Undersized U.S. has a gameplan: Run, run and run some more

For the United States, winning the World Championship for the first time in 16 years will be tough enough without the 12 players who brought gold home from Beijing two years ago. And it will be even tougher with the U.S. team's lack of size. That will be an issue throughout the tournament.

So while Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were the big names on that 2008 Olympic squad, Dwight Howard might be missed the most this year at the World Championship.

When USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo and head coach Mike Krzyzewski cut their roster down from 19 to 15 on Wednesday, they left themselves with just two true centers. And Colangelo admits that one of them, the Nets' Brook Lopez, will have his work cut out in trying to make the final 12-man roster. Lopez showed up for last week's training camp in Las Vegas out of shape after a bout with mono earlier in the summer.

So with JaVale McGee cut on Wednesday -- but perhaps asked not to go on vacation just yet -- there's a strong possibility that the U.S. will carry just one center, Tyson Chandler, on the roster it must submit two days before the Worlds begin on Aug. 28. Krzyzewski said Wednesday that, at this point, the two centers in his rotation will be Chandler and Lamar Odom, who has neither the size nor the skills of a real five man.

"It won't be a traditional five for us," Krzyzewski said, "the way we play."

Small forwards Kevin Durant and Rudy Gay will move over and play the four. The U.S. did fine with Carmelo Anthony and James playing the four from 2006-2008, but they had Howard next to them. And Odom is certainly not Dwight Howard.

None of this was the plan, of course. Amar'e Stoudemire was supposed to be the starting center and David Lee was supposed to be a key guy in the rotation, if not the starting power forward. But the Knicks took Stoudemire's name off the roster the night before camp began and Lee injured his finger an hour into the first day of training.

Suddenly, Krzyzewski and his staff had to re-make the identity of his team.

"We came into the camp thinking we were going to have Stoudemire and Lee," Krzyzewski said Wednesday. "And we were going to put in a system that would use their talents. They're two All-Star players. And when they left, we're looking at developing a system with these [remaining] guys."

That system will depend on quickness, athleticism and shooting on the perimeter. But without an offensive presence in the paint or a dangerous pick-and-roll threat, the guards and wings will need to create shots for each other with dribble penetration. That game plan is tougher to pull off in the international game, where there's no defensive three-second infraction.

To avoid half-court struggles, Krzyzewski would like his team to run as much as possible. Defenders like Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo and Andre Iguodala will force plenty of turnovers to get into the running mode. But when they don't, they won't be able to run until they secure a rebound.

And that may be a major issue.

"We're going to have to rely on really good perimeter defense to make sure that we don't get hurt inside," Krzyzewski said.

Chandler is 7-foot-1 and defends the rim well, but he's not Howard. In fact, the U.S. team's best rebounder is Kevin Love (15.3 boards per 40 minutes last season), who doesn't have the foot speed that Chandler and Odom have. So the U.S. must have a gang-rebound mentality, and the guards will have to stay back and help out on the glass before they get out and run.

Expect the U.S. to use a more traditional lineup, with Chandler at the five and Odom or Love at the four, at times against the bigger opponents. But having made the commitment to an unconventional rotation, they will still play Odom for significant minutes at the five and hope they can force their opponents to adjust to them.

Will it work? It's going to have to, because Howard, Stoudemire and Lee aren't walking through that door.

John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here and follow him on twitter.

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