Head coach Gregg Popovich is strongly considering taking 15 players to Australia later this month in advance of the World Cup as opposed to cutting the roster down to a dozen players prior to leaving the country, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets. FIBA regulations state that teams can only carry 12 players for the World Cup itself, though the remaining players could simply attend alongside the coaching staff and never suit up.
Here’s more surrounding the World Cup:
- Spurs guard Derrick White and Kings big man Marvin Bagley III are the strongest contenders to be promoted from the Select Team to Team USA’s primary World Cup roster, tweets Stein. Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher suggests (via Instagram) that White’s promotion has already happened, while Bagley’s is likely.
- Mitchell Robinson is dealing with a knee injury, as Marc Berman of the New York Post relays. The Knicks center initially suffered the injury over the weekend and returned to practice on Tuesday and re-injured it the following day. A source close to the situation describes the ailment as “just soreness.”
- Hawks guard Trae Young left Team USA’s training camp because of a minor eye infection, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Young had been practicing with the Select Team.
- Chris Boucher has withdrawn from the World Cup for personal reasons, Josh Lewenberg of the TSN tweets. The Raptors big man had been practicing with Canada’s National Team.
Did Jerry Coleangelo really tell Carmelo thanks but no thanks?
Jerry Coleangelo shouldn’t even be INVOLVED with basketball after the hack job he was part of with the Sixers.
Not sure how adding Melo would be a distraction. All we heard about are players NOT wanting to play. Basically you googled the Top Players in the NBA and went down the list asking people to play.
Melo Team USA is peak Melo. That’s the Melo we would want to see if he’s on his way out.
If Wade asked to play, he’d be on the roster.
That would be Bryan Colangelo, his father wasn’t the one who got caught with burner accts talking s**t on his players lol, Jerry was chairman during the Hinkie era but I take it if you were real sixers fan you would acknowledge the difference between the two, especially with how philly fans glorify “THE PROCESS” lmao
Jerry and Bryan were both pushed onto the Sixers by the league.
Can’t have one without the other. Daddy brought in junior.
How about they cancel the World Cup, no one seems interested in playing anyway.
When the US needs to call up Derrick White, and Chris Boucher leaves Canada’s camp, it’s time to take stock on whether this event has any merit or significance to the players.
Yeah, I don’t think they would just “cancel’ the world cup because NBA stars don’t want to play. There is the rest of the world to think about you know. Hence the name.