USA Basketball has announced it’s finalists for the 2020 Olympic Team that will be competing in Tokyo, Japan. 29 players selected as finalists have played in Olympic and/or FIBA competitions and have a combined 31 gold medals and four bronze. The finalists include:
Bam Adebayo – MIA
LaMarcus Aldridge – SAS
Harrison Barnes – SAC
Bradley Beal – WAS
Devin Booker – PHX
Malcolm Brogdon – IND
Jaylen Brown – BOS
Jimmy Butler – MIA
Mike Conley – UTA
Steph Curry – GSW
Anthony Davis – LAL
DeMar DeRozan – SAS
Andre Drummond – CLE
Kevin Durant – BKY
Paul George – LAC
Draymond Green – GSW
James Harden – HOU
Montrezl Harrell – LAC
Joe Harris – BKY
Tobias Harris – PHI
Gordon Hayward – BOS
Dwight Howard – LAL
Brandon Ingram – NOP
Kyrie Irving – BKY
Kyle Kuzma – LAL
Kawhi Leonard – LAC
Damian Lillard – POR
Brook Lopez – MIL
Kevin Love – CLE
Kyle Lowry – TOR
Javale McGee – LAL
Khris Middleton – MIL
Donovan Mitchell – UTA
Victor Oladipo – IND
Chris Paul – OKC
Mason Plumlee – DEN
Marcus Smart – BOS
Jayson Tatum – BOS
Klay Thompson – GSW
Myles Turner – IND
Kemba Walker – BOS
Russell Westrook – HOU
Derrick White – SAS
If it was up to me, this could be a really good team. (Spoiler, it’s going to be a good team regardless) But this has the potential to be one of the best rosters in a while. If it was up to me, the team would look something like this:
Bam Adebayo
Devin Booker
Steph Curry
Anthony Davis
Kevin Durant
Paul George
James Harden
Lebron James
Kawhi Leonard
Damian Lillard
Brook Lopez
Jayson Tatum
Klay Thompson
Players like Kawhi Leonard, Steph Curry, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard and James Harden have already expressed interest in playing, so that is five hopeful locks right there. The only problem my rendition of a roster could run into is injuries. Obviously KD and Klay Thompson are still nursing leg injuries from the 2019 NBA Finals. Paul George seems to also be bitten by the injury bug as well, and his buddy Kawhi could be worried about managing his load. In the off chance that a couple of guys I picked can’t make it to Tokyo, some of the best replacements in my opinion would be:
Bradley Beal
Jimmy Butler
DeMar DeRozan
Brandon Ingram
Khris Middleton
Donovan Mitchell
Chris Paul
Kemba Walker
Russell Westbrook
Myles Turner
I know, I know that’s a lot of names. Those are just the guys that are on the fringe of making the team in my opinion. They all deserve to be on the team one hundred percent, without doubt. However there are only so many roster spots, which means unfortunately deserving players will be left out, but there will also be some guys who like to enjoy the downtime and just decline the invite to camp so that should shallow up the player pool.
Somehow, players like Trae Young, Zion Williamson and Ja Morant were left out of the finalists, along with many more I’m sure, those just come to mind off the top. I know Zion hasn’t played much due to his injury but he still appears to be more deserving of a finalist spot than a few names I see up there… *cough* Kyle Kuzma *cough* but hey, what do I know. Then you have Trae Young who is an All Star in his sophomore campaign putting up 40 point and 10 assist games like they’re nothing. Ice Trae has been the only real glimmer of hope in Atlanta lately, hopefully his new teammate Clint Capela can help out a little bit with that. Ja Morant falls into almost the same category as Trae, the league is just too loaded with talented guards so a few young guys had to get the short end of the stick but they’ll get a chance at some point down the road.
Hopefully this list of finalists doesn’t deplete like it did for the last FIBA tournament, but all it takes is one or two big name guys to attract the rest of them.
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