USA Basketball: 1 cut remains after De’Aaron Fox departure

With De’Aaron Fox’s surprising decision to leave USA Basketball’s entry for the FIBA World Cup, the roster is at 13 players roughly 2 weeks out.

Figuring out which 12 players will make up the final roster for the FIBA World Cup got a bit easier for USA Basketball coach Gregg Popovich over the weekend when Sacramento Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox left the squad, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

Fox, who made a huge second-year leap for the Kings last season, had been promoted from the USA Basketball Select Team to the main roster after other players left camp and was reportedly one of the standouts in workouts.

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But after Fox got just six minutes of playing time in Friday night’s 90-81 exhibition victory over Spain in Anaheim, Calif., the player apparently decided it was time to follow so many other potential USA Basketball additions and “focus on the coming season.”

It might not be the best look for Fox, who was in a battle with San Antonio Spurs guard Derrick White for the backup minutes at the point behind Kemba Walker of the Boston Celtics, but it leaves USA Basketball with 13 players remaining on the roster.

The squad is heading to Australia for its final three exhibitions in advance of the World Cup, which opens Aug. 31 in China.

USA Basketball will square off with Australia twice this week, facing the Boomers on Thursday and Saturday in Melbourne. Thursday’s game tips at 5:30 a.m. Eastern, with Saturday’s contest set to begin at midnight Eastern.

From there, the team goes to Sydney for their final warm-up, an exhibition with Canada on Aug. 26, also to tip at 5:30 a.m. Eastern.

The final cut from the roster may still take care of itself. Celtics guard Marcus Smart has been dealing with a calf injury and did not play in the victory over Spain Friday night.

Popovich went with a starting unit of Mason Plumlee of the Denver Nuggets at center with three wings (Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks, Harrison Barnes of the Kings and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz) along with Walker running the show.

Mitchell led the team with 23 minutes and 13 points as USA Basketball saw an 18-point lead cut to eight with four minutes left before putting the Spaniards away with 3-pointers from Joe Harris of the Brooklyn Nets and Jayson Tatum of Boston to go with big steals from Plumlee and Walker that set up buckets.

Whether Friday’s allocation of minutes can provide any indication of whom the last cut from the roster will be remains to be seen — this is Gregg Popovich, after all — but White played just eight minutes, Brook Lopez of the Bucks logged nine and Jaylen Brown of the Celtics played less than 10.

Mitchell, Walker and Tatum were the only players to top 20 minutes, with Middleton and Harris logging 19 each. Kyle Kuzma of the Los Angeles Lakers and Myles Turner of the Indiana Pacers played 17 and 15, respectively.

USA Basketball dominated the glass by a 42-20 margin with a balanced effort led by Walker’s six boards. He also had 11 points, eight assists and two steals as the squad shot 54.8 percent overall and was a sizzling 11-for-19 from deep.

Spain shot only 40.8 percent and was 12-for-25 from 3. Marc Gasol of the Toronto Raptors paced the Spaniards with 19 points in 23 minutes, while Ricky Rubio of the Phoenix Suns added 16 points and seven assists in a team-high 24 minutes.

After the final qualifying window for the World Cup in February, USA Basketball was ranked No. 1 in the world by FIBA, with Spain at No. 2. The rest of the top five entering play in China are France, Serbia and Argentina.

According to Odds Shark, USA Basketball is still an overwhelming favorite to take the World Cup at minus-260, with Serbia next at plus-350. The rest of the field is considered long shots, with Spain (plus-1600), Greece (plus-2000), Canada and France (each at plus-3300) next in line.

USA Basketball will open play at the FIBA World Cup on Sept. 1 at 7:30 a.m. Eastern against the Czech Republic in Group E, which also includes Japan and Turkey.