The United States men’s national basketball team has made yet another round of cuts, and big man Mason Plumlee hasn’t been sent packing just yet.
Team USA cut Bradley Beal, John Wall, and Paul Millsap from the roster, trimming the camp to 16 players, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
USA Basketball cut Washington's John Wall, Bradley Beal and Atlanta's Paul Millsap today, sources told Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 4, 2014
The NBA officially announced the round of cuts Tuesday morning.
The team has four more cuts to make to get down to the national roster size of 12, and it’s been reported that Plumlee’s curried enough favor with Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski to end up earning a roster spot on Team USA as their third big over the far more talented DeMarcus Cousins.
Related: Why Mason Plumlee Makes Sense Over DeMarcus Cousins For Team USA
“This phase of the selection process was extremely difficult and very thorough, and it’s worth again mentioning that we are looking to select the best team, which are not necessarily the best players,” said Managing Director Jerry Colangelo in a prepared statement.
Plumlee played well in the team’s scrimmage against Cousins, scoring ten points in the third quarter with Cousins as his primary assignment. The team will travel to Chicago for the next round of practices on August 14th and 15th, with an exhibition against Brazil on August 16th. It’s not clear exactly when Team USA will make the final cuts, but the FIBA World Cup officially begins on August 30th.
