USA - Speculation mounts on select team; extension confirmed

NEW YORK (Olympics) - The USA Select team has been a vital part of the country's return to the top of international basketball with many members having graduated to the senior side coached by Mike Krzyzewski.

Though the select squad has yet to be announced, there is media speculation that the Americans are planning to include New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin and others with stardom in their future.

If reports are true, Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors (both Utah), DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento), Klay Thompson (Golden State), Kyrie Irving (Cleveland), John Wall (Washington), DeMar DeRozan (Toronto), Paul George (Indiana), Kawhi Leonard and DeJuan Blair (San Antonio), Ryan Anderson (Orlando) and Taj Gibson (Chicago) will also be invited.

Meanwhile, USA Basketball confirmed on Monday that the country's Olympic Committee (USOC) had granted a two-week extension for the naming of the 12 players who will travel to London and compete at the Olympics.

The Americans wanted the additional time because of a rash of injuries that have made Derrick Rose, Chauncey Billups, LaMarcus Aldridge and Dwight Howard unavailable.

The four were among the 20 finalists with a chance to compete in London.

“We felt that it would be in the best interest of our selection process to give ourselves more time to finalize the USA roster,” said Jerry Colangelo, the USA Basketball president.

“I want to personally thank USOC CEO Scott Blackman for his understanding and assistance with securing the extension.

“We want to remain flexible and see how things play out during the NBA Playoffs.

"In addition to the unfortunate injuries suffered by four of our players, we anticipate that other finalists will advance deep into the play-offs, and we also anticipate having to consider some free agency developments.

"Doing it this way will give us the opportunity to look at the status of every player who is involved in our program.

“Our plan now is for a group of national team finalists to assemble in Las Vegas on 5 July for the start of our training camp and we’ll conduct two practices before making the final selection decision about our team on 7 July."

Krzyzewski, meanwhile, has bemoaned the loss of last year's NBA MVP Rose to an ACL injury.

The Chicago Bulls star got hurt in the recent play-off series with Philadelphia.

"I love Derrick," Krzyzewski said at the Team USA media summit.

"He helped us win a World Championship in Istanbul (in 2010). He's our starting point guard.

“I thought he grew a lot from that experience. He's somebody in the future I know will be a point guard for our Olympic team.

"He's a team player. No one pushes the ball down the court any quicker than he does.

“He can be an outstanding defensive player. Our hearts go out to him.

“It was a big loss for our team.

“Hopefully the surgery he had just a day or so ago will be proven to be very successful."

FIBA