Jerry Colangelo: USA Basketball to Name Final Cuts Thursday

USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo bared that the final roster that will be sent to Spain could be finalized Thursday.

ESPN reports that Colangelo is considering making the final lineup of 12 or 13 players official after their exhibition match-up against Dominican Republic Wednesday night. The team will be facing the Al Horford-less Dominicans first and the Puerto Ricans next in a round of exhibition games in preparation for the upcoming Fiba World Cup of Basketball.

"We've said we wanted to wait through the end of the week in New York before we made cutbacks," Colangelo said Monday, "but that could still change."

They are also keeping all options open as the final day of submitting the final lineup is still more than a week away - Aug. 29, to be exact. The head honcho of the program also revealed that they could still keep the 16 players up to the Puerto Rico game but they would have to make the final decision by then, since they will be now flying to Europe to begin a 23-day stay in Spain.

The team is also undecided on whether to keep 12 or 13 men on the roster. They could bring 13 players to Spain and make the last cut a week leading up to the tournament, a practical move if in case a player or two succumbs to an unexpected injury which is not rare for USA Basketball.

The team is already without Paul George and Blake Griffin who had to bow out due to injuries. Kevin Durant and Kevin Love of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively, also withdrew their participation due to fatigue and a looming trade.

As it stands, there are around ten players who are battling for the final six roster spots. DeMarcus Cousins, Mason Plumlee and Andre Drummond are all fighting for the chance to back-up penciled in starter Anthony Davis. There is also a possibility that they could keep two on the roster as an insurance.

There is also a logjam at the forwards and guards spots with Damien Lillard and DeMar Derozan most likely not to make the trip. This is mainly due to the fact that there is a plethora of versatile guard-forwards who can man the 2 to 4 positions such as Chandler Parsons, Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gay, Kyle Korver, and Klay Thompson.

The players who have secured their places judging by the statements and assessments of Colangelo and head coach Mike Kryzewski are Derrick Rose, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving. However, the head coach clarified during a recent televised interview that nothing is set in stone.

"People read into everything," Krzyzewski told ESPN2's Cassidy Hubbart and Fran Fraschilla. "That's part of the world we live in. That's why we have shows. Because if they weren't talking about that, no one would be watching. ... First of all, you never play 16 guys in a game, so we have to take a look at certain things. In these next two games, we'll look at more and then hopefully we'll be down, before we go to Gran Canaria, to about 12."