The Knicks and Nets won’t have anyone on the U.S. team in the FIBA World Cup this fall, but there will be a pair of locals participating in the team’s training camp.
League sources confirmed both the Knicks’ Tim Hardaway Jr. and the Nets’ Mason Plumlee will be traveling to Las Vegas to play for the U.S. Select Team, a group of young players from around the NBA that will practice against the U.S. Men’s National Team during its training camp in Las Vegas later this month.
Hardaway — like Plumlee, an All-Rookie First Team selection this past season — averaged 10.2 points and shot 36 percent from 3-point range as a rookie, and entered Friday’s action averaging 21.8 points per game in Summer League action in Las Vegas. Plumlee, who averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 65.9 percent from the floor for the Nets as a rookie, averaged 18 points per game in three Summer League games in Orlando, Fla., earlier this month.
In addition to Hardaway and Plumlee, Bulls draftee Doug McDermott, Magic guard Victor Oladipo and forward Tobias Harris and Suns center Miles Plumlee — Mason’s brother — also reportedly will be members of the Select Team.
Making the Select Team is often a first step to being part of the pool of players eligible to make the U.S. Men’s National Team to play in either the World Cup or in the Olympics, with current national team members Kyrie Irving and DeMarcus Cousins serving as examples.
The World Cup — formerly called the World Championships — will take place from Aug. 30 to Sept. 14 in Spain.