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

[TheFutureMM]

Here's my prediction on the final roster...

Anderson, Jermaine
Cadougan, Junior
Murray, Jamal
English, Carl
Joseph, Devoe
Brooks, Dillon
Ejim, Melvin
Bennett, Anthony
Wiltjer, Kyle
Nicholson, Andrew
Bhullar, Sim

Think the last guy is Dyshawn Pierre based on the youth comments but I could be wrong. I think the obvious guys that make the team (like frumble pointed out) are the 3 PGs, English, Nicholson, Bennett, and I would be surprised if they cut Ejim or Wiltjer.

[frumble]

Basically, maybe you're right, maybe he would be better coming off the bench, where he could have more of a primary scoring role and his defensive short-comings could be better hidden in lineups that don't have Nicholson, etc. who have their own short-comings at that end.

I still see him getting 20+ minutes a game. I suspect that there will be quite a few sets with no true C, and two of Wiltjer, Nicholson, and Bennett in the game. So maybe those guys get about 20-25 minutes a game each, and Bhullar about 10.

This list is far better than I was expecting. Far better and I think we should be happy. I mean really, who gives a crap about the PanAms other than a chance to give the young guys experience.

Agreed. I am definitely happy with the list. Some real positives here:
Young guys like Murray, Brooks, Pierre, and Wiltjer get an opportunity and some experience;
Bennett gets a chance in a lead role;
English, Nicholson and Anderson show their commitment to the program (again).

[bozothepope]

I'm liking this roster. It could've been a lot worse so I'm grateful. The only other realistic name I wish was involved is Rathan-Mayes since we seem kind of weak at the point and he could play the 1 if need be.

[almatic]

I'm liking this roster. It could've been a lot worse so I'm grateful. The only other realistic name I wish was involved is Rathan-Mayes since we seem kind of weak at the point and he could he play the 1 if need be.

Kevin Pangos should be on this roster somehow.

[TheFutureMM]

I'm liking this roster. It could've been a lot worse so I'm grateful. The only other realistic name I wish was involved is Rathan-Mayes since we seem kind of weak at the point and he could he play the 1 if need be.

Kevin Pangos should be on this roster somehow.

He's in summer league.

[mojo13]

I'm liking this roster. It could've been a lot worse so I'm grateful. The only other realistic name I wish was involved is Rathan-Mayes since we seem kind of weak at the point and he could he play the 1 if need be.

Kevin Pangos should be on this roster somehow.

Kevin Pangos should be doing everything possible to try to make the Mavs or another NBA team, not playing in the PanAm games for which no one gives a damn. Honestly, tell me why any borderline nba guy without a contract should be playing in the PanAms?

[aminiaturebuddha]

So it looks like Canada is headed for 5th place in the U19 World Championships, having a massive lead over Italy with only a few minutes to play.

A very good result, although it's too bad they had to face a surprisingly good Croatia team in the quarterfinals, because I think they may have been able to beat any other team besides the US.

*by the way, I say "surprising" for Croatia only because they had a few key players injured. They were always going to be one of the better teams in the tournament.

[aminiaturebuddha]

One thing I love about these tournaments is that usually the talent will rise to the top on each team and you get a sense of who the players to watch are over the course of the various games.

For Team Canada, it was clear that Dillon Brooks was the best player, although he's also the oldest and with the most experience (played significant minutes as a starter in the NCAA last year).

Justin Jackson was next for me. He may not ever live up to the "next big thing" hype, I'm still not sure if he has NBA potential or not, but he's a very good all around player, and usually seems to be the smartest player on the court. Worst case scenario, I think, is that he has a very good college career at UNLV and then a pro career in Europe.

Corey Johnson was also very good and has one dominant skill (shooting), that will be interesting to see how far it takes him. I hadn't really paid too much attention to him in the past, but definitely someone I'll be watching at Harvard. Hopefully he remains a significant part of the Canadian program, because you can never have enough shooters.

The other guy I'd like to point out is Abu Kigab. He plays with a lot of energy. He was by far the youngest player on the team though, and it shows in his skill level. Still, there's something there if he can harness it, and it'll be interesting to see where he is in 2 years when he's the same age that Brooks is now.

[NBACommissioner]

One thing I love about these tournaments is that usually the talent will rise to the top on each team and you get a sense of who the players to watch are over the course of the various games.

For Team Canada, it was clear that Dillon Brooks was the best player, although he's also the oldest and with the most experience (played significant minutes as a starter in the NCAA last year).

Justin Jackson was next for me. He may not ever live up to the "next big thing" hype, I'm still not sure if he has NBA potential or not, but he's a very good all around player, and usually seems to be the smartest player on the court. Worst case scenario, I think, is that he has a very good college career at UNLV and then a pro career in Europe.

Corey Johnson was also very good and has one dominant skill (shooting), that will be interesting to see how far it takes him. I hadn't really paid too much attention to him in the past, but definitely someone I'll be watching at Harvard. Hopefully he remains a significant part of the Canadian program, because you can never have enough shooters.

The other guy I'd like to point out is Abu Kigab. He plays with a lot of energy. He was by far the youngest player on the team though, and it shows in his skill level. Still, there's something there if he can harness it, and it'll be interesting to see where he is in 2 years when he's the same age that Brooks is now.

Honestly I'm a big Canada basketball supporter but I really don't like Justin Jackson's game. He's been overrated from the start.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Honestly I'm a big Canada basketball supporter but I really don't like Justin Jackson's game. He's been overrated from the start.

I guess we disagree there. I quite like his game. I think he does a lot of things well, I'm just not sure he does any one thing well enough that will get him to the NBA. If that's what you mean by "overrated", that he's not Canada's next NBA player, then I might agree.

[NBACommissioner]

Honestly I'm a big Canada basketball supporter but I really don't like Justin Jackson's game. He's been overrated from the start.

I guess we disagree there. I quite like his game. I think he does a lot of things well, I'm just not sure he does any one thing well enough that will get him to the NBA. If that's what you mean by "overrated", that he's not Canada's next NBA player, then I might agree.

He was originally coined as the next big thing in Canada and people said he had great PG skills. When I watched him in the U19 he looked completely out of control very poor handles leading to lots of turnovers (only 9 assists for the entire tournament). I would say the combination of him and Brooks fouling out were the reason they got eliminated by Croatia. In that game, he missed 6 Ft's and had 4 turnovers (still had a decent game but the little mistakes hurt us). I'm not saying he can't turn it around, I remember Ennis being bad at one of these Tournaments also but right now I do not see NBA for him (maybe late 2nd rd). Even back when they were comparing him to Murray for the best player in Canada I didn't see what others were seeing however I always saw it with Murray.

[NBACommissioner]

Raptors need to sign Joseph Quick so we can let him play for Canada.

[TheFutureMM]

So it looks like Canada is headed for 5th place in the U19 World Championships, having a massive lead over Italy with only a few minutes to play.

A very good result, although it's too bad they had to face a surprisingly good Croatia team in the quarterfinals, because I think they may have been able to beat any other team besides the US.

*by the way, I say "surprising" for Croatia only because they had a few key players injured. They were always going to be one of the better teams in the tournament.

Croatia was kind of a bummer to play in the quarters because of how good they look now. I think they will give the US a good game much like Greece did in the semis.

I think having Jamal Murray in there would have helped big time as it would have taken a lot of the load off of Brooks/Jackson.

[NBACommissioner]

So it looks like Canada is headed for 5th place in the U19 World Championships, having a massive lead over Italy with only a few minutes to play.

A very good result, although it's too bad they had to face a surprisingly good Croatia team in the quarterfinals, because I think they may have been able to beat any other team besides the US.

*by the way, I say "surprising" for Croatia only because they had a few key players injured. They were always going to be one of the better teams in the tournament.

Croatia was kind of a bummer to play in the quarters because of how good they look now. I think they will give the US a good game much like Greece did in the semis.

I think having Jamal Murray in there would have helped big time as it would have taken a lot of the load off of Brooks/Jackson.

Canada's problem was that they were too small..Croatia had 2 7'1 guys I believe and we had a 6'8 centre. USA likely have the size to deal with the Croatians. Guys like Murray and Gill-Caesar could have put us over the top too but we were dominated because of our lack of bigs and our inability to hit FT's.

[TheFutureMM]

Honestly I'm a big Canada basketball supporter but I really don't like Justin Jackson's game. He's been overrated from the start.

I guess we disagree there. I quite like his game. I think he does a lot of things well, I'm just not sure he does any one thing well enough that will get him to the NBA. If that's what you mean by "overrated", that he's not Canada's next NBA player, then I might agree.

He was originally coined as the next big thing in Canada and people said he had great PG skills. When I watched him in the U19 he looked completely out of control very poor handles leading to lots of turnovers (only 9 assists for the entire tournament). I would say the combination of him and Brooks fouling out were the reason they got eliminated by Croatia. In that game, he missed 6 Ft's and had 4 turnovers (still had a decent game but the little mistakes hurt us). I'm not saying he can't turn it around, I remember Ennis being bad at one of these Tournaments also but right now I do not see NBA for him (maybe late 2nd rd). Even back when they were comparing him to Murray for the best player in Canada I didn't see what others were seeing however I always saw it with Murray.

Yeah I think the whole PG thing was severely overblown. Guy does not have great vision and honestly Canada played him like a PF the entire tournament (which to be fair he played quite well).

Justin still is quite young so I could see him getting better before he goes to University in 2016. His goal should be to try to get quicker laterally and to develop a shot if he wants any shot at making the NBA. I think he can get away with continuing to play as a four in college but it will eventually catch up with his ability to make the pros.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Yeah I think the whole PG thing was severely overblown. Guy does not have great vision and honestly Canada played him like a PF the entire tournament (which to be fair he played quite well).

Justin still is quite young so I could see him getting better before he goes to University in 2016. His goal should be to try to get quicker laterally and to develop a shot if he wants any shot at making the NBA. I think he can get away with continuing to play as a four in college but it will eventually catch up with his ability to make the pros.

I think he's the victim of unreasonable expectations a little bit. No, he's not a PG, and he's definitely not the future of the Canadian Team. But I think if most people watched the tournament without knowing that he was "Justin Jackson - future star", they'd see an 18-year-old SF/PF who actually has decent handles for his age and position, good court vision (I disagree with you on that point - again, he's not a PG, but he was making better entry passes than the PGs on the team most of the time), and will likely be a solid player going forward.

I agree that developing a better outside shot and his defence should be his main development concerns. He may be able to play quite a bit of PF in college, but anything beyond that he'll be a SF, and he'll absolutely need to become a consistent 3-pt shooter to make it as a pro in any league.

[frumble]

I think Jackson played much better at this tournament than he did in 2013 at the U17s (the last time he played for Canada). In that tournament, he was clearly outclassed by Murray, shot very poorly (33% for the tourney), and committed far too many TOs (18 in 5 games).

This summer he was much better. Improved his shooting (to 45%), cut down on his TOs (to 13 in 6 games), and was very active defensively and on the boards.


Re Brooks, I thought he was our best player this tournament. My criticisms of his performance would be that he seemed to always be in foul trouble, and he committed a ton of turnovers - 32 in 6 games is far too many.


As expected, the drop off from Brooks and Jackson was pretty big. Egi was o.k., but still not showing much offensive game. And 8/24 from the line is inexcusable.

The other bigs - Neufeld, Urquhart, and Clarke - didn't do much. Having Ekiyor or Narain may have helped a lot.

I thought Poyser was a bit of a disappointment. Hard to believe he was our #1 player in the class of 15 before Murray's reclassification.

Kigab didn't play much, the 3 PGs were mediocre at best, and I guess Johnson did pretty well.

In any case, 6-1 and 5th place is very good, especially considering the no-shows.


So what's next for our cadet and junior age players this summer? Nike Global games in mid July? I think I saw a partial roster a few days ago - Kigab, Ekiyor, Shi-ttu, McEwen, and Cyrus were on it, as I recall. Don't remember the others.

Anyone know what is happening with Jermaine Haley? Haven't seen his name anywhere lately.

[mojo13]

Jermaine Haley was not even invited to the u19 camp. He was at the BioSteel Allstar game, but nothing much nationally.

Whatever happened to Tristan Etienne? I have seen nothing since he left UW. He was eligible for this u19 team I think.

[TheFutureMM]

So I think we can all agree that Cory Joseph is probably going to play at FIBA this summer now that he has signed with us. Thank god.

[almatic]

I'm liking this roster. It could've been a lot worse so I'm grateful. The only other realistic name I wish was involved is Rathan-Mayes since we seem kind of weak at the point and he could he play the 1 if need be.

Kevin Pangos should be on this roster somehow.

Kevin Pangos should be doing everything possible to try to make the Mavs or another NBA team, not playing in the PanAm games for which no one gives a damn. Honestly, tell me why any borderline nba guy without a contract should be playing in the PanAms?

Touche.

I suppose I was only looking at it from Team Canada's perspective & not Pangos' career lol.

Didn't have to use such a defensive tone though, my bad.