{"id":136493,"date":"2025-09-12T00:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/136493\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T00:55:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:55:04","slug":"nba-analysts-eyes-cason-wallace-for-team-usa-in-2028-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/136493\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Analysts Eyes Cason Wallace for Team USA in 2028 Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending NBA Champions and eyeing a repeat with a roster that retains 99% of its players from a year ago. The long departure? Dillon Jones to Washington<\/a> in favor of Thomas Sorber, who is now out of the season with an ACL injury<\/a>, after being selected with the No. 15 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. <\/p>\n

This team comes back not only with the benefit of continuity but also with a still young core that continues to display vaulted ceilings, making it likely that the vast majority of this group will improve following their title run. <\/p>\n

The offseason is long. We sit in this in-between phase. Still a tick too early to dive into full-season previews with training camp opening at the end of the month, but not enough offseason fireworks remain to carry full conversations. Outside of the laughable Adam Silver comments<\/a> and the troubles in LaLa Land for the Clippers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This led Zach Lowe to invite Bill Simmons on his podcast<\/a> on Thursday to dissect the possible Olympic squad for Team USA. <\/p>\n

Of course, no matter who makes the squad, the Americans are always expected to dominate international competition, but the 2028 Olympics project to represent a turning of a new leaf for the roster, leaning on a much younger team than in years past. <\/p>\n

In the midst of this discussion, long-time NBA commentator Simmons made his prediction that Oklahoma City Thunder standout Cason Wallace can crack the roster for Team USA. <\/p>\n

“It’s a bet on him on what he’s going to be like in the next couple of years. You figure Lu Dort and [Alex] Caruso, I don’t think they have both in a couple of years. The Second Apron makes it impossible. He’s going to keep getting big minutes in big games. I think he’ll have to handle the ball a little more as the years pass. Maybe he can be my second ball-handler,” Simmons explained on the Zach Lowe Podcast. <\/p>\n

Wallace enters year three with plenty of expectations. He has to return to his rookie year form from beyond the arc after seeing his percentage drop from 42% to 35% a year ago. His elite-level defense is worthy of consideration for the squad already, but as Simmons points out, imagining what he will be in 2028 makes this pick more appealing. <\/p>\n

Not only does the Kentucky product project to improve as a shooter, but his elite-level cutting provides viability on the offensive end, with his game continuing to evolve on the ball. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending NBA Champions and eyeing a repeat with a roster that retains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-136493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}