FIBA World Cup [USA vs. TUR: 9/3, 8:30 AM EST (ESPN+)]

[LilRip]

Tatum, Mitchell, Middleton, and Kemba in the scrimmage all look like they’re a cut above the rest. Maybe Derick White too. Idk why but it just feels like they’re more in control or that the game comes easier to them compared to the others.

[Tr1boy]

SI prediciton as to who makes the squad

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/08/06/team-usa-fiba-world-cup-lakers-celtics-kemba-walker-donovan-mitchell

Looks good to me

Kemba, Tatum, Brown make the squad

Smart unfortunately does not (though his injury makes the decision easier). Also not making the team, Tucker, Plumlee, Harris, Thad Young

[makaveli]

brown still looks handle-less...

he could be a great 3rd string player, a transition threat, spot up shooter, cutter and line drive to the basket type of a guy, but at this point, i don't see him as a great offensive player.

He should more than make up for his offensive deficiencies with his defensive prownes

Care to elaborate on 3rd string? If you mean 3rd option tier on offense I would be inclined to agree with you. If you mean 3rd string as in backing up the backups, I heavily disagree 

Sorry for being unclear, i meant as a 3rd option

[Csfan1984]

SI prediciton as to who makes the squad

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/08/06/team-usa-fiba-world-cup-lakers-celtics-kemba-walker-donovan-mitchell

Looks good to me

Kemba, Tatum, Brown make the squad

Smart unfortunately does not (though his injury makes the decision easier). Also not making the team, Tucker, Plumlee, Harris, Thad Young

That's how I voted on which C's making it. I just don't know how FIBA refs will call Smart or if Smart will be cold and shoot the team out of a game.

[rondofan1255]

As @USABasketball prepares for its fourth day of practice in Las Vegas, I'm told  Sacramento's Marvin Bagley and San Antonio's Derrick White have emerged as the strongest of contenders to be included in the roughly 15-man contingent expected to proceed to Los Angeles next week

All 26 healthy players in training camp are expected to participate in Friday night's intrasquad scrimmage at T-Mobile Arena, with @USABasketball officials then expected to pare the group down to the 15 range for more training and an Aug. 16 exhibition in Anaheim against Spain

One idea strongly under consideration, according to USAB sources, is Coach Gregg Popovich taking 15 or so players to Australia later this month as opposed to cutting the roster down to the 12-man limit before Team USA leaves the country

How soon Kyle Lowry (thumb) and Marcus Smart (calf) will be able to get back on the floor with Team USA remains unclear -- and my old friend @WindhorstESPN reported this morning that Trae Young from the Select roster has been sidelined by an eye infection

https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/1159498769152405504

[rondofan1255]

Team USA Notebook: Scrimmage could see hints of final roster
John Schuhmann NBA.com
Aug 9, 2019 12:00 AM ET

LAS VEGAS -- The first week of U.S. Men's Senior National Team training camp will come to a close on Friday night with an intrasquad scrimmage at T-Mobile Arena (10 p.m. ET, NBA TV).

For the scrimmage, the Blue Team will be the 15 healthy players on the Senior Team Roster (with Kyle Lowry and Marcus Smart injured), while the White Team will be the 11 remaining players on the Select Team roster (with Trae Young having left camp with his own injury).

In training camps of years past, Senior Team guys have been split up for the final-night scrimmage. Doing that again would allow for more playing time for everyone, but the Senior Team and Select Team (coached by Jeff Van Gundy) have been operating separately all week and not running the same stuff.

This is the last chance for guys (on either team) to earn a trip to Los Angeles for the next phase of training camp, which begins Tuesday night. And for that, it should be a pretty competitive game.

"The thing that I love is our intensity in practice," Kemba Walker said Thursday. "We're getting after it, every possession, every drill. The communication level is so high."

The Senior Team lineups and playing-time distribution will be very interesting. The plan (which could change) is to announce the trimmed down roster for the L.A. camp on Saturday morning. That roster will likely have at least 15 names on it, but the roster math goes beyond the 15 Senior Team guys who are healthy, and there will surely be some cuts.

Here are some thoughts and questions regarding the roster...

Starting backcourt?

The closest thing to a certainty with this roster is that the starting backcourt will be Walker and Donovan Mitchell. The two have played together quite a bit in camp, Mitchell has looked like a budding star, and it's fair to say that Walker has enjoyed the partnership.

"I love playing with that kid," Walker said. "He's such a competitor. He's so intense. He reminds me of myself a lot. I love it. It's going to be fun playing with him."

And in regard to Mitchell's ability to play the two, Walker has no doubts.

"Easily," Walker answered. "That kid is so talented, and he wants it. That's what I love the most."

Lowry and Smart?

The status of Lowry (recovering from thumb surgery) and Smart (sore left calf) hang over this whole process. We'll know more about both of them next week, but in deciding who's going to L.A., the USA staff has to plan for the possibility that neither will be on the World Cup roster. Lowry is obviously the more doubtful of the two.

Other players (whose NBA seasons finished a lot earlier than June 13) have backed out for reasons far less severe than thumb surgery. So give the NBA champ (and 2016 Olympic gold medalist) a ton of credit for just being here. And even if he isn't on the World Cup roster, Lowry's presence and clear desire to play will surely earn him some equity in regard to the selection of next year's Olympic team.

Select additions?

De'Aaron Fox and Joe Harris were promoted from the Select Team to the Senior Team before camp even started. Could another player or two leap-frog some Senior Team players and earn an invite to L.A.?

Based on impressions from the last three days, Derrick White would be the No. 1 candidate. White would still be behind Walker, Mitchell and (probably) Lowry/Fox in the ball-handler's depth chart, but with Trae Young (eye infection) not playing on Friday, White will have a better opportunity to shine than some guys on the Senior Team. Jalen Brunson is the only other healthy ball-handler on the Select Team.

Marvin Bagley III has also drawn a lot of praise in camp, and the depth chart on the Senior Team frontline appears to be wide open. The Select Team roster is big-heavy and Bagley will be sharing playing time with Jarrett Allen, John Collins, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Mitchell Robinson on Friday. But if USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo and Senior Team coach Gregg Popovich want to get another good look at Bagley, Van Gundy will surely oblige.

On the wings

Both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are pretty safe bets to make the final roster, and there's a chance they could be the starting forwards. Tatum shot very well in the controlled scrimmage that the media watched on Thursday, and Brown is arguably the most versatile forward in camp. Kyle Kuzma offers similar versatility, and it will be interesting to see where he stands in the rotation on Friday.

Khris Middleton is one of only three 2019 All-Stars on the 17-man roster, but hasn't stood out in scrimmages. Joe Harris, meanwhile, hasn't been the best shooter. Middleton should get by on his resume, but there may be some pressure on Harris in Friday's scrimmage.

"Obviously, you hope to make shots," Harris said Thursday. "But you can't put too much pressure on yourself to make it, because whether or not they go in, you're creating space everybody else. That's what you want, especially in settings like this, where everybody's got a tendency to pack in [defensively] so much. If you've got one guy that can create just a little bit of space for somebody that can get downhill, it opens up everything offensively."

Up front

For a few minutes of Thursday's controlled scrimmage, we saw a two-center frontcourt of Myles Turner and Brook Lopez. And we also saw a couple of no-center frontcourts: Harrison Barnes with P.J. Tucker and Kuzma with Thaddeus Young.

Barnes and Young would seemingly be in direct competition for a roster spot. For now, give Barnes the edge because of his experience with the 2016 Olympic team and his superior 3-point shooting.

"You got to have enough shooters," Colangelo said earlier this week, "so guys that can shoot the ball have a little bit of an edge, all [other] things being equal."

If the roster includes four guards (Walker, Mitchell and two of the following group: Fox, Harris, Lowry, Smart and White), they have eight roster spots left. If four of those are 3/4 guys (Brown, Kuzma, Middleton and Tatum), they have four spots for bigger forwards and centers.

Would they take Barnes (or Young), Tucker and two centers? Would they remove Kuzma from the 3/4 group and add a third center? Three centers seems like a lot, but some of the best teams at the world cup have NBA talent up front: Nikola Jokic for Serbia, Marc Gasol for Spain, Rudy Gobert for France, Andrew Bogut and Aron Baynes for Australia, and Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas for Lithuania.

One-issue candidates

In that regard, a question that could come up in staff deliberations: Is there a player that they would want for one specific matchup?

For instance, while Lopez and Turner are superior rim protectors and offensive players, neither would necessarily be the best option to defend Jokic in a matchup against Serbia (arguably the second best team in the tournament). According to Second Spectrum matchup data, Jokic scored at a higher rate than usual when defended by both of those guys last season, shooting 31-for-58 (53 percent) on 197 total possessions against the two.

Might the best option in a Jokic matchup be his own teammate? Mason Plumlee doesn't offer much offensively, but he's a player that coaches can trust, he's more mobile defensively than either Lopez or Turner, and he obviously knows Jokic well.

Along those same lines, is there a player on this roster who's best suited to defend Giannis Antetokounmpo? Tucker had some success in that regard last season, holding the MVP to just 20 points on 98 possessions as his primary defender. In fact, among the 16 players who defended Antetokounmpo for at least 60 possessions last season, Tucker is the one who held him furthest below his regular scoring rate. (Jabari Parker was next on the list, so hey, let's not take that data for gospel.) The U.S. will likely play Greece in the second round of pool play (before the single-elimination tournament).

There will be three players in the World Cup who received MVP votes last season, and none of the three will be playing for the United States. (Rudy Gobert is the third.)

https://www.nba.com/article/2019/08/08/team-usa-notebook-scrimmage-preview

[DefenseWinsChamps]

https://www.nba.com/article/2019/08/08/team-usa-notebook-scrimmage-preview

That's pretty much what I saw in the brief highlights. Middleton's experience could be useful, but he has not looked effective at all. He looks slow (not methodical).

I disagree about Kuzma's versatility. He looked pretty bad to me. Bad defense and the ball sticks when he gets it. He can rim run a bit, but so can other bigs.

I'll also say that Joe Harris looked pretty good. I think I pegged him as a shooter, but he was active and played well each play he was involved in. He looked better than Middleton.

Plumlee looked bad, but he may make the roster just because he is big.

[blink]

Team USA Notebook: Scrimmage could see hints of final roster
John Schuhmann NBA.com
Aug 9, 2019 12:00 AM ET

LAS VEGAS -- The first week of U.S. Men's Senior National Team training camp will come to a close on Friday night with an intrasquad scrimmage at T-Mobile Arena (10 p.m. ET, NBA TV).

F
Both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are pretty safe bets to make the final roster, and there's a chance they could be the starting forwards. Tatum shot very well in the controlled scrimmage that the media watched on Thursday, and Brown is arguably the most versatile forward in camp. Kyle Kuzma offers similar versatility, and it will be interesting to see where he stands in the rotation on Friday.


There will be three players in the World Cup who received MVP votes last season, and none of the three will be playing for the United States. (Rudy Gobert is the third.)

https://www.nba.com/article/2019/08/08/team-usa-notebook-scrimmage-preview

Well that is good news, if true about Jaylen and Jayson.  I hadn't paid very close attention to the schedule, and I just realized that the team's exhibition with Spain is about 10 min away from me next friday at the Honda Center.  So I am def going to try and go watch.  Just haven't decided if paying for anything but the nosebleed makes any sense.   

[DefenseWinsChamps]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phZG_LnZtQ0

Tons of Celtic highlights in this new video. Brown, Tatum, and Walker looks like some of the top players on team USA.

Brown blocks Collins. Tatum gets a steal. Both hit a jumpshot and three. Walker, Brown, and Tatum all generate good shots for others.

I'd throw Fox in there too.

John Collins legit looks pretty bad against that talent. He's a worse Kuzma, or a forward version of Jordan Clarkson.

[blink]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phZG_LnZtQ0

Tons of Celtic highlights in this new video. Brown, Tatum, and Walker looks like some of the top players on team USA.

Brown blocks Collins. Tatum gets a steal. Both hit a jumpshot and three. Walker, Brown, and Tatum all generate good shots for others.

I'd throw Fox in there too.

John Collins legit looks pretty bad against that talent. He's a worse Kuzma, or a forward version of Jordan Clarkson.

TP for the video.  Yeah, Kemba Brown and Tatum all looked really good.  Tatum looked quicker for some reason.  Maybe a few weeks off gave him fresh legs back.

[Celtics4ever]

 Kemba Brown and Tatum is my vote

I think Smart's injury is an excuse out, this happens with every Team USA to guys on the fringe.

[saltlover]

Kemba Brown and Tatum is my vote

I think Smart's injury is an excuse out, this happens with every Team USA to guys on the fringe.

Smart wasn’t on the fringe.

[footey]

Tatum and Brown look like they belong in the video. TP.

Is it me or does Tatum look like he has the size to play power forward? 

[Celtics4ever]

Smart wasn’t on the fringe.

You think he was going to play ahead of Kemba and Fox at PG?  Explain.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Tatum and Brown look like they belong in the video. TP.

Is it me or does Tatum look like he has the size to play power forward?

He's grown. Last measurement of his wingspan was as a junior in high school too.

I did a thing where I broke down a video frame by frame where he was playing Mo Bamba one on one. It's pretty evident he is closer to 6'10'' (or even 6'11'') than 6'8'' and I still think his wingspan is closer to 7'4'' than 6'11''.

He is the same height and build as Thad Young, who has had success playing the 4 his entire career.