Rondo, Rose included on point guard-heavy Team USA roster

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, July 24, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

In recent years, many have referred to the NBA as a point guard-driven league.

That’s evidenced nowhere better than this week’s Team USA training camp in Las Vegas. Six of the 19 players invited to compete for a spot on the national team leading up to September’s World Championship in Turkey are NBA point guards.

Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski does not see this as a problem. In fact, Krzyzewski said it would be an advantage because point guard play is such a key to success in international events.

“We have six guys who play point guard for their team, but that doesn’t mean that’s what we want,” Krzyzewski said. “We want them to be guards. Whoever brings the ball up, it’s going to depend who you are in with.”

Krzyzewski plans to be creative in using the six — Boston’s Rajon Rondo, Denver’s Chauncey Billups, Chicago’s Derrick Rose, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Sacramento’s Tyreke Evans — all summer and when Team USA holds its annual showcase at 7 p.m. today at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Krzyzewski said two players from that group would be in together at all times. Tonight’s scrimmage against the USA Select Team, which features 20 of the top college players in the country, will serve as a good way for Krzyzewski to see how his team plays in a game situation after four days of practices at the Cox Pavilion.

“We’ve been trying to simulate games here with 10-minute quarters, but (tonight) is the real deal with a 40-minute game,” Rondo said. “We’re going to see how we translate this whole week and put on a good show tomorrow.”

As the two with the most professional experience, Billups and Rondo are expected to start or at least play the most minutes at point guard for Team USA.

But that doesn’t mean Krzyzewski expects guys like Rose and Westbrook to accept a diminished role. Krzyzewski has pointed toward the 2008 Olympic team, which won gold in Beijing, on how they may be used.

“I talked to Derrick and Russell and told them we had (Chris) Paul, Deron (Williams) and (Dwyane) Wade all come off of the bench for us,” Krzyzewski said. “So maybe that’s how we’ll use those guys. We’re trying to personalize the system to what’s best for this team.”

No issues emerged when Rose and Westbrook were on the floor together during a scrimmage at the end of Friday’s practice. The two clearly played off of each other and made some of the biggest highlights of the day.

After a steal on the defensive end, Rose flew down the floor and hit Westbrook with a behind the back pass that he converted into a layup.

“Every day, I’m getting used to everything,” Rose said. “I think we’ve all been quick to jell and we’re all playing good together.”

Rondo said it was important to have a lot of options at point guard because of the full court pressure Team USA expected to both implement and encounter overseas.

“A lot of teams press and I know we do,” Rondo said. “So we need to have an advantage by having point guards who can set that up.”

What remains to be seen is how many point guards Team USA will keep before its trip to Turkey. Krzyzewski said he wanted the roster down to 15 players at the end of this week.

After August’s training camp in New York, he expects to cut three more to form a roster of 12 players. Don’t assume a couple of the point guards are destined to miss the team because of Team USA’s depth at position.

According to Krzyzewski, that’s not the case.

“At two spots and even a third spot, we could have three guards like that in there at one time,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re looking at that because you’ve got to figure out how to get the best players, the best talents on this team.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.