Miller, Oden and Durant will book an Olympic spot for Team USA

But Argentina's Mainoldi and Brazil's Tiago Splitter are among the young talent to look out for at the upcoming FIBA Americas tournament.

FAN NEWS(David Kerr, Sportingo) -The majority of teams are going with a mature roster of proven stars at this tournament. However, there are a few teams with some young players who could really make an impact.

The US will be strong, with an envious line-up gracing the court.  The average height of the US team is 6ft 8ins - the tallest of teams competing without doubt.  And they have included two future NBA all-stars in Greg Oden and Kevin Durant and other impressive talents like Mike Miller. While the coaching staff will just be looking at these guys for the future, they will no doubt want to make an impact and improve their stock. Miller is an impressive 3-point shooter and will be very exciting to watch.

Argentina will be looking to make it to the final and ensure their Olympic qualification. They are on the smaller side this tourmaent, averaging 6ft 6ins in height across the team. They have really gone for a mature, skilled team in their selection, yet  they do have a couple of young players who could impress.

These are Antonio Porta, Leonardo Andres Mainoldi and Juan Gutierrez. Porta is a small and fiery PG at 6ft 2ins with good skills and speed across the court. Mainoldi is a 22-year-old forward at 6ft' 8ins who can impress everyone with a good showing at the tournament.  Gutierrez is a smallish center at 6ft '9ins but has a big body and can use it well to rebound and position himself around the basket.

The Brazil team is always a little unpredictable and dangerous.  They have a decent team and not as many stars missing as Argentina. They have a very dangerous player in Tiago Splitter, a 6ft 11ins FC who was drafted last year by San Antonio Spurs at No 28. He has been tearing it up in Tau Vitoria in Spain and will be one to watch. Oden and he would be a great match-up if it came about during the tournament. He has a great court awareness, an intensity to his game and an impressive 7ft 2ins wingspan.

Paul Sergio Prestes, who was at the recent World Under-19 championships, is very young and talented. He has a very big body already and great rebounding instincts. He can play the Forward or Center role well, more likely the forward role in this team.

Another young Brazilian player to watch out for is the explosively quick and elusive young point guard Marcelo Huertas. He is only 6ft 3ins but has an awesome handle and could really shine. 

Puerto Rico have some major young talent. Peter John Ramos is a huge 7ft 3ins Center currently playing in the DLeague. Puerto Rico have no shortage of young bigs, and they also have Ricarod Sanchez Rosa. He is a 20-year-old 7ft center, Puerto Rico's equivalent of Oden. Ivan Lopez and Angel Vasallo are another couple of young players to look out for on the Puerto Rican team.

It's hard to see any of the other teams getting through to the final four of this tournament. These are the four teams who will be competing for the two Olympic qualifying spots. Because of all that's been said about the Argentinian team in the lead up, I am predicting they will rise to the occasion. All the talk has been about stars missing, some for personal reasons, others for valid medical reasons. There has even been speculation that the players are not happy with the national coach. Brazil will perhaps go closest to giving them a real scare and are a huge threat, but I don't think they have the consistency in their game to pull off a finals spot.

Out of all the young talent that's going to be there, everyone is looking forward to seeing how well Oden and Durant perform on this big stage. However I'll be looking out for Mike Miller and Tiago Splitter and all the other young bucks who have nothing to lose.

* This article is written by a basketball fan and is based on personnal opinions that does not reflect the views of FIBA. Fan articles are part of the Sportingo Network and are brought to you for discussion & opinion matters.