There hasn't been much good news this week for the USA, which have not decided who they will take to China or the FIBA Basketball World Cup as four key players – Anthony Davis, James Harden, C.J. McCollum and Eric Gordon – decided to withdraw their names from the roster.
On July 14, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported that Davis will not attend USA's training camp and tryout. Then on Friday, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle said that Harden will skip the World Cup too. One day later, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweeted that Eric Gordon withdrew his name from the list before McCollum, again, per Hayes, followed.
Gregg Popovich, new head coach of the U.S. national basketball team /VCG Photo
The four players' decisions left 16 players for head coach Gregg Popovich to choose from: Damian Lillard, Kyle Lowry, Kemba Walker, Bradley Beal, Donovan Mitchell, Khris Middleton, Jayson Tatum, Harrison Barnes, Tobias Harris, Kyle Kuzma, Paul Milsap, P.J. Tucker, Andre Drummond, Brook Lopez, Kevin Love and Miles Turner.
The above roster still seems good, but we must point out what USA will miss without the other four. They won't have their best big man (Davis), the best scorer (Harden), one of their best shooters (McCollum) and one of their slashers (Gordon) while competing with their opponents in China.
Moreover, only three of the remaining 16 were selected by the top 5 picks when they entered the NBA – Love (No. 5), Beal (No. 3) and Tatum (No. 3). The last time that USA did not have even one single No. 1 select player in their unit was in 2000, but back then the team had four No. 2s and nine of top 5 picks.
Damian Lillard #0 of the Portland Trail Blazers may be USA's best player at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China. /VCG Photo
Only Lillard and Walker made the 2019 All-NBA Teams (Lillard, Second Team, Walker Third Team). Considering that Walker has never been seen as a superstar, no wonder fans joked on Twitter that this will be Lillard against the world.
A lack of experience is another problem that USA may have to face in China. Only four players – Barnes, Drummond, Love and Lowry – have played for their country at the World Cup (World Championships) or Summer Olympics, not to mention that none of them was ever playing as the team's core player.
USA are in Group E with Turkey, Japan and Czech Republic. Getting out of this group should not be a problem for them but when they meet Serbia led by Nikola Jokic, Spain led by Marc Gasol, France led by Rudy Gobert or Greece led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, the game may not be easy.
Just like what World Cup Global Ambassador Kobe Bryant said in the promotional video: "USA, don’t get cocky."