USA Basketball has announced its 12-man roster for the next two qualifying games for the 2023 FIBA World Cup. The team, coached by Jim Boylen, will be made up of G League players and current free agents. Here’s the roster:
- Jordan Bell, C (Fort Wayne Mad Ants)
- Tarik Black, F/C (Grand Rapids Gold)
- Brian Bowen II, F (Iowa Wolves)
- Langston Galloway, G (College Park Skyhawks)
- Jared Harper, G (Birmingham Squadron)
- Joe Johnson, F (free agent)
- Juwan Morgan, F (Maine Celtics)
- Matt Ryan, F (Grand Rapids Gold)
- David Stockton, G (Memphis Hustle)
- Rayjon Tucker, G (Wisconsin Herd)
- Paul Watson, G/F (free agent)
- Justin Wright-Foreman, G (Birmingham Squadron)
With the exception of Ryan, all of the players on Team USA have some NBA experience, though some are certainly more accomplished than others. Johnson has earned seven All-Star berths and has appeared in 1,277 career regular-season games. Bell, Black and Galloway have also each played in more than 160 career regular-season contests.
The 2023 World Cup will take place in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia next August and September. Teams play 12 qualifying games before then — those contests take place across six windows, with World Cup hopefuls playing twice during each window.
Team USA went 1-1 in its first two qualifying games in November, defeating Cuba but losing to Mexico. Boylen coached that team and Bowen played for it, but the other 11 roster spots have since been turned over, with Isaiah Thomas among the players who aren’t back this time around. The new-look squad will face Puerto Rico on Feb. 24 and Mexico again on Feb. 27.
After this month’s games, the remaining four qualifying windows are scheduled for June, August, November and next February. While the next two windows fall outside of the NBA season, the expectation is that USA Basketball will continue using G-Leaguers for the qualifiers before recruiting NBA stars for the event itself next summer.
As our JD Shaw reports (via Twitter), forward DaQuan Jeffries had been expected to be part of Team USA’s roster for this month’s qualifiers, but had to de-commit due to an injury.
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