After Injuries to Cameron Brink, Rhyne Howard, Can Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark Play Together for 3v3 Team USA at the Olympics?

The world of women’s basketball dealt with a major blow on Wednesday. The 2nd overall pick in the 2024 edition of the WNBA draft Cameron Brink suffered a torn ACL in her left knee in her game again against the Connecticut Sun. As a result, she is now forced to sit out the remainder of the season. However, her absence is not bad news just for the franchise. Apparently, this unfortunate development means that the USA Basketball 3×3 roster for the Paris Olympics will now have to look for a worthy replacement. As a result, this includes rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese being a part of a major discussion.

Previously, the 2024 Lisa Leslie Award winner was chosen to represent Team USA alongside Valencia forward Cierra Burdick, Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard, and TCU guard Hailey Van Lith. Similar fortunes followed the two-time All-Star Howard in Wednesday’s game at Minnesota as she left the court with an ankle sprain. Consequently, this has sparked rumors that arch-nemesis Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark can be seen side by side on the hardwood in Paris.

Are Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese qualified to take part?

After Caitlin Clark’s snub from the traditional 5-on-5 team, her fans would want nothing more than to see her in country colors. Anyhow, it’s not that simple. For a player to be included in that squad, one needs to have a significant amount of experience in the 3×3. Additionally, the player also needs to qualify for the eligibility criteria put forth by FIBA.

Seemingly, two out of the four players need to be among the top 10 while the other two should be in the top 50 in their respective country’s talent pool. Unfortunately, for the Indiana rookie, she can’t fulfill either of the aforementioned criteria. The primary reason behind this is that the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer has never featured in a 3×3 competition.

As for her adversary Angel Reese, the 3x All-American forward carries an experience to some extent. Soon after Reese completed her freshman season at Maryland, she went on and participated at the USA Basketball 3X Nationals. There, the 6 ft 3 in forward led the Terrapins to the gold medal game. Sadly, the team came up short and had to contend with a silver medal. Anyhow, her brief experience also is not enough. This is primarily because her ranking falls beyond the top 50 in the 3×3 women’s basketball division.

This begs the question as to who can fill in the spot now.

What are the options available for Team USA?

The one player who seems the most qualified to take up these services is her Sparks teammate Dearica Hamby. Not only does the Sparks’ No.5 have valid 3×3 experience, but she also played a vital hand in the USA’s qualification for the 2022 World Cup. Moreover, her versatility helped the national team clinch the 2023 AmeriCup. She also bagged the tournament’s MVP. This combined with a WNBA average of 18.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game and shooting 40.6 percent of her shots from 3-point land, makes her a formidable choice.

The other player to watch out for here is Caitlin Clark’s current teammate Katie Lou Samuelson. The 27-year-old missed out on her chance to play in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 because she was COVID positive just days before the commencement of the event. Nonetheless, she exhibited her skills at the 2023 AmeriCup along with Hamby. There are a lot of eyeballs on her currently primarily because the 45.5 percent accuracy from beyond-the-arc marks her 2024 WNBA season.

Another qualified substitute for Paris can be former South Carolina Gamecocks Allisha Gray. She was instrumental in Team USA winning the Olympic gold in Tokyo. In the team’s semi-final final win, Gray managed to score the joint highest points. Further, she took part in the training camp of Team USA 3×3 that got underway earlier this year. In the month of April, the 2023 WNBA All-Star played alongside Hamby, Brink, and Linnae Harper in Springfield, Mass. So far this season, Allisha Gray has the third-best 3-point range shooting average of 45.8 percent.

Cameron Brink’s absence will surely affect the team in a big way. Being an MVP at the FIBA 3×3 World Cup last summer, Brink’s skills were an asset to the team. The chances that Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese can take part in the upcoming spectacle are nearly impossible. It will be worth noticing what are the updates regarding who can fill in the spots in the team.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video