Team Canada Basketball Thread V2.0

[lexxus]

Canada needs to be in top 7 in the upcoming World Cup to qualify for the Tokyo olympics?

edit: Oops. I was wrong. They need to be top 2 in Americas for them to qualify.

[TrueNorth31]

Interesting article from a Miami beat reporter on Olynyk and how the Heat used his injury to force him off Team Canada. It's titled about how Olynyk is an expiring commodity for the Heat and shows just how much disdain NBA teams have for the World Cup and how they view players as mere chattels.

"Olynyk being forced to step aside for Canada prior to the World Cup certainly would be a personally painful moment, one at the moment not anticipated.
But, from a Heat perspective, what would matter most would be losing any time — camp, preseason, early season — with Olynyk in a process that could have implications with the Heat’s power rotation and salary cap for years to come."

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-heat/fl-sp-ira-nba-column-20190810-rriqqra4mncnbehhzpzgq345bi-story.html

Also Carlan Gay of NBA Canada was on the Fan 590 yesterday. He feels Cory Joseph will not show up in Sydney primarily because his NBA team , Sacramento is travelling to India for pre season games in a few weeks and the travel demands are quite high.The Kings just pressured De'Aaron Fox off the American team and you can be assured their turning the screws on CoJo as well.

[BilboBanginz]

Interesting article from a Miami beat reporter on Olynyk and how the Heat used his injury to force him off Team Canada. It's titled about how Olynyk is an expiring commodity for the Heat and shows just how much disdain NBA teams have for the World Cup and how they view players as mere chattels.

"Olynyk being forced to step aside for Canada prior to the World Cup certainly would be a personally painful moment, one at the moment not anticipated.
But, from a Heat perspective, what would matter most would be losing any time — camp, preseason, early season — with Olynyk in a process that could have implications with the Heat’s power rotation and salary cap for years to come."

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-heat/fl-sp-ira-nba-column-20190810-rriqqra4mncnbehhzpzgq345bi-story.html

Also Carlan Gay of NBA Canada was on the Fan 590 yesterday. He feels Cory Joseph will not show up in Sydney primarily because his NBA team , Sacramento is travelling to India for pre season games in a few weeks and the travel demands are quite high.The Kings just pressured De'Aaron Fox off the American team and you can be assured their turning the screws on CoJo as well.

Interesting. At this point I fully expect Joseph to be out. We should find out sometime today though considering the game is 5:30am EST tomorrow.

[And1Skip]

Interesting article from a Miami beat reporter on Olynyk and how the Heat used his injury to force him off Team Canada. It's titled about how Olynyk is an expiring commodity for the Heat and shows just how much disdain NBA teams have for the World Cup and how they view players as mere chattels.

"Olynyk being forced to step aside for Canada prior to the World Cup certainly would be a personally painful moment, one at the moment not anticipated.
But, from a Heat perspective, what would matter most would be losing any time — camp, preseason, early season — with Olynyk in a process that could have implications with the Heat’s power rotation and salary cap for years to come."

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-heat/fl-sp-ira-nba-column-20190810-rriqqra4mncnbehhzpzgq345bi-story.html

Also Carlan Gay of NBA Canada was on the Fan 590 yesterday. He feels Cory Joseph will not show up in Sydney primarily because his NBA team , Sacramento is travelling to India for pre season games in a few weeks and the travel demands are quite high.The Kings just pressured De'Aaron Fox off the American team and you can be assured their turning the screws on CoJo as well.

Interesting. At this point I fully expect Joseph to be out. We should find out sometime today though considering the game is 5:30am EST tomorrow.

That's actually a little surprising for Joseph considering Roy Rana is on the Kings coaching staff (though Rana might be pissed he didn't get the national team head coaching job and its not like he has any say in the decisions).

[TrueNorth31]

For what it's worth - in the Game 2 broadcast the announcers said Nurse insisted that Joseph would be joining the team in Sydney ( they didn't say when) so there's that. The Rana factor would certainly help. Gay thought it would be better for the team that a decision be made sooner than later ( Heslip also said to be joining the team).

[And1Skip]

For what it's worth - in the Game 2 broadcast the announcers said Nurse insisted that Joseph would be joining the team in Sydney ( they didn't say when) so there's that. The Rana factor would certainly help. Gay thought it would be better for the team that a decision be made sooner than later ( Heslip also said to be joining the team).

I wonder why was Helsip out? I thought it was because of a birth of a child, but then I re-read some of my past tweets, its actually that Pangos is expecting a new baby due next month. Ejim is also expecting a new baby next month. So lets just say that there might be more absences during the Would Cup if their babies are born during the tournament. Travel is shorter for these guys that play in Europe.

[gundysmullet]

Interesting article from a Miami beat reporter on Olynyk and how the Heat used his injury to force him off Team Canada. It's titled about how Olynyk is an expiring commodity for the Heat and shows just how much disdain NBA teams have for the World Cup and how they view players as mere chattels.

"Olynyk being forced to step aside for Canada prior to the World Cup certainly would be a personally painful moment, one at the moment not anticipated.
But, from a Heat perspective, what would matter most would be losing any time — camp, preseason, early season — with Olynyk in a process that could have implications with the Heat’s power rotation and salary cap for years to come."

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-heat/fl-sp-ira-nba-column-20190810-rriqqra4mncnbehhzpzgq345bi-story.html

Also Carlan Gay of NBA Canada was on the Fan 590 yesterday. He feels Cory Joseph will not show up in Sydney primarily because his NBA team , Sacramento is travelling to India for pre season games in a few weeks and the travel demands are quite high.The Kings just pressured De'Aaron Fox off the American team and you can be assured their turning the screws on CoJo as well.

Then how do they account for Bogdanovich still play for Serbia?

[mojo13]

For what it's worth - in the Game 2 broadcast the announcers said Nurse insisted that Joseph would be joining the team in Sydney ( they didn't say when) so there's that. The Rana factor would certainly help. Gay thought it would be better for the team that a decision be made sooner than later ( Heslip also said to be joining the team).

Anyone know the issue with Heslip?


This is going to be amusing if Nigeria, Venezuela and Ivory Coast don't show up. I wonder if FIBA has a contingency plan. I'm hearing issues with Senegal too.

What a blown opportunity for Canada. All the Americas teams other than the USA are historically bad and load of guys missing from so many teams. It seems Lithuania, Serbia and Greece are the only high caliber teams near full strength.

[mojo13]

Interesting article from a Miami beat reporter on Olynyk and how the Heat used his injury to force him off Team Canada. It's titled about how Olynyk is an expiring commodity for the Heat and shows just how much disdain NBA teams have for the World Cup and how they view players as mere chattels.

"Olynyk being forced to step aside for Canada prior to the World Cup certainly would be a personally painful moment, one at the moment not anticipated.
But, from a Heat perspective, what would matter most would be losing any time — camp, preseason, early season — with Olynyk in a process that could have implications with the Heat’s power rotation and salary cap for years to come."

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-heat/fl-sp-ira-nba-column-20190810-rriqqra4mncnbehhzpzgq345bi-story.html

Also Carlan Gay of NBA Canada was on the Fan 590 yesterday. He feels Cory Joseph will not show up in Sydney primarily because his NBA team , Sacramento is travelling to India for pre season games in a few weeks and the travel demands are quite high.The Kings just pressured De'Aaron Fox off the American team and you can be assured their turning the screws on CoJo as well.

Then how do they account for Bogdanovich still play for Serbia?

NBA teams can't force guys out, unless there is an injury involved but that can put heavy pressure. Some guys are more vulnerable to that pressure than others. Every players situation is nuanced. CoJo has the added pressure of moving to a new team and perhaps wanting to make a good impression. Bogdanovich could just want it more or be more settled with the Kings and able to withstand the pressure.
What I dont understand is why guys leave it so late - Andrew Wiggins actually does a solid for Canada by being clear from the get go and we can plan around it. I think all these late pull out are what have caused us to miss out on guys like Nicholson, Bennett, Long, Dylan Ennis, Conor Morgans etc.

[TrueNorth31]

Interesting article from a Miami beat reporter on Olynyk and how the Heat used his injury to force him off Team Canada. It's titled about how Olynyk is an expiring commodity for the Heat and shows just how much disdain NBA teams have for the World Cup and how they view players as mere chattels.

"Olynyk being forced to step aside for Canada prior to the World Cup certainly would be a personally painful moment, one at the moment not anticipated.
But, from a Heat perspective, what would matter most would be losing any time — camp, preseason, early season — with Olynyk in a process that could have implications with the Heat’s power rotation and salary cap for years to come."

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-heat/fl-sp-ira-nba-column-20190810-rriqqra4mncnbehhzpzgq345bi-story.html

Also Carlan Gay of NBA Canada was on the Fan 590 yesterday. He feels Cory Joseph will not show up in Sydney primarily because his NBA team , Sacramento is travelling to India for pre season games in a few weeks and the travel demands are quite high.The Kings just pressured De'Aaron Fox off the American team and you can be assured their turning the screws on CoJo as well.

Then how do they account for Bogdanovich still play for Serbia?

NBA teams can't force guys out, unless there is an injury involved but that can put heavy pressure. Some guys are more vulnerable to that pressure than others. Every players situation is nuanced. CoJo has the added pressure of moving to a new team and perhaps wanting to make a good impression. Bogdanovich could just want it more or be more settled with the Kings and able to withstand the pressure.
What I dont understand is why guys leave it so late - Andrew Wiggins actually does a solid for Canada by being clear from the get go and we can plan around it. I think all these late pull out are what have caused us to miss out on guys like Nicholson, Bennett, Long, Dylan Ennis, Conor Morgans etc.

The Serbs are certainly patriotic. I guess having been at war with your neighbors and the U.N. can certainly drive a certain sense of Nationalism - sort of an us against the World mentality. It also helps that the G.M. of Sacramento , Vlade Divac is a Serb.

I wonder if moving forward that the World Cup should be primarily be just for our secondary level players. Keep 2-3 slots for NBA guys that show up consistently in the summer, but have the nucleus of the team made up of guys that play in the qualifications. Use a carrot and stick approach - the more you play in the qualifications the greater your chances of being on the World Cup team. Limit the threat of number of NBA guys parachuting in at the last moment and maybe you'd get guys like Ennis , Nicholson ( who was cut last year from the program by Triano ), XRM , Long and others by giving them a realistic shot at being rewarded in the end ( you may also want to guarantee a certain amount of slots to these type of guys for the Olympics 4-6 ? ). All I know is whatever we're doing it's not working and given that the next World Cup is in the Philippines and Malaysia I don't see it improving .

[frumble]

What I dont understand is why guys leave it so late - Andrew Wiggins actually does a solid for Canada by being clear from the get go and we can plan around it. I think all these late pull out are what have caused us to miss out on guys like Nicholson, Bennett, Long, Dylan Ennis, Conor Morgans etc.

Exactly! Its not like the length or timing of the commitment changed. All the relevant information has been known for a long time.
If the teams/agents were going to pressure on the players to not play, there is no reason why they couldn't have done that months ago. And if the players were going to take a pass, whether due to that pressure or for other reasons, there is no reason why they couldn't have made those intentions known to Basketball Canada months ago.

And I agree that if we had known that the NBA players weren't going to play we would have had a higher chance of getting the top non-NBA guys.

[BilboBanginz]

Addison Patterson will be playing at Oregon this fall.

Read on Twitter

[frumble]

Oregon should be pretty stacked this season.

[TrueNorth31]

For what it's worth - in the Game 2 broadcast the announcers said Nurse insisted that Joseph would be joining the team in Sydney ( they didn't say when) so there's that. The Rana factor would certainly help. Gay thought it would be better for the team that a decision be made sooner than later ( Heslip also said to be joining the team).

Anyone know the issue with Heslip?


This is going to be amusing if Nigeria, Venezuela and Ivory Coast don't show up. I wonder if FIBA has a contingency plan. I'm hearing issues with Senegal too.

What a blown opportunity for Canada. All the Americas teams other than the USA are historically bad and load of guys missing from so many teams. It seems Lithuania, Serbia and Greece are the only high caliber teams near full strength.

Good point. Also to be considered is the current political unrest in Hong Kong. Canada plays only 90 Km away in Dongguan . I imagine they'll be flying into the Hong Kong airport, currently an epicentre of the conflict . Imagine if a Tiananmen Square situation erupts and all hell breaks out ? What would Fiba's response be ?

[And1Skip]

For what it's worth - in the Game 2 broadcast the announcers said Nurse insisted that Joseph would be joining the team in Sydney ( they didn't say when) so there's that. The Rana factor would certainly help. Gay thought it would be better for the team that a decision be made sooner than later ( Heslip also said to be joining the team).

Anyone know the issue with Heslip?


This is going to be amusing if Nigeria, Venezuela and Ivory Coast don't show up. I wonder if FIBA has a contingency plan. I'm hearing issues with Senegal too.

What a blown opportunity for Canada. All the Americas teams other than the USA are historically bad and load of guys missing from so many teams. It seems Lithuania, Serbia and Greece are the only high caliber teams near full strength.

Good point. Also to be considered is the current political unrest in Hong Kong. Canada plays only 90 Km away in Dongguan . I imagine they'll be flying into the Hong Kong airport, currently an epicentre of the conflict . Imagine if a Tiananmen Square situation erupts and all hell breaks out ? What would Fiba's response be ?

Unless they are flying with Cathay, why would they go through Hong Kong? I don't know if there are direct flights from Sydney to Shenzen but that would make more sense. Or just fly with Qantas from Sydney directly to Guangzhou and take a 30 min high speed bullet train direct to Dongguan. I'm sure by now they have gotten their Visas already which from my experience always a difficult process, but I always get a Chinese travel company to do it for me by paying them $25 (and for them its easier bc the reason they are going is for World Cup which they should have gotten the proper documentation from FIBA to grant them visas).

[TrueNorth31]

Anyone know the issue with Heslip?


This is going to be amusing if Nigeria, Venezuela and Ivory Coast don't show up. I wonder if FIBA has a contingency plan. I'm hearing issues with Senegal too.

What a blown opportunity for Canada. All the Americas teams other than the USA are historically bad and load of guys missing from so many teams. It seems Lithuania, Serbia and Greece are the only high caliber teams near full strength.

Good point. Also to be considered is the current political unrest in Hong Kong. Canada plays only 90 Km away in Dongguan . I imagine they'll be flying into the Hong Kong airport, currently an epicentre of the conflict . Imagine if a Tiananmen Square situation erupts and all hell breaks out ? What would Fiba's response be ?

Unless they are flying with Cathay, why would they go through Hong Kong? I don't know if there are direct flights from Sydney to Shenzen but that would make more sense. Or just fly with Qantas from Sydney directly to Guangzhou and take a 30 min high speed bullet train direct to Dongguan. I'm sure by now they have gotten their Visas already which from my experience always a difficult process, but I always get a Chinese travel company to do it for me by paying them $25 (and for them its easier bc the reason they are going is for World Cup which they should have gotten the proper documentation from FIBA to grant them visas).

Thanks. Your knowledge of travel in China is much better than mine. I guess visions of the Canadian National Team scampering for cover at the Hong Kong airport are overblown. Still the broader picture remains. If a major incident occurs the politician's will become involved . I imagine Beijing is well aware of this and will continue to tolerate a certain level of dissidence for the next while. Still unplanned events could ignite a response.

[TrueNorth31]

Read on Twitter

I imagine they'll work it out. I wonder what has happened to the guarantee they would've got for coming to Canada ?

[mojo13]

Good point. Also to be considered is the current political unrest in Hong Kong. Canada plays only 90 Km away in Dongguan . I imagine they'll be flying into the Hong Kong airport, currently an epicentre of the conflict . Imagine if a Tiananmen Square situation erupts and all hell breaks out ? What would Fiba's response be ?

Unless they are flying with Cathay, why would they go through Hong Kong? I don't know if there are direct flights from Sydney to Shenzen but that would make more sense. Or just fly with Qantas from Sydney directly to Guangzhou and take a 30 min high speed bullet train direct to Dongguan. I'm sure by now they have gotten their Visas already which from my experience always a difficult process, but I always get a Chinese travel company to do it for me by paying them $25 (and for them its easier bc the reason they are going is for World Cup which they should have gotten the proper documentation from FIBA to grant them visas).

Thanks. Your knowledge of travel in China is much better than mine. I guess visions of the Canadian National Team scampering for cover at the Hong Kong airport are overblown. Still the broader picture remains. If a major incident occurs the politician's will become involved . I imagine Beijing is well aware of this and will continue to tolerate a certain level of dissidence for the next while. Still unplanned events could ignite a response.

Yeah - I looked into going as it was a direct flight into Guangzhou from Los Angeles for $500! It seemed easy to get around but not near enough to Hong Kong to make it an easy tack-on detour for a day or two. 5 star hotels were well under $100 a night in Dongguan and tickets were not too bad for a package to all the pool games. Must be a really crappy time of year to visit (Looks really hot and wet). Once guys started dropping out my motivation to go guy died off with it.

[And1Skip]

Good point. Also to be considered is the current political unrest in Hong Kong. Canada plays only 90 Km away in Dongguan . I imagine they'll be flying into the Hong Kong airport, currently an epicentre of the conflict . Imagine if a Tiananmen Square situation erupts and all hell breaks out ? What would Fiba's response be ?

Unless they are flying with Cathay, why would they go through Hong Kong? I don't know if there are direct flights from Sydney to Shenzen but that would make more sense. Or just fly with Qantas from Sydney directly to Guangzhou and take a 30 min high speed bullet train direct to Dongguan. I'm sure by now they have gotten their Visas already which from my experience always a difficult process, but I always get a Chinese travel company to do it for me by paying them $25 (and for them its easier bc the reason they are going is for World Cup which they should have gotten the proper documentation from FIBA to grant them visas).

Thanks. Your knowledge of travel in China is much better than mine. I guess visions of the Canadian National Team scampering for cover at the Hong Kong airport are overblown. Still the broader picture remains. If a major incident occurs the politician's will become involved . I imagine Beijing is well aware of this and will continue to tolerate a certain level of dissidence for the next while. Still unplanned events could ignite a response.

Yeah the Hong Kong protests and the conflict between pro-democracy and pro-China is only a conflict happening in Hong Kong as well as other parts of the world like the protests we see in Toronto and Vancouver in support for our friends and family that live in Hong Kong. Inside China, there's no such conflict as obviously everyone is in support of their country and government (if they are not they'll get in deep trouble). They don't have access to Twitter, Google, Facebook, IG, etc. They don't even have access to news media websites outside of China (last time I was there I couldn't even read the Toronto Star). Though the players, coaches and staff will have access to those platforms through using a HK roaming SIM card (and the american 5-star hotels could have VPN-Wifi that gives access). For example, FVV is using IG in China right now likely because he's using a non-China SIM card roaming. But most citizen's in China don't so they don't really know or care what the rest of the world are fighting about (or they do know but are told only one-side of the story). Last time I was there, I asked about the China vs Canada conflict and how does it impact a company like Canada Goose and people there are like, what conflict and laughed it off and said they love their Canada goose jackets in the north.

[gundysmullet]

Anyone know the issue with Heslip?


This is going to be amusing if Nigeria, Venezuela and Ivory Coast don't show up. I wonder if FIBA has a contingency plan. I'm hearing issues with Senegal too.

What a blown opportunity for Canada. All the Americas teams other than the USA are historically bad and load of guys missing from so many teams. It seems Lithuania, Serbia and Greece are the only high caliber teams near full strength.

Good point. Also to be considered is the current political unrest in Hong Kong. Canada plays only 90 Km away in Dongguan . I imagine they'll be flying into the Hong Kong airport, currently an epicentre of the conflict . Imagine if a Tiananmen Square situation erupts and all hell breaks out ? What would Fiba's response be ?

Unless they are flying with Cathay, why would they go through Hong Kong? I don't know if there are direct flights from Sydney to Shenzen but that would make more sense. Or just fly with Qantas from Sydney directly to Guangzhou and take a 30 min high speed bullet train direct to Dongguan. I'm sure by now they have gotten their Visas already which from my experience always a difficult process, but I always get a Chinese travel company to do it for me by paying them $25 (and for them its easier bc the reason they are going is for World Cup which they should have gotten the proper documentation from FIBA to grant them visas).

According to skyscanner, yes there are nonstop flights between Sydney and Shenzhen:

https://www.skyscanner.com/transport/flights/syd/szx/191003/191009/?adultsv2=1&childrenv2=&cabinclass=economy&rtn=1&preferdirects=true&outboundaltsenabled=false&inboundaltsenabled=false&qp_prevProvider=ins_month&qp_prevCurrency=USD&qp_prevPrice=631&priceSourceId=taps-taps&priceTrace=201908191009*D*SYD*SZX*20191003*chso*CZ%7C201908191009*D*SZX*SYD*20191009*chso*CZ#/