Kevin Love has withdrawn from Team USA because of his “current status.”
That was the explanation given Saturday morning in a news release from USA Basketball announcing that Love will not play for the United States at the World Cup in Spain.
Love’s withdrawal exacerbates the one roster issue the American team was already facing: A lack of depth at power forward following the withdrawal of Blake Griffin.
Love was a lock to be the starting power forward.
“USA Basketball National Team Managing Director Jerry Colangelo today announced that Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves) has informed USA Basketball that because of his current status he will be unavailable to participate with the USA National Team this summer,” read the official news release.
The Americans will now have 18 players in training camp. There are three centers – Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond – and power forward Kenneth Faried.
Small forwards include Kevin Durant, Paul George, Chandler Parsons, Kyle Korver and Gordon Hayward. There are five point guards – Derrick Rose, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, John Wall and Kyrie Irving – and four shooting guards: James Harden, Bradley Beal, Klay Thompson and DeMar DeRozan.
“The fact is we can only look to the players we have available. Our job is to get the job done with our very, very deep roster, and we’re anxious to get things started,” Colangelo said.
Love has been the subject of rampant trade rumors, with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls and Golden State Warriors among the teams trying to acquire him. Love has an opt-out in his contract following the upcoming season and has made it known to the Minnesota Timberwolves that he wants to be traded.
3. "korver is the only older person in the pool " In response to Reply # 2 Sat Jul-26-14 05:50 PM by rob
there's been talk of pg and parsons getting run at stretch four, but i'd think you'd have to bring faried or drummond considering that it's a backcourt-heavy roster. but at the same time...those are the people whose lack of star power atm would make it easiest to drop them for korver.
8. "they're still more experienced and probably end up bigger than the 2010 ..." In response to Reply # 5
which was criticized for people ducking out, being guard-heavy, being young and inexperienced so same shit. not having billups is probably the biggest difference.
they ended up with a lot of odom at center and durant at pf even with love and chandler on the team.
what's kinda interesting to me is how old a lot of the other teams are. spain and argentina and them i expect to be old considering their past success but brazil is OLD too. i'm definitely more excited to see the young players on france and greece and the african teams.
11. "Yeah KD played the 4 in 2010 and at the Olympics in 2012, him on the..." In response to Reply # 8
floor with PG, Curry and AD and whomever starts at the 2, they'll be fine. I think this team will be fun to watch. I say start Klay at the 2 since he and Curry are used to each other. Let Harden lead the 2nd unit off the bench.
13. "I definitely see PG playing that role, I think he'll thrive playing Robi..." In response to Reply # 12
to KD's Batman...
>though harden's lack of giving a fuck on d is another reason >to keep him out of the first unit.
Yeah that too, lol
>curry/klay/george/kd/ad seems like a good start to me too, and >keeping klay and beal with their pgs make sense. > >i really want to see a lot of wall and i could see kyrie >claiming the tournament like he did in the asg, but only so >many minutes
Kyrie could definitely steal the show, he showed out on the Select team a couple of years ago
22. "It's hard to even imagine" In response to Reply # 6
Carmelo's been calling his own shots since he made his away out of Denver.
This wouldn't even be a conversation with him... because he'd 1) Choose who he wanted to play for then 2) choose whether he wants to play on the national team.
19. "If he's healthy, he's healthy. Anything harm he can do for team usa" In response to Reply # 15
he can do in personal practice, team practice or exhibition.
-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.
23. "well that's false for 1. Besides, what is his current injury?" In response to Reply # 21
-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.
25. "what does mvp form have to do with anything?" In response to Reply # 24
He started last season completely healthy and had a new injury. He's healthy going into this season.
If he can practice at full speed than he can play for team usa.
-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.
29. "did the bulls tell him not to practice too?" In response to Reply # 28 Mon Jul-28-14 01:12 PM by Cenario
.
-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.
33. "lol I'm running around in circles? My response to post 15" In response to Reply # 31
was the same practice comment.
You have no reasonable response lol.
-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.
35. "chances are that he's going harder in his personal pracitces than" In response to Reply # 34
He would in a game. And I'm not certain that the level of comp increases his chance of injury. He's gone down on pretty routine moves the last 2 years. Could a happened playing in the local y.
Not sure bout love, but I'm assuming he's sitting out so as to not have an injury mess up his impending fagency. Not sure how that relates to rose tho
-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.
30. "if the nigga get hurt he get hurt" In response to Reply # 28
sure the bulls are ready for penny hardaway 2.0 when dude finally plays anyway either way him playing for team usa is a good sign being that last time he was on some scared to jump shit finally came back, looked like shit, and STILL got hurt let him play it's nothing to lose at this point
32. "pretty much...chicago might be better off letting him get hurt" In response to Reply # 30
before the season start anyway lol. Him playing good and getting seriously hurt after the allstar break is probably a worst case scenario.
-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.
18. "Millsap added to camp" In response to Reply # 0
he's got a good midrange and some three point range...plus he's older than most of the camp...
if he can win k over quick he's probably a better option than faried or drummond (assuming cousins gets the nod over drummond). though it would be awesome if draymond green or one of the plumlees balled out on in the scrimmages and got a shot.
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