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Former Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs named to USA Select team ahead of Olympic training camp

Jalen Suggs of the Orlando Magic celebrates a basket against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the fir quarter in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference First Round Playoffs at Kia Center on May 03, 2024 in Orlando, Florida. (Getty Images)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

Gonzaga will have more representation in Las Vegas when the United States Olympic team gathers for training camp ahead of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

Coming off his third season with the NBA’s Orlando Magic, former Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs was one of 15 players named to the USA Select Team that will help the Olympic squad prepare for competition in Paris later this summer.

Zags coach Mark Few is one of the three assistants, along with the Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra and Los Angeles Clippers’ Ty Lue, who were appointed to the USA staff assembled by Olympic head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors.

Suggs’ coach in the NBA, Orlando’s Jamahl Mosley, will serve as the head coach of the Select Team during a brief stay in Vegas. The Olympic team will host Canada for a July 10 exhibition at T-Mobile Arena before traveling to Abu Dhabi and London for four more exhibitions before games start in Paris.

The Select Team is comprised mostly of NBA players, but also features two European professional players and Duke freshman Cooper Flagg, the top player in the 2024 high school recruiting class.

Along with Suggs, other NBA players on the team include Detroit’s Jalen Duran, Golden State’s Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski, Miami’s Jaime Jaquez, Charlotte’s Brandon Miller, New Orleans’ Trey Murphy, Sacramento’s Keegan Murray, Utah’s Micah Potter, Boston’s Payton Pritchard and Houston’s Jabari Smith and Amen Thompson.

From both a personal and team perspective, Suggs is coming off his best season in the NBA, scoring a career-high 12.6 points on career-best percentages from the field (47.1%) and 3-point line (39.7%).

Suggs, who came to GU as the school’s top-rated high school prospect in 2020 and as part of a recruiting class that also featured four-stars Julian Strawther and Dominick Harris, played and started in 75 games for the Magic after appearing in 101 in his first two seasons largely due to injury.

The Minnesota native and former fifth overall pick helped Orlando secure a playoff berth, but the Magic failed to make it out of the first round, losing in seven games to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Suggs’ former high school teammate Chet Holmgren, who became GU’s highest-ever recruit one year after Suggs did, was a member of the Select Team that helped Few and USA prepare for the FIBA World Cup last summer in the Philippines.