USA Basketball to make cuts Saturday
Players on the bubble to make Team USA ahead of the 2014 FIBA World Championships will have one final audition.
Marc Stein of ESPN is reporting that USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo plans to trim the roster following the team's exhibition game against Puerto Rico on Friday.
After initially weighing the prospect of announcing some roster moves before Thursday's practice, [Colangelo and team officials] will huddle late into the night after Friday evening's exhibition against Puerto Rico at Madison Square Garden to finalize the roster decisions that can be delayed no longer.
The players who aren't selected will be notified of their fates Saturday morning, Colangelo said, with the rest of the traveling party heading directly to Europe on a team charter in the afternoon.
The bad news, as always, will be delivered face-to-face to the unlucky twosome, trio or quartet first by Colangelo, which is a chore he describes as "distasteful" but a step he regards as "my personal responsibility."And we say twosome, trio or quartet because Colangelo and Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski are still deciding whether to take 12, 13 or even 14 of the 16 players currently in camp to Spain to buy an extra week of evaluation time, since the roster doesn’t have to be officially sliced to 12 for the World Cup until Aug. 29.
Making the cuts more difficult for Colangelo and Co. has been the play of Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond and Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan, as both have made compelling cases to remain.
Coach K says they will bring 12 players to Spain. Always have the option to sub out before competition starts if an injury occurs.
— Matt Dollinger (@matt_dollinger) August 23, 2014
Team USA opens its championship defense Aug. 30 against Finland.