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USA Basketball's brain trust has the toughest, most enviable, job in the world. In preparation for the FIBA World Cup 2014 this year they get to select 12 of the best players in the world to play on their team. From almost the entire pool of NBA players they have their normative pool of stars, all-stars, legends, and up and comers that they have their eyes on. The roster size for Spain is 12, and they have parsed down their pool into 19 players. On of which is the Utah Jazz highest paid player,Gordon Hayward .
If we are going by my roster theory, it seems like USA BBALL will go with at least 4 full time bigs and 3 full time ball handlers. That leaves the rest of the team to be filled out with five wing players. I figure they cheat and use Kevin Durant as one of the wings, so he can fill in as a 5th big if need be. They may also use one of the wing spots for a combo guard, so they can get a freebie 4th ball handler as well, someone like a James Harden.
So for me this means there are now three wing spots available. Can Gordon Hayward make the cut?
Here's the roster:
| Player | PG | SG | SF | PF | C | HT | WT | NCAA | NBA | ||
| 1 | Stephen Curry | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 185 | Davidson | Golden State Warriors | |||
| 2 | Kyrie Irving | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 191 | Duke | Cleveland Cavaliers | |||
| 3 | Damian Lillard | 1 | 6 | 3 | 195 | Weber St | Portland Trail Blazers | ||||
| 4 | Derrick Rose | 1 | 6 | 3 | 190 | Memphis | Chicago Bulls | ||||
| 5 | Kevin Durant | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 230 | Texas | Oklahoma City Thunder | ||
| 6 | James Harden | 1 | 6 | 5 | 220 | Arizona St | Houston Rockets | ||||
| 7 | Paul George | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 221 | Fresno St | Indiana Pacers | ||
| 8 | Gordon Hayward | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 210 | Butler | Utah Jazz | |||
| 9 | DeMar DeRozan | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 216 | USC | Toronto Raptors | |||
| 10 | Kyle Korver | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 212 | Creighton | Atlanta Hawks | |||
| 11 | Chandler Parsons | 1 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 227 | Florida | Dallas Mavericks | |||
| 12 | Klay Thompson | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 205 | Washington St | Golden State Warriors | |||
| 13 | Bradley Beal | 1 | 6 | 5 | 207 | Florida | Washington Wizards | ||||
| 14 | Anthony Davis | 1 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 220 | Kentucky | New Orleans Pelicans | |||
| 15 | Kevin Love | 1 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 260 | UCLA | Minnesota Timberwolves | |||
| 16 | Blake Griffin | 1 | 6 | 10 | 251 | Oklahoma | Los Angeles Clippers | ||||
| 17 | Andre Drummond | 1 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 270 | UCONN | Detroit Pistons | |||
| 18 | DeMarcus Cousins | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 270 | Kentucky | Sacramento Kings | |||
| 19 | Kenneth Faried | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 228 | Morehead St | Denver Nuggets |
What do you think? I think Paul George is in, because he just is. And Kyle Korver is in because he's the best floor spacer and adequate defender. So that means that Gordo has one more spot to fight for, against the likes of DeMar DeRozan, Chandler Parsons, Klay Thompson, and Bradley Beal.
It's hard to make a 'dream team'. And it will be a dream if Gordon makes it, and validates the whole 2,000 mins per year thing I've been talking about for 4 years. But it is an honor just to make it this far.
Hope he does, it'll give us Jazz fans another thing to obsess over during this off-season.