USA Traveling Roster cut to 15

As we get closer to the World Championships, the USA Roster was cut to 15, and will later be cut to 12. To get it down to 15 they dropped Luke Ridnour, Adam Morrison, and Shawn Marion (who was hurt). That leaves this group left.

Guards
Chris Paul
Dwyane Wade
Gilbert Arenas
Joe Johnson
Kirk Hinrich

Forwards
LeBron James
Carmelo Anthony
Chris Bosh
Bruce Bowen
Elton Brand
Shane Battier
Antawn Jamison
Amare Stoudemire
Dwight Howard

Centers
Brad Miller

3 players will be trimmed from the roster to get it down to 12. If I was in charge, I'd probably keep Amare Stoudemire, Shane Battier, and Gilbert Arenas off the roster. There has to still be some concerns about Stoudemire's knee, which is why he'd be off. Batter is solid, but he does the same things well that Bruce Bowen does well, only Bowen is probably a little better. Arenas is tough to leave out, but I'm not sure he fits in too well. The're probably looking for a backup PG (assuming you put Chris Paul at starter), and I think Hinrich fits the role better. He's not as good of a shooter as Arenas, but he's a better defender.

That would leave a starting lineup that looks something like this:

PG Chris Paul
SG Dwyane Wade
SF LeBron James
PF Elton Brand
C Dwight Howard

That actuall bears a lot of similarity to some other team, which really displays the talent of the club.

Off the bench, you'd have shooters (Joe Johnson, Kirk Hinrich, Bruce Bowen)), scorers (Carmelo Anthony), versatile guys (Johnson, Chris Bosh, Antawn Jamison), defenders (Hinrich, Bowen), and big man depth (Bosh, Brad Miller). Just a nice, well-rounded team. If you're more concerned with having a scorer than defender off the bench in the backcourt, you could take Gilbert Arenas over Kirk Hinrich. With Coach K and the rest of the coaching staff, I think Team USA is in good hands.

In other basketball news, according to the reports, Billy Kings has said that Allen Iverson is staying put in Philadelphia. That sound you hear is a loud sigh of relief for me. First off, it's hard to trust Billy King to get a fair deal for Iverson. Sad, but true. Second, when you have a guy that averages 33 points and 8 assists per game and wants to play there and plays his hardest every night (ok, he takes the occasional practice off, but that doesn't take away from how he plays in the game), it's just not a good idea to trade him. It's not Iverson's fault that King has surrounded him with all the wrong players.