With New Zealand set to face off against Australia in a two-game Olympic qualification series, New Zealand has received some bad news. Steven Adams will reportedly not play for his national team due to scheduling conflicts, according to Sportal.com.
Adams is reportedly focused on getting ready for the 2015-16 season with the Oklahoma City Thunder and therefore would not be able to join the national team until very late in the process.
"Due to scheduling conflicts over the coming months and Steven's focus on being ready for the start of the 2015-16 regular season, Steven would not have been able to join the national team until very late in their tour," said Adams' management.
Adams reportedly feels as though it wouldn't be the right thing to do to come in late and possibly disrupt what the team already has going. Although Adams will not participate in the Oceania series, he does plan to be a part of the team in the future.
Adams is the most talented player on New Zealand's team and is the only player above 6-foot-9 at its disposal, so his loss is a big one. Not having Adams makes the team's chances of qualifying for the Olympics that much slimmer, but one silver lining might be the fact that Australia will be without one of its best players in Patty Mills. Despite Mills not being on the roster, Australia still has a few other NBA players while Adams would have been the only NBA player on New Zealand.
Adams was the Thunder's first round pick in the 2013 NBA Draft when he was selected 12th overall. He will turn 22 on Tuesday and has huge potential after showing major improvement from year one to year two in the NBA. Last season Adams started 67 games for the Thunder and averaged 7.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 25.3 minutes per game while making 54 percent of his field goal attempts.
Adams is not expected to start this upcoming season for the Thunder after the team re-signed Enes Kanter to a big deal, but he will provide defense, rebounding and energy off the bench and will be a key piece. Adams is coming off a hand injury last season and is focused on fully recovering and being ready to play a big role for a team with very high expectations.
