Team USA roster is short on size, big names
Team USA is down to its final 12 players for the World Championships, for better or worse.
Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo asked to leave the team Tuesday, according to a Team USA news release, though earlier Rondo said he was on the “bubble” to make the squad. That left Lakers forward Lamar Odom, Clippers guard Eric Gordon and 10 other players on their own for the tournament that starts Saturday in Turkey.
Team USA wasn’t exactly a world-beater in two exhibitions last weekend, struggling most of three quarters before beating Lithuania, 77-61, and then barely fending off Spain, 86-85, which played without Pau Gasol.
Ready or not, here they come?
The make-up of this year’s USA team is markedly different from the gold-medal winning effort two years ago at the Beijing Olympics. That team was star-driven — Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, etc. — while this year’s rendition is led by, uh, well, let’s call it TBA.
Kevin Durant played well against Spain but had trouble with his scoring touch (four for 14) against Lithuania, and the team lacks size because Brook Lopez, Amare Stoudemire and David Lee withdrew for various reasons, leaving Tyson Chandler as the only experienced center.
In fact, Odom (6 feet 10) had 12 points and nine rebounds as the starting center against Spain. Philadelphia 76ers guard-forward Andre Iguodala has been playing power forward, all 6 feet 6 of him.
“We thought we would be bigger, but the first day of training camp we lost Lopez, Stoudemire and Lee and we could not bring other people in,” Team USA Coach Mike Krzyzewski told the Associated Press. “There’s more [chance for] error with the lack of size.”
There’s also an age thing: Chauncey Billups, 33, and Odom, 30, are the only players over 27.
“In Beijing, we had a team of experienced professionals,” Krzyzewski said. “This team has younger professionals, outside of Odom and Billups.”
Gordon, 21, was scoreless in two minutes against Spain, but he had nine points and three steals in 12 minutes against Lithuania.
“I’m definitely learning a lot of new things and making this USA team has been great for me individually,” Gordon said. “I’ve got a pretty good feel for what my role is with the team. I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing which is playing really good defense and knocking down open shots.”
To beat Spain, Team USA needed a last-minute push from Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, who had a driving layup and made two free throws in the last 33 seconds. The U.S. has one more exhibition Wednesday against Greece before beginning play in the World Championship on Saturday against Croatia.
It’s somewhat surprising that the final roster will not include Rondo, though he had not been much of a factor in international play, scoring two points as the starting point guard against Lithuania and failing to get off the bench against Spain.
“Rajon…said he was going to withdraw from the team, that he had some family matters to attend to and some things to take care of before the NBA season,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said in a statement.
Two former UCLA players, forward Kevin Love and point guard Russell Westbrook, also made the final roster.
twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan
Buy Lakers championship merchandise here
Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
