Keldon Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs and JaVale McGee of the Denver Nuggets joined Team USA for men's basketball tournament in the Tokyo Olympics after Bradley Beal and Kevin Love quit the team, announced USA Basketball on Friday.

"I am incredibly disappointed to not be heading to Tokyo with Team USA, but you need to be at absolute peak performance to compete at the Olympic level and I am just not there yet," said Love in a statement.

Love appeared in two Olympic exhibition games for USA but scored only one point. The five-time NBA All-Star big man is not in his best form. He missed part of the 2020-21 NBA regular season too while recovering from right calf injury.

Beal can't go to Tokyo with the national team because he entered COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

Neither Johnson nor McGee is All-Star players like Beal or Love. Johnson just became a starting roster of the Spurs this season, averaging 12.8 points and six rebounds per game. McGee joined the Nuggets in the middle of the season but only played 13 games for the team while putting down 5.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game for the Nuggets.

However, USA are not counting on them to make All-Star contributions. On the contrary, they already have more than enough ball handlers. What USA need is quality role players for boring but important work, like defensive switch and protect the rim.

1.96-meter-tall and 99-kilogram Johnson is an energetic swingman who is fast enough to follow guards but also strong enough to match big men inside. One of the USA's biggest problems that were exposed in the exhibitions so far is lack of switching ability on defense in the back-court position. Johnson should be able to make a good supplement for the team in this area.

McGee is the only full-size center in today's Team USA, which lost to both Nigeria and Australia in rebounds in the exhibition games. 33-year-old McGee does not share the agility of Draymond Green or Bam Adebayo, but McGee can fill the paint for the team and protect the rim with his 2.13-meter height and 2.29-meter-long wingspan. There is no defensive three-second violation in FIBA games so McGee can stay under the rim safely and do his job effectively.