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Twelve players will be selected. Nobody is getting cut.
Those are the semantics, amid the logistics of USA Basketball's selection of the 2016 Olympic men's team. Rather than stage another training camp and cut players before the team goes to Rio de Janeiro, administrators will finalize the roster of NBA players in late June and begin preparing for the Games in mid-July. Olympic men's basketball competition runs from Aug. 6-21.
"The one thing you don't do is have a camp and … ask players to go home because they weren't one of the 12 selected players," USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said during the Team USA Media Summit in March.
Olympic candidates including Jazz swingman Gordon Hayward and former Weber State guard Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers can only hope they've done enough in previous summers and in their NBA seasons to be chosen. "I've done everything that I can to try to make the team," Hayward said during the Jazz's exit interviews last month. "If they pick me, I'll be ecstatic."
The variables involve other players. From the pool of 31 players announced in January, at least four have declared themselves out or are wavering — including LeBron James, Chris Paul, Anthony Davis and Carmelo Anthony. Other withdrawals likely would have to occur for Hayward or Lillard to make the team, possibly as a result of injuries or the toll of playing until mid-June in the NBA Finals.
In 2014, Hayward and Lillard were among the last players cut in advance of USA Basketball's competition in the FIBA World Cup. They came close to making the team partly because Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge and Russell Westbrook withdrew and Paul George was injured in a team scrimmage.
Hayward's versatility is in his favor in the 2016 selections, but Golden State's Draymond Green likely is ticketed for a similar utility role. Paul's absence creates an opening, but Lillard would have to be chosen over Golden State's Steph Curry, Cleveland's Kyrie Irving or Westbrook, unless Colangelo and a coaching staff led by Mike Krzyzewski go with a fourth point guard.
Picking those 12 players is not easy. Colangelo actually welcomes having players remove themselves from consideration.
"Well, some of that takes care of itself. It always does," he said. "There's always circumstances that come up when someone's not capable of playing because of an injury, because of a family situation, a contract situation — we've been through a few of those over the years. … Quite honestly, if there were a few that decided not to participate, it makes my job a little easier."
USA Basketball staged a camp in Las Vegas last summer involving 34 players who were required to participate to be considered for Rio. "So that was a pretty good sign of everyone wanting to at least keep their options open, and the beauty of having a roster as deep as we do," Colangelo said.
As for picking the final roster, Colangelo cited the use of analytics from the NBA season: "We know our players extremely well; we monitor them daily."
The 12 team members will assemble July 17 in Las Vegas for training camp and will play five exhibition games in America before traveling to Brazil. The recent announcement of that schedule was somewhat misleading, because USA Basketball's initial marketing push mentioned the 31 players being considered for the Olympic team. Utahns who buy tickets now for the July 22 game vs. Argentina in Las Vegas, hoping to see Hayward or Lillard, could end up disappointed.
The other games are July 25 vs. China in Los Angeles, July 26 vs. China at Oakland, Calif., July 29 vs. Venezuela at Chicago and Aug. 1 vs. Nigeria at Houston.
In Rio, the Americans will compete in Group A of preliminary play with Venezuela, China, Australia and two teams from July qualifying events. Group B includes Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Lithuania, Nigeria and a qualifier.
Jazz guards Raul Neto (Brazil) and Joe Ingles (Australia) are expected to play in Rio. Questions remain about guard Dante Exum's availability for Australia, due to the knee injury that sidelined him for the 2015-16 season. Jazz center Rudy Gobert has chosen to miss the qualifying tournament, but intends to join his teammates in Rio if France advances.
Christopher Kamrani contributed reporting.
Twitter: @tribkurt —
Picking the team
The Tribune's projection of the 2016 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team:
Post players
• LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio
• DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento
• Andre Drummond, Detroit
Wing players
• Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City
• Paul George, Indiana
• Draymond Green, Golden State
• James Harden, Houston
• Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio
• Klay Thompson, Golden State
Point guards
• Stephen Curry, Golden State
• Kyrie Irving, Cleveland
• Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City —
Jazz in the Olympics
U.S. Olympians who were on the Jazz's roster at the time:
• Karl Malone, 1992/1996
• John Stockton, 1992/1996
• Carlos Boozer, 2004/2008
• Deron Williams, 2008