State of the Union. Team Canada Basketball. (FIBA Americas Aug.31-Sep.15)

[frumble]

Re whether we are talking about the 3 as a glaring weakness in terms of who will back up Wiggins for 10 minutes a game, I think it is partly that but partly in consideration of the fact that Wiggins is by no means certain to play this summer or next. Maybe I am being pessimistic, but I just don't have the sense that Wiggins (or Stauskas) is as committed as, e.g, Joseph, Ennis, Powell or Olynyk, and I don't think we can count on the 3 (and 2) issue just being a question of who backs up Wiggins (and Stauskas).

Really? Maybe I'm optimistic, but some things that have been said lead me to believe he'll play. For example

Wiggins said:

“It’s exciting to have the Pan Am Games in my hometown of Toronto this summer,” Wiggins said. “Having the opportunity to play at home is very special for Team Canada and the country.”

Triano said:

“Every player that I’ve talked to has indicated that they want to play in both Pan Ams and the qualifying tournament,” Team Canada head coach Jay Triano told reporters as the Games’ schedule and draw were released Thursday morning. “The fact it’s in our backyard, these guys are pretty excited.”

If someone plays in the Pan Am games, I don't see how they would skip the tournament that could get us into the Olympics, just a month later. To me, it just seems likely that if he's playing/practicing with team Canada, and hanging out with his Team Canada buddies that will be playing in the tournament, he stands a good chance at playing as well. But, maybe I'm optimistic.

I think Triano chose his words very carefully - a player saying he wants to play is very different from him actually playing. E.g., I think Olynyk really wanted to play in the summer of 13, but Celtics discouraged it, so he didn't.

And Triano has also said that he hasn't talked to Flip Saunders (or any other NBA teams) yet, and that there is a lot of work to do re securing participation. Given the George injury, I am sure teams will be even more reluctant to let their players play FIBA ball than they have been in the past.

I hope I am wrong, but I am not expecting participation to be much better in summer 15 than it was in summer 13.

[mojo13]

After a little more research it looks like Andrew Nicholson's contract runs through 2015/16. The 2015-16 team option was picked up this year.

That gives me some relief. He seems to be playing much better the last month or two as well. There is commentary from his coaches that has greatly improved his D (thank god). And he always has been a pretty good offensive player.

His good O and passable D (it was terribad in 2013) will make him a key piece for this SMNT.

[SharoneWright]

And between Nolan Narain, Brandon Cyrus, Jordy Tshimanga, Koby McEewen, Eddie Ekiyor, and Jermaine Haley, we could end up with 6 or 7 top 100 guys. Which would be, by far, the most ever.

Thanks for these names. I knew some, but not all. More google-fun!

[aminiaturebuddha]

Dillon Brooks had some great games in Oregon too this year and could grow into an NBA player. He was an undersized 4 though and you'd think he needs to transition more to a 3.

I really love Brooks' game and don't think he'll have a problem playing the 3 offensively at all. He definitely has the talent, skill and effort level to become an NBA player. The thing that may sadly hold him back is his "physical profile". Basically, the dude has short arms (relative to other NBA-caliber players), and so he is not going to show very well in draft measurements for all of the scouts who are concerned about wingspan. And to some extent, they'll have a point. It will limit his ability defensively, and he doesn't have enough lateral quickness to just stay in front of NBA-level athletes.

He puts in a lot of effort on the court, though, and hopefully that will be enough. But unfortunately, his ability to be an impact player at the next level is probably going to be somewhat limited by the one thing he can't control.

[aminiaturebuddha]

I'm a little nervous about:
Stauskas (committment, King's interferance - key offseason to help fix his broke game)
Thompson (contract)
Nicholson (contract)
Cory Joseph (contract)

I watched the Timberwolves-Kings game on League Pass last night and Stauskas' issues are threefold in my opinion. Yes, there are some things he needs to continue to work on, defensive awareness being foremost. But confidence remains his biggest problem - he just doesn't seem to have the "attack" mentality that he had at Michigan, where he constantly put pressure on the opposing defence.

However, a big third problem is how he is being used in Sacramento, or the lack of confidence that other players on the floor seem to have in him. There were a number of times where I saw Stauskas find the open area on the floor (often by floating to the corners - exactly the sweet spot for most smart NBA offences these days), be completely wide open, and his teammates just ignored him in favour of a much tougher shot. And when Stauskas does get a chance to handle to ball at the top of the arc, no one sets good screens for him to begin a high pick and roll, another thing he was excellent at commanding at Michigan.

Basically that Kings team is a mess. Hopefully with an off-season of prep and a training camp, George Karl will be able to instill a half decent offensive game plan that Stauskas can take advantage off. We'll see. Essentially, despite his problems, if Stauskas was playing in Atlanta, San Antonio, or hell, even Toronto right now I think we would be seeing his rookie season a little differently.

[aminiaturebuddha]

This thread got me thinking a bit more about the makeup of the rosters for this summer, and so I'll set out what I think would be optimal in an ideal situation.

Three caveats:

1. I'm going to assume from the beginning that those players coming out of the NCAA (or likely to) this summer, namely Trey Lyles, Olivier Hanlan, Kevin Pangos and Daniel Mullings, won't be available for the Pan-Am games because it runs the same time as NBA summer leagues, and won't be experienced enough for the senior team for the qualifying tournament. So you won't see those names on my preferred rosters. That doesn't mean I don't think that they should be a big part of the program in the future, especially Lyles, just that it's probably not reasonable to count on their participation for this year.

2. I'm thinking about what might be best for the program and what is reasonable to expect from the players. So in these preferred rosters, I'm making an effort to balance choosing the best players, getting the young guys experience, and keeping a range of players involved in the program.

3. It's probably not reasonable to expect that players who will be playing NBA playoff minutes (or who played major minutes during the season like Wiggins) will commit to both tournaments. So that means no guys like Thompson or CoJo on the Pan-Am team. However, ideally they would convince 5 young guys who didn't play much this year, but who will be important to the program going forward, to play for both teams and build up experience in international play - those 5 would be Stauskas, Ennis, Sacre, Bennett and Powell. I don't expect this will happen, just what I would love to see happen. Also, Bennett and Powell would basically be competing for the 5th big man spot on the qualifying team, so one of those two would actually only end up playing the first tournament.

Pan-Am team
C - Robert Sacre
F - Anthony Bennett
F - Melvin Ejim
G - Nik Stauskas
G - Tyler Ennis
C - Jordan Bachynski
F - Dwight Powell
F - Kyle Wiljter
G - Andy Rautins
G - Jermaine Anderson
F - Khem Birch
G - Myck Kabongo or Junior Cadougan

Olympic qualifying tournament team
C - Kelly Olynyk
F - Tristan Thompson
F - Andrew Wiggins
G - Nik Stauskas
G - Cory Joseph
C - Robert Sacre
F - Andrew Nicholson
F - Kris Joseph
G - Carl English
G - Tyler Ennis
F - Bennett or Powell
G - Brady Heslip

[frumble]

This thread got me thinking a bit more about the makeup of the rosters for this summer, and so I'll set out what I think would be optimal in an ideal situation.

Three caveats:

1. I'm going to assume from the beginning that those players coming out of the NCAA (or likely to) this summer, namely Trey Lyles, Olivier Hanlan, Kevin Pangos and Daniel Mullings, won't be available for the Pan-Am games because it runs the same time as NBA summer leagues, and won't be experienced enough for the senior team for the qualifying tournament. So you won't see those names on my preferred rosters. That doesn't mean I don't think that they should be a big part of the program in the future, especially Lyles, just that it's probably not reasonable to count on their participation for this year.

2. I'm thinking about what might be best for the program and what is reasonable to expect from the players. So in these preferred rosters, I'm making an effort to balance choosing the best players, getting the young guys experience, and keeping a range of players involved in the program.

3. It's probably not reasonable to expect that players who will be playing NBA playoff minutes (or who played major minutes during the season like Wiggins) will commit to both tournaments. So that means no guys like Thompson or CoJo on the Pan-Am team. However, ideally they would convince 5 young guys who didn't play much this year, but who will be important to the program going forward, to play for both teams and build up experience in international play - those 5 would be Stauskas, Ennis, Sacre, Bennett and Powell. I don't expect this will happen, just what I would love to see happen. Also, Bennett and Powell would basically be competing for the 5th big man spot on the qualifying team, so one of those two would actually only end up playing the first tournament.

Pan-Am team
C - Robert Sacre
F - Anthony Bennett
F - Melvin Ejim
G - Nik Stauskas
G - Tyler Ennis
C - Jordan Bachynski
F - Dwight Powell
F - Kyle Wiljter
G - Andy Rautins
G - Jermaine Anderson
F - Khem Birch
G - Myck Kabongo or Junior Cadougan

Olympic qualifying tournament team
C - Kelly Olynyk
F - Tristan Thompson
F - Andrew Wiggins
G - Nik Stauskas
G - Cory Joseph
C - Robert Sacre
F - Andrew Nicholson
F - Kris Joseph
G - Carl English
G - Tyler Ennis
F - Bennett or Powell
G - Brady Heslip

I agree completely with the Olympic Qualifying team you listed. I think that is our ideal team.

Re the PanAms, I think its probable that Powell, Stauskas and Ennis will be in summer league. There is also a decent chance that Birch lands an invite.

So for those spots, maybe Pierre, Scrubb, and Shepherd, and both Cadougan and Kabongo make it?

That would make the roster something like:

PG Anderson
PG Kabongo
PG Cadougan
SG Rautins
SG Scrubb
SF Shepherd
SF Pierre
PF Bennett
PF Ejim
PF Wiltjer
C Sacre
C Bachynski

I can also see them going totally with a youth approach (maybe not strict U23, but something close), and Sacre, Shepherd, Rautins, and Anderson not being involved. That would involved taking some NCAA guys, and/or guys like T. Scrubb and Klassen.

[bananaman]

I hope our NBA level players commit to playing for the national program fully. It seems like the other countries have few issues getting their players to participate, while we often hear that our guys want to focus on their NBA career during the offseason.

[mojo13]

Not to quibble with aminiaturebuddha and frumble as I am pretty much in agreement with the Olympic Qualification "ideal-team" you list, but I do think Kris Joseph needs to earn his way on that team. I am not fully sold on him, especially as he has been less than stellar this year in the French A-League. Might make more sense for Bennett/Powell or Rautins in that spot. YOu know what you'll get from Rautins and Powell is pretty versitile. He's been playing some small forward in the d-league.

[frumble]

Not to quibble with aminiaturebuddha and frumble as I am pretty much in agreement with the Olympic Qualification "ideal-team" you list, but I do think Kris Joseph needs to earn his way on that team. I am not fully sold on him, especially as he has been less than stellar this year in the French A-League. Might make more sense for Bennett/Powell or Rautins in that spot. YOu know what you'll get from Rautins and Powell is pretty versitile. He's been playing some small forward in the d-league.

I agree - Joseph would have to earn it. And given his disappearing act in 2013, I doubt he even participates.

But if he does show up, and plays well in camp, I would rather have him as a back-up wing than Rautins. This is partly because of the similarity in skill set between Stauskas, Heslip, English, and Rautins. Joseph is not as a good a spot up shooter as Rautins, but I think we have that attribute covered, and would benefit more from Joseph's ability to drive and his rebounding out of the SF spot (he is not off the charts on these things, but I think is better than Rautins).

Taking Powell or Bennett instead of Joseph would be different. If Triano decides that 6 bigs is the right mix, and that one of Powell or Bennett can be on the floor with 2 other bigs in certain situations, than I can see Joseph being the odd guy out.

[DrCoach]

6'7 SF Jameson Tipping needs a look, played for the Brampton A's of the NBLC last season

[Hendrix]

Hell of a game by Jamal Murray at the Nike Hoops Summit, eh? Looks potentially promising for team Canada.

[Young_Buc]

Hell of a game by Jamal Murray at the Nike Hoops Summit, eh? Looks potentially promising for team Canada.

A star 2 would be the ideal position to make us big time challengers.

I don't think bigs are particularly involved in international play (similar to the NCAA) unless they can shoot. A lineup of

Olynyk
TT
Wiggins
Joseph
Murray

For 2020 would look fantastic with some of the other prospects (Rowan Barrett jr, Semi Shittau) we've got coming up

[Hendrix]

Hell of a game by Jamal Murray at the Nike Hoops Summit, eh? Looks potentially promising for team Canada.

A star 2 would be the ideal position to make us big time challengers.

I don't think bigs are particularly involved in international play (similar to the NCAA) unless they can shoot. A lineup of

Olynyk
TT
Wiggins
Joseph
Murray

For 2020 would look fantastic with some of the other prospects (Rowan Barrett jr, Semi ****) we've got coming up

Absolutely. We are never going to have the talent that the USA team does, but if we can get some good talent at key positions we're currently lack at, have players that's game suits Fiba (Olynyk for example), and develop great chemistry, I think we can put together a very good team. And, that is what it's going to take, is "team". Not just a collection of talented players that show up for tournaments, and don't know how to play together.

I wonder what the ceiling is for the Canadian program is? Is 2nd best in the world attainable in 2020, or 2024? We should improve a bit over the next couple years, but I don't expect these youngins to take that big step for a while.

[mojo13]

I think we could be a medal contender in 2020 and/or 2024. I don't think we will ever be a medal favorite.
A contender needs to get the right attendance from its best players, get a few lucky draws or or bounces along the way, and then a 3rd or maybe even a 2nd falls into place. We will be one of 5-8 other contenders. I think along the lines of Serbia, Croatia, France, Lithuania, Brazil, Turkey, Russia over the last 5-10 years. A medal favorite would be Spain of the last decade and maybe Argentina in its golden years (the US is on a different level).

I just don't think we will ever have the cohesion and FIBA experience to ever get to a medal favorite level. I have mentioned many times, I think the FIBA game is just so different from what the majority of our best players know. And we will never have the pure overwhleming talent like the US does - which is the reason the US (when properly focussed) can overcome the lack of FIBA experience.

[Mattd97]

as per WT, hanlan declaring for the draft. hopefully he catches on somewhere
http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/237399/Olivier-Hanlan-Leaving-Boston-College-For-NBA-Draft

[frumble]

as per WT, hanlan declaring for the draft. hopefully he catches on somewhere
http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/237399/Olivier-Hanlan-Leaving-Boston-College-For-NBA-Draft

FWIW, DraftExpress's last mock has Hanlan going 54th overall and NBAdraft.net has him 32nd.

[aminiaturebuddha]

as per WT, hanlan declaring for the draft. hopefully he catches on somewhere
http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/237399/Olivier-Hanlan-Leaving-Boston-College-For-NBA-Draft

As I mentioned in a previous post, not entirely surprising given the state of Boston College basketball. Drafted or not, I really hope some team gives him a contract and a legitimate shot. I think he deserves it - he seems to have put in a lot of work the past couple of years. I don't see any reason why he couldn't be a good 8-10 roster spot guard off the bench that can play PG or SG depending on the situation. Hopefully that versatility would keep him around.

[frumble]

Looks like Wiltjer is considering coming out this year.

Per Jeff Goodman's sources, it would be a mistake:

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN

Also per Goodman, Kevin Zabo is leaving SD State.

[frumble]

Per Chris Gent (hoopshype), Stauskas confirms for Canada this summer!

https://twitter.com/chrisgentnba

Chris Gent @chrisgentnba · 43m 43 minutes ago
Nik Stauskas confirms team Canada participation this summer. Should definitely be in contention for a starting position