Now that the first 22 members of Team USA are known, it's time to step back and take a look at how the team was put together, how long it will stay together and how well it will do at the World Championship this summer and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The U.S. team lost three times at the 2004 Olympics in Athens en route to a bronze medal, and the previous U.S. national team lost three times at the 2002 World Championship in Indianapolis, finishing sixth.

The biggest difference this time around is that one man, Phoenix Suns chairman Jerry Colangelo, has been put in charge of selecting the players. Previously, it was done by committee.

Colangelo held face-to-face meetings over the past three months with each of the players he selected, along with a few of those he didn't invite. If he detected any wavering from prospective players on the three-year commitment he was seeking, he moved on to the next guy. And when he felt disrespected during the process, he let the players and their agents know how he felt.

There are plenty of questions surrounding the U.S. team. Here's a baker's dozen of questions and answers:

Q: Why isn't Allen Iverson on the team? And what about Lamar Odom, who was one of the better performers on the 2004 Olympic team?

A: Colangelo isn't saying yet, although both players seem quite upset by their snubs -- as was Baron Davis, who played on the 2002 U.S. team and wanted to have a chance (just as Paul Pierce did) to redeem himself.

Q: Was it an image thing with Iverson? Or an attitude thing?

A: Again, Colangelo isn't saying yet. He'll have more to say on Sunday when the team is formally announced on ABC.

Colangelo was questioned by Philadelphia reporters after meeting with Iverson earlier this year, and his comments were positive. I also know that Colangelo was smitten by Iverson's genuine enthusiasm for representing his country in 2004, an intangible that's tough to find in this day and age.

Q: What about Shaq?

A: Shaq is the only guy with an open invitation to join later, because Colangelo places a unique value on what his presence would mean for the U.S. program. Now that the Shaq and Kobe feud is over, that might be less of a hindrance.

Q: Where are some of the other big names? Where's Kevin Garnett? Tracy McGrady? Jermaine O'Neal? Jason Kidd and Vince Carter and Ray Allen?

A: They all had a chance, and none were really interested (although Shaq might still come on board).

Garnett, Kidd, Carter and Allen were all on the Olympic team that won gold in Sydney in 2000, while Shaq won his gold medal on the 1996 Olympic team. Each of those guys understands how draining and grueling the experience is (40 consecutive days together, long plane trips, endless sponsor and media commitments, biased referees), and they remember how it sapped their energy heading into their ensuing NBA seasons.

You have to remember that NBA players place a high value on their summers, and the need for personal downtime sometimes overrides their desire to represent their country. In the case of McGrady and Jermaine O'Neal, USA Basketball wasn't happy with either of them for bailing out on the 2004 team. Notice how Mike Bibby isn't in the mix this time, either. In McGrady's defense, he doesn't want to put the wear and tear on his bad back.

That is not just an American phenomenon. Peja Stojakovic is not planning to play for Serbia and Montenegro this summer, nor will Sarunas Jasikevicius play for Lithuania. Steve Nash hasn't played for Canada since 2002.

As for the Motown five: Chauncey Billups is on the list but, like Michael Redd, won't be playing this summer because of a personal commitment. Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton aren't on the list because they were concerned about fatigue, given that they expect to be playing into late June with the Pistons. Ben Wallace learned when he played for the 2002 U.S. team that his style of play is not suited to the international game. Rasheed Wallace, despite having a game suited for international play, wasn't considered.

Q: Why does Colangelo have 25 players coming to training camp when you can put only 12 on the active roster?

A: Some of the players (Adam Morrison, J.J. Redick and Greg Oden) are being brought in to get them involved in the national team program long-term (there's another World Championship in 2010 in Turkey, and the 2012 Olympics in London), while others are basically being told they'll have to try out for the few truly open roster spots.

When Colangelo was speaking to players face-to-face, he told some that if they believed a tryout to be beneath them, they weren't welcome.

Q: What's your best guess at the 12-man roster for Japan?

A: Gilbert Arenas, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Bruce Bowen, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Paul Pierce, Shawn Marion, Elton Brand, Chris Bosh and Brad Miller.

Some explanations: Bowen guards Ginobili in Spurs practice every day, so he would be the perfect guy to stick on Manu in the gold-medal game. Paul makes it for his quickness and ballhandling. Arenas brings shooting and ballhandling. Miller, Bosh and Brand are needed for their size and versatility. Pierce is needed for his shooting.

Q: What weaknesses might the U.S. team have?

A: There's only one true center, Brad Miller, and he does not have a back-to-the-basket offensive game. There are no shot-blockers other than Brand. And the lack of depth at point guard could be an issue.

But the No. 1 problem for the Americans in Athens was a lack of shooters (every opponent except Argentina played a tight 2-3 zone against the U.S.), and that seems to have been solved with Pierce, Kobe Bryant, Michael Redd (not available in 2006), Gilbert Arenas, Joe Johnson and LBJ on board.

Q: Will this team have enough time to jell into a cohesive unit by the time the Japan tournament begins?

A: Starting July 18, the team will have a total of about 11 days together at training camp in Las Vegas, which pales in comparison to most of the other nations, which start camp in June. What ultimately matters, though, is how they look at the end, when the quarterfinals, semifinals and the gold-medal game roll around. It's coach Mike Krzyzewski's job to have them peaking at the right time.

Q: How much international basketball experience does this team have?

A: Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Amare Stoudemire got their feet wet in Athens, when they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Shawn Marion was on the 2002 and 2004 teams, Brand was on the 2003 Olympic qualifying team, and Miller played for the U.S. team that went to Athens in 1998 when NBA players boycotted USA Basketball during a lockout.

(Miller, who was an undrafted rookie in 1998, still recalls that tournament fondly. He recently reminded me that Earl Boykins was the final player cut before the team left for Greece.)

Q: So is the roster pretty much final for the next three years?

A: Not at all.

Colangelo plans to keep it fluid, with no predetermined notion of how many or how few players should be in the program. By the time Beijing rolls around, perhaps a third or more of the roster will have changed.

Colangelo wanted to engineer a safety net for the future. If the team goes through another mass defection of top players, as it did between 2003 and 2004, other guys will be waiting to take their place. In past years, the selection committee often scrambled to find last-minute replacements.

Q: Beijing is what really matters, right? That's the Olympics, and this summer's tournament in Japan is only the World Championship.

A: If you're an American, that's how you've been conditioned to think. But the people on the rest of the planet view the World Championship as much more prestigious, akin to a World Cup title in soccer.

Q: With the roster Colangelo has assembled, the Americans should be a lock to win the gold medal in the World Championship, earning an automatic berth in the 2008 Olympics, right?

A: They'll be the favorites, but nothing is a lock for U.S. teams anymore in international basketball tournaments.

Argentina, the defending Olympic champion and runner-up to Yugoslavia in 2002 (they were robbed by the referees at the end of regulation in Conseco Fieldhouse that afternoon) has a core of top-level NBA and European players (Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Pepe Sanchez, Fabricio Oberto, Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino, Ruben Wolkowyski) who have been together in their national program since they were teenagers. They have a ton of chemistry and cohesion, something Colangelo is trying to develop with the U.S. team in the three years leading up to Beijing.

Q: So who else has a good team besides Argentina?

A: Spain is outstanding, the best team in the 2004 Olympics until they ran into the U.S. in the quarterfinals. Spain made the mistake of staying in a tight zone after Tim Duncan went to the bench in early foul trouble, and Stephon Marbury finally got hot and scored 31, breaking the U.S. Olympic scoring record that was shared by Charles Barkley and Spencer Haywood.

Italy, which won silver in Athens, is in the U.S. team's group in Japan. When the 2004 U.S. team faced Italy in a pre-Olympic exhibition game, the Italians killed 'em with 3-pointers. Everyone on that team can really shoot it from deep.

Also in the Americans' preliminary round group is China, which knocked off Serbia-Montenegro in Athens to reach the quarterfinals under their American coach, Del Harris. Yao Ming counts that game as probably the top accomplishment of his career.

A dark horse in the U.S. group is Slovenia, which was the class of the Euro 2005 tournament until getting derailed in the quarters.

France will be tough, too, with its new generation of NBA players (Tony Parker, Mickael Pietrus, Boris Diaw, Johan Petro). New Zealand is better than most people would imagine. Serbia-Montenegro got a wild-card entry and cannot be dismissed. Germany has Dirk Nowitzki, who just might be the NBA MVP.

It'll be a very good tournament this summer.

Chris Sheridan, a national NBA reporter for the past decade, covers the league for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here