USA Basketball’s World Cup roster choices provide a roadmap for the future.
The news is official: we have the 12 players Dawn Staley will be taking with her to Tenerife, Spain, for the FIBA World Cup, which begins next week.
Those making the trip are: Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Tina Charles, Layshia Clarendon, Elena Delle Donne, Brittney Griner, Jewell Loyd, Nneka Ogwumike, Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and A’ja Wilson.
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So what did we learn about the final group Carol Callan, Geno Auriemma and company have assembled?
Who needs a backup center?
It’s hard to call anyone on this roster a true, traditional five other than Brittney Griner. The team’s final cut, Elizabeth Williams, represented the best example of a traditional rim protector to deploy in case of two early fouls on Griner, for instance.
What seems likeliest to me, though, is that Staley can and will deploy Wilson in this role, even though it differs from what she’s done both in the WNBA and even in the latter stages of her South Carolina career. She’s got the size, she rim-protected nearly as well as Williams this season (4.4 block percentage to 5.1 for Williams) and it also provides additional flexibility out of the roster spot.
Also worth noting: Tina Charles, Elena Delle Donne, Nneka Ogwumike and Breanna Stewart can be deployed inside to defend bigs and block a few shots, too. So Team USA isn’t exactly bereft here. But Elizabeth Williams played awfully well, and I hope she gets another Team USA shot soon.
The present and future backcourts look very different
Look, we are all fortunate to live in a world where Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird rededicated themselves to their craft, and are giving up bonus time, instead of resting on their overstuffed thrones made of laurels, gold medals and trophies. So let’s not lose sight of that, we’re about to watch Bird/Taurasi do incredible things on the world stage once again, with no real reason to think it’s coming to an end anytime soon.
And yet: it might! Time is undefeated. And so it is notable to see Layshia Clarendon and Kelsey Plum getting the call as the primary second backcourt, with Jewell Loyd available as well. Staley can go small, and play all three. She can deploy Clarendon as a traditional one, a smart move with so many other primary scorers on the floor. Plum can distribute and she can space the floor, effective off the ball as always. Loyd can create for herself or even serve as an impossible iso matchup against international twos and threes. The point is that no, it doesn’t look like the Bird/Taurasi template, and it shouldn’t: you aren’t going to re-create that. Maybe not ever. But Team USA, for all the panic about what happens after Bird and Taurasi retire (say, in 2028?), seem to have it under control.
Morgan Tuck should not be ignored
I’ve been banging this drum for a while, but it’s great to see USA Basketball get it right. Morgan Tuck is precisely the kind of player who is made for both the international game and, really, the WNBA. She’s a strong, forceful defender of threes and fours, can even work as a small five in a smallball lineup a la Natasha Howard. She’s dangerous from three and a strong rebounder.
It isn’t an accident that the Connecticut Huskies won four titles during Breanna Stewart’s time there, but don’t lose sight of this: it wasn’t just Stewart. It was Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck, too. And in the shadows, her game has continued to grow, even as she backs up numerous other forwards with the Sun. She’s still just 24, and wonderfully, she’s healthy. There’s a lot more upside in her career ahead, and this will only help her reach it.
Elena Delle Donne is an unstoppable force
Really? You thought a knee injury was going to keep Elena Delle Donne from flying across the world to go try and win a gold medal?
But seriously, it says everything about Delle Donne as a competitor that she pushed through the pain for the Mystics, and now is going to do the same for USA Basketball. Better still, no overseas action after the World Cup will give her ample time to recover and return to 100 percent for next season’s WNBA.