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Why is Kevin Love on Team USA, you want to know?

Because Rudy Gobert plays for Team France, and that’s who the Americans play when the Olympic tournament starts July 25 in Tokyo.

“We thought he was a perfect person to play against people like Gobert to get them out of the lane,” American coach Gregg Popovich said Tuesday following Day 1 of the men’s basketball team’s training camp at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “Spreading the court is very important, and depending on what happens, he could be very valuable.”

As Popovich pointed out, there is no such thing as a “defensive 3 seconds” violation in international play, so Gobert, the reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year, can stand there with his 7-foot-1 body, arms outstretched, like a tree trunk, for however long the Americans have the ball. Which is essentially what he did when Team France stunned USA basketball, 89-79, in the 2019 FIBA World Cup quarterfinals in China.

Gobert simply dominated, in no small part because the Americans’ greatest weakness was their bigs. The Utah Jazz star not only scored 21 points but pulled down 16 rebounds and blocked three shots. Team USA’s bigs for that game — Myles Turner, Brook Lopez and Mason Plumlee — played a combined 16 minutes and finished with two points and a rebound. Yeesh.

Love, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and 2016 NBA champ with the Cavaliers, is not only 6-10 (or close), but he’s a career .370 shooter from 3-point range. If Love is on the floor and Gobert doesn’t chase him, there could be a whole bunch of 3s raining down on the French.

So there’s the explanation. In a tournament where one only needs to emerge out of the group stage and then win three games to claim gold, if Love can be the difference against one of two countries to defeat the Americans in China, he’s worth having around. But there should also be an acknowledgment, and there was, by both Pop and Love, that unlike the other 11 players on Team USA, Love is not coming off a good pro season.

In fact, he’s coming off his worst year as a pro, the worst three-year stretch of his career and another injury-plagued campaign at the end of what has been a long line of those.

“You’re right, we all know that he didn’t have a great year,” Popovich said. “But he’s worked diligently to get his body ready for this, he wanted to do it badly and we have a need for his skills.

Love added: “I’ve been the odd man out, really since (2014-15). This isn’t new to me.”

So, there he’s referring to his first year being paired with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving on the Cavs, a somewhat tumultuous existence for him for not only that season but really until just before the start of the 2016 playoffs — when he finally started to relax around his teammates and find comfort on the court with LeBron and Irving running the offense.

Both of those players are long gone, and Love has barely played since LeBron left Cleveland. He played in 22 games in 2018-19 after toe surgery and just 25 games this season because of a lingering calf injury. He’s also struggled at times to maintain his composure in the face of mounting losses and surrounded by teammates who were not with him when the Cavs were dominant.

“I was somebody who has always had to step up, someone who has always had to deal with that adversity,” Love said. “In a way, I understand it because I came off a season where I didn’t play that many games and wasn’t at the top of my game.”

Popovich said Team USA planned to “work (Love’s) ass off for the next four or five weeks” and stated emphatically that he believed the experience could rejuvenate Love’s career. Love agreed, in less certain language, though it is clear he knows that in order to get what he wants, he has to start playing better.

The Cavs would trade Love if they could, but the two years and $60 million he has left on his contract is just too much for another team to take on, based on what they’ve seen from him over the past three seasons.

“Being around these guys, I think it helps elevate my mindset and my game in a big way,” Love said. “That doesn’t really faze me. I’m 13 years in now and I’ve heard it all. All I can do is go out there, chase the game, let everything fall into place, bust my ass and see what I can do for this team.”

The other bigs Team USA is carrying include the Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo, who was furious when he was cut from the 2019 team (turned out to be a mistake, obviously, on the part of the people who cut him), and Draymond Green, the Golden State Warriors’ defensive stalwart who can defend all five positions.

The Americans also have Kevin Durant, a ferocious shot blocker in his own right who is about to become the Americans’ all-time leading scorer. “If he said no, I would’ve begged, cried, anything I could to change his mind,” Popovich joked when asked about Durant’s commitment to Team USA’s Olympic pursuit despite suffering serious leg injuries in two of the last three seasons.

Team USA has won the last three Olympic golds but finished a worst-in-program-history (for when it sends NBA players) seventh place at the world championships in 2019. Say what you will about the improved roster for 2021 — prolific scorers Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal are on this team, as are Devin Booker and Zach LaVine, with Jrue Holiday coming to provide muscular, bothersome defense on the perimeter — but there are two holdovers from that team (Jayson Tatum, Khris Middleton), Donovan Mitchell would have been a third if not for his ankle injury, and multiple competitors are sending NBA players. Luka Doncic (Slovenia) is in this tournament, as are a host of NBAers for France, Australia and Spain, to name a few.

Also, Middleton, Booker and Holiday will probably miss the entirety of training camp and exhibition games in Las Vegas because they’re competing in the NBA Finals. They’re being replaced at practice by four players with marginal pro experience at home and greater experience playing overseas — Josh Magette, John Jenkins, Dakota Mathias and Cam Reynolds.

“The first step is that respect for the opponent, which will not be hard to get across to our players,” Popovich said. “After that, we go to work, skip no steps and make sure that we keep it simple but efficient and effective. Trying to invent the wheel will not work. We’ve got to take advantage of their abilities, their strengths, and play together, play for each other, with one thought in mind — and that’s winning the whole deal.”