Does Blake Griffin's exit from Team USA open a place for Mason (or Miles) Plumlee?

The Nets already have four players who are scheduled to play in FIBA tournaments --two in the World Championships in Spain, Jorge Gutierrez for Mexico and Bojan Bogdanovic for Croatia. Now, with Blake Griffin surprising Team USA by dropping out, Jerry Colangelo is looking for replacements for him and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Does that open up the possibility of a roster spot for Mason Plumlee ... or his brother Miles, both of whom are on the USA Select Team who will be practicing against Team USA next week?

Sam Amick of USA Today writes that Jerry Colangelo, head of USA Basketball, thinks the team could find replacements on the Select Team roster.

"It just opens up an opportunity for somebody else," said Colangelo. "I'm very open minded, so it could be someone who comes in from the (Team USA) Select team. Who knows? We want to present the best team we possibly can. But there's no additional player from outside this group that we're going to add at this point."

As Amick notes, the Select Team has few good big men. Other than the Plumlee brothers, the next tallest players are in the 6'8" - 6'9" range and a couple of them are small fowards. Tim Bontemps in fact thinks Plumlee has the "best shot" if the selectors stay within the Select Team roster, as Colangelo indicates they will.

Mason Plumlee, of course, will be on the Select Team. Wouldn't say it's likely he makes it, but of ST bigs I think he'd have the best shot.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) July 25, 2014

A decision is likely to come soon. The team leaves in a few weeks for a series of "friendly" games before Team USA opens their run for the gold medal vs. Finland in Bilbao, Spain, on August 30.

• Blake Griffin leaving Team USA was surprise - Sam Amick - USA Today
• Plumlee Brothers Named To USA Select Team - WFMY News