Team Canada Basketball Thread V3.0

[dakomish23]

Hey guys - where can I find the box scores ? Couldn’t find it

[mojo13]

Hey guys - where can I find the box scores ? Couldn’t find it

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[TheFutureMM]

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I don't wish injuries on anyone but bummed out to hear that Kristaps may still be on track to play with the Latvian squad.

If he ends up missing the WC, I'd be shocked if we don't at least get to the 2nd round.

[links135]

Hey guys - where can I find the box scores ? Couldn’t find it

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Oh that's not nearly ad bad as I thought, sucks we couldn't stop them inside, but our main guys only played 20 minutes as meh as they were, and we missed 9 free throws while we actually shot pretty well from deep.

Seems more like a first exhibition against an actual team in their home country. If we can add Jamal, and hope Shai doesn't play like that again.

Though you can see why Germany won 3rd at Eurobasket.

But you can also see how we've been playing rather subpar competition till this point. Good experience.

I'll wait till Spain game to judge.

[CanballGuru]

Hey guys - where can I find the box scores ? Couldn’t find it

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We win that game easily with a Dort/Brooks duo. Canada's offense is going to start with defense. The German's were turning it over like crazy when Dort and Brooks were pressing them. Also, I don't want to make excuses but it was a home game for Germany and they had played a warm up game a few days earlier I believe. On the bright side, Canada has to play the German's in the World Cup so it's good that they lost and were able to hide what they are capable of. Free throw shooting was horrible as well 14-23 whereas the German's were 17-18 (That's the game right there - 9 pts lost).

[PoundTown]

Hey guys - where can I find the box scores ? Couldn’t find it

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We win that game easily with a Dort/Brooks duo. Canada's offense is going to start with defense. The German's were turning it over like crazy when Dort and Brooks were pressing them. Also, I don't want to make excuses but it was a home game for Germany and they had played a warm up game a few days earlier I believe. On the bright side, Canada has to play the German's in the World Cup so it's good that they lost and were able to hide what they are capable of. Free throw shooting was horrible as well 14-23 whereas the German's were 17-18 (That's the game right there - 9 pts lost).

And our first team All NBA guy scored 8 points. We know Shai is going to go off when it matters.

[Hair Canada]

We all want SGA to do well and bring his usual NBA dominance to the WC. The reality though is that many NBA superstars had a hard time bringing their usual dominance to the FIBA game the first time they were playing in a major tournament.

A few recent examples:

Steph Curry in the 2014 World Cup: 21 minutes per game, 10.5ppg shooting 40% from the field.

Jimmy Butler in the 2016 Olympics: 5.6ppg in 15 minutes, shooting 22% from 3 and 34% from the field.

Giannis Antetokounmpo in his first Eurobasket in 2015: 9.8ppg and 1.1apg. Giannis in the 2019 WC: 15ppg and only 2.5apg, incluidng a disapointing performance of 13 points, 1 assist, 3 TOs, and 5 fouls in the key loss to Brazil that derailed the team and eventually left it out of the quarterfinals.

Jason Tatum in the 2019 WC: 10.5ppg shooting 25% from 3 and 32% from the field in two games, before he was taken out of the US rotation in the rest of the tournament.

Nikola Jokic in the 2019 WC: 11.5ppg (Bogdanovic had 23ppg), with 6 against Spain (only one assist), 9 against the US, and 7 against the Czech Republic in the final 4 games of the competition, which included two disapointing losses to Spain and Argentina.

Devin Booker in the 2021 Olympics: 9ppg and 1.8apg in 21 minutes per game, shooting 33% from 3 and 42% from the field. Booker was especially bad in the two games against France (one of them the Gold Medal game), with a combined 6 points, shooting 1 of 10 from the field and the USA team was a -16 in these two games with him on the court.

[mojo13]

We all want SGA to do well and bring his usual NBA dominance to the WC. The reality though is that many NBA superstars had a hard time bringing their usual dominance to the FIBA game the first time they were playing in a major tournament.

A few recent examples:

Steph Curry in the 2014 World Cup: 21 minutes per game, 10.5ppg shooting 40% from the field.

Jimmy Butler in the 2016 Olympics: 5.6ppg in 15 minutes, shooting 22% from 3 and 34% from the field.

Giannis Antetokounmpo in his first Eurobasket in 2015: 9.8ppg and 1.1apg. Giannis in the 2019 WC: 15ppg and only 2.5apg, incluidng a disapointing performance of 13 points, 1 assist, 3 TOs, and 5 fouls in the key loss to Brazil that derailed the team and eventually left it out of the quarterfinals.

Jason Tatum in the 2019 WC: 10.5ppg shooting 25% from 3 and 32% from the field in two games, before he was taken out of the US rotation in the rest of the tournament.

Nikola Jokic in the 2019 WC: 11.5ppg (Bogdanovic had 23ppg), with 6 against Spain (only one assist), 9 against the US, and 7 against the Czech Republic in the final 4 games of the competition, which included two disapointing losses to Spain and Argentina.

Devin Booker in the 2021 Olympics: 9ppg and 1.8apg in 21 minutes per game, shooting 33% from 3 and 42% from the field. Booker was especially bad in the two games against France (one of them the Gold Medal game), with a combined 6 points, shooting 1 of 10 from the field and the USA team was a -16 in these two games with him on the court.

I'm not sure these are great examples.

Steph - Irving, Harden, Thomspon, D-Rose were all there eating up minutes. Steph didnt even start did he?
Giannis - 20 years old (2nd season, 12ppg in the NBA), no where near the player we know him as today as Giannis changed drastically. Comp would be Shai at 20 (10ppg NBA rookie season) . Also the worst NT imaginable for him to play on (zero shooting).
Tatum - injured, was clearly suffering from it and then finally held out all together.
Jokic - System, coaching, might have been injured or fatigued. He came off the bench in a number of games (Spain he didnt play much), and only averaged 22 mins for the tournement. They had no idea how to use him properly. I'm still not sure they do now.
Booker - averaged 20 mins a game. With all the mouths to feed on the USA, I don't think USA players are ever good examples. SGA should be the man for Canada.


After seeing SGA versus Aregentina last year, I need more than one exhibition game, where the coach barely played the starters, to lose any sleep.

[Hair Canada]

We all want SGA to do well and bring his usual NBA dominance to the WC. The reality though is that many NBA superstars had a hard time bringing their usual dominance to the FIBA game the first time they were playing in a major tournament.

A few recent examples:

Steph Curry in the 2014 World Cup: 21 minutes per game, 10.5ppg shooting 40% from the field.

Jimmy Butler in the 2016 Olympics: 5.6ppg in 15 minutes, shooting 22% from 3 and 34% from the field.

Giannis Antetokounmpo in his first Eurobasket in 2015: 9.8ppg and 1.1apg. Giannis in the 2019 WC: 15ppg and only 2.5apg, incluidng a disapointing performance of 13 points, 1 assist, 3 TOs, and 5 fouls in the key loss to Brazil that derailed the team and eventually left it out of the quarterfinals.

Jason Tatum in the 2019 WC: 10.5ppg shooting 25% from 3 and 32% from the field in two games, before he was taken out of the US rotation in the rest of the tournament.

Nikola Jokic in the 2019 WC: 11.5ppg (Bogdanovic had 23ppg), with 6 against Spain (only one assist), 9 against the US, and 7 against the Czech Republic in the final 4 games of the competition, which included two disapointing losses to Spain and Argentina.

Devin Booker in the 2021 Olympics: 9ppg and 1.8apg in 21 minutes per game, shooting 33% from 3 and 42% from the field. Booker was especially bad in the two games against France (one of them the Gold Medal game), with a combined 6 points, shooting 1 of 10 from the field and the USA team was a -16 in these two games with him on the court.

I'm not sure these are great examples.

Steph - Irving, Harden, Thomspon, D-Rose were all there eating up minutes. Steph didnt even start did he?
Giannis - 20 years old (2nd season, 12ppg in the NBA), no where near the player we know him as today as Giannis changed drastically. Comp would be Shai at 20 (10ppg NBA rookie season) . Also the worst NT imaginable for him to play on (zero shooting).
Tatum - injured, was clearly suffering from it and then finally held out all together.
Jokic - System, coaching, might have been injured or fatigued. He came off the bench in a number of games (Spain he didnt play much), and only averaged 22 mins for the tournement. They had no idea how to use him properly. I'm still not sure they do now.
Booker - averaged 20 mins a game. With all the mouths to feed on the USA, I don't think USA players are ever good examples. SGA should be the man for Canada.


After seeing SGA versus Aregentina last year, I need more than one exhibition game, where the coach barely played the starters, to lose any sleep.

Sure, there are always circumstances. But these are 6 of arguably the NBA's 10 biggest stars and they all struggled, some of them quite mightily. Giannis was weak in his first appearance but also didnt really shine in his second one, when he was 24 and already an established superstar. Jokic, Steph, Butler, and Booker were also about SGA's age now. And for guys like Butler and Booker (I accept that Tatum was injured), it's not so much the low production, which could indeed be ascribed to fewer minutes and a more minor role. It's the low shooting efficiency, which you might think would not be an issue against lesser defenders, who are unable to focus only on them.

Plus, you could argue that SGA is also not in the perfect situation to maximize his strenghts, with weak or inconsistent (or both) shooters like Dort, Barrett, Brooks, and NAW (and also T. Scrubb and Ejim), as well as 3 non-shooting bigs in Powell, Edey, and Alexander.

The best case scenario for SGA would Luka, who's generally been great for Slovenia and has clearly been the Dude for them, like Shai is supposed to be for Canada. But unlike Giannis and Jokic (And Shai), Luka has been playing in high-level FIBA competitions since he was 16 years old, both at the team level and at the national team level.

I'd love for Shai to be Luka and not any of the others when they first played in their first big FIBA tournament. And hopefully he'd be able to bring that dominance from last year (which mostly came against weaker oponents). But we have to be prepared for the possibility that he'll be more like the others, who are all players at least at his level but did not manage to bring their A game for various reasons.

[WaltFrazier]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/article/clock-ticking-for-murray-as-canada-begins-tune-up-games-ahead-of-fiba-world-cup/

"With the benefit of hindsight would Canada Basketball have been wiser to open up the competition for roster spots a little more broadly?"

Agree with Grange here, I think Rowan Barrett may have been too inflexible on the roster especially with 10-20% of original 15-18 guys typically being committed 1 day, gone the next. I would adjust this approach in the future.

This is what I was asking about earlier, there should have been the flexibility to add young NBA players from outside the 3 year commitment group, especially since they came of age so to speak, after the 3 year thing was set.

[WaltFrazier]

Hey guys - where can I find the box scores ? Couldn’t find it

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?s=20

We win that game easily with a Dort/Brooks duo. Canada's offense is going to start with defense. The German's were turning it over like crazy when Dort and Brooks were pressing them. Also, I don't want to make excuses but it was a home game for Germany and they had played a warm up game a few days earlier I believe. On the bright side, Canada has to play the German's in the World Cup so it's good that they lost and were able to hide what they are capable of. Free throw shooting was horrible as well 14-23 whereas the German's were 17-18 (That's the game right there - 9 pts lost).

Yikes that last point about free throws has Raptor vibes.

[CanballGuru]

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We win that game easily with a Dort/Brooks duo. Canada's offense is going to start with defense. The German's were turning it over like crazy when Dort and Brooks were pressing them. Also, I don't want to make excuses but it was a home game for Germany and they had played a warm up game a few days earlier I believe. On the bright side, Canada has to play the German's in the World Cup so it's good that they lost and were able to hide what they are capable of. Free throw shooting was horrible as well 14-23 whereas the German's were 17-18 (That's the game right there - 9 pts lost).

Yikes that last point about free throws has Raptor vibes.

I think most of Canada's team said that Shaq was their favorite player.

[Chalky_White]

Goes without saying but if Murray doesn't play, the guard depth goes from decent to shallow pretty quick. I think we'd all be surpised if they took a worse group of guards to the World Cup than took part in the qualifiers last summer.

This makes me wonder if Jordi would consider starting NAW next to Shai if there's no Murray? We saw the way SGA thrived next to NAW last summer. Nickeil would provide better spacing since he has a longer range than RJ/Brooks and can also hound the opposing ballhandler as he's a very good POA defender. Would mean relying on TBH to provide steady backup minutes but think he's capable in short spurts.

[Chalky_White]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/article/clock-ticking-for-murray-as-canada-begins-tune-up-games-ahead-of-fiba-world-cup/

"With the benefit of hindsight would Canada Basketball have been wiser to open up the competition for roster spots a little more broadly?"

Agree with Grange here, I think Rowan Barrett may have been too inflexible on the roster especially with 10-20% of original 15-18 guys typically being committed 1 day, gone the next. I would adjust this approach in the future.

This is what I was asking about earlier, there should have been the flexibility to add young NBA players from outside the 3 year commitment group, especially since they came of age so to speak, after the 3 year thing was set.

It seems Canada Basketball was caught a bit off-guard by the withdrawals. At the start of camp Rowan Barrett was telling media that every player who showed up was commited to going to the world cup but now suddenly stories are coming out about "mutual decisions" and guys wanting to focus on their nba situations.

Hopefully this experience results in a more flexible approach next summer, if they qualify, where guys are given opportunities to win spots. If Lyles or Nemhard(or someone else) is performing better than Joseph or Brissett(for example) than you'd hope they take the better guy.
I think everyone appreciates how much Cory has shown up for the program in the past but it might be time for some tough decisions(like Australia just did leaving Delly off the world cup team)

[steadysoul]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/article/clock-ticking-for-murray-as-canada-begins-tune-up-games-ahead-of-fiba-world-cup/

"With the benefit of hindsight would Canada Basketball have been wiser to open up the competition for roster spots a little more broadly?"

Agree with Grange here, I think Rowan Barrett may have been too inflexible on the roster especially with 10-20% of original 15-18 guys typically being committed 1 day, gone the next. I would adjust this approach in the future.

This is what I was asking about earlier, there should have been the flexibility to add young NBA players from outside the 3 year commitment group, especially since they came of age so to speak, after the 3 year thing was set.

It seems Canada Basketball was caught a bit off-guard by the withdrawals. At the start of camp Rowan Barrett was telling media that every player who showed up was commited to going to the world cup but now suddenly stories are coming out about "mutual decisions" and guys wanting to focus on their nba situations.

Hopefully this experience results in a more flexible approach next summer, if they qualify, where guys are given opportunities to win spots. If Lyles or Nemhard(or someone else) is performing better than Joseph or Brissett(for example) than you'd hope they take the better guy.
I think everyone appreciates how much Cory has shown up for the program in the past but it might be time for some tough decisions(like Australia just did leaving Delly off the world cup team)

I think Canada needs to do what the US did in 2006 and just meet every summer regardless. Invite everyone who is qualified to play for Canada and build that institutional connection. I understand the desire for a core group but it's pointless if you don't add people in who weren't at all eligible when it was established.

[Hair Canada]

Canada adds Kenny Cherry to the roster before the game today against New Zealand. I like Kenny, but is it an omnious sign that Murray is out?

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[CanballGuru]

Canada adds Kenny Cherry to the roster before the game today against New Zealand. I like Kenny, but is it an omnious sign that Murray is out?

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Joseph dropped out wouldn't it make more sense that it his replacement? Canada need another big man. Its as shame Lyles didn't show up as he was having a really good season in Sacramento.

[TheFutureMM]

Canada adds Kenny Cherry to the roster before the game today against New Zealand. I like Kenny, but is it an omnious sign that Murray is out?

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Yes - reads a lot like Murray insurance to me.

Could also be the fact that TBH is really the only true PG on the roster at the moment. Shai started at PG but he looked uncomfortable there and I could see Canada Basketball getting prepared to ensure we have a second true PG.

Missing Cojo and Pangos at the moment.

[Kenter16]

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Nightmare fuel!

[CanballGuru]

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Nightmare fuel!

Canada should hire NBA floor people and bring them with them for every game. This stuff happens way too much internationally games.