Although numerous NBA stars decided to rest this summer, USA Basketball Men’s National Team roster for 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China will still be stacked if we are to judge by the preliminary roster list.
USA Basketball revealed the list of 20 players that will take part in the Las Vegas training camp in August, which will serve as the basis for determining the roster for World Cup. Only 12 players, however, will make the final cut.
The list of training camp invitees include All-Stars like Houston Rockets’ James Harden, New Orleans Pelicans’ Anthony Davis, and Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard as well as the up-and-coming stars like Los Angeles Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma and Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell.
They will be joined by Harrison Barnes (Sacramento Kings); Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards); Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons); Eric Gordon (Rockets); Tobias Harris (76ers); Kevin Love (Cleveland Cavaliers); Kyle Lowry (Toronto Raptors); CJ McCollum (Trail Blazers); Khris Middleton (Milwaukee Bucks); Myles Turner (Indiana Pacers); Kemba Walker (Charlotte Hornets); Brook Lopez (Bucks); Paul Millsap (Denver Nuggets; Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics) and P.J. Tucker (Rockets).
“I am excited about getting to training camp in August and working with all of the players that have been selected to attend the USA National Team training camp in Las Vegas,” – said USA Basketball head coach Gregg Popovich. “We’ve got an excellent cross-section of veteran USA Basketball and NBA players, as well as some exciting younger players who possess amazing versatility.”
“The flexibility of positions and roles was very important, so you go through this roster you see a lot of ones who can be twos, threes who can be fours, fives can be fours, things like that,” – he added.
2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be held from August 31st to September 15th. The group stage of the competition has pitted USA Basketball against Turkey, Japan, and the Czech Republic.
