Kevin Durant was one of two players cut Monday night as the United States got down to the 12-player limit for the Olympic qualifying tournament that begins Wednesday.

SuperSonics teammate Nick Collison also was dropped when the Americans announced their decisions about two hours after practising at the Thomas & Mack Centre. The final roster needs to be submitted Tuesday, a day before the U.S. opens the FIBA Americas tournament against Venezuela.

?We knew exactly what we felt we needed in terms of adding certain components to our roster, and the good news is we were able to accomplish that,? USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said.

When Durant was added to the national team roster in May, it was thought that he was a pick for the future. Then he showed he was a legitimate candidate to make the team this year when he scored 22 points last month in the intrasquad game to close mini-camp.

But the Americans were looking for more experience after the average age of the players on last year's world championships team was 24.5. This squad averages 26.2, largely because of the additions of veteran point guards Jason Kidd and Chauncey Billups.

?With Kevin, one year in college and 18 years old and he's made giant progress and he's going to be one of the faces of the NBA and USA Basketball who will be considered next year because 10 months from now he's only going to get better,? U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said.