Kings forward Marvin Bagley III has withdrawn from Team USA’s training camp to focus on the upcoming NBA season, according to Marc Stein of the New York Times (Twitter link).
Bagley, who earned a promotion to the Team USA senior roster by playing well in training camp last week, had impressed coaches and officials enough to earn consideration for the final 12-man roster that has yet to be finalized, Stein notes in a separate tweet.
Bagley is coming off a rookie season that saw him average 14.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and one block in 25.3 minutes per contest, playing off the bench in 62 of his 65 games. He beat out fellow bigs Thaddeus Young and Bam Adebayo to make the senior roster on Team USA.
The Kings still have third-year guard De’Aaron Fox and veteran forward Harrison Barnes vying to make the final group out of 16 remaining players. The FIBA World Cup is scheduled to begin play on Aug. 31, with Team USA set to have its first game on Sept. 1.
Team USA? More like Team Leftovers
A “meh” team seems appropriate for a “meh” tournament. It might be important in other countries, but it doesn’t seem to mean much to many people in the US.
They should simply send a college all star team made up of players who want to play. Use Div I & II players who may not be “on the radar” for the NBA and let this be their showcase.
I don’t give a fk about baby beauty contests. Showcasing is not trying to win and why waste time watching that?
If Young replaces Bagley, so much the better. Even Adebayo.
Calm down x%sure I agree with you about the young ones, you go to the World Cup to win not to parade youngsters that will never have a chance to win… but MBIII is a superstar in the making while Young is a tidy solid player & Adebayo might never be even that, so how can it be better if Bagley don’t go?
He is a star in the making if one wants to project the future, but the WC is in the present. Right now Young is the best option, and for all he’s done, he has no postseason honors showing up on Bas.Ref.
Bagley presumably will have many honors in his future though is a backup at present. So whether the standard is “deserving” or “performance”, for 2019 Young should be there.
To be cynical, Popovich chose Bagley to give the Spurs an edge when Bagley becomes available. It’s down the road but Pops is not fading away. Young will never replace LMA, and Bam is probably going to be happy in Miami. Kings players tend to have eyes for other teams. Bagley was a wise choice for Pops but a ripoff for Young.
Why pull out at this late moment? Did he find out he wasn’t going to make it so he did this to save face? I’ve seen the preparing for upcoming season excuse several times, what exactly are they doing to prepare? Wouldn’t playing basketball count as preparation?
I’m happy he is. I am worried about three of the better players on the team playing for team USA. I don’t want to see guys injured for a tournament players clearly don’t care that much about.