USA sticks with veterans

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2028078

For Team USA, youth will have to wait to be served.

The American roster will have a decidedly veteran look when the team opens play against Venezuela at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the FIBA Americas Championship at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The USA Basketball roster was trimmed to the mandatory 12 Monday when 18-year-old Kevin Durant and Seattle SuperSonics teammate Nick Collison were cut.

Both remain eligible in the player pool for next summer’s Olympics in Beijing, China. But for now, Team USA will attempt to qualify with an older group that includes 34-year-old Jason Kidd; Chauncey Billups, 31; Michael Redd, 28; and Tayshaun Prince, 27.

"This is an extremely difficult decision because you have 14 guys worthy of being on the team," coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement released by USA Basketball. "Someone says you have to have 12 and you try and figure out who the best 12 would be.

"We’re pleased with the team we have and the thing that makes it difficult is people are playing well. We do have some shooters, so who do you not select? We do have depth at point guard and the physicality of the guard positions hurt us, so we tried to respond to that. That’s a couple of the reasons why we selected the people we did."

With Durant, the decision largely came down to inexperience, Krzyzewski said.

"With Kevin, one year in college and 18 years old and he’s made giant progress and he’s going to be one of the faces of the NBA and USA Basketball who will be considered next year because 10 months from now he’s only going to get better," he said.

Collison was a late comer to the Team USA program.

"Nick wasn’t involved from the very beginning, so to be this close to making it after being here for about a week shows what a tremendous job he did," Krzyzewski said.

Neither Durant nor Collison was available for comment. Both left Las Vegas and will not stay for the tournament. Once the official roster is turned in today, if a player is injured, he cannot be replaced.

There’s tremendous pressure on Team USA to qualify. The top two teams to come out of this tournament will earn Olympic berths. And while the Americans are 26-0 lifetime in this competition, it was thought that an experienced lineup was a priority.

"We knew exactly what we felt we needed in terms of adding certain components to our roster, and the good news is we were able to accomplish that," managing director Jerry Colangelo said. "We really feel we did, and that’s the result of having a lot of great players."

After an erratic performance from the perimeter in last summer’s FIBA World Championships, in which Team USA finished third, the coaching staff aimed to bolster the team’s shooting. Adding Redd, Kobe Bryant and Mike Miller addresses that need, Krzyzewski believes.

"We have really good players," he said. "Michael Redd, Mike Miller, they’re true professionals, and of course, Kobe. We just need to work on our shooting and we’ll do that through pool play."

The team switched venues Monday, leaving the dimly lit gym at Valley High School for the bright lights of the Thomas & Mack, which has a new floor brought in for the tournament. From Krzyzewski’s perspective, everything was better Monday, including the shooting.

"We appreciate the people at Valley High School for allowing us to practice there," Krzyzewski said. "But it’s a lot better in here (at the Thomas & Mack). You could say the lights were literally turned on here today."