There were a few standouts in what the public was allowed to see of the USA Basketball training camp in Las Vegas. The Pistons’ Cade Cunningham (of the Select Team) stood out on the first day. The Knicks’ Jalen Brunson had his moments.
However, when The Athletic’s Joe Varden asked Team USA members for the camp’s standout, Jaren Jackson Jr. won going away.
Jackson, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, will have a big role with Team USA on both ends. Defensively he will be their anchor in the paint and told Varden that the more physical play allowed in FIBA/international games suits his style because he can use his chest more to body players (something that would more quickly draw a whistle in an NBA setting).
Offensively, he will be the man in the middle — literally. The USA will see a lot of zone at the World Cup and how effective Jackson can be getting the ball in the middle of that zone — then scoring or kicking out to shooters as the defense collapses — and as a roll man on pick-and-rolls will be critical to Team USA’s success.
That straw poll also had votes for Hart, Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Brandon Ingram, Paolo Banchero, Bobby Portis and Anthony Edwards.
For his part, coach Steve Kerr singled out Brunson as a leader.
On Monday night, we get our first look at Team USA when they play Puerto Rico in a scrimmage in Las Vegas. After the game they will head to Abu Dhabi for more exhibition games, then on to the World Cup, which will be conducted in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia (Team USA will play all its games in Manilla). At the World Cup starting Aug. 25, there are 32 teams divided into eight groups of four, with the top two teams from each group advance to the 16-team, tournament-style knockout round. The USA is in Group C with Greece (without Giannis Antetokounmpo), New Zealand and Jordan.
