USA Basketball begins FIBA World Cup prep

The NBA dog days of summer are over with USA Basketball and Tyrese Haliburton to keep us engaged until training camp.

We made it.

After the NBA Draft and Summer League satiated our NBA hunger briefly with empty calories, the past few weeks have been the true dog days of the NBA calendar. Woj did announce the $60+ mil per year extension for Anthony Davis on Friday afternoon, not long after he reported that Frank Ntilikina had signed with the Hornets. There’s been a lot more Frankie Smokes news than AD news these days.

However, Team USA to the rescue!

On Thursday, Tyrese Haliburton and the rest of USA Basketball’s World Cup team started practicing to prepare for their first FIBA WC game in the Philippines on Aug. 26 against New Zealand. But there is plenty to follow with this team up until the World Cup tournament starts, including scrimmages and exhibitions games which should have us swimming in Haliburton info well into September.

On Monday, Team USA plays Puerto Rico in Vegas in their first showcase. With such a quick turnaround, coach Steve Kerr and staff had his squad hit the ground running on Thursday, with a long, competitive scrimmage session.

It was glorious!

Look, we can enjoy Team USA from multiple perspectives. Go USA! Win the gold! Yada Yada…

ALSO, the developmental piece for the Pacers All-Star guard is invaluable. It makes me a little wary, because Paul George was in the exact situation and taking advantage of all of the benefits of the USA Basketball experience, including vicious one-on-one games with Kevin Durant after every practice, until is career (and the Pacers trajectory) was altered drastically by injury.

But forget that, nothing but positive vibes!

A legend of the YouTube realm posted an extended video with the team’s scrimmage (below) which shows just how freaking perfect this situation is for Haliburton. While young, this team is extremely competitive and there will be strong battles for minutes at every position.

Haliburton opened the first scrimmage on the Blue team with Anthony Edwards, Brandon Ingram, Paolo Banchero and Jaren Jackson Jr. which appeared to be an initial starting unit. But the White team with Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Walker Kessler were not giving an inch. Brunson is a straight dog, so regardless of the lineups or who starts, Haliburton battling with Brunson in practice is going to be new positive.

The biggest overall challenge for this team is that there are so many primary playmakers that they need to work through settling on the roles that work best. Anthony Edwards primarily running the offense with Hali on the wing was certainly clunky, whereas we know No. 4 (Hali’s number) can initiate without looking to score first.

But back to the perspective of Haliburton developing for the upcoming Pacers season, the level of competitive play will for an improvement on the defensive end. Brunson isn’t the only defensive dog on this team. Bridges, Josh Hart, Bobby Portis, Cam Johnson are all young and fighting to impress. Not to mention, the team will be scrimmaging the USA Select team over the weekend which is loaded with plenty of talent.

All this to say, it should be a blast following the day-to-day work and progress of alongside the growth of Team USA. Check out the scrimmage.