As you know, the basic strategy of the Olympic team currently is to have a fairly large pool of candidates in case of injuries or other obligations or guys just simply wanting a break.
Good thing.
Stephen Curry is out for a while (surgery scheduled), Kevin Love has a concussion, but more critically, Andrew Bynum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Dwight Howard will all probably miss.
Bynum has said he wants to heal and will skip; Aldridge and Howard will be recuperating from injuries.
We're not sure if Curry is even invited, but we'd want him at least for camp and probably more.
That leaves the roster, currently, as follows:
- Carmelo Anthony
- Kobe Bryant
- Kevin Durant
- Rudy Gay
- Eric Gordon
- Andre Iguodala
- LeBron James
- Chris Paul
- Derrick Rose
- Dwyane Wade
- Russell Westbrook
- Deron Williams
- Tyson Chandler
- Chris Bosh
- Blake Griffin
- Kevin Love
You could still have some power inside with Griffin and defense with Chandler, and Love is a great rebounder and a superb outlet passer. But no one is going to fully replace Williams.
There is one interesting possibility to consider, though it might be a bit of a reach at this point: how about Anthony Davis?
We're guessing he could handle himself defensively, but he might have a tough time catching up with the NBA version of the game, which is really quite different for big men. He's smooth and smart though so he might be able to do it.
| The Duke Basketball Blue Book |
| DBR Auctions! |
| New T-Shirts! |
 |
| DBR Is On Twitter!(DBRTweetz) |