Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland has just been announced as one of 17 players named to the 2021 USA Basketball Select Team that will train with the USA Basketball Men’s National Team during its Las Vegas training camp from July 6-9. Garland previously took part on the USA Junior National Select Team that participated in the Nike Hoop Summit in 2018.
Garland finished the 2020-21 regular season with career highs in points (17.4), rebounds (2.4), assists (6.1, 18th-best in NBA), steals (1.22), minutes (33.1), field goal percentage (.451) and three-point percentage (.395). The second-year guard received three votes for the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award and was one of only four players in the NBA who averaged at least 17.0 points and 6.0 assists while shooting .390 from three and .840 from the foul line (Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry).
Below is the official press release from USA Basketball:
Colorado Springs, Colorado (July 1, 2021) – Featuring 14 players owning USA Basketball experience, 17 athletes have been selected to the 2021 USA Basketball Select Team that will train with the USA Basketball Men’s National Team during its Las Vegas training camp.
The Select Team features a roster of 13 young standout NBA players and four veteran players with international and USA Basketball experience.Members of the USA Select Team will train daily with the USA National Team from July 6-9 at UNLV’s Mendenhall Center.
Named to the 2021 USA Basketball Select Team were: Saddiq Bey (Detroit Pistons/Villanova); Miles Bridges (Charlotte Hornets/Michigan State); Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves/Georgia); Darius Garland (Cleveland Cavaliers/Vanderbilt); Tyrese Haliburton (Sacramento Kings/Iowa State); Tyler Herro (Miami Heat/Kentucky); John Jenkins (Bilbao Basket, Italy/Vanderbilt); Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs/Kentucky); Josh Magette (Darüşşafaka Tekfen, Turkey/Alabama-Huntsville); Dakota Mathias (Philadelphia 76ers/Purdue); Immanuel Quickly (New York Knicks/Kentucky); Naz Reid (Minnesota Timberwolves/LSU); Cam Reynolds (Houston Rockets/Tulane); Isaiah Stewart (Detroit Pistons/Washington); Obi Toppin (New York Knicks/Dayton); P.J. Washington (Charlotte Hornets/Kentucky); and Patrick Williams (Chicago Bulls/Florida State).
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra will serve as head coach of the 2021 USA Select Team, and serving as assistant coaches will be Gonzaga University head coach Mark Few, who served as an assistant coach with the 2019 USA Select Team and head coach of the 2015 U.S. Pan American Games Team, as well as Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley, who served as an assistant coach at the 2018 USA National Team minicamp.
“This USA Select Team continues the legacy established by previous Select teams of helping prepare our USA National Team for the Tokyo Olympic Games,” said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball Men’s National Team managing director. “With all the uncertainty of how many of our Olympic Team members will be available for the USA training camp because of the overlap with the NBA Finals, we chose a USA Select Team consisting of many of the top young NBA players and four players who not only own international experience, but who played recently for USA Basketball in important national team qualifying competitions. If we need to add players to fill out our roster for any of our exhibition games, we feel this USA Select Team has an excellent variety of skilled players to choose from.”
Garland (2018), Herro (2018), Johnson (2018) and Stewart (2019) were all selected for USA Junior National Select Teams that participated in the Nike Hoop Summit.
Haliburton was a member of the 2019 USA U19 World Cup team that captured the gold medal; Jenkins was part of the 2011 USA World University Games Team; Quickley was part of bronze medalist 2017 USA U19 World Cup and the gold medalist 2016 U17 World Cup teams; Stewart played on the gold medalist 2018 U17 World Cup Team; Washington was a member of the bronze medalist 2017 U19 World Cup Team, the gold medalist 2016 USA U18 Championship Team and was on the 2015 USA 3x3 U18 World Cup Team. Additionally, Edwards, Garland, Herro, Johnson, Quickley, Reid, Stewart and Washington were all part of USA Basketball’s Junior National Team program, and Bridges was part of the 2016 U18 Championship Team trials.