NEW YORK
A desire for a bigger look made Andre Drummond necessary. The belief in Derrick Rose’s health made Damian Lillard expendable.
Those were conclusions made by U.S. team officials when they selected the 12 players who would travel to Spain for the FIBA World Cup of Basketball.
After years of ignoring size concerns by fielding teams with the best wing players in the world, the Americans decided this time around that bigger was better.
That meant keeping all the big men left on their roster, with Drummond joining Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins, New Orleans All-Star Anthony Davis, Denver’s Kenneth Faried and Brooklyn’s Mason Plumlee.
“Just based on how we’re constructed, we thought the insurance of having another big – I don’t want people telling us later, ‘you should’ve, you could’ve,’” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
“We didn’t have to do that. We don’t need to face that, because we’ve got some legitimate bigs that we think collectively can be very effective.”
Lillard, Portland’s All-Star point guard, was cut along with swingmen Gordon Hayward of Utah, Kyle Korver of Atlanta and Chandler Parsons of Dallas. Colangelo said Lillard was a victim of too many players at his position and handled the news gracefully.
“He took it, I mean he was a real pro,” Colangelo said.
The Americans had to be certain Rose could handle the workload after the Chicago Bulls star missed most of the last two seasons after a pair of knee surgeries. He sat out a couple of practices and an exhibition game because of soreness but was back for Friday’s 112-86 victory over Puerto Rico.
“We feel comfortable with Rose based on what he’s communicating with us, what the doctor, therapists around him are telling us, and more importantly what he has shown us,” Colangelo said. “So yeah, that was a decision we were willing to make.”
The Americans left later Saturday for Spain, where they were to play a final exhibition game against Slovenia before the tournament starts Aug. 30. The final rosters aren’t due until the day before, and U.S. team officials had previously said they might take more than 12 on the trip.
But head coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the game they would trim the roster before leaving, with Colangelo saying they thought it was unfair to make players travel who wouldn’t end up on the final squad.
