Two years out: Projecting the 2028 U.S. men’s basketball roster for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

LAS VEGAS — No LeBron James. Stephen Curry? Probably not. What about Kevin Durant? Team USA is going to look different than it did in Paris.

Tuesday — July 14, 2028 — marks two years from the opening ceremonies officially kicking off the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. USA Basketball will enter as favorites and the five-time defending men’s basketball gold medalists — but this team will look very different from the one four years ago. And it will face the stiffest competition Olympic men’s basketball has ever seen.

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Just as the generations are changing in the NBA, so too will it be on the USA Men’s Basketball roster, with some holdovers and plenty of star power, but many new names under coach Erik Spoelstra.

To project who will be on the USA roster in two years, I spoke with a number of front office personnel, scouts, and a couple of veteran media members, compiling a list of who might be those new faces. Let’s project who will be on that roster, starting with the locks to make the roster

Team USA Locks

• Anthony Edwards
• Tyrese Haliburton
• Jayson Tatum
• Cade Cunningham
• Cooper Flagg
• Bam Adebayo

None of these names should be a surprise. Edwards was an early star in Paris and averaged 12.8 points a game. Tatum and Haliburton were on that team as well, even if Hali made a joke out of how little he played.

When I posed a roster question to one former Team USA member, he said, “Cooper Flagg starts” before I finished the sentence. He’s probably right. Cunningham also seems a lock with his size and two-way play.

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Center is by far the hardest part of assembling the USA roster, in part because you have to build it out thinking about the USA’s biggest threat to the gold medal: France with Victor Wembanyama in the middle. Bam Adebayo is a high-level two-way center who has proven he can handle the physicality of FIBA ball, and add in that Spoelstra is the coach, Bam is a lock.

Likely to make roster

• Chet Holmgren
• Jalen Johnson
• Evan Mobley

Johnson feels like a borderline lock as a two-way wing/forward who can help Team USA in a lot of ways. Mobley, a former Defensive Player of the…

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Publish date : 2026-07-14 03:56:00

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