Canada Basketball announces the 12 man roster for Paris.

[will]

Really excited for this, great squad. USA will be a nightmare matchup, but I like our chances of getting out of our group. Surprised Birch made it, but if he is finally healthy he can give them decent minutes battling down low. I think people underrate Birch when he was healthy, he was a decent rotation big.

Hakeem did it in 96. Just as bad but he's a nicer guy so didn't seem so bad.

But how did Embiid actually get eligible? Canada could use one of those.

The Dream in his prime.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Probably the Toronto fan in me, but I feel expectations are too high. A lot of people are basically taking silver as given with a puncher’s chance at gold.

I think any medal will be a great result.

Just like in the “Team Canada in the NBA” thread, I’m worried about bigs and shooting. All that guard depth is great, but with how much you’ll want to play SGA/Murray, how much is it really helping?

I like our chances in the group stage, but beyond that it’s going to be tough.

No one should be taking anything as a given in international ball. One game can change too much. Every game will be a battle for Canada, especially given that they're in the group of death and there aren't even any gimmes in the group stage (unlike the US, who will have that with South Sudan, and to a lesser extent, Puerto Rico).

I still think that Canada should be a favourite to end up on the podium, but yeah, anyone counting on a medal is deluding themselves as to the difficulty of the task ahead.

[PushDaRock]

Probably the Toronto fan in me, but I feel expectations are too high. A lot of people are basically taking silver as given with a puncher’s chance at gold.

I think any medal will be a great result.

Just like in the “Team Canada in the NBA” thread, I’m worried about bigs and shooting. All that guard depth is great, but with how much you’ll want to play SGA/Murray, how much is it really helping?

I like our chances in the group stage, but beyond that it’s going to be tough.

I think everyone would be pleased with any medal.

[aminiaturebuddha]

I've been thinking a bit more about rotations after the game last night, and I think in tight, meaningful games (which honestly might be every game for Canada) Jordi might be best to keep the rotation to 8 or 9 guys. And as much as I like him, and appreciate his contribution last year at the World's, I think the guy whose playing time might suffer is NAW.

With the caveat that rotations always depend on game situations and fouls, I think what I would do is start the same 5 as last night (Powell, Brooks, RJ, Jamal, SGA), and then sub Nembhard in for Murray fairly early - maybe about the 5 minute mark. That way, Nembhard can relieve SGA by taking on the tougher perimeter defensive assignment, and it saves Murray to run with bench lineups as he usually does in Denver.

Then you can sub in Olynyk and Dort for Powell and RJ, and swap Murray back in for SGA at some point near the end of the 1st, giving you a bit of a bench run with Murray, Nembhard, Dort, Brooks, and Olynyk. Then bring back the rest of the starters partway into the 2nd and Lyles can come in with them to give Brooks a blow for a few minutes (or make that substitution at the beginning of the 2nd).

Rinse and repeat for the second half. In lineups where you want more ballhandling, NAW could play in Dort's place, and when you need more size, go with Birch instead of Lyles.

[Mirotic12]

FIBA's ranking are based on results from the last 8 years. They are based absolutely zero on results this year, and are based absolutely zero on the level of talent the teams have. FIBA actually has power rankings, which are completely separate from the FIBA rankings. The FIBA rankings are not power rankings.

Slovenia isn't even a top 18 European national team, if we are talking about power rankings, which is what is actually relevant here. The FIBA rankings have zero pertinence at all.

You can twist your brain into a pretzel to make me care about this- I don't. Your personal power rankings are the least of my concerns. All I know is that the Slovenia we beat at the World Cup were +900 to win the tournament. We were +600. Greece is +1800 to win the Olympics and we're +900, so it's an even greater gap; in relation to us they're worse (2x as unlikely to win > Slovenia's 1.5x). But again, I don't care if you're from Slovenia, Greece or a village just outside of Crna Gora- because we will annihilate you all.

Ask in the general forum if Slovenia has the same or more talent than teams like Spain and Greece.........

[GoRapstheoriginal]

Link plz to the Canadian exhibition schedule plz & thx

[greekman]

where's the boxscore ?

[SDM]

I like the frontcourt for a short FIBA tournament, but what do I know. I don't think they'll get embarrassed.

Ideally, one more big and it would have been better.

[SDM]

double post

[greekman]

murray's going to have to contribute more than that if canada is going to medal. even wiggins would've provided more offense.

[mkot]

I like the frontcourt for a short FIBA tournament, but what do I know. I don't think they'll get embarrassed.

Ideally, one more big and it would have been better.

Yeah it's less space for our slow feet bigs to cover, but also less space for a generational defensive talent like AD to cover, he was all over the place, him and Bam completely packed the paint leaving SGA no room to operate his game. SGA can work around big and long defender using his craft, but when he got funnel to guys like AD and Bam that's where he struggle. Same challenge he would face against big teams like the Lakers.

Him and Murray is not a natural fit, I think we all see that, SGA is a dribble drive guard and Murray is a pick and roll guard. There's no 3 seconds in FIBA and the court is smaller so SGA will need to adjust and he had proved that he can. I think Murray's game will be affected the most as none of our bigs are close to the calibre of Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon or even MPJ. He also looks kinda slow last night and it's hard to really tell as it is just a stupid scrimmage, everyone looks a bit slow except LeBron (HOW???) and Anthony Edwards, but I do love his off-ball movements, running off screens trying to get himself open, something he doesn't do much in the Nuggets offense and I think he did a pretty good job and got many open looks just by running around, but then Brooks decided to call his own numbers and he also missed a few open looks. Jrue was glued to him so he didn't do much with the ball anyway.

All starts recorded positive +/- except SGA -1 and all bench are in double digit because their bench featuring AD, Bam and Edwards completely outplayed, outclass and out-talented ours. Not every team we face is USA though so let see more games and see how guys like NAW, KO and Lyles play. Especially NAW, he jacks up some of the most horrible shots I've seen, need an identity with the 2nd unit so guys like Dort and NAW don't jack up bricks

[mkot]

murray's going to have to contribute more than that if canada is going to medal. even wiggins would've provided more offense.

No one gonna give even close to 60% in an exhibition game, especially with Murray.

[MEDIC]

Any more exhibitions before Olympics?

[___Rand___]

Bigs are overrated in todays game.

The Celtics started 48 year old Horford and the next biggest guy in their starting lineup was Tatum.

Out skill teams on the perimeter and you will win more than you lose.

I like our chances at a medal.

FIBA is different set of rules. Bigs are more important in FIBA ball. Bigs can camp in the paint all day without a violation.