Jerry Colangelo, the managing director of USA basketball, announced that Kevin Love has withdrawn from the USA Men’s National Team “because of his current status,” according to the official USA basketball page.
Love wants to resolve his trade demand from the Minnesota Timberwolves. He feels distracted being mentioned in numerous trade rumors.
On Thursday, Blake Griffin announced his withdrawal from the team while John Wall received a training camp invite. With Love and Griffin out, Team USA loses a lot of rebounding and some size. The withdrawals of the two all-stars will most likely guarantee DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond a spot on the roster since USA will need size to match up against Spain.
When ESPN asked Jerry Colangelo if Cousins and Drummond have a chance to make the 12-man roster, he said “absolutely.” Clearly, Team USA needs size, and they may give Al Jefferson a call to replace Love, according to Marc Stein.
Losing Love is a huge deal due to his amazing rebounding skills and ability to space the floor and hit threes as a stretch four.
However, even without Love, Colangelo believes that the team is still extremely talented. “We’re more talented than 2010. I’m not demeaning that team, but those guys were young,” said Colangelo. As for losing Love, here is what Colangelo told reporters.
“The fact is we can only look to the players we have available. Our job is to get the job done with our very, very deep roster, and we’re anxious to get things started.”
USA basketball’s training camp begins July 28 in Las Vegas. Exhibition games begin on August 16, where USA will face Brazil in their first game. The World Cup tournament starts August 30 with USA playing their opening game against Finland.