While the 2016 Rio Olympics are on the horizon, the field of mens basketball teams that will participate is very much undecided. Only Team USA, who qualified by winning the 2014 FIBA World Cup last summer, and host team Brazil are guaranteed to participate. The pre-requisite for filling one of the 10 remaining slots is simple: Win a qualifying tournament (or place appropriately in a qualifying tournament).
Here's a list of said tournaments:
Tournament
Dates
Location
Qualify
2015 FIBA Oceania
Aug 15-18
Various
First Place
2015 AfroBasket
Aug 20-30
Tunisia
First Place
2015 FIBA Americas
Aug 31 - Sept 12
Mexico City
First, Second
EuroBasket 2015
Sept 5-20
Various
First, Second
2015 FIBA Asia
Sept 23 - Oct 3
Changsha
First Place
*FIBA World Olympic Qualifier
July 5-11, 2016
TBA
First, Second, Third
*The best non-champions from each of FIBA's continental championships qualify for this tournament.
Three of Portland's offseason additions are heavily involved with international play, including Mason Plumlee (Team USA), Al-Farouq Amino (Nigeria) and Moe Harkless (Puerto Rico).
While Moe and the Puerto Rican team are preparing for the FIBA Americas Championship, they appear to have found some down time for fun on social media. Per the Instagram posts below, Harkless and fellow Puerto Rican Ramon Clemente interviewed a J.J. Barea cut-out with a banana AND taught a faux defender how to accurately do the Nae Nae.
The Puerto Rican team tips-off FIBA Americas action August 31st, a tournament that may also feature another Trail Blazers offseason addition, Luis Montero. Amino and Team Nigeria begin their AfroBasket journey Tuesday, August 25th against Morocco. Plumlee and Team USA have a summer free of official competition, although they are currently holding a mini-camp in Las Vegas, which culminates with the intrasquad 'Showcase' Thursday evening (7:30 pm/ESPN2).