USA Basketball released their roster for the training camp team that will contend for a spot on the 2019 World Cup team. The team largely includes prominent G League players, and among those players is Los Angeles Lakers guard Alex Caruso.
Prominent names included on the team include Amile Jefferson, Jonathan Holmes, Marcus Thornton, and David Stockton. Reggie Hearn, Xavier Munford, Taylor Braun, Rashawn Thomas, Trey Mckinney Jones, Myke Henry, Nick Johnson, and Kevin Jones round out the roster. It is these 14 players that will be used to create the 12-man roster for next summer’s World Cup.
The training camp team will be coached by Jeff Van Gundy, who led the 2017 roster to an undefeated record and looks to do the same next year. Van Gundy is a highly praised coach around the basketball world and hopes to keep that reputation alive with this team.
The FIBA championships are always important for the United States, as they use this to qualify for the Olympics, which is why it’s great to see Caruso getting a chance to play.
Caruso and others will be in action during the qualifiers, which take place later this summer. And of course, all of this is in effort for Team USA to defend their gold medal from the 2020 Olympic Games that take place in Tokyo, Japan.
Caruso hopes to play a large role in this title defense, and making the roster is just the first start. And as the player with the most in game NBA experience on the whole roster, making the team doesn’t seem out of reach.
Caruso is coming off of a great season in which he played under the NBA’s new two-way contract system. Caruso appeared 37 games for the Lakers this season, making seven starts. Overall for L.A., he averaged 3.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 15 minutes.
And while the statistics don’t jump off the sheet, he was still praised my teammates and coaches alike.
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