State of the Union. Team Canada Basketball. (FIBA Americas Aug.31-Sep.15)

[frumble]

Re lack of TV coverage for the cadet and junior teams, TSN announced today that it would be broadcasting some of the U19 worlds.

http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/tsn-partners-canada-basketball-international-basketball-federation-showcase-team-canadas-road-rio/

No details re how extensive their coverage will be (e.g., how many games they will show).

Tournament runs 6/27 to 7/5.

[frumble]

Jamal Murray has reclassified to 2015 and will announce his college choice on TSN this afternoon (during the 6pm ET Sportscentre).

http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/top-ranked-canadian-basketball-prospect-jamal-murray-reveals-highly-anticipated-college-decision-live-tsn/

I like that Rowan Barrett will be at the announcement. I think its a good sign for Murray's future involvement with the national program.

[Jonn]

Wow even expected Thon Maker to leave and Murray to stay lol. Complete opposite.

[Attonitus]

OMG these guys that finally have a chance to play for Canada and get somewhere but don't show up might as well just stay in the US for good because they are going to get raked over the coals here if none of them show up .

I think this is one of the underlooked aspects of our national team.

For years now the media has been hyping how good our team will be in the future based on the level of Canadian talent in the NCAA and NBA but it's all assuming that the majority of eligible players actually choose to represent Canada and this is where our past become's an issue.

Our national program has been such a joke for so long that players don't feel the same desire or pressure to represent the national team like most other countries and I think we overestimate Nash's pull in getting these players, especially when he himself retired from the national team for the sake of his NBA career (not judging, just saying). In other countries it's an honor to represent their country, here it's more of a burden.

Don't be surprised if guys like Wiggins and Thompson and other high end talent only represent us in major tournaments.

[mojo13]

I doubt we ever get 100% participation - too many other factors are pulling at the NBA guys in the summer. As frumble pointed it, it is rare for any country to get near full participation.
The key is the depth coming through where if we are missing a couple NBA guys, it won't be such a tragic step down (eg. Team Canada with and without Nash in the 2000's.) We are only a couple years away from when can easily manage a loss of 1 or 2 NBA guys and still field a good team. Some positions will still be iffy - but look at the front court - how bad will it be missing TT when KO, Sacre, Lyles, Powell, Nicholson (or even Birch, Witljer or others) are all available?


PS: I really hope Murray heads to Oregon. It is really tough cheering for UK.

[SharoneWright]

Jamal Murray has reclassified to 2015 and will announce his college choice on TSN this afternoon (during the 6pm ET Sportscentre).

http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/top-ranked-canadian-basketball-prospect-jamal-murray-reveals-highly-anticipated-college-decision-live-tsn/

I like that Rowan Barrett will be at the announcement. I think its a good sign for Murray's future involvement with the national program.

Exciting!

The right move for Murray.

[duppyy]

The fact that they are airing it on TSN has me feeling that basketball is really starting to take off in Canada(finally).

[frumble]

Looks like Murray announcement has been postponed.

http://hoopshype.ca/jamal-murray-stalls-signing-ceremony-on-tsn/

[Undefeated]

Anyone here following the Development WNT? They've been crushing their exhibition games.

[aminiaturebuddha]

PS: I really hope Murray heads to Oregon. It is really tough cheering for UK.

Oregon would definitely be the right move. He would get a much better chance to play there than at Kentucky, especially as UK already has Ulis for another year. It would also be a lot of fun watching Murray with Dillon Brooks and seeing how far a team with two Canadians as the lead players could take their team, much like Gonzaga with Pangos and Wiljter this past year.

[frumble]

PS: I really hope Murray heads to Oregon. It is really tough cheering for UK.

Oregon would definitely be the right move. He would get a much better chance to play there than at Kentucky, especially as UK already has Ulis for another year. It would also be a lot of fun watching Murray with Dillon Brooks and seeing how far a team with two Canadians as the lead players could take their team, much like Gonzaga with Pangos and Wiljter this past year.

It would squeeze Ennis' playing time, but, yes, would be cool to have 4 Canadians on Oregon, with two in lead roles.

Anyone have a sense of how good Boucher is?


Grange tweeted that there is a good chance Murray will be on the PanAm roster. I think there is something to this. Barrett will be at the press conference. Given that Murray will not be playing for the U19s or the senior team at FIBAs (probably not yet good enough, and conflicts with school), I think Murray's involvement with this summer could only be PanAms.

Wolstat's Sun article this morning says:
Murray, considered Canada’s next stellar prospect, is a native of Kitchener who played at the Athlete Institute in Orangeville this year and could have stuck around for another year of high school, but decided instead to reclassify, speeding up a potential path to the NBA.
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/06/23/raptors-workout-promising-centre-dakari-johnson

Isn't this wrong? As a non-American playing HS outside the US, Murray, like Maker, will be eligible for NBA draft in 2016 whether he plays the 15/16 season at Orangeville, at college, or even in a pro league. So his decision to reclassify does not speed up a potential path to NBA, but is more about getting the right exposure/experience before he enters the 2016 draft.


Lastly, the FIBA website has articles up re some of the teams Canada will be competing with for the two automatic Olympic spots. The Domincan has an initial invite list that includes Horford, Garcia, Towns, and Villanueva. Would be the first time Villanueva plays for them in several years.
Puerto Rico, with Pitino back as coach, has Barea and Balkman committed, and is hoping for Harkless, but Arroyo will not play (seems like a mutual decision).

[SharoneWright]

Wolstat's Sun article this morning says:
Murray, considered Canada’s next stellar prospect, is a native of Kitchener who played at the Athlete Institute in Orangeville this year and could have stuck around for another year of high school, but decided instead to reclassify, speeding up a potential path to the NBA.
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/06/23/raptors-workout-promising-centre-dakari-johnson

Isn't this wrong? As a non-American playing HS outside the US, Murray, like Maker, will be eligible for NBA draft in 2016 whether he plays the 15/16 season at Orangeville, at college, or even in a pro league. So his decision to reclassify does not speed up a potential path to NBA, but is more about getting the right exposure/experience before he enters the 2016 draft.

I'm no expert on international draft rules, but DraftExpress projected Murry in the 1st round of the 2016 draft for several months already. ie. He's always been 2016 eligible.

The only way Wolstat could defend his statement might be to say that jumping to US College ball now guarantees a 2016 declaration, whereas if he took another year of HS, he may very well still go play college ball for a year and then come out in 2017. But nothing guarantees that Murray declares for 2016.

[frumble]

Wolstat tweets that Lyles will not play for Canada this summer.
No Canadian national team for Trey Lyles this summer but has been in touch and excited to play in future.
https://twitter.com/WolstatSun

No surprise, and given our depth up front, we should be fine.

I think we will be looking at taking 5 of these 8:

Olynyk
Thompson
Nicholson
Powell
Sacre
Bennett
Birch
Anthony

[aminiaturebuddha]

Wolstat tweets that Lyles will not play for Canada this summer.
No Canadian national team for Trey Lyles this summer but has been in touch and excited to play in future.
https://twitter.com/WolstatSun

No surprise, and given our depth up front, we should be fine.

I think we will be looking at taking 5 of these 8:

Olynyk
Thompson
Nicholson
Powell
Sacre
Bennett
Birch
Anthony

Yeah, not too surprised about Lyles. And to echo a point you made in an earlier post, it shouldn't affect the team too much given that our greatest depth is at the PF position. I would think that Olynyk and Thompson are locks if they choose to go. Nicholson would probably be next given his commitment in past years and how useful he can be as an offensive weapon (but preferably off the bench this time).

Of the others, I think whether or not they take Sacre depends entirely on how they view the rosters of teams they will play against (if he commits, of course). If they want a true center, he'll be there, if they don't feel it's necessary, guys like Powell and Bennett probably fit the international game better.

Regarding how the other countries' rosters are shaping up, I've been thinking for a while now that Canada's greatest challenge over the next 5 or 6 years (outside of the US) will come from the Dominican Republic, followed by Brazil. Argentina and Puerto Rico will always have solid teams, but their best players are past their primes, and I don't see the same kind of top-end talent in the pipelines to replace them. That said, this year is kind of the tipping point - their old guys have one or two more years left, our young talent doesn't have much experience yet. Let's hope the young talent wins out.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Anyone here following the Development WNT? They've been crushing their exhibition games.

I'll admit, I'm always a little confused by the competitions that the Development teams play in. the Women's Development team just beat a team that was called the USA All-Stars, but what does that actually mean?

For instance, the Men's Development team, which is made up of players from CIS schools, just lost a game to the University of Kansas, which also seems strange, because they would have presumably been playing without any of their graduated seniors, or kelly Oubre of Cliff Alexander who have declared for the NBA draft, but also without any incoming players for the 2015-2016 year.

In short, it's hard to get a handle on what the level of competition is in these Development team games.

[mojo13]

Especially with these World University Game's teams (or Universiade or whatever) it is a little bit of a crap shoot. . I believe it is meant for university/college students around the world. It doesn't have to be a national team and many countries just send a university/college type team to represent the country as Kansas is doing this year repping the USA. Kansas is minus their three foreign born players (who are good) and the recent guys who graduated or left for the NBA. Thus to fill out their roster they picked up a couple decent American born players from other schools (Nick Moore from SMU in particular, and some other guy from a Florida school too). Canada could have just sent Carlton if they wanted.

Even then I am fuzzy on participation and what countries take these games seriously (if any). With all the FIBA U19, U20, PanAm Games, Eurobasket etc. going on these are 2nd or 3rd rate players from most nations, I would assume.

In the warm ups to the last Universiade games the Canadian mens team beat the "USA Allstars" three straight times on a tour in China, but I couldn't recognize one name on the USA team, and it was certainly not the USA team that played in the Universiade that had Doug McDermott, Marcus Smart (and more) - but we beat them too!

[bozothepope]

Jamal Murray picked Kentucky. Discuss.

[Undefeated]

Briscoe + Murray best backcourt

[mojo13]

Jamal Murray to Kentucky.
Dang it, I was really hoping against it. I don't quite understand it either. What is he going to be for UK?Their 3?
He is going to have a tough time taking the ball out of Tyler Ulis's hands. And inst Isaiah Briscoe considered a better prospect?
Maybe Murray is the starting SG and Briscoe the back up PG/SG?

I thought he wanted to be a PG? And he goes to a team with two highly rated PGs already?

[almatic]

Jamal Murray to Kentucky.
Dang it, I was really hoping against it. I don't quite understand it either. What is he going to be for UK?Their 3?
He is going to have a tough time taking the ball out of Tyler Ulis's hands. And inst Isaiah Briscoe considered a better prospect?
Maybe Murray is the starting SG and Briscoe the back up PG/SG?

I thought he wanted to be a PG? And he goes to a team with two highly rated PGs already?

The 3?
This is NCAA basketball... there really are no more rigid positions of 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 anymore.
When Poythress went down last season, they were starting Trey Lyles at the "3" in his place with fellow 6'10"+ men Towns & Cauley-Stein. They can easily go with a 3-guard lineup just as well. And Jamal Murray is a combo guard. PG's shouldnt affect his decision that much.

That being said, a Dillon Brooks-Jamal Murray would've been fun to see in the NCAA