Better chances for us to medal?

It is a shock that the highest profile NBA stars are not participating

I think the final team would look like this

PG - Lillard/Lowry
SG - Beal/Middleton/Mitchell
SF - Tatum/Barnes
PF - Love/Harris/Millsap
C - Drummond/Turner

Still a pretty strong but less talented compared to previous US teams. Think Pop will lean more towards players that can be perimeter threats and play and defend multiple positions, and also go with two specialist centres.
Hence Barnes/Harris/Millsap/Middleton/Mitchell over Walker/Tucker/Kuzma/Lopez

Kyle Lowry has just had thumb surgery and is in some doubt too.

Those $1000+ tickets starting to look pretty stinky!

Doesn't the team need to be named out of the 20 players?

Otherwise BA has been caught out once again telling a few porkies in relation not to selecting DJ

I'm sorry but I want to see 'the Dream Team' miss out on a medal at the World Cup and the shitstorm that comes with that.

Pop won't be criticised but whomever does play will have a bit of a bad smell about them come the start of the next NBA season.

I like that kind of drama

Yeah I think the team they're sending is a bit of disrespect to the competition. Clearly the Americans don't take it that seriously. They'll still be the best team on paper but it's certainly not the best possible team they could send by a long shot. I want to see them fail.

There's an outside chance that the US could miss auto qualifying for the Olympics here.

The Americas get two qualifying places out of China. If the US were to lose in a quarter final, and 2 of Canada, Argentina or Brazil make the final 8, the US would have to go through the pre qualifying events next year, which would throw up all kinds of questions - would the big name stars be willing to play in that qualifying event to get through to the main Olympic tournament?

I think its an unlikely but far from impossible scenario.

To be honest I hope it doesn't happen as that'd be one of the 4 qualifying tournaments (that Australia may need to go through) that would be locked up.

To be honest, the only team who I'd bet on medalling right now are probably Serbia.

"I'm sorry but I want to see 'the Dream Team' miss out on a medal at the World Cup and the shitstorm that comes with that.

Pop won't be criticised but whomever does play will have a bit of a bad smell about them come the start of the next NBA season.

I like that kind of drama"

If you look up Schadenfreude in the dictionary, you'd see Proud’s smirking face when he wrote that...

In the MCG packed with people all wearing the same expression.

USA 'could' send their 3rd best team and still win, but there is no guarantee for them. Shit I'm not even counting out an upset from Australia in the upcoming days. Australia will have the cohesiveness borne of almost a decade together. And they will want it more. USA are in serious danger of dropping a game (or games) in either the warm ups or the cup proper. They've definitely come back down to the pack and while they're still very good, they're far from Invincible. Serbia, Spain, France, Canada and Australia (if Australia is in form) loom as genuine threats.

"This was always going to happen.

If anyone brought tickets expecting to see the A team, you were kidding yourself."

I don't think anyone was expecting the absolute A Team, but I think it was reasonable to expect at least four or five guys who the average person has heard of. This team is the crappiest and least-heralded line up since the Goodwill Games in 2001. They're still extremely talented, of course, and will be worth watching. But I think it's fair for ticket holders to feel jipped. I had always heard people saying the best wouldn't be there, but I expected at least a few of them to turn up. It's disappointing to say the least. I don't think any of the top 20 NBA players are in this team right now. Lillard maybe?

Not surprised they pulled out. Which player wants to be associated with a likely US loss?

Americans don't like losers, and who’d want that black mark against them in the future? It could reduce their strength in contract negotiations. You can bet their agents would be the first to realise and would have pushed hard for them to pull out early.