PHILADELPHIA – Sunday, Olympic pooh-bah Jerry Colangelo is set to announce the 25 players he is inviting to try out for the U.S. men’s Olympic team that will play first in the World Championships in Japan this fall, and then in Beijing in 2008. The group includes 22 NBA players. Three amateur players will be added to the tryout roster.
It’s likely, though not certain, that the three amateurs will be part of the select team that Colangelo hopes will form the core of international teams for the United States going forward – perhaps as early as the 2012 Games in London.
That team will almost certainly include young NBA talent like Orlando’s Dwight Howard, who’s a camp invitee, and Chicago’s Kirk Hinrich, who isn’t.
The roster, though, will be dominated by NBA players.
ESPN put out what it believes to be the list this past week. It’s a list that includes Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade, but not Allen Iverson and Chris Webber. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will have a strong group from which to select the 15-man roster.
Guards
Kobe Bryant, Lakers; Chauncey Billups, Pistons; Joe Johnson, Hawks; Dwyane Wade, Heat; Michael Redd, Bucks.
Nope, there’s no Gilbert Arenas. No Paul Pierce. No Chris Paul. Paul will be on an Olympic team soon enough. Pierce’s need for the ball is a concern. He had problems with teammates on the 2002 team that finished sixth at the World Championships.
Arenas is a wondrous scorer with range, but our priority with guards is that they play at both ends, and while Arenas is high in steals, he has yet to show he’s a great on-ball defender. There’s only room for one gunner with suspect D on this team, and we’ll take Redd for that post.
Bryant, Billups and Johnson can all bring the ball up, or play off-guard. They can all shoot. Most important, they can all defend both guard positions. The U.S. team cannot be as porous defensively as it’s been in the last few years of international play, when guards such as Pepe Sanchez and Carlos Arroyo destroyed their more-heralded American opponents.
Honestly, Wade barely makes this team. He’s yet to add the three-pointer to his repertoire, and the United States’ opponents will surely make him hit a few, as they did the Nets’ Richard Jefferson in Athens.
(Note: Billups will not be in Japan because his wife is expecting to give birth in the summer, and reports Friday indicated that Redd will turn down the invitation. If true, we’d probably promote Pierce for Redd’s spot. And we’d likely put one of the college kids such as Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison on the roster to man Billups’ spot until Beijing. You wouldn’t ask Arenas or Pierce to be a coat-holder.)
Forwards
Shawn Marion, Suns; Shane Battier, Grizzlies; Bruce Bowen, Spurs; LeBron James, Cavaliers; Antawn Jamison, Wizards; Elton Brand, Clippers; Josh Howard, Mavericks.
Nope, no Carmelo Anthony. Here’s why.
Marion has been the best player on the U.S. team in the last two international competitions, and his excellent all-around game is still a perfect fit. Battier and Bowen are soldiers, tough guys, defenders – something the U.S. team has been painfully lacking the last few times around. Everybody can’t play, and when players sit, they can’t complain. Chances are one, if not both, of these guys will sit for long stretches. But they won’t cause trouble when that happens, and that’s critical. Plus, both can – wait for it – defend.
Jamison can shoot, and he’s become a much better rebounder. Howard is deceptively strong and effective inside. No matter whom Brand plays against, he gets 20 and 10. Plus, he’s a guy you want to be the face of your team, and country.
Centers
Amare Stoudemire, Suns; Chris Bosh, Raptors; Brad Miller, Kings.
Easy picks. Assuming Stoudemire is healthy, his explosiveness at both ends of the floor can’t be left off the team. There will be nights when the Americans need to send a message and intimidate, and that’s when you’ll need Stoudemire. Bosh’s skinny frame belies his toughness, and the team will need somebody who can block a shot on the roster. Miller is perfect for the international game; he’s the kind of perimeter-oriented passing big man that’s given U.S. teams fits the last few years.
You pick this team, men, and it’s tempura for everyone.
—
Fast-breaking with . . . Fred Hoiberg, guard for hire
He looks exactly the same as he has throughout an NBA career in which he’s become a cult favorite.
But it’s what you can’t see in Fred Hoiberg that’s making all the difference.
It is the pacemaker that is inserted in his chest, and keeps his heart beating normally.
“At this point, I’m as healthy as I’m going to be,” said Hoiberg, who had the pacemaker installed in June during an eight-hour operation at Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic. Now, Hoiberg is deciding whether he’s healthy enough to try to hook on with an NBA team for the stretch run – and become the first player in league history to play with the device.
Hoiberg was having a perfectly solid career, ready to start a third season with the Timberwolves, when an examination in June revealed he had an aneurysm of his aortic root – a condition that required immediate surgery.
The surgery went well, but the Timberwolves, obviously uncertain about Hoiberg’s future, released the guard under terms of the league’s one-time “amnesty” program last summer.
The 33-year-old Hoiberg completely understood. He’s stayed on good terms with the Wolves, traveling with the team and practicing with them.
The league prohibits players released under the amnesty program to re-sign with their old teams for a year, so the Timberwolves can’t add Hoiberg to their roster. He’d have to sign with another team if he wants to be eligible for the postseason, but there will be lots of factors that go into the decision – his eligibility for insurance, for example.
“It’s going to have to be the right situation,” Hoiberg said. “If I do come back, I’m the type of player who plays on instinct. If there’s a ball on the floor, I’m going to dive after it. If someone’s coming down the lane, I’m going to take a charge. I’ve really got to be comfortable with this thing if I do come back.”
Tests have indicated that his heart is fine, and that the pacemaker provides him with an “escape rhythm” – the way the heart compensates for a damaged area by making other areas take over control of the heart rate, ensuring a normal heart rhythm.
But he’s understandably cautious.
“The way I’m looking at this thing is, I’ve got the best doctors in the world,” Hoiberg said. “And I’ve talked to several other doctors as well. The people that I’m trusting the most through this thing are the people that have been with me since day one. The cardiologist that diagnosed me, my surgeon, my electrophysioligist … I’ve talked to pretty much everyone I need to talk to.
“Now it’s just a matter of making the right decision.”
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