USA Basketball is in the midst of its training camp in Las Vegas as they look to whittle down their roster to 12 ahead of the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Fielding a training camp roster was a difficult task in its own right, as the majority of top NBA stars turned down the invite, choosing to focus on the upcoming season.
Whether it was fear of fatigue or not wanting to risk being the face of a team that could potentially not win gold, USA Basketball had to dig deeper down the player pool than usual to fill out the roster. The good news is the player pool for the U.S. is much deeper than any other country, and it gave a number of players the opportunity to represent their country that otherwise wouldn’t get that chance in a major tournament.
Marcus Smart is among those late adds to the roster with a hope of being one of four Celtics to make the final roster, but unfortunately, he is dealing with calf tightness and will miss the remainder of camp.
Boston's Marcus Smart is out indefinitely for Team USA with calf tightness. Will be re-evaluated next week …
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 7, 2019
Marcus Smart has a left calf injury and is out for the rest of Team USA training camp in Vegas. He will be re-evaluated next week in LA.
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) August 7, 2019
This doesn’t mean he’s off the roster, but it does hamper his ability to show what he could bring to the team the rest of the week. We’ll find out soon enough what players will be heading to China for the tournament, but for now the concern for Smart is being fully healthy before he can even consider being on the roster.
