Team USA's Colangelo: LeBron has a spot if he wants it, KD and Melo look 'ready'

Having gathered 34 of the finest American basketball players in Las Vegas, USA Basketball director Jerry Colangelo is looking for answers ahead of next summer's 2016 Olympic Games.

Colangelo discussed the status of a number of superstars in camp, including LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Carmelo Anthony, with ESPN's Marc Stein on Tuesday.

On James' involvement with Team USA in Rio de Janeiro:

He will be in town during the course of this week. He won't be participating in practices to the best of my knowledge. He has some major commitments back in Cleveland.

He knows he has a spot if he wants to perform. I believe deep down inside that he does, and I would expect that he will be playing for us next summer. We have a whole season ahead of us and a lot of things can happen ... we'll play it by ear.

The good news is that we're deep enough that we should be able to withstand losing a couple of guys.

Reports following the 2012 Olympics suggested that James had planned to retire from international competition. Having already played more minutes than Allen Iverson and Magic Johnson, James could use a summer off after making a likely sixth straight Finals appearance.

Colangelo sounded hopeful about the availability and health of Anthony and Durant. Both players are recovering from season-ending injuries.

It's exciting to see the look in their eyes. I noticed that last night, in terms of Kevin Durant. He looks like he's ready, he says, 'I'm ready to play,' and that's exciting. That wasn't the case a year ago when we went through the fiasco.

Carmelo looks ready too. He's going to be limited in terms of what he can do, coming back from injury, but those two guys are people that have been great international players and they've made great contributions to USA basketball.

Durant and Anthony both played significant roles on the 2012 squad that captured gold. Anthony set a Team USA record for most points in a game with 37, while Durant averaged a team-best 19.5 points along with 5.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

Colangelo isn't looking forward to settling on a roster of just 12 players.

"I guess the best answer is that I have until next summer at this time before that decision has to be made," Colangelo. "It's going to be very tough."