Predicting who will be the top players in the NBA two years from now is risky business -- injuries, development of rookies and a host of other things make the future foggy.
As such, predicting the USA Basketball team for the 2012 Olympics in London -- watch them right here on NBC! (starting the plugs early) -- is a bit of a fools errand. A fun one, but without much meaning.
Well, ESPN’s Chris Sheridan jumped in with two feet with his educated guess:
Guards: Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook.
Forwards: Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Andre Iguodala, Carmelo Anthony.
Centers: Dwight Howard, Brook Lopez.
Not bad, and fairly hard to argue against. Each of those guys has earned equity in Team USA (Brook Lopez tried, not his fault he got mono).
Some guys are locks if healthy -- Durant, LeBron, Bryant, Wade and Howard come to mind.
But I think at guard guys like Rajon Rondo, Tyreke Evans and John Wall -- and let’s not forget Brandon Jennings, whatever shoes he is wearing -- could inject themselves into the conversation. Equity of no, it wasn’t lack of wanting to play that kept them out. Keep going down the list and guys like Amar’e Stoudemire or Andrew Bynum were outside looking in this year (although if Bynum had been healthy he would have been called) but could be on the list. There are more. There are guys we are not talking about now who may well need to be on that team then.
But this is a good start. That team would win a lot of games.
