Now that the USA coaching staff is set for the next two summers, next comes the fun part.

Who are the players going to be?

USA Basketball formally announced men’s national team head coach Erik Spoelstra’s staff for the 2027 FIBA World Cup in Doha and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics: Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault, Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff and Gonzaga’s Mark Few. Their appointments were reported Tuesday by The Athletic and other media outlets, subject to approval by the USAB’s board of governors. The board gave its consent Thursday.

“Building a staff is similar to building a team. You want character, intelligence, but you also want different approaches and different perspectives and different styles,” said Grant Hill, U.S. men’s national team managing director, in an interview with The Athletic. “I am really excited and look forward to these four men working together, problem solving and collaborating.”

With the coaching staff set, Hill, USAB director Sean Ford and Spoelstra will spend the next nine-to-10 months identifying, recruiting and perhaps even making some tough cuts to fill out a 12-player roster of young American NBA stars (or rising stars) for the World Cup.

Actually, those discussions have already begun. Whereas Team USA has won five consecutive Olympic golds, the last two World Cups (2019 and 2023) have not gone the Americans’ way. The challenges that make the World Cup harder on USA Basketball still exist.

But there is reason for hope, and even optimism, that the team the U.S. sends to Qatar next summer will capture American fans’ attention and, of course, win.

“You got a lot of young guys who want to be a part of it, which is great,” Hill said. “I think it’s actually an exciting time. I think we’ll have a chance to have a good … I think we’ll be good.

“I think we will be big, we’ll be really good defensively,” Hill continued. “I think we’ll have shooting. … I think we’ll be fine. We’ll have an opportunity to win.”

To the casual U.S. fan, Hill’s rhetoric may be confusing. Have a chance? What? Shouldn’t the best, deepest, richest basketball-playing country have more than a chance to win a World Cup?

Well, again, the World Cup is harder for the U.S. Beginning in 2019, FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, moved the World Cup from two years prior to the Olympics to the year before. A two-year commitment has been much, much harder for USA Basketball to sell to top American stars than it has been for the other great basketball countries with NBA stars like Germany, France, Serbia and Canada, to name a few.

The Americans finished seventh in 2019 in China, and then fourth at the 2023 Cup in the Philippines. Reading back the rosters from those teams, a fan might think, “Wait, there were a bunch of stars on both rosters.” While that would be true today — Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell were on the team in 2019; Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Brunson, Austin Reaves, Mikal Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr. were on in 2023 — those same players were mostly rising stars with little experience at the time.

While the same dynamics will mostly be in place for this cycle, Hill said that over the last year, he has been approached by “players, agents, and parents (of players) about wanting to play.”

Hill declined to disclose which players (or agents or their parents) have raised their hands, or which players he and the rest of the U.S. staff have identified as targets. But there is a chance the U.S. could attract players who have already made All-NBA teams, All-Star games, won NBA titles and previously played for the men’s national team.

Consider candidates from the Pistons, whom Bickerstaff coaches, and the Thunder, with whom Daigneault won a championship in 2025.

In Detroit, there is All-NBA guard Cade Cunningham, whose only experience with the U.S. men’s national team was a brief stint on the Select Team in 2023. He is a 6-6, 220-pound point guard. Jalen Duren, the restricted free-agent center for the Pistons, was also on the 2023 Select Team with Cunningham; he’s a 6-10 behemoth who averages a double-double in the NBA, was an All-Star last season and would thrive under FIBA rules for paint and rim defense.

In Oklahoma City, Jalen Williams missed most of last season with devastating (to him and to the Thunder’s chances) hamstring injuries. But the year before, he was an All-NBA selection on the Thunder title team. He is a 6-5 wing and two-way player. Chet Holmgren, who is 7-1, is not only under Daigneault’s direction in Oklahoma City, but also played for Few at Gonzaga.

Reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg was the USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year, leading the under-17 team to a gold medal at the youth World Cup, and also played for the 2024 Select Team. Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel does not have a history with USAB, but he is 6-6, young and shoots 42.5 percent from 3-point range. He is also a Duke alum, where Hill is a crown prince (if Mike Krzyzewski is king on campus), and would surely answer the phone when Hill calls.

The No. 1 draft pick from June, Washington’s AJ Dybantsa, told The Athletic he wanted to play for the next U.S. World Cup team two years ago. His business manager is his father, Ace, and AJ was MVP of the under-19 World Cup playing for the U.S. in 2025.

Paolo Banchero, the Orlando Magic’s biggest star, was an NBA All-Star following his appearance with the U.S. team at the 2-23 World Cup. He hoped to be on the Olympic team that won in Paris and ultimately didn’t make that roster. But league sources with knowledge of Banchero’s thinking said he has strong interest in playing for the U.S. in 2028.

Banchero saw first hand that building equity in the World Cup can bode well when it comes time to pick the Olympic team. Two of his teammates from 2023, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton, were picked for the Paris team the following summer

“I think Anthony Edwards and Halliburton’s play certainly helped them,” Hill said. “I don’t know if I could honestly say before the World Cup in ’23, that either one of them would be on the Olympic team. But how they played (at the World Cup) and certainly what they did the following year in the NBA certainly helped with the decision to put them on the team (in 2024).”

There of course will be more names to emerge (the 2026 NBA Draft class is deep with top-line American talent, for instance), and there are no guarantees any of the names speculated above will ultimately play for the U.S. in Qatar. The NBA season is long, injuries change things and war still rages in the Middle East, where both host-nation Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (where the Americans would likely play exhibition games) have both recently taken fire from Iran.

If those players are interested, any of the mitigating factors previously mentioned could change their interest. Or, Hill, Ford and Spoelstra could go in a different direction.

But who is going to play for USA Basketball at the next major competition is going to be a dominant storyline for the 2026-27 season, and there is momentum on the Americans’ side.

Why? Because most of the next crop of stars in the U.S. don’t have much equity with the men’s national team, and would like to build some before the Olympics.

“I’ll be the first to say I have a better idea and a better understanding of what this is,” Hill said, whose first tournament as managing director was the Philippines World Cup. “And so I will be better, in terms of the World Cup and my role and my responsibility to build the roster.”

SOUTHPORT, England — Sean McLean leaned back in his chair and turned to the right, his gaze locking in on the row of flapping flags perched atop the grandstand behind Royal Birkdale’s ninth green.

On Thursday, the sleep-deprived course manager — the keeper of Birkdale’s venerable turf — began to speak of the unusual eastward wind gracing the Open Championship venue. But then he stopped himself. Something out the window of the pavilion he was seated in had changed.

“It’s actually swung round off the sea again,” McLean said, eyes widening. “Aye, heat can do strange things to weather in general.”

Weird is part of the deal at this year’s Open, and the players, the course staff and Royal Birkdale’s consulting architects are feeling it. All at once.

“You can’t plan for these conditions,” says Tom Mackenzie, the co-founder of Mackenzie & Ebert, the design firm that led the renovation of Royal Birkdale ahead of this year’s Open. “You just absolutely can’t.”

That’s because the host country is being scorched. Here in Southport, a seaside town on the Merseyside coast of England, the hundred-year-old buildings were constructed with the sole mission of trapping in winter warmth. Air-conditioning units are prized possessions. The dozens of courses that litter the region take on rain storms and gusts like it’s nothing.

So, a record heat wave — with temperatures reaching a high of 82 degrees Fahrenheit earlier this week — will naturally throw things for a loop. The pressure in the air is causing the winds to act in ways the club rarely feels. Thousands and thousands of fans are flooding through the gates with sunscreen in their packs rather than wool hats. And Royal Birkdale is literally baking.

Golden brown hues dominate the links surface, the rare bits of green centered around the sprinkler heads. The turf is hardening. The putting surfaces are sounding more like corkboards by the hour. Royal Birkdale is hosting its 11th Open Championship this week, but it hasn’t seen conditions like this for the tournament since 1976. That year, it was so dry and so hot that a suspected cigarette butt caused a fire to ignite between the first and second fairways, holding up play for 40 minutes. Viewers will be a lot more familiar with a wet and cold Birkdale, like the one Jordan Spieth conquered during its most recent hosting duties in 2017.

It’s no 1976, but the test that the Royal & Ancient expected in 2026 is rapidly evolving, and it will continue to do so throughout the course of the week. There is not a single drop of rain forecasted for the next three days. McLean and his team are working around the clock, sprinkling water on the course only in the mornings and evenings, barely enough moisture to keep the blades of grass alive.

“We’re basically doing the bare minimum, keeping things from ticking over,” he said. “We just try and get it through the day.”

Typically, the consequence of a sunny Open Championship is firm and fast playing conditions that make golf fans drool. The more the ball rolls, the higher the entertainment value. The browning fairways are nostalgic for another era of this game.

The course plays shorter, but it also becomes more unpredictable. Players will experience unforeseen bounces, and shots will cascade down undulations and into tricky pot bunkers. At the same time, the heat means that these golfers won’t be battling the elements typical of an Open Championship. There will be no umbrellas or layering on rain gear. For professionals, the sun is always favorable. Unless the wind picks up, the scores will drift lower and lower.

Jackson Suber shot a 65 on Thursday at Royal Birkdale to claim the lead in his first Open Championship. (Andrew Redington / Getty Images)

Jackson Suber, playing in his maiden Open Championship, shot a 5-under 65 to take the first-round lead. He’s not the only name unfamiliar to casual golf fans that ended Day 1 atop this leaderboard — of the top 12 players, only Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa are past major champions. DeChambeau, Cameron Young and Pierceson Coody would be the only ones classified as long hitters. Dan Brown, an Englishman tied for second at 4-under, last made a cut in May.

“I think if someone had given me a free shot at how I would want the course to be set up, this is it,” says Mackenzie. “I think what it will do is it will reward the most patient players.”

The heat wave is a double-edged sword for leaders like Mackenzie and McLean, though.

Mackenzie and his team are the go-to firm for the R&A as it seeks to constantly tinker with courses on The Open Championship rota and stay one step ahead of the golfers. But when they plotted out the improvements to Royal Birkdale — including a new 15th hole — they did not do it with firm, fast ground and swirling winds in mind. Birkdale is not just an Open Championship venue; it is the home of hundreds of local members and daily play in typically cool, wet weather.

“I’m slightly disappointed on No. 15. The idea was it would be the long par-3 playing downwind,” he said. “The idea was to create one of the only par-3’s where you could land the ball short and run the ball on. Whereas, they’ve actually brought the tee forward because it’s playing into the wind today. They’ll be able to hold it up in the wind. They probably won’t be landing it short and running it on. So I think there’s a little tinge of regret there, if I’m honest.”

Cameron Young, right, and other Open Championship contenders are taking on a different kind of golf this week. (Warren Little / Getty Images)

McLean and his crew of maintenance workers are used to 18-hour days during championships, but the balancing act of a baked-out Birkdale adds new challenges.

“There’s a pressure on the staff to keep things on that knife-edge, to keep it playing linksy, but at the same time, we’re keeping the plant alive and not letting it just disappear,” McLean said. “You want to be in control. People wouldn’t know that it takes a lot of fine-tuning to keep things on a knife’s edge. You’re trying to push it as far as it can go.”

So far, however, that line has been properly walked at Royal Birkdale.

Players are coming off of their opening rounds with few critiques of the course. The scores are low, but they’re not too low. At least one TV broadcaster marveled at the differing length in tee shots hit by each player on each hole, making her role more difficult, but signaling that members of the field are playing the course in a variety of ways.

A crispy Birkdale is ever-changing, but it’s still doing its job.

“It’s making them think,” McLean says. “And that’s what you want, you know?”