’t change this fall. With USA Basketball looking to bring home gold at the 2019 World Cup in China, James confirms to Joe Vardon of The Athletic that he won’t be participating in that event.

“I love everything about Pop (Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich), obviously, but this is not a good summer for me,” James said.

As Vardon notes, despite the fact that James’ summer will be longer than expected now that the Lakers have failed to qualify for the postseason, that won’t change the four-time MVP’s plans. The production schedule of Space Jam 2 is one key factor that will prevent LeBron from being available for this year’s World Cup, which takes place at the start of September.

Still, James hasn’t ruled out the possibility of rejoining Team USA for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Having previously won a pair of gold medals for USA Basketball in Beijing (2008) and London (2012), LeBron is leaving the door open for one more Olympic run.

“Yeah, that’s a possibility,” LeBron told Vardon. “It depends on how I feel. I love the Olympics.”

Here’s more from James, via Vardon:

After appearing in eight straight NBA Finals and then missing the postseason this year, James isn’t pretending this summer will just be business as usual. He tells Vardon that he likes the fact that he’s feeling “uncomfortable” heading into this offseason: “I like being counted out. It motivates me.”
Having been shut down for the remainder of the season, LeBron tells Vardon that he’d like to still be playing, but he’s willing to defer to the Lakers’ decision-makers and the people around him. “I’ve always listened to the ones I trust, no matter if I always agreed with them or not,” James said. “They’re looking out for my best interest, and that’s the way it is.”
While LeBron will be busy with Space Jam 2 and other projects this summer, he’s also considering how a two-month head start to the offseason will impact his workout plans as he looks to stay in shape for 2019/20. “I’ve had basically the same offseason training regimen the last eight years,” he said. “I knew how long I wanted to rest for the season on a short timeline. I’m figuring out now how to get as much as I can out of two months of extra time for training. It requires a totally different strategy. We’re looking at it in an entirely new way.”

Southwest Notes: Harden, Rockets, Dirk, Caboclo

March 20th, 2019 at 2:57pm CST by Luke Adams

Even after a grueling 2018/19 season, Rockets guard James Harden hopes to suit up for Team USA in the 2019 World Cup this September, as he tells Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle.

“Of course I want to play,” Harden said. “It’s an opportunity to represent your country, go out there and play basketball. It’s something I love doing. If that opportunity presents itself, I’ll be in. Not everyone gets that opportunity. As a basketball player, that’s one of the highest points you can get for basketball.”

Harden, who previously won gold medals for Team USA in the 2012 Olympics and the 2014 World Cup, is one of 35 players who was named to USA Basketball’s player pool for events between 2018-20. Obviously, not all of those players will get the chance to play on USA’s 12-man roster in the fall, but as the league’s reigning MVP, Harden probably has one of those 12 spots if he wants it.

Here’s more from around the Southwest:

Ray Allen hasn’t played in an NBA game since 2014, but Rockets GM Daryl Morey hasn’t given up hope that the veteran sharpshooter will decide to make an NBA comeback. Appearing last month on The Rich Eisen Show (video link), Morey referred to Allen as his “white whale,” vowing that he’d sign the 43-year-old to a 10-day contract right now if Allen were interested (hat tip to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype).
Longtime Mavericks big man Dirk Nowitzki hasn’t ruled out the possibility of returning for a 22nd NBA season next year. While Tim Cowlishaw of The Dallas Morning News thinks retirement is the more likely outcome, he makes the case that playing another season wouldn’t negatively impact Nowitzki’s legacy.
In an excellent piece for The Athletic, Blake Murphy takes a deep dive into Bruno Caboclo‘s long, winding road to an NBA rotation role. With Caboclo playing regular minutes for the Grizzlies, Murphy spoke to a handful of his teammates and coaches, as well as draft expert Fran Fraschilla, who famously said that the young forward was “two years away from being two years away” when the Raptors selected him in 2014.

32-Team Field Set For 2019 FIBA World Cup

February 26th, 2019 at 8:36am CST by Luke Adams

The qualifiers are now complete for the 2019 FIBA World Cup, and the field of 32 teams has been set. In addition to tournament host China, the list of countries (or regions) participating in the event includes 12 teams from Europe’s qualifiers, seven from Asia’s, seven from the Americas group, and five from Africa.

Here’s the full list of teams set to participate in basketball’s 2019 World Cup:

Angola
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
China
Cote d’Ivoire
Czech Republic
Dominican Republic
France
Germany
Greece
Iran
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Korea
Lithuania
Montenegro
New Zealand
Nigeria
Philippines
Poland
Puerto Rico
Russia
Senegal
Serbia
Spain
Tunisia
Turkey
USA
Venezuela

The 2019 FIBA World Cup is scheduled to take place later this year, from August 31 to September 15, in China. While Team USA was coached by Jeff Van Gundy during the qualifiers, Gregg Popovich will take over for the event itself in the fall. As Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press details, Popovich had nothing but praise for Van Gundy for his work with teams made up primarily of G Leaguers during the qualifiers.

“He was remarkable. Spectacular. Off the charts what he did to qualify the USA for the world championships,” Popovich said of JVG. “He put together about five different teams, mostly different players each time in a short amount of time they had to get them ready. If they didn’t do well, U.S. doesn’t go and he deserves a lot of credit for doing that on his own and really grateful to him.”

Team USA will set its roster for the World Cup closer to the event itself, but USA Basketball announced a 35-player pool of potential participants last spring. That list, which is headed by stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry, will be trimmed down for a training camp this summer before being reduced to 12 players for the World Cup.

For his part, Popovich said he isn’t planning on trying to recruit certain players to participate in the event when he sees them during Spurs games during the rest of the 2018/19 season, as Mahoney relays.

“I just think that would be inappropriate for me before games to go up to one or two guys on each team and say, ‘Hey, are you going to play for us this summer? I’d really like to have you,'” Popovich said. “(People would think), ‘He’s there to try to whip. He’s got a different priority that night,’ and I think it would be inappropriate for me try to do that.”