ORLANDO, Fla. — Magic coach Jamahl Mosley will coach the USA Basketball Men’s Select Team for a second year in a row and Orlando guard Jalen Suggs was selected to play for the team, which will train with the USA Basketball Men’s National Team as it prepares for the 2024 Olympic Games Paris 2024 next month.
Plans call for the select team to work with the Olympic team head-to-head for the first three days of practice — July 6 through July 8 — in Las Vegas. What typically happens at that point is a handful of select teamers will be invited to remain with the Olympic team and travel with them to Abu Dhabi, where Olympic preparations will continue with more practices and two exhibitions.
Duke signee Cooper Flagg, the consensus national high school player of the year out of Montverde last season and a prospective top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, also was named to the Select Team. The other members of the Select Team are NBA champion Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard, Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr., Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren, Golden State Warriors teammates Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski, Houston Rockets teammates Jabari Smith Jr. and Amen Thompson, Charlotte Hornets guard/forward Brandon Miller, New Orleans Pelicans forward Trey Murphy, Sacramento Kings forward Keegan Murray, Utah two-way player Micah Potter, Nigel Hayes-Davis of Turkish club Fenerbahce and longtime USA Basketball standout Langston Galloway.
A common attribute of most of the Select Team members is their gritty defensive player as the USA men try to get ready for the physical play of international basketball.
Mosley, who was also head coach of the USA Basketball Men’s Select Team in 2023, served as an assistant coach on the 2021 USA Basketball Men’s Select Team and as an assistant coach at the 2018 USA Basketball Men’s National Team minicamp.
Indiana Pacers assistant coach Jim Boylen and Purdue coach Matt Painter will be on Mosley’s staff. They’ll work in concert with the Olympic team coaching staff — head coach Steve Kerr of Golden State, assistants Erik Spoelstra of Miami, Tyronn Lue of the Los Angeles Clippers and Gonzaga’s Mark Few.
Suggs, 6 feet 5 and 212 pounds, played and started in 75 regular-season games last season with Orlando, averaging 12.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and a team-high 1.41 steals in 27 minutes per game. He shot 39.7% (153-for-385) from 3-point range. Suggs was named to the 2023-24 NBA All-Defensive Second Team after tying for eighth in the NBA in steals and 12th in steals-to-turnover ratio (0.80, 106/132).
Magic forward Paolo Banchero played for the 2023 USA Basketball Men’s National Team that placed fourth in the 2023 FIBA World Cup but is not playing this year. That team included many of the NBA’s rising stars as the league’s more experienced standouts declined to play.
For the Paris Olympics, many of the league’s longtime established stars — including Warriors guard Steph Curry, who has never played on an Olympic team — said they wanted to play for the national team and were selected. Many of this year’s national team members, such as Lakers forward LeBron James and Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant, have played for the United States on previous gold medal-winning Olympic teams.
