Team USA Basketball: Final Roster Announced Thursday! Damian Lillard, DeMarcus Cousins, DeMar Derozan To Be Cut?

Team USA Basketball's final 12-man roster for the World Cup is set to be announced on Thursday, but Coach K says there are still a lot of questions to be answered.

The guessing game continues though, but there are six players that are consensus locks: Derrick Rose, Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Kenneth Faried and Anthony Davis.

There are three point guards in that group and chances are very slim that they add another one-but Damian Lillard is one of the outstanding players in the camp. Kenneth Faried may be a surprise but no one is closer to playing the role vacated by Kevin Durant than the Denver Nugget.

Anthony Davis is the starting center as it's clear that Team USA's strategy is to start out fast and try to blowout the opposition early. One or two of these players will definitely be included: Mason Plumlee, DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond. DeMarcus Cousins carried himself well but he has a minor injury and that may cost him a spot.

Adding the reserve big man, there are now seven players.

Team USA recruited a boatload of three point shooters, but they may need to show other skills that the team needs, like defensive intensity (something they lost when Paul George went down).

Klay Thompson may have an edge because of his perimeter defense and his chemistry with Stephen Curry will likely earn him the reserve shooting guard spot (assuming Rose and Harden are starting). DeMar Derozan and Rudy Gay are both athletic players and if they need to choose one of them, Gay might get the edge due to experience-unless Coach K sees something special with DeMar.

If it would also boil down to Chandler Parsons or Kyle Korver, Parsons may get the edge because he is tall enough to play the four spot against smaller teams.

These are speculative, as Coach K told ESPN:

"We haven't picked the team yet."

Some observers are looking  at the Brazil rotation and using it as a benchmark to determine the lineup. Coach K cautions:  "People read into everything. That's part of the world we live in. That's why we have shows. Because if they weren't talking about that, no one would be watching. ... First of all, you never play 16 guys in a game, so we have to take a look at certain things. In these next two games, we'll look at more and then hopefully we'll be down, before we go to Gran Canaria, to about 12."

All these players are talented enough to compete against any team except for Spain. It is theorized that aside from the locks, the main criteria that Coach K will employ in choosing the players would be how well they'd match up against Team USA's biggest threat.