if Exum's injury turns out to be as serious as some fear, it will likely revive the sort of debates we saw last summer, after Indiana Pacers star Paul George's horrific broken leg during a USA Basketball scrimmage, about the relative risks and rewards of NBA players suiting up for national-team duty during summers off from their club teams.
For what it's worth, as Falk noted, Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey recently struck a "gotta hear both sides" sort of tone on the matter, trumpeting the importance of a team protecting its interests and investments while also respecting players' "loyalty toward their home country" and crediting international competition as a development tool for players he's worked with in previous front-office stints with the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs. He need only look back to last summer as an indication of how major minutes for Team France in the 2014 FIBA World Cup helped turn Rudy Gobert into a shot-blocking, rim-protecting, dunk-detonating justification for trading Enes Kanter and a prospective pivot point for the franchise's fortunes.
