Team Canada Basketball Thread V2.0

[BilboBanginz]

The mention of a U22 tournament brings back memories of the only international FIBA tournament I ever went to; the 2004 U21 Tournament of the Americas in Halifax..

Canada had memorable names like Tristan Blackwood, Henry Bekkering, and Levon Kendall. USA had Chris Paul, Sean May, Adam Morrison, and Raptors legends Hassan Adams and Charlie V.

JJ Barea was the tournament MVP and averaged like 25/7/7

[TrueNorth31]

Grunwald on Tim and Sid show as well yesterday ( scroll to 1:11 mark to start ).

https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/tim-and-sid/feb-23-canada-basketball-gets-a-new-partner/

- The under 22 tournament is an " independent venture " of Canada Basketball and it's partners. It is not a Fiba event. It starts in 2022 and it's important to note it includes both genders. In women who turn pro generally after age 21/22 this tournament format will particularly benefit them. It's hopefully a way for Canada Basketball to make some more coin with its partners by attracting more corporate sponsorship built around an annual event. Tennis Canada owns the Roger's Cup and Skate Canada has annual events that it owns and runs as well to generate revenue.

- When asked about more games on broadcast TV he stated the goal is "for our fans to have better access to games and that they be more accessible ". He stated they will have " more good news to announce in the not to distant future " on this topic. I imagine they are waiting for the DAZN deal to expire this year. CBC has the Olympic rights if we get that far.

- He also hinted at having more actual Fiba events in Canada. I've heard they are trying to get the Fiba Women's Americup for Edmonton in June, perhaps they will go after the men's Americup for September of 2022.

At any rate more exposure for the national program would be great.

[Hair Canada]

Grunwald on Tim and Sid show as well yesterday ( scroll to 1:11 mark to start ).

https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/tim-and-sid/feb-23-canada-basketball-gets-a-new-partner/

- The under 22 tournament is an " independent venture " of Canada Basketball and it's partners. It is not a Fiba event. It starts in 2022 and it's important to note it includes both genders. In women who turn pro generally after age 21/22 this tournament format will particularly benefit them. It's hopefully a way for Canada Basketball to make some more coin with its partners by attracting more corporate sponsorship built around an annual event. Tennis Canada owns the Roger's Cup and Skate Canada has annual events that it owns and runs as well to generate revenue.

- When asked about more games on broadcast TV he stated the goal is "for our fans to have better access to games and that they be more accessible ". He stated they will have " more good news to announce in the not to distant future " on this topic. I imagine they are waiting for the DAZN deal to expire this year. CBC has the Olympic rights if we get that far.

- He also hinted at having more actual Fiba events in Canada. I've heard they are trying to get the Fiba Women's Americup for Edmonton in June, perhaps they will go after the men's Americup for September of 2022.

At any rate more exposure for the national program would be great.

Good news. Thanks for the info.

[DreamTeam09]

How did Anthony bennett look during this lil tournament? He's had good G league games, he's a prototypical stretch 4 possibly small ball 5 these days. Always rooting for that guy, there has to be one NBA spot he can take from someone.

[mojo13]

How did Anthony bennett look during this lil tournament? He's had good G league games, he's a prototypical stretch 4 possibly small ball 5 these days. Always rooting for that guy, there has to be one NBA spot he can take from someone.

Maybe I am skeptic, but he didn't really look like a NBA player to me. Don't get me wrong....he was pretty good for Canada, but at that level of competition you'd think that an NBA-level player should look a lot more dominant. He knocked down some outside shots in both games and was even decent in the post during the 2nd game. But he still floats around a bit and looks merely ok on defense and rebounding. Walter Hodge looked like a dominant player all three games for USVI and he is far, far from the NBA. I don't really see it with Bennett.

However, he should have a well paid job in Europe somewhere though....maybe even EuroLeague? He certainly looks like he could be a very good EuroCup/BCL level player at least. Maybe he needs a season there first to work his way up to the EuroLeague.

[Mirotic12]

Grunwald on Tim and Sid show as well yesterday ( scroll to 1:11 mark to start ).

https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/tim-and-sid/feb-23-canada-basketball-gets-a-new-partner/

- The under 22 tournament is an " independent venture " of Canada Basketball and it's partners. It is not a Fiba event. It starts in 2022 and it's important to note it includes both genders. In women who turn pro generally after age 21/22 this tournament format will particularly benefit them. It's hopefully a way for Canada Basketball to make some more coin with its partners by attracting more corporate sponsorship built around an annual event. Tennis Canada owns the Roger's Cup and Skate Canada has annual events that it owns and runs as well to generate revenue.

- When asked about more games on broadcast TV he stated the goal is "for our fans to have better access to games and that they be more accessible ". He stated they will have " more good news to announce in the not to distant future " on this topic. I imagine they are waiting for the DAZN deal to expire this year. CBC has the Olympic rights if we get that far.

- He also hinted at having more actual Fiba events in Canada. I've heard they are trying to get the Fiba Women's Americup for Edmonton in June, perhaps they will go after the men's Americup for September of 2022.

At any rate more exposure for the national program would be great.

Yep, pretty much what I figured.

[Hair Canada]

Barrett gets to #19 on the Vecenie ranking. Nice to see he still believes in him and makes a pretty compelling case for a world where RJ eventually becomes a good player, highlighting work ethic and desire to be great. It's far from a sure thing but can happen.

SGA comes in at 6 (!), higher than guys like Lamello, Fox, Ja, and even Trae Young. Wow! That puts him at second place (behind Luka) in a fantastic draft class that also includes Young, JJJ, Ayton, Mikal Bridges, Sexton, and a lot of other excellent players. But with nights like he had yesterday (a career-high 42 points), you could see where this is coming from. He's been so awesome this season (now up to 63% true shooting).

Barrett:

19. R.J. Barrett | 6-7 guard, 20 years old | New York Knicks | Contract: 3 years, $27.8 million, last year team option | PR: 26

Barrett’s just been considerably more consistent across all facets of his game this season. I held strong on my Barrett stock after his rough rookie season, and I remain a shareholder. I like to bet on guys who are well-known to be elite workers who genuinely want to be great. That has been Barrett’s modus operandi going back to when he was 16 years old and ranked No. 1 in his recruiting class. And given his improvement over the course of the last year, it remains true. We’ll talk about the shooting in a moment, but it’s worth noting that Barrett has taken a clear leap in his sophomore season. He’s averaging about 17 points, six rebounds and three assists per game. Since 2000, only six other players have reached the benchmarks he’s currently at in those statistical categories. All of Joel Embiid, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Steve Francis, Blake Griffin and Elton Brand made multiple All-Star Games.

Barrett has become a much better, more complete player. His free throw shooting has gone from a disastrous 61.4 percent as a rookie up to 75 percent this year. He’s finishing much better inside the arc. His passing has always been an underrated skill, but he’s gotten even better this year. He crashes the glass hard and gets out on the break. Defensively, he’s much better within the scheme that Tom Thibodeau has implemented. He’s active, but more than that, he’s making the right rotations nearly every time. As we’ll talk about when we get to the offense, he’s exceptionally strong, and it’s hard for ballhandlers to go through him when he has his balance and is in a defensive stance. I wouldn’t say he’s some incredible defender, but he’s not a negative as he was as a rookie and has a real shot to become a plus defender in the future.

Offensively, Thibodeau has done an exceptional job at getting Barrett the ball in advantageous situations. Best as a straight-line driver as opposed to a creator in isolation, the Knicks run a ton of offensive sets similar to what Duke did in Barrett’s lone year in Durham, getting him the ball in dribble-handoffs and on the right side of the floor, allowing him to get downhill to his left hand with more space to operate. Basically, every time he runs in transition, he tries to run down the right side of the floor. On a ton of offensive possessions, they’ll start him in the corner and have him fly up to the wing for either a handoff or ball screen. He’s an example of an out-of-bounds play where they start him on the right side of the floor and run a dribble-handoff to get him to his left.



Despite the fact that teams know he wants to get to his left every single time, he’s difficult to stop. If he’s on the wing taking a ball screen, drop coverage teams will often try to ice him with his defender playing high on his hip to force him to go to his right directly into the rim protector. But you have to play pretty flat in coverage with the rim protector to do that, because Barrett will go to his right, then cross back to his left and quickly get a full head of steam going forward. And when Barrett gets a full head of steam, his stride length and strength make it tough to get in front of him to provide resistance. He’ll go up through long rim protectors and try to finish with touch finishes over the top. He’s also gotten better at one-handed in-between step finishes that catch rim protectors by surprise. He’s good at drawing fouls and getting better at making officials buy that he’s been fouled. Simply put, the only thing that’s missing here is efficiency. If he brings that to the table at some point, he’s going to be an All-Star.

That’s where the projection has the potential to fall apart, though. Barrett hasn’t yet showcased the kind of touch necessary to become as efficient as he needs to be for his usage. For some guys, you can see it’s just a matter of time before they start shooting or start finishing. With Barrett, it’s unclear if that will ever actually come. He shoots a fairly hard ball that doesn’t feel like it’s going to go in a lot of the time. His touch around the rim has improved this season, but he’s still only making about 49 percent of his shots there in half-court settings. There aren’t a ton of precedents for wings who have taken at least 250 3s in their first two years who have shot under 31 percent turning into good shooters. Carmelo Anthony is one positive outcome. Jamal Mashburn got there by his mid-20s. Jerami Grant has turned into a good one. But you can count the number of wings with this kind of track record who turn into good shooters on one hand.

Basically, that’s the evaluation you have to make on Barrett. Do you bet on historical precedents and his own past performance, or do you bet on a 20-year-old who has more skill than most of the players with that track record who also is known to work incredibly hard? I get what your answer is either way, but this is a case where I’m going to bet on the human being, especially given the strides he’s made across the board with his game. I’ll be higher than the rest of the basketball community on Barrett going forward, and I’m OK with that. But Barrett’s shooting is unquestionably one of the biggest swing skills in the NBA.



SGA:

6. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | 6-6 guard, 22 years old | Oklahoma City Thunder | Contract: 2 years, $9.6 million, restricted free agent in 2022 | PR: 11

Gilgeous-Alexander moves up a few spots as his development into an All-Star-level scorer continues. He’s the biggest part of why the Thunder are too good to tank despite trades this past offseason that depleted the roster’s talent. If Gilgeous-Alexander keeps up the current pace he’s on, he’d become the youngest player in league history to average 22 points, six assists and five rebounds with at least a 60 true-shooting percentage. He’s an unstoppable force of efficiency. Few guys use their size, length and extension to such devastating effect. Against guards, he’ll just long stride his way all the way to the rim. He’s an even tighter ballhandler now than he was when he entered the NBA and can react on a dime to a slight imbalance a defender shows.

One big thing he’s gotten even better at this year is recognizing the mismatch against bigs. If a team switches, Gilgeous-Alexander brings it out and tries to attack. But even in drop coverages, he’ll quickly drive, and if nothing is there, he’ll get the big attached to his hip after contact and string him out away from the defense and force him to come out on him. That allows him to attack a bigger defender on an island, which is something that is just never going to work for a defense. If he can pull the center away from the rim, he’s almost always going to get past that guy and finish with little back-side rim protection to stop him. He’s about as good as any guard I’ve seen at recognizing when the big has vacated the rim area (or is too flat-footed to help), allowing him nearly unfettered access to the basket due to his ability to beat his defender while extending and finishing.

It’s also worth noting Gilgeous-Alexander’s pull-up game has gotten even more lethal as he’s had the ball in his hands more often this season. He can get it from a wider variety of positions and angles, with even more step-back and side-step skill. Already this season, Gilgeous-Alexander has taken 141 pull-up attempts and made them at a really terrific 53.9 effective field goal percentage. That’s nearly six shot attempts per game, doubling his output from last season while making them at a higher clip. It still looks a bit funky coming out of his hand, but the release is quicker and he’s clearly extremely on balance when he attempts them. And as a passer, he’s still not quite elite, but he’s become above average and continues to play in an extremely unselfish manner. When his shot isn’t there, he’s passing to create high-leverage looks now. The assist explosion (he’s almost doubled his number of assists this year) has way more to do with his usage than his ability, but he’s gotten smarter at reading defenses and knowing where the help is coming from too. He’ll always be a scorer first, but his improvement as a passer just makes him all that much harder to defend.

Basically, there just isn’t an easy way to stop Gilgeous-Alexander now. On the ball, he can get shots almost whenever he wants but very rarely takes totally bad ones. On top of it, the same positional versatility he’s always had still exists. The Thunder were able to play three point guard lineups with Dennis Schröder and Chris Paul last year because Gilgeous-Alexander is so big and long, allowing them to have a chance on defense while getting as much playmaking and offensively dynamism on the court as possible. But now this year, the team can go bigger with Gilgeous-Alexander as the clear point or smaller with other guards like George Hill and Theo Maledon together. Gilgeous-Alexander is an incredibly scalable player come playoff time whose ability to create shots in the half court should provide immense value long term. I know he struggled a bit in the playoffs last year. but I chalk that up to first-time jitters mixed with a skinnier frame that could get pushed around a bit more often than you’d like to see. I’d bet that as he gets older and continues to get stronger, he’s going to be immensely valuable.

[mojo13]

And Sam Vecenie moves on to his first NBA 2021 Draft Big Board for the year.
https://theathletic.com/2410678/2021/02/26/vecenies-2021-nba-draft-big-board-top-100-prospects-ranked/?source=emp_shared_article

He has the Canadians at:
31. Chris Duarte
39. Benn Mathurin
81. Quincy Guerrier
93. Marcus Carr

He has another 18 from 100-118 not in order (alphabetical) that he considers good prospects (much higher than a 100-118 rank - some potential first rounders), but are too young or still have major holes in their game and really should return to school for another year.
Canadians:
102. Delano Banton
112. Josh Primo


No AJ Lawson, No Nembhard. Those two seem to be the others people ask most about.

[niQ]

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