With the historic visit from international basketball powerhouses Team USA just a couple of short months away, the question of who will take the court in Melbourne against our own Boomers is starting to become a little bit clearer. And, according to reports today, it looks very likely that NBA superstars James Harden and Anthony Davis will serve as the main event acts in what’s shaping up to be a particularly stacked American roster.
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Davis and Harden are reportedly preparing to take part in the upcoming FIBA World Cup in China, which would also mean the duo will make the trip to Australia for a series of extremely high-profile warm-up matches this coming August.
US national coach Gregg Popovich has begun assembling an extended roster of basketball heavyweights that will attend a minicamp in Las Vegas in early August, before a final squad is whittled down and brought out to Australia for two games against the Boomers in Melbourne, and one game against Canada in Sydney, before Team USA’s World Cup campaign begins in Shanghai on September 1st.
In addition to Harden and Davis, guards Donovan Mitchell and Kemba Walker are reportedly expected to be given Team USA roster spots.
The list of names invited to the Vegas minicamp reportedly includes Kevin Love, Brook Lopez, Khris Middleton, Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Bradley Beal, Jayson Tatum, Paul Millsap, PJ Tucker, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Andre Drummond.
At the minicamp, an extended Team USA squad of 18 will take on a “Select Team” of 10 others that interestingly enough includes college phenom and consensus number one draft pick Zion Williamson, meaning there’s an outside chance the Duke behemoth could force his way into the side that travels to Australia and beyond.
An extended Boomers squad was announced last week, and features the strongest on-paper Australian team assembled in years, including Aussie NBA stars Ben Simmons, Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, Jonah Bolden, and Deng Adel.
The final 12-man Australian and USA squads will be finalised some time before the two teams clash at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, in games scheduled to take place on August 22nd and 24th.
