The U.S. Olympic ladies’s basketball roster for the Paris Video games is out, and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark will not be on it.
Clark is averaging 16.8 factors, 5.3 rebounds, and 6.3 assists by 12 video games — robust numbers for any WNBA level guard, not to mention a rookie. However she has struggled with turnovers as Indiana’s main ball handler, main the league with 5.6 per recreation.
And whereas her immense reputation and projection as a longtime star of the WNBA made her a powerful candidate for the staff, it was not sufficient when stacked up in opposition to a deep pool of proficient, skilled guards.
The U.S. Olympic staff is chosen by a six-member panel, and USA Basketball has not confirmed who’s on the staff. That announcement is anticipated to return within the subsequent few days. ESPN confirmed Saturday that Clark is not on the roster. The Athletic and The Related Press have reported that these gamers have made the squad:
Guard Diana Taurasi, middle Brittney Griner and guard/ahead Kahleah Copper of the Phoenix Mercury; guards Chelsea Grey, Jackie Younger and Kelsey Plum, and ahead A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces; ahead Breanna Stewart and guard Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty; guard Jewell Loyd of the Seattle Storm; ahead Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx; ahead Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Solar.
Together with a WNBA rookie on the Olympic squad is much from unprecedented: The US did it with Taurasi in 2004, Candace Parker in 2008 and Stewart in 2016. And within the 12 months earlier than the WNBA launched, Rebecca Lobo was included on the 1996 Olympic staff after graduating from UConn in 1995.
Is USA Basketball leaving some worthwhile issues on the desk by not discovering a spot for Clark, regardless of having so many veteran guards? Is it for the perfect that Clark — who has had a nonstop schedule for the reason that begin of the school season final fall — may have time to relaxation throughout the Olympic break? Michael Voepel, Alexa Philippou and Kevin Pelton study the choice, the explanations and doable repercussions.
Ought to Caitlin Clark have made the Olympic staff?
Voepel: Clark did sufficient to earn a spot, however I am not shocked it did not occur. As has been the case for many years, USA Basketball has by far the largest ladies’s basketball expertise pool of any nation. This Olympic cycle, that is very true at guard.
Taurasi is essentially the most skilled guard, however Grey, Younger, Plum, Ionescu and Loyd are all skilled, too, and all however Ionescu are Olympic veterans. (Younger and Plum gained 3×3 gold within the Tokyo Video games.) Two different Olympic newcomers, Thomas and Copper, aren’t pure guards however carry out lots of guard duties. Thomas leads the WNBA in assists. Thomas and Copper are also two of the perfect defenders on this planet who can guard a number of positions.
Taurasi and Sue Chook have been the pillars of Group USA’s backcourt from their time leaving UConn as teammates within the early 2000s to Chook’s retirement after the 2022 season. Neither performed on the 2022 FIBA Ladies’s World Cup staff, which gained gold. However Taurasi has performed properly sufficient thus far in her twentieth WNBA season — and is so valued for her management — that she’s again for what may lastly be her final Olympics.
Different younger guards — such because the Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale, second within the WNBA in scoring — did not make the Olympic staff, both. However she’s additionally not a real level guard, so it isn’t a direct comparability to Clark.
Lastly, USA Basketball does not have a historical past of placing as a lot emphasis on advertising and marketing — or being significantly savvy about it — as you may suppose. When the Individuals went on a monthslong tour earlier than the 1996 Olympics with what was the ladies’s model of a “Dream Group,” it was paid for by the NBA, which was seeking to launch the WNBA in 1997. Lobo was the younger, widespread and inexperienced star then, and though she was included on the Olympic staff, you may attribute that extra to the NBA/WNBA affect.
Philippou: I am not shocked Clark did not make it given the opposite guards who have been forward of her within the USA Basketball expertise pool. Taurasi realistically wasn’t going to be left off if she was wholesome. And assuming Grey is able to play — she has but to play within the WNBA this season as she continues her manner again from an harm final fall within the WNBA Finals — it is much more troublesome for a rookie guard like Clark to interrupt by.
Plum, Younger and Loyd — all former Olympians from the 3×3 or 5-on-5 squads — have been basically locks. Earlier than Clark took the game by storm, Ionescu felt like the subsequent guard in line to make the soar to the senior Olympic staff: She was a part of the 2022 World Cup gold medal-winning squad, had been a daily at USA Basketball coaching camps, and has come into her personal during the last season-plus within the WNBA. In the meantime, Clark’s first nationwide staff camp invite got here this previous April, and he or she could not attend since she was taking part in within the Ultimate 4. Sure, having Clark on the staff would have helped develop the subsequent technology of Olympians, however USA Basketball achieves a few of that by tabbing Ionescu and Younger, each 26.
It feels as if many of the discourse arguing for Clark’s inclusion has centered on the fandom and protection she would convey to the staff and that it will give her Olympic expertise as a future star of this system — each legitimate factors. However on the finish of the day, significantly if Grey is wholesome and might run the purpose, there was not a clear-cut basketball motive Clark wanted to be on the roster.
As a lot as Clark is probably going disillusioned to not make it, there’s a silver lining: She’ll get a month with out video games — the WNBA will break for the Olympics from July 21 by Aug. 14 — to mentally and bodily reset after a grueling year-plus. And at solely 22 now, it appears all however assured she’ll be on the roster for Los Angeles in 2028, when she’ll have rather more professional expertise and can undoubtedly have a bigger function.
Pelton: I might have picked Clark so she may have gotten the identical expertise Chook bought in 2004 in Athens, when Chook rode the bench whereas veteran Daybreak Staley performed the majority of the minutes in her third Olympics. Understanding what the Olympics and USA Basketball tradition are all about helped Chook when she turned the starter and continued that gold medal streak all through her 5 Olympics.
That mentioned, there’s no person besides Taurasi — like Clark, not one of many 12 greatest American gamers within the WNBA at this stage of her profession — I might say she deserved to beat out for a spot.
If there’s an harm, may Clark or one other participant be added? How late can roster adjustments be made?
Pelton: Ultimate rosters aren’t due till simply earlier than the beginning of the Olympics, so USA Basketball naming its 12 greater than a month and a half earlier than opening ceremonies on July 26 is primarily about permitting gamers to plan forward.
As a result of each U.S. participant is lively within the WNBA, their preparation will not embrace the sort of prolonged coaching camp with roster cuts most nationwide groups are in a position to maintain. That needed to occur with camps throughout the WNBA offseason, most just lately throughout the NCAA Ultimate 4, a camp Clark was unable to attend as a result of she was busy main Iowa to the title recreation.
The flip facet of that’s the preliminary 12-player roster will not essentially be the ultimate one. Specifically, Grey’s return is value monitoring — she’s nonetheless getting back from the foot harm she suffered in final 12 months’s Finals. If it does not go to plan, Clark could be a logical substitute for Grey’s ballhandling potential.
Ought to Clark have been a candidate for the 3×3 staff, which was introduced earlier this week?
Voepel: Clark did not even appear to consider herself as a candidate — and with no 3×3 match on her résumé within the final 18 months, she technically wasn’t eligible. The game has tried — as a lot as doable — to guard spots in main competitions to those that’ve dedicated to 3×3.
Nonetheless, had there been a manner, Clark on the 3×3 staff may have given her Olympic expertise for a future 5-on-5 spot, which is what occurred with Plum and Younger. Within the Tokyo Video games, 3×3 proved highly regarded with viewers when it debuted. Since there are solely 4 gamers to a staff, all of them get taking part in time.
The gamers who made it on the Individuals’ 3×3 staff — the Los Angeles Sparks’ Cameron Brink, Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard, TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, and former Tennessee and WNBA participant Cierra Burdick — all are good selections to attempt to repeat the Individuals’ gold medal.
Is that this essentially the most controversial roster decide for the ladies’s U.S. Olympic staff?
Voepel: No, however it should get essentially the most consideration as a result of that is the case with every thing involving Clark. She has introduced in followers who not often or by no means watched ladies’s basketball earlier than. The scale of the crowds she performs in entrance of and the TV scores her groups get are monumental. She’s a phenomenon. However there’s lots of pressure between longtime WNBA followers who really feel the newer followers disrespect the league’s historical past and gamers and newer followers who say, “Let up on the gatekeeping.” Chalk up these debates as simply a part of the league’s continued progress.
That mentioned, essentially the most egregious snub by USA Basketball was not giving Nneka Ogwumike a spot by three Olympic cycles: When she was the No. 1 decide in 2012, when she was the league MVP in 2016, and when she was nonetheless an efficient veteran in 2021. Ogwumike was coping with a knee harm in 2021, which was steered as the rationale she was left off. However Griner and Grey have been included this 12 months regardless of harm questions.
It is affordable to say, “Clark is 22, so her probability will come.” And that is very probably true. My concern is we thought the identical factor about Ogwumike.
One other controversial choice that may by no means be forgotten by the Tennessee Girl Vols fan base was Candace Parker’s omission in 2016 after she had gained gold in 2008 and 2012. The friction between Parker and Group USA coach Geno Auriemma of UConn contributed to that. But it surely was additionally an Olympic cycle with lots of prime submit gamers. The league MVP (Ogwumike) and WNBA Finals MVP (Parker) that 12 months did not make the Olympic staff. They did, nonetheless, win the WNBA championship.
Which gamers are making their 5-on-5 Olympics debut? How a lot taking part in time will they get?
Voepel: Most likely so much. Thomas, who turned 32 in April, one way or the other appears to be getting higher with age. She did not win the WNBA MVP award final season however had a authentic declare to it. Copper, the 2021 WNBA Finals MVP, turns 30 in August and thus far is having her greatest WNBA season. Plum and Younger have needed to carry the Aces’ guard play with Grey out thus far, and they’re distinctive all-around gamers.
So, it is a totally different Olympic cycle for the U.S. staff. There isn’t any one coming in anticipating to principally simply watch and be taught. The youngest members of the staff are each 26-year-old All-Stars and No. 1 picks: Ionescu was born in December 1997 and Younger in September 1997. It is notable that they performed collegiately at Oregon and Notre Dame, respectively. The youngest participant on the U.S. staff for every of the previous seven Olympics was from both UConn or Tennessee.
Past Clark, what’s your greatest takeaway from the roster?
Philippou: The well being statuses of Griner and Grey have been prime of thoughts. Griner made her season debut Friday, coming back from a preseason toe fracture. The Aces have not disclosed when Grey may return however have emphasised that they are making an attempt to not rush her again.
I might take Grey’s inclusion on this roster to imply she is wholesome sufficient to play in Paris (and that she might be near returning to the WNBA, too); if that does not turn into the case, USA Basketball will surely face questions over its decision-making.