AP - The US men's basketball team still rate themselves gold medal favourites for the Rio Olympics even though they'll be without a swag of their best.
Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony headline the 12-man roster named on Monday by coach Mike Krzyzewski.
They're the only players with Olympic experience after a number of stars decided to skip the Games, including recently-crowned NBA champion LeBron James, NBA MVP Stephen Curry and All-Stars Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and James Harden.
But that means little, according to Golden State's Klay Thompson.
"We should be heavily favoured," he said.
"I mean, 12 NBA stars, very unselfish guys, very versatile team, we definitely should be favoured. It's a disappointment if we don't win gold."
Also chosen were James' Australian-born Cleveland teammate Kryie Irving, Warriors pair Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes, Toronto's Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, Indiana's Paul George, Chicago's Jimmy Butler, Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins and the Clippers' DeAndre Jordan.
Irving, who made a last-ditch effort to convince James to change his mind, was the MVP of the 2014 Basketball World Cup on a US team including Thompson, Cousins and DeRozan and easily won gold.
While the team has strong NBA credentials - nine were All-Stars this season - it is short on international experience.
"As far as the talent goes and the level of play, I'm pretty sure that that's still going to be the same," Anthony said.
"We don't have as many of the big-name guys that we've had before but I think so far this is a great group of guys and they're hungry. They want to play."
Anthony becomes the first US men's basketball player to appear in four Olympics. Durant, meanwhile, set a US record by averaging 19.5 points in London and also was the MVP when the US won the 2010 world championship.
"Shoot, when you're playing with the best players in the world, it makes it easy," Durant said.
"I'm just going out there and playing my game. They take all the pressure off of me."
The world No.1 Americans have won six of the past eight Olympic gold medals.
Australia have been drawn in the same group for Rio and will play them on August 10.
Coach Andrej Lemanis is due to name his 12-man Boomers squad in Melbourne on July 11.
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