Team USA has a commitment problem. The available pool of NBA players for the FIBA USA Basketball team is shrinking as everyday becomes closer to the actual tournament. Already short due to injuries and withdrawals before the NBA season even ended is causing our roster to shape into oblivion.

As it currently stands, here is a list of stars that will not be playing this summer:

• LeBron James
• Kevin Durant
• Stephen Curry
• Kawhi Leonard
• Russell Westbrook
• Kyrie Irving
• Paul George
• Klay Thompson
• Draymond Green
• DeMarcus Cousins
• Blake Griffin
• Anthony Davis
• James Harden
• Damian Lillard
• Bradley Beal
• Eric Gordon
• C.J. McCollum
• Tobias Harris
• DeMar DeRozan
• Zion Williamson

Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, France’s Rudy Gobert, and Serbia’s Nikola Jokic will compete for other countries, all being apart of All-NBA teams. The best players left are probably Kemba Walker, Khris Middleton, Kevin Love and Donavan Mitchell. Only Walker made an All-NBA team last year by comparison three other All-NBA players are competing for their countries. And there’s still more time for other players to withdraw. What should Team USA do? Here are some of my ideas to at least make things more interesting.

Bring Carmelo Anthony back

FIBA Melo would arguably be the best player on the roster. He’s always been his best self in international settings, where he can rain spot-up threes over packed-in defenses and bang with the more physical defenders international ball has to offer. He’s Team USA’s all-time leading scorer for a reason. Why not bring him back and let him try and prove he still has a spot on an NBA roster?

Send the team that had to go through qualifying

Team USA had to qualify for this tournament, even though they haven’t lost a game in the Olympics or FIBA World Cup since 2006. This team was composed of G-league players that went 15-3 in qualifying rounds. Why not send lesser known players that have something to prove and have already competed for us to be in the tournament.

Send one of the youth teams

The under-19 team dominated the their FIBA World Cup earlier this month coached by my Kansas States own coach Bruce Weber. Getting this next generation of stars together would build excitement for the future of the league and college basketball. If they want to represent the country, why not give them a shot on a bigger stage?

With the shipment of Paul George to the Clippers, the Thunder proved they were ready to move on and begin the process of a rebuild. In the trade they received last years number eleven pick, point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. On July 11th the Oklahoma City Thunder agreed to trade Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for Chris Paul, first-round picks in 2024 and 2026, pick swaps in 2021 and 2025. This is a weird situation for Chris Paul due to the fact that he is 34, under a huge contract that no one wants to pay and now will be apart of a rebuilding team that already has already gotten their point guard of the future. Reports of the Rockets looking to trade James Harden’s StateFarm buddy came out days before the actual trade was made. The two butted heads 0n what play style was better for the team because they are both ball dominate players. Chris wanted to run more pick and rolls with the ball in his hands yet James wanted to isolate himself at the top of the three point line and make his own offense. Chris Paul not use to just watching grew frustrated and these reports leaked. Chris Paul is getting older and wants to compete, not rebuild but trading him is a tall order. 40% of players under contract cannot be traded and their isn’t a team with enough cap space making it even harder to put a package together that adds up.

Russel Westbrook and James Harden were former teammates back in 2012. Back then Russel Westbrook was the second star behind Kevin Durant and James was a sixth man of the year. Now that they are both MVP’s it is yet to be seen how they will play together because with no doubt this is still Hardens team. Both guys need the ball in their hands and Westbrook isn’t even an above average three point shooter so having him spot up for Harden doesn’t make much sense. They will be better on the fast break that is without doubt but I see them running into trouble running the half court offense.

Kawhi Leonard, F – signed with Los Angeles Clippers

Age: 28 

2018-19 team: Toronto Raptors 

Reported deal: Four years, $142 million 

One thing to know: Leonard won a championship in Toronto, then got out of town. Leonard joined the Clippers, enticing the team to trade for Paul George in the process in a stunning move. 

Kevin Durant, F -signed with Brooklyn Nets

Age: 30 

2018-19 team: Golden State Warriors 

Reported deal: Four years, $164 million 

One thing to know: Durant is joining the Nets with Kyrie Irving. He is expected to miss the entire 2019-20 season. 

Kyrie Irving, G – signed with Brooklyn Nets

Age: 27 

2018-19 team: Boston Celtics 

Reported deal: Four years, $141 million 

One thing to know: In recent weeks, the free-agency buzz was that Irving would join the Nets. He followed suit, bringing Durant along with him in a massive free-agency move. 

Jimmy Butler, G/F – signed with Miami Heat

Age: 29 

2018-19 team: Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers 

Reported deal: Four years, $142 million 

One thing to know: Butler was part of a four-team sign-and-trade, going from the 76ers to the Heat. In Miami, he’ll have the chance to be the clear-cut best player and lead the Heat back to the playoffs. 

Kemba Walker, G – signed with Boston Celtics

Age: 29 

2018-19 team: Charlotte Hornets 

Reported deal: Four years, $141 million 

One thing to know: The Hornets did not offer him their full max, which would have been as much as $221 million. He’ll essentially replace Irving and try to help the Celtics rebound from a disappointing season. 

D’Angelo Russell, G – sign-and-trade with Golden State Warriors

Age: 23 

2018-19 team: Brooklyn Nets 

Reported deal: Four years, $117 million 

One thing to know: In a stunning move, the Warriors and Nets worked out a sign-and-trade for Russell, who had a breakout season in 2018-19 and made his first All-Star team. The Warriors are able to add another All-star after losing Kevin Durant.

Al Horford, F/C – signed with Philadelphia 76ers

Age:33 

2018-19 team: Boston Celtics 

Reported deal: Four years, $109 million 

One thing to know: Horford decided to opt out of a $30 million contract option to hit free agency. His fit with the 76ers is an interesting one, as he’ll either center when Embiid sits, or the Sixers will play a massive lineup with Embiid and Horford at the four and five.

Los Angles staple center is bound to be the Mecca in terms of stars coming out to watch stars every night. The Lakers made their big move to bring in Anthony Davis to play aside LeBron. Most analysts are saying that this new Clippers team who added the biggest gem of them all in Kawhi Leonard who was going to resign with his championship squad of the Toronto Raptors until Jerry West made huge move of trading for first team All-NBA superstar Paul George. They gave up their entire future with this move giving away first round draft picks until 2026. They got the deal done and it was enough to sway Kawhi into coming to LA but not for the Lakers but the always little brother team of the Clippers.

The Lakers had the money to get Kawhi and offered him a max. So why would he go to the Clippers? My guess is he didn’t want to be LeBron’s sidekick knowing that he is good enough to be the best player on a championship team. Him and Paul George are also closer friends than anyone on the Lakers. They both have a similar game being that they’re both 6’7″ all around superstars that can do anything on the court. They both have a spot on the NBA all defense team and if Patrick Beverly is running the point that is a scary tough backcourt to go against. The Lakers used the money that they offered Kawhi to fill out the roster signing players such as Rondo, Avery Bradley, Danny Green and even added former star just two years ago in Demarcus Cousins.

Free Agency has just started and it began with a bang. The Pelicans finally traded Anthony Davis after much request from his side. Of all the teams that offered at the end of the day Anthony Davis ended up at his preferred destination the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers in exchange gave up Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first-round draft picks. The Lakers are now looking to sign a third max player to form a big three and put a team capable of winning a championship around him.

The next event of the summer was the 2019 NBA Draft. I will be talking about the first three selections. The Pelicans added potential superstar Zion Williams of Duke university with the first overall pick to add to their now young core of players from the Davis trade. With the second pick the Grizzles selected Ja Morant point guard from Murray State to replace now traded Mike Conley and have officially started their rebuild. With the third pick the New York Knicks add Duke teammate RJ Barrett and hope to land two max players this free agency with their vast amount of open cap space. On the topic of free agency the top three players Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Kawhi is just now coming off a championship with the Toronto Raptors but the question still stands if he really wants to sign a big deal their or does he want to go into a bigger market of the Los Angeles Clippers which has been reported before that he has interest in. Kevin Durant recently suffered a achilles tear in the NBA Finals so he is doubtful to play next season although it is no doubt he will be given a Max by some team (Warriors Nets or Knicks). Kyrie Irving is a wild card because many different reports are out on him withering wanting to stay in Boston. Reports of also the Nets or Knicks are up in the air. With the Lakers having one max spot open it isn’t out of the question that he would want to reunite with LeBron and be in sunny LA.

The Toronto Raptors are NBA Champions. They made this happen by not waiting another year to keep building upon their already consecutive playoff team. Once Lebron James finally left the East in the summer of 2018, after fifteen years of his reign of the conference. The East became wide open and instead of playing it back with the team that had had the best record in the East the year before they decided to go all in. The biggest move they made was dealing All-Star and former franchise player Damar Derozan for a player in Kawhi Leonard who had been upset with his situation with the Spurs. This was a risky move because Kawhi hadn’t played all last season and only had one year left on his contract before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Essentially the Raptors traded the franchise for a possible one year rental of what was two years ago arguably the best player in the league. This was championship or bust for the organization.

The team didn’t stop there and at the trade deadline they decided to upgrade at the center position and trade younger Jonas Valanciunas for former All-Star and veteran Marc Gasol who also only had one year left on his contract. Going into the playoffs the raptors looked as if they would be the same unfortunate organization, losing game one of their opening series versus an under undermatched Magic team. Things would turn around quickly as they started to get hot and popped off four straight wins to end the series in 5. In the semi’s they battled as they went seven games with a young up and coming 76ers team. Winning game seven on a bouncing buzzer beater by who else other than Kawhi Leonard. In the conference finals they beat league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo in six games sending a Canadian team to the NBA Finals for the first time ever. The risk was all worth it as the Raptors were the better team in all but a third quarter meltdown in Game 2 and a late collapse in Game 5. The Warriors were no longer the champs and Kawhi was awarded Finals MVP.

Many fingers are being pointed after Kevin Durant went down in the 2nd quarter of game five of the NBA Finals. Team doctors, Kevin’s personal doctors and even the entirety of the Golden State Warriors organization has been blamed. At the end of the day Kevin Durant. Durant started strong having 11 points on 3-5 shooting going 3-3 from the 3 point line. When he started trying to be the Aggressive ball dominant player and not as much of a spot up shooter things went terrible. It looked like a gun went off in his calf as he tried to make a hard move to the basket. To add to the drama and ironically enough Canadians cheered as Kevin went to the floor in pain. I’m not one to judge although because they could have been cheering because they were getting an easy transition basket. This was a devastating injury for a desperate Warriors squad trying to three peat. Two starters in Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala checked out of the game just to help their teammate to the locker room. It turned out to be achilles injury on the same leg as his prior calf injury, proving he wasn’t strong enough yet to go all out and rushed his comeback. With Kevin Durant’s MRI not back yet it makes this summer even more interesting. Kevin will be a free agent this summer and I wonder if the Warriors are in his future and what he actually ends up signing for. If it ends up being a tear he could be out for more than fourteen months.

In the fourth quarter it seemed with five minutes and some change left on the clock, Kawhi started to take over going off for the next two minutes scoring the next ten points. this was a complete momentum change when suddenly the up 4 warriors were down 6 with only a little less than 3 minutes left. Nick Nurse surprisingly calls a timeout on this run to which I can only assume was to call a play to take the two possesion game and make it a three possession game. This ended up turning tragic as the energy in the arena turned into nervousness and allowed the Warriors to set up their defensive scheme. *Boom* Klay hits a three at 2:32. *Bang* Steph hits a three at 1:22. *Bomb* Klay hits a three with 57.2 seconds left. The Warriors are now up three and the Raptors are desperate for a bucket and Kyle Lowry gets them a layup with 29.9 seconds left. With the Warriors now only up one and the game hanging in the balance, DeMarcus Cousins sets an illegal screen giving the Raptors the last possession and a chance to win the championship. As melodramatic as it seems Kawhi gets doubled and Kyle Lowry badly misses a corner 3 not even touching the rim. With the Warriors backs against the wall the live for another game trying to make the unlikely 3-1 comeback.