Team Canada Basketball Thread V2.0

[Double Helix]

What was SGA’s reason for dropping out?

[dozo]

The commitment of 6 weeks just prior to NBA training camp is TOO long.

That being said, these players are primarily about themselves. There are exceptions. But a big reason they are making a career in the pros is from the grassroots programs and its time to give back. If these programs are all about the .01% earning big $ in the NBA, then scrap them. This is a big difference between basketball players and hockey players.

I give a lot of credit to those that are playing.

I’m going to disagree here. Basketball Canada has long been a joke and most if not all these NBA players are a product of the US system be it prep school AAU or NCAA. It’s US grassroots programs that are producing NBA players not anything Basketball Canada has done. There is no obligation to “give back” to something that you didn’t really benefit from.
Hopefully hiring Nurse is a step in the right direction to giving the program some credibility but given Canada basketball long history of being political,poorly run and underfunded it will take several years of showing things have changed before players start to believe it.

The whole system that Fiba has developed is a joke and you can see the reaction of the top tier US players. Playing in these type of tournaments does not help young less established guys like Powell get better NBA deals and that’s what their focus should be at their age. They have a limited window to get those multi year multimillion dollar contracts. This countries obsession with Hockey how many people tune into watch any international hockey completion vs how many people would tune in to watch Canada play I Basketball?

Yessss!
Canada is great at developing hockey players period. The credit goes The Major Junior hockey system in Canada which is broken into several tiers.

The Canadian Governments lack of funding for grassroots is sad. There are some Canadian Olympic Athletes who are living below the proverty line due to funding there own dreams.

Canada Basketball is doing a great job. Be patient, trust the process, the end goal has always been Olympic GOLD.

To the bandwagon's who chanted a Kardashian name when TT was shooting a Free Throw against Raptors are big time fanboys.

[MEDIC]

Well that sucks. Those were some expensive tickets I bought to watch the Scrubb brothers.

Respect to Cojo & Olynyk.

This was a massive opportunity to continue to ride the post championship wave in Canada. Add more fans.....continue to grow the sport & compete with Hockey.

Kind of hard for Canadians to embrace the sport when free agents want to head back to the US & Canadian players don't even want to play for the Canadian national team.

If the players don't give a f, then when should Canadian sports fans give a f about basketball.

Sad really.....

[Westside Gunn]

whats even more sad is they are giving up the opportunity to learn from a coach that just won a championship. on top of that no national pride whatsoever.

most of these guys had nothing to lose really. they have their contracts, they have their teams, they are pretty much set.

[mathgeek]

What was SGA’s reason for dropping out?

Wants to work on his game with his new team. Probably learning their system and trying not to get hurt while on his rookie contract. He had a great rookie season last year and if he continues to play well is due for a big payday.

Tristan is a UFA in 2020 so it's understandable why he dropped out. Rookies never play during their draft year, so that was obvious.

My issue is with the guys who are onto the their 2nd contract like Dwight Powell who is signed until 2023. Wiggins signed for 150 million and hasn't shown anything. Playing for Canada and being one of the leaders would do wonders for his confidence. Murray signed a 5 year 170 mill deal what does have to lose. I don't buy the late ankle injury. I wonder if there is insurance issues now that contracts are through the roof.

Why wasn't Andrew Nicholson who played in China last season invited or Anthony Bennett? If Powell and TT aren't showing up you'd think one of those 2 would be the replacement.

[mathgeek]

I’m going to disagree here. Basketball Canada has long been a joke and most if not all these NBA players are a product of the US system be it prep school AAU or NCAA. It’s US grassroots programs that are producing NBA players not anything Basketball Canada has done. There is no obligation to “give back” to something that you didn’t really benefit from.
Hopefully hiring Nurse is a step in the right direction to giving the program some credibility but given Canada basketball long history of being political,poorly run and underfunded it will take several years of showing things have changed before players start to believe it.

The whole system that Fiba has developed is a joke and you can see the reaction of the top tier US players. Playing in these type of tournaments does not help young less established guys like Powell get better NBA deals and that’s what their focus should be at their age. They have a limited window to get those multi year multimillion dollar contracts. This countries obsession with Hockey how many people tune into watch any international hockey completion vs how many people would tune in to watch Canada play I Basketball?

I agree with this take when fans use the whole "give back" argument. Basketball in this country from a grassroots level has changed and it is affected from our proximity to the US. In the past decade there has been a rise of Canadian prep schools or AAU teams that are sponsored by big shoe companies, "boosters" and former pro players. These teams frequently travel down to the states so their players can face much better competition and oftentimes do quite well.

It's usually around grade 9 or 10 when the top players seperate themselves and are encouraged to play in big US prep schools like Montverde Academy, Findlay Prep, Huntington Prep, etc. Therefore the only time Canada Basketball has some positive influence for these kids is on their U15 provincial teams. Probably the first time in their lives where they get a chance to play/compete against the cream of the crop from their age group.

[Double Helix]

Turning our attention away from focus on those who can create their own shots at the NBA level and more so on Spurs style team basketball that Nurse can coach and on small ball lineups that Nurse has shown willingness to play I think this is still a very talented group we could see with ball handling and shooting where Nurse plays 2 x PGs.

PG: Kevin Pangos / Cory Jospeh

SG: Cory Joseph / Brady Heslip

SF: Melvin Ejim / Oshae Brissett

PF: Khem Birch / Chris Boucher

C: Kelly Olynyk / Khem Birch

Those are NBA talents or high level euroleague players. Pangos has flourished over seas and his game suits FIBA. If Boucher was a skinny white guy from Latvia with this shot blocking, rebounding and offensive skill people would be hyping him up massively.

[Too Late Crew]

whats even more sad is they are giving up the opportunity to learn from a coach that just won a championship. on top of that no national pride whatsoever.

most of these guys had nothing to lose really. they have their contracts, they have their teams, they are pretty much set.

But they have little to gain either. This is not the Olympics. If you polled 1000 people on the street in random Canadian cities “who won the last FIBA basketball World Cup how many would know? How many would even know that there was a World Cup that isn’t soccer?
Learn from a coach that just won the world championship? Please no players think that playing a few games for Nick Nurse or Ty Lue (he won a ring as an example) will change their game. W are not talking about Pop or Coach K here.

It’s just not that important or a big deal in the eyes of most Canadians. It’s at the level or probably even less important than say some NHL player passing up on the Spengler Cup.

[WellYouKnow]

Turning our attention away from focus on those who can create their own shots at the NBA level and more so on Spurs style team basketball that Nurse can coach and on small ball lineups that Nurse has shown willingness to play I think this is still a very talented group we could see with ball handling and shooting where Nurse plays 2 x PGs.

PG: Kevin Pangos / Cory Jospeh

SG: Cory Joseph / Brady Heslip

SF: Melvin Ejim / Oshae Brissett

PF: Khem Birch / Chris Boucher

C: Kelly Olynyk / Khem Birch

Those are NBA talents or high level euroleague players. Pangos has flourished over seas and his game suits FIBA. If Boucher was a skinny white guy from Latvia with this shot blocking, rebounding and offensive skill people would be hyping him up massively.

I'd have a hard time believing that Brissett would be a more useful player than T Scrubb as of right now.

[ATLTimekeeper]

whats even more sad is they are giving up the opportunity to learn from a coach that just won a championship. on top of that no national pride whatsoever.

most of these guys had nothing to lose really. they have their contracts, they have their teams, they are pretty much set.

But they have little to gain either. This is not the Olympics. If you polled 1000 people on the street in random Canadian cities “who won the last FIBA basketball World Cup how many would know? How many would even know that there was a World Cup that isn’t soccer?
Learn from a coach that just won the world championship? Please no players think that playing a few games for Nick Nurse or Ty Lue (he won a ring as an example) will change their game. W are not talking about Pop or Coach K here.

It’s just not that important or a big deal in the eyes of most Canadians. It’s at the level or probably even less important than say some NHL player passing up on the Spengler Cup.

It's a big deal in the basketball world, which they are a part of. It doesn't matter what the rest of Canada thinks. They gain an opportunity to play basketball at a high level, just like everyone else that participates around the world. They also might see a benefit in actively growing the sport in Canada or the National Team program by participating in it at the second biggest international tournament outside of the Olympics. This is why some guys like CoJo and Olynyk always seem to show up.

All these NBA players that have dropped out recently have played for Canada at some point through their youth. When they get to the NBA they seem to get intimidated by their club teams and agents into not playing. But Murray has security now, Jokic is apparently playing for Serbia. Dwight Powell just signed a 3 year extension. SGA has the franchise handed over to him. There's no way he's not going to be a key piece of OKC's team if he decides to skip their open runs to go play for Canada. RJ Barrett was drafted 3rd and is the son of the GM of Team Canada. I don't see why he isn't going to China.

[Fairview4Life]

I am completely ok with players backing out and not playing for free and for someone else to make money off of them.

[super_balls]

Turning our attention away from focus on those who can create their own shots at the NBA level and more so on Spurs style team basketball that Nurse can coach and on small ball lineups that Nurse has shown willingness to play I think this is still a very talented group we could see with ball handling and shooting where Nurse plays 2 x PGs.

PG: Kevin Pangos / Cory Jospeh

SG: Cory Joseph / Brady Heslip

SF: Melvin Ejim / Oshae Brissett

PF: Khem Birch / Chris Boucher

C: Kelly Olynyk / Khem Birch

Those are NBA talents or high level euroleague players. Pangos has flourished over seas and his game suits FIBA. If Boucher was a skinny white guy from Latvia with this shot blocking, rebounding and offensive skill people would be hyping him up massively.

I'd have a hard time believing that Brissett would be a more useful player than T Scrubb as of right now.

I don't think Nurse is that high on T Scrubb. He mentioned he was looking at playing Boucher and/or Nembhard at the 3. He also said Nembhard and Brisset have surprised him. Considering Brisset will be playing for the 905 this year and training camp with us, I think Nurse would definitely invest more into him.

[BilboBanginz]

Not sure if this was posted yet, but tonight's game vs. Nigeria will be streaming on www.cbc.ca/sports/broadcast

[Double Helix]

I’m excited to see Boucher’s continued unconventional development curve.

[gundysmullet]

I am completely ok with players backing out and not playing for free and for someone else to make money off of them.

What you described is literally volunteerism. And you are right, they do have the right to choose not to volunteer. But whatever happened to the idea that it is an honor and a privilege to represent your country? Globalism sucks.

[super_balls]

I’m excited to see Boucher’s continued unconventional development curve.

I have a weird feeling he's going to be Canada's best player at the world cup.

[duppyy]

Turning our attention away from focus on those who can create their own shots at the NBA level and more so on Spurs style team basketball that Nurse can coach and on small ball lineups that Nurse has shown willingness to play I think this is still a very talented group we could see with ball handling and shooting where Nurse plays 2 x PGs.

PG: Kevin Pangos / Cory Jospeh

SG: Cory Joseph / Brady Heslip

SF: Melvin Ejim / Oshae Brissett

PF: Khem Birch / Chris Boucher

C: Kelly Olynyk / Khem Birch

Those are NBA talents or high level euroleague players. Pangos has flourished over seas and his game suits FIBA. If Boucher was a skinny white guy from Latvia with this shot blocking, rebounding and offensive skill people would be hyping him up massively.

I wouldn't really call Boucher a good rebounder. He's below average. Too often I'd see him get outmuscled by smaller people in garbage time.

[Mattd97]

I am completely ok with players backing out and not playing for free and for someone else to make money off of them.

What you described is literally volunteerism. And you are right, they do have the right to choose not to volunteer. But whatever happened to the idea that it is an honor and a privilege to represent your country? Globalism sucks.

shut up about globalism and go volunteer at the legion, damn

[Fairview4Life]

I am completely ok with players backing out and not playing for free and for someone else to make money off of them.

What you described is literally volunteerism. And you are right, they do have the right to choose not to volunteer. But whatever happened to the idea that it is an honor and a privilege to represent your country? Globalism sucks.

Volunteering at a local hospital is different than volunteering to play a sport to make other people money, which is what these tournaments are.

And "Globalism" doesn't suck. You suck.

[UcanUwill]

Globalism doesnt suck, but I also disappointed every time player declines playing for his country. With great power comes great responsibility, fans makes this game, if there werent fans, you wouldnt make millions of dollars for playing a game, so you own something to them. They dont even play for free, they still get daily allowance that is more than some people still make in a month. Its only can be called playing for free because it looks that way relatively to their actual salaries in clubs, that are thousands times bigger than any of ours.