It’s still summer and the only thing going on for hoops junkies right now is the exhibition circuit leading up to the FIBA World Cup (never have I been this excited to watch Puerto Ricans play basketball). The vast majority of American/Canadian basketball media have spent a countless amount of virtual ink discussing who will make Team USA’s final 12, like it’s the most important debate since Magic or Bird.

Like any good back-and-forth about which basketball player one should choose over another, there are a wide variety of dissenting opinions – some reasonable, others basketball-reference.com’s position estimates where it wasn’t (for example, Gordon Hayward plays more small forward than shooting guard). Finally, I melded power forward and center together, since there is only one true power forward left in camp (Kenneth Faried).

Also worth noting, since Derrick Rose only played 10 games last season and his -1.9 nERD is not very representative of who he is as a player, I used his last “healthy” season of 2011-12 - when he played 39 games - for the exercise. Considering reports from camp have ranged from “Wow, he’s so healthy and explosive” to “Oh no, he’s sore,” I figured that choosing the campaign where he was kind of healthy but not really seemed right.

Player Pool

Here’s everyone who has been part of the player pool, ranked by nERD. This is based on the 21 players that have been in camp, ignoring cuts, injuries, and withdrawals.

Initial Team Selected by nERD

Starters

PG: Stephen Curry
SG: James Harden
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: Anthony Davis
C: Andre Drummond

Reserves

SF: Paul George
PG: Derrick Rose
PG: Damian Lillard
C: DeMarcus Cousins
SF: DeMar DeRozan
C: Mason Plumlee
SG: Kyle Korver

First of all, a starting frontcourt of Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond is very unrealistic, considering Drummond is only 21 and probably won’t make this team just yet, but darn if that isn’t a scary/drool-worthy combination. Otherwise, it’s kind of hard to find too much fault in this as a balanced squad. Plumlee surprisingly makes it, so maybe Coach K is onto something with him, although I personally prefer Faried there (missed out by only 0.1). It’s interesting to note that using this method could be a way of justifying the initial cuts of John Wall, Paul Millsap, and Bradley Beal.

Current Team Selected by nERD

Starters

PG: Stephen Curry
SG: James Harden
SF: DeMar DeRozan
PF: Anthony Davis
C: Andre Drummond

Reserves

PG: Derrick Rose
PG: Damian Lillard
C: DeMarcus Cousins
C: Mason Plumlee
PF: Kenneth Faried
SF: Chandler Parsons
SG: Kyle Korver

In this iteration, Faried and Chandler Parsons step in to replace the injured Paul George and the recently withdrawn Kevin Durant, while everything else remains the same. That means that the cuts from the 16 players left in the pool at this point would be Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Rudy Gay, and Gordon Hayward. Again, I have no issue with the choices made by the numbers and my arbitrary selection system here (natch). Irving and Damian Lillard have somewhat redundant skill sets, as do Klay and Kyle Korver. Rudy Gay was a late addition to even out practice squads after Durant pulled out and Hayward is rumored to be firmly on the chopping block. For those reasons, every one of those guys being omitted from the final roster would make sense.

Way to go, math.

This method is pretty limited, of course, because it doesn't account for team needs, chemistry, attitudes, age, affiliations, or - most importantly - the thoughts and desires of Team USA's coaching staff. Of course, that last one is something fundamentally missing from 99% of the arguments on the matter. None of us knows exactly what Coaches Krzyzewski, Thibodeau, etc. are going to do. It certainly doesn't make debating it any less fun, whether we're right or wrong.

With that in mind, now that you know what our algorithms say, what's your opinion?