Photo. Stephen Hill

Why do we have a feeling that from here on out, you won’t see many guys actually get cut from Team USA? Last year Gilbert Arenas pulled the “You can’t fire me — I quit!” thing when it looked like he probably wasn’t gonna make the World Championship roster, and now it’s Kirk Hinrich and Shane Battier. Heading into the last training camp before the Olympic qualifying tournament, Shane and Capt. Kirk bowed out for “personal reasons.” We definitely don’t wanna make light if something actually is going on in their lives, but the timing is just too convenient and sounds too much like “I’m at the top of the list of guys who might get cut, so I’m not gonna hang around long enough to actually get the axe.” … While those two are going out, Nick Collison is coming in to help with the shortage of bigs. Is Collison really the best option? Our instinct said “Of course not,” but when you go through the NBA rosters and consider who’s available, he’s not too far off. Unless you wanna go with a really young guy like Shelden Williams or Tyrus Thomas, your best bet next to Collison would be Emeka Okafor. Why not Al Jefferson, though? We’re assuming he’s not being considered because he’s on the team of young guys being used to give Team USA a tune-up, but couldn’t he still practice with the senior team and just scrimmage as part of the young team? Either way, Collison (or whoever they would have picked) likely isn’t making it past training camp. He’s just there for Dwight Howard and the rest to bang around with … Monta Ellis was supposed be in the scrimmage, but he’s sitting out with a back strain. The injury isn’t supposed to be too serious, but Monta didn’t want to risk it … Yesterday we dropped a new video on the site: a behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoot for our newest cover guy. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s OK G.O. .. We wondered what was up with Pat Riley committing to coach the Heat for another three years, which just happens to run out right when Shaq‘s contract is up and D-Wade can opt out of his deal. Riles, for his part, told told the press it’s ”purely coincidental” that he could bounce as soon as Shaq and/or Flash are gone … In that same interview, Riley said he’d be “happy” if Antoine Walker started at the three (despite the fact Miami has been scrounging for a SF all summer) but added, “[Toine] definitely is going to have to have a better year than last year.” … And get this: Riles said Dorell Wright has grown to 6-10 1/2 and could start at small forward. Wasn’t that kid like 6-7 when they drafted him? … Baron Davis is an executive producer on the upcoming HBO movie “ABCD Camp” starring James Gandolfini playing grassroots hoop legend Sonny Vaccaro. The screenwriter for the flick is the same guy who penned the “Friday Night Lights” screenplay. The more we hear about this, the more we like … If you noticed Paul Pierce has been a little thicker in the last couple years than you’re used to seeing, you weren’t the only one. We saw it, too, highlighted (if you wanna call it that) by The Truth’s NBA.com bio pic. Pierce admitted to the Boston Globe that he’d put on weight, but said he’s gonna come into this season slimmer. “The last couple years, I played at 240, 245, but I think I’m going to go back down to my college weight and play at 230,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m at, like, 238 now. Playing at 240 or 245 is not bad, but I want to come in lighter and faster.” … The Warriors bought out Adonal Foyle ($13 million of the $20 million left on his contract), and there are a few teams interested in picking him up. Foyle’s not terrible — he got no burn last year more because Nellie seemed to be making an example out of him (for showing up to camp out of shape) and because he didn’t fit the up-tempo system. He can block some shots and have a presence in the paint, and going back to last week, he’s better than Scot Pollard. We still remember the Sports Illustrated feature on Foyle when he was at Colgate. From the article, you’d think Adonal was a lock to be the next Mutombo. Check his numbers: 4.9 blocks per game as a freshman, 5.7 the next year, and 6.4 blocks as a junior. He left school as the NCAA’s all-time leader in rejections (492) … One of the teams looking at Foyle is Orlando, who has also been looking at C-Webb and P.J. Brown. The fact that almost every team in the League has been said to be looking at P.J. just shows how thin the free agent market was for bigs this year … We’re out like Foyle …