Injuries, playoffs put USA Basketball in tough position

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If the Olympics started this week, USA Basketball would be in some trouble. Because their only true center at the moment, the Knicks' Tyson Chandler, is still barely able to keep down food after a nasty bout with a virus laid him low. And you can't get up and down the floor with just protein shakes in your stomach.

"I wouldn't wish this on anybody," he said last week.
Fortunately for the U.S. men's Olympic team, the Games don't begin in London until the end of July. Until then, head honcho Jerry Colangelo may want to keep as many players wrapped in gauze as possible.

Several stars who were expected to have key roles on the gold medal-defending team have already gone down, from Dwight Howard to Derrick Rose to Chauncey Billups. The injuries left 18 candidates on the senior national team, until the additions of Oklahoma City swingman James Harden and Kentucky freshman sensation Anthony Davis.

"We're going to have to have guys step up," LeBron James said last week. "Dwight is a big part of our team. We was looking forward to having D-Rose on our team at the point guard. So we're going to have to have guys step up in training camp and relish the opportunity."
And while no one has begged off yet, given the punishing schedule after the lockout, it won't be a shock if someone whose NBA team goes into June or The Finals makes the decision to let the younger fellas handle London.

Speaking of which, Dwyane Wade sounded slightly less than 100 percent certain he'll be in London no matter what, even after accepting the invite to what would be his third Olympics after being prodded by his 2008 Beijing teammates ("Kobe was like, 'if my old self is playing, you can,'" Wade said -- and I'm sure Kobe said 'self' there, aren't you?) into putting the band back together one last time.

"I told them, I said, listen, I'm just going to see how I feel," Wade said last week. "This is about being healthy -- I think, for all of us, going into the summer healthy -- and taking it from there."

This was somewhat surprising to Colangelo, reached Sunday night.
"You could, today, probably come up with 10 or 11 that look pretty solid unless something happens," he said by telephone. "Wade's one of those guys, but if he feels like he doesn't have anything left or doesn't think he can go, then we'll make a decision as to who replaces him. We do have a lot of flexibility because we have guys who can play so many positions."

Even after all the injuries, the U.S. team will still be loaded at the wing spots, with LeBron James, Bryant, Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Harden.
Harden's season in Oklahoma City was too good to ignore when the U.S. coaching and administrative staff met in Las Vegas last week, and it's likely he'll be part of the U.S. team going forward in 2014 for the World Cup of Basketball in Spain and the 2016 Olympic team that will play in Brazil; overlapping talent from one cycle to the next is one of Colangelo's most important precepts.

Howard's absence didn't alarm USAB, because the team still had Chandler and Love from the 2010 World Championship team, along with Chris Bosh from the gold medal-winning '08 Olympic team, to play center. But with this likely being Chandler's last go-round, there was a feeling that getting a young big man into the pipeline with Howard wouldn't be a bad idea. Hence the addition of Davis, who'd be the first college player to make an Olympic team since Duke's Christian Laettner made the Dream Team in 1992.

Davis will bring athletic shot-blocking to the team if he makes it, but he will have a major adjustment playing the international game.

"It's completely different," Chandler said. "There is no comparing. And I would tell him to relish the moment. A lot of guys never get this opportunity. And if he's on the team, it's a once in a lifetime moment. He may never come back. Then again, he might play in three other Olympics. But you never know that. So right now, what you have to do is relish the moment."

And Colangelo recalled how good Durant was after just one season at Texas.
"I remember I met him at the Final Four in Atlanta and he had yet to make a decision about his future," Colangelo said. "... So I met him and he was wide eyed and kind of excited to talk. I said 'Kevin, I don't know what your plans are, but either way I want to invite you to our camp. I want to expose you to USAB. I think it would be like going to grad school.' He said 'I'm there ...

"He almost made the team that played at the Tournament of the Americas, because we had to qualify, as you recall. You look at the way we're structured; do we have a shot-blocker? The answer is no. Will he make it? I don't know. But I spoke with John Calipari and he said

'I bet he's going to do enough to make you keep him.' "
Colangelo had to get special dispensation from USAB to add Harden and Davis, who have not been in the drug-testing program that the other members of the team have been in for months. And he got permission to push back the final deadline for picking the team from June 18th to July 7th or 8th, when the team has training camp in Las Vegas, in part because of the uncertainty created by all the injuries. There's a possibility, for example, that as many as six potential Olympians -- James, Wade, Bosh, Durant, Westbrook and Harden -- could be playing one another in The Finals, which could run as late as June 26.

The U.S. Select Team, which will work out with the Senior Team, will have an even bigger role this season than in previous seasons. There will likely be more rest for Senior Team members than in the past, so the Select Team -- which will include Kyrie Irving, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, among others -- will have more impact.

"Obviously, not having Dwight, not having D-Rose, or Chauncey Billups, those kind of guys, it's a different look of how the team is going to be," Wade said. "But we have a lot of guys that can come in and fill the void, or at least try to fill the void of those guys, but come in and really help the team. I just want everybody to get through healthy, so we can have at least everybody that's on the roster now."

The blend of winning talent from the last two cycles leaves Colangelo confident the U.S. team can still win gold in London, despite all the injuries and a tougher-than-expected preliminary draw.

"When we went to Beijing, we had one gold medal winner in the room, and that was Jason Kidd," he said Sunday. "Now, we have, what? Eight or nine from the two teams? And it's not like we're starting from scratch. They're all indoctrinated. They all know what to expect."

Source: nba.com