Cade Cunningham, Thunder Players Among Those Named In USAB Select Team

United States Basketball announced their 11-man roster for the 2023 USA Men’s Select Team on Monday.

Among the roster of eleven players, three of them are well-known throughout the state of Oklahoma, at both the collegiate and professional levels of basketball.

Cade Cunningham, formerly of the Oklahoma State Cowboys and currently a member of the Detroit Pistons, was one of the more notable names listed on the Select Team roster.

Cunningham, who was the consensus first overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, is looking to bounce back from a shin injury and subsequent surgery that ended his second season as a professional prematurely, as he was sidelined from action in December of last year. He would only appear in twelve games during the Pistons’ 2022 campaign.

Cunningham will be accompanied by two Thunder players, as Chet Holmgren was named as a part of the 11-man Select Team squad, along with Jalen Williams, his current teammate in Oklahoma City.

Holmgren, who is also coming off a lengthy injury, will be looking to show the NBA world his abilities for the USA Select Team going into his first full season with the Thunder.

The 2022-23 season was expected to be Holmgren’s rookie year in the NBA, as he was selected second overall in that year’s draft; however, he was ruled out for the entire season in August of 2022 due to a Lisfranc injury in his foot.

Jalen Williams, Holmgren’s teammate in Oklahoma City, will also be in Las Vegas next week with the Select Team ahead of their three-day joint practice with the full-strength USA team which normally competes during the Olympics.

Selected 12th overall in the same draft as his Thunder counterpart, the small forward averaged more than 14 points per game during his rookie season, appearing in 75 games.