Minnesota Timberwolves forward Anthony Edwards, runner-up in this year’s Rookie of the Year voting, will be among the headliners on the USA Basketball select team, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The select team will travel to a Las Vegas training camp in July to practice and scrimmage against Team USA before the Tokyo Olympics. Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra accepted an invitation Wednesday to help coach the select team.
USA Basketball, which will be coached for the first time by Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, completed its 12-man Olympic roster on Wednesday, though it is still possible that the names might change before the Tokyo Games begin.
The full select team roster is expected to be finalized in the coming days. USA Basketball opens its on-court portion of training camp in Las Vegas on July 6.
Edwards, 19, was a unanimous selection for the All-Rookie First Team and finished second to Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball for the Rookie of the Year award.
The top pick in last year’s draft, Edwards averaged 19.3 points per game — tops among rookies — and was named the Western Conference rookie of the month in each of the final three months of the season.
For Spoelstra, it’s his first stint with USA Basketball. He and Popovich have been talking about this opportunity for several months, though it wasn’t finalized until the past couple of weeks and after the Heat were eliminated from the NBA playoffs.
“I really just want to be a part of the program,” Spoelstra said. “I’m always pushing myself to get better in the offseasons; I go visit people and all that stuff. This is going to be a basketball immersion. I mean, the dinners, the team meetings … for where I am right now in my career, I think this is the perfect thing for a summer of development.”
Spoelstra said he was thankful that the USA Basketball brain trust — including Popovich, men’s national team managing director Jerry Colangelo and men’s national team director Sean Ford — extended the invite.
Spoelstra will not be going to the Tokyo Games. Popovich has three assistants: Golden State’s Steve Kerr, Villanova’s Jay Wright and former Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
