USA Basketball released the names of the 30 players who will make up the pool for the United States Men’s Basketball team, from which the Olympic roster will be selected. The usual suspects were there, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook. The Warriors have all their big time shot makers as do the Cavaliers. The second best team in the NBA, the San Antonio Spurs, have Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Everyone is under 30 years old except: LeBron James, LaMarcus Aldridge, Andre Iguodala, Carmelo Anthony, Rudy Gay, Chris Paul.

20 of the 30 players are from Western Conference teams.

However spectacular this group, (if they lost a single game it would be considered a choke), the omissions were the story. Derrick Rose was left off and so was Damian Lillard, both point guards.

Rose and Lillard are having different seasons. Rose is dishing out 4. 8 assists, shooting 40% and putting in 14. 8 points a game, a career low. Lillard,on the other hand, is one of the top scorers in the league, at 24.7 points per game. His 7 assists and 4.5 rebounds are responsible for his 21.8 PER. In fact, when you look at the point guards selected for the team, Lillard is having one of the best seasons. So why was he left off?

“Obviously, selecting the official roster of 12 players for the Olympics in 2016 will be a very, very difficult process. As has been the case with past USA Basketball teams, the goal once again is to select the very best team possible to represent the United States.” (Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball Chairman).

The sixth leading scorer in the NBA, the fourth most three point shots made, isn’t in the mix?

Best Point Guards 2015-16 Points 3-Point % Assists Assists % PER Mike Conley 15.1 34.9% 5.8 31.8 18.4 Steph Curry 29.9 44.7% 6.4 32.9% 31.7 Kyrie Irving 17.0 26.8% 3.8 25.9% 18.9 Damian Lillard 24.7 37.8% 7.0 34.9% 21.8 Chris Paul 17.9 36.7% 9.5 50.0% 24.0 John Wall 20.3 35.4% 9.6 45.9% 20.7 Russell Westbrook 24.2 30.1% 9.6 48.6% 29.4

Derrick Rose 14.8 points 24.4% (3-Point shots) 4.8 assists 24.9 assist % PER: 11.1

Gold medal Olympians not included were Kobe Bryant, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. But Carmelo Anthony, who is having a good but not great season, was included.

Training camp begins in Las Vegas on July 18th.

photo via llananba