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

[Chriscross]

Nurse and Langlois are going to be the future of Women's Basketball in Canada. Both really impressive

[Undefeated]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcPs1NfAdhg[/youtube]

[Undefeated]

Nurse and Langlois are going to be the future of Women's Basketball in Canada. Both really impressive

Keep an eye out for Shay Colley. Up and coming guard for CWNT. She's better than Nurse IMO.

[frumble]

I am most interested in seeing Murray play. Hopefully he gets some decent minutes.

With Anderson not on the team, I think Murray will get plenty of minutes. Those earlier rumours about Murray starting may well prove correct.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/nba/jay-triano-team-canada-mens-basketball-coach-joins-timandsid-in-studio/

Thanks for posting the link.

The two things that stood out for me from the interview:
1) Triano says that to his knowledge, the only player who has said no has been Ennis (b/c of injury), that they haven't talked to TT yet, but other than that, everyone else is an in, and they have confirmation from players and their teams. So seems that Joseph was able to sort out insurance or other issues and is on board. Also seems that Sacre is on board.

2) Re Murray's participation for FIBAs, Triano mentions that Murray will be starting at UK on 8/26, but say that if Murray is really good at PanAms and if they think he could help Canada at FIBAs, they may make that call (to Calipari?) and see what they can do. I still see this as being far-fetched - he would miss 3 weeks of classes - but interesting that Triano would even acknowledge it as a possibility.

[bokbok]

canada's women are going to win gold.

[Raptorfan2012]

I'm sorry but bring in the Men's basketball. Pick up ball at the Y is more interesting to watch than this

[TheFutureMM]

I am most interested in seeing Murray play. Hopefully he gets some decent minutes.

With Anderson not on the team, I think Murray will get plenty of minutes. Those earlier rumours about Murray starting may well prove correct.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/nba/jay-triano-team-canada-mens-basketball-coach-joins-timandsid-in-studio/

Thanks for posting the link.

The two things that stood out for me from the interview:
1) Triano says that to his knowledge, the only player who has said no has been Ennis (b/c of injury), that they haven't talked to TT yet, but other than that, everyone else is an in, and they have confirmation from players and their teams. So seems that Joseph was able to sort out insurance or other issues and is on board. Also seems that Sacre is on board.

2) Re Murray's participation for FIBAs, Triano mentions that Murray will be starting at UK on 8/26, but say that if Murray is really good at PanAms and if they think he could help Canada at FIBAs, they may make that call (to Calipari?) and see what they can do. I still see this as being far-fetched - he would miss 3 weeks of classes - but interesting that Triano would even acknowledge it as a possibility.

RE Murray: It's not the first time that he has said that Murray is a possibility for FIBA if he plays well at Pan AMs - he mentioned it at the beginning of the Pan AM training camp. I personally think it's not happening. I'd rather Murray settle in at Kentucky and just ride with Junior or Jermaine as the back-up.

[bokbok]

I'm sorry but bring in the Men's basketball. Pick up ball at the Y is more interesting to watch than this

canada is demolishing brazil and about to go to the gold medal game and this is the garbage you have the say? and what the hell makes you think the men will be more interesting? the best player on the u.s roster is ryan hollins. seems like more useless misogynist nonsense.

[Undefeated]

I'm sorry but bring in the Men's basketball. Pick up ball at the Y is more interesting to watch than this

canada is demolishing brazil and about to go to the gold medal game and this is the garbage you have the say? and what the hell makes you think the men will be more interesting? the best player on the u.s roster is ryan hollins. seems like more useless misogynist nonsense.

Preach fam

[Chriscross]

Nurse and Langlois are going to be the future of Women's Basketball in Canada. Both really impressive

Keep an eye out for Shay Colley. Up and coming guard for CWNT. She's better than Nurse IMO.

Nice. I went to UWindsor so I've gotten to see Langlois be arguably the best player on a University that's won 4 straight national titles. Another player that went to UWindsor is Korissa Williams and I bet she will be part of this team in the near future

[Undefeated]

Nice. I went to UWindsor so I've gotten to see Langlois be arguably the best player on a University that's won 4 straight national titles. Another player that went to UWindsor is Korissa Williams and I bet she will be part of this team in the near future

Ya I got to see Korissa scrimmage with the DWNT when I was there. I think she'll definitely make the cut for the national team at some point. She just can't shoot, though lol.

If the Women's win gold at Pan Am it would be an incredible year for them; Cadette won gold and DWNT won silver at the University games. Hopefully, the Men's team can have that same success in the coming years.

[Chriscross]

Nice. I went to UWindsor so I've gotten to see Langlois be arguably the best player on a University that's won 4 straight national titles. Another player that went to UWindsor is Korissa Williams and I bet she will be part of this team in the near future

Ya I got to see Korissa scrimmage with the DWNT when I was there. I think she'll definitely make the cut for the national team at some point. She just can't shoot, though lol.

If the Women's win gold at Pan Am it would be an incredible year for them; Cadette won gold and DWNT won silver at the University games. Hopefully, the Men's team can have that same success in the coming years.

Funny you say that because Langlois isn't a great shooter either (better than Williams though). At UWindsor neither were much of a shooter.

Langlois at UWindsor was a triple double threat every night though. The ultimate floor general who can get hers whenever she wanted. Most of her points were off of driving to the basket and 5-10 foot jumpers because her opponents were far too small and slow to defend her. Your team is also pretty much guaranteed 2 points when she's leading a fastbreak because she's so crafty. She's a pleasure to watch.

Williams is the player you want guarding against your opponents' best perimeter guard. She's a beast defensively and a steals machine with her quick hands and terrific Bball IQ. Offensively, she can get to the rim and draw fouls very well. But yeah, you don't want her shooting very much if at all

[frumble]

Summer League is now over for the 15 Canadians who participated.

Dwight Powell was named 2nd team Vegas all star.
In 6 games he averaged 18.8 PPG and 9.2 RPG.
He shot 43% on a very high volume - 84FGA, including 49 from 3. He was only 27% from 3 (was 66% from 2). At Stanford he showed a decent short-to-mid range jumper, but I don't recall him trying many 3s. Not sure how committed Dallas is to trying to make him a stretch 4.

Khem Birch also did pretty well.
Averaged about 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks a game on about 60% shooting.

Trey Lyles did not do that well for Utah. Managed 11 PPG, but on 32% shooting.

Hanlan fared even worse, shooting 27% and averaging only 4 PPG and 1.2 APG on decent minutes.

Pangos also didn't shoot well (28%).

Scrubb was also sub 30% (in limited action).

Liam McMorrow was 9/11 in 5 games (80 minutes).

The others either didn't play that much (D. Bachynski, Bhullar, Kenny Cherry, Maurice Walker, or Nick Wiggins), or turned in ok performances (J. Bachynski, Ejim, Nastic).

[mojo13]

Summer League is now over for the 15 Canadians who participated.

Dwight Powell was named 2nd team Vegas all star.
In 6 games he averaged 18.8 PPG and 9.2 RPG.
He shot 43% on a very high volume - 84FGA, including 49 from 3. He was only 27% from 3 (was 66% from 2). At Stanford he showed a decent short-to-mid range jumper, but I don't recall him trying many 3s. Not sure how committed Dallas is to trying to make him a stretch 4.

Khem Birch also did pretty well.
Averaged about 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks a game on about 60% shooting.

Trey Lyles did not do that well for Utah. Managed 11 PPG, but on 32% shooting.

Hanlan fared even worse, shooting 27% and averaging only 4 PPG and 1.2 APG on decent minutes.

Pangos also didn't shoot well (28%).

Scrubb was also sub 30% (in limited action).

Liam McMorrow was 9/11 in 5 games (80 minutes).

The others either didn't play that much (D. Bachynski, Bhullar, Kenny Cherry, Maurice Walker, or Nick Wiggins), or turned in ok performances (J. Bachynski, Ejim, Nastic).

Here is my take:

Khem Birch - didn't get many minutes early on and didn't have the opportunity to shine. However the final few games he started and the minutes were there - and he looked really good to me. He is a defensive beast at this level and I really think he is NBA material. Really improved his body/strength over the last year (he looks like a beast). I hope he gets a good shot with the Pelicans - they could use him. I think he should be in the NBA, but supposedly he has an nice offer in Turkey as a back-up plan.

Trey Lyles - A little unprepared b/c of the contract issue. But you could see him get better and better. Really high bball IQ type player, with good passing skills. He looks like he will have a solid spot in the NBA. I was more and more impressed with each game. The NBA seems to me morphing into a "play making 4" role so that will be an adavantage for Trey.

Kevin Pangos - despite his shot completely abandoning him, he looked pretty good running the team. Smart player, getting everyone involved. However I don't think he can come close to defending NBA point guards and rather than sitting on the end of the bench it would nice to see him head to Europe and evolve into a star there. He has an offer from Gran Carnia and I hope he goes that route. Selfishly it would be nice to see him stay in Europe and be one of the main back-up PGs of the future for the SMNT. It would be valuable to have a PG that is a real FIBA ball vet, who really knows the FIBA game and can help our NBA players transition quickly.

Olivier Hanlan - talk about playing yourself out of an opportunity. There was a role for him with the Jazz and he stunk the house up. I am not sure if he even gets a camp invite with the Jazz. The D-league seems like his closest shot to the NBA right now.

Melvin Ejim - kinda looked good to me in his limited games. Kind of a J. Crowder-type doing a little bit of everything, but nothing really well. I could see him getting a camp invite.

Dwight Powell - I was really impressed with Powell and think the back-up to Nowitski is there for him to take. I think he will be a solid role player for the Mavs this year.

I don't think anyone else is in the NBA conversation. Or even the SMNT conversation.

[Undefeated]

I think the problem with Hanlen was that he had no grasp of the Jazz's Motion offense that Snyder runs as it's a pretty complex system to run for guys who haven't played with each other since it's all based on reads so the stats aren't really reflective or indicative of his skills. Bryce Cotton as well as some of the other Jazz players like Jack Cooley had the benefit of already being somewhat acclimated with this system having played for Snyder towards the end of the season so they were able to produce. Lyles had tendencies of stopping the ball, but for the most part I thought he was really good at attacking against closeouts when he was the trailer in the Motion offense.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Kevin Pangos - despite his shot completely abandoning him, he looked pretty good running the team. Smart player, getting everyone involved. However I don't think he can come close to defending NBA point guards and rather than sitting on the end of the bench it would nice to see him head to Europe and evolve into a star there. He has an offer from Gran Carnia and I hope he goes that route. Selfishly it would be nice to see him stay in Europe and be one of the main back-up PGs of the future for the SMNT. It would be valuable to have a PG that is a real FIBA ball vet, who really knows the FIBA game and can help our NBA players transition quickly.

That's a great take on Pangos. Even though he couldn't seem to buy a bucket if he hit triple-7s on the slot machine in Vegas he impressed me with how he ran that Dallas team. They seemed to think so as well, as he was playing heavy minutes for a team whose NBA roster already has at least 3 PGs on it - so it's not like they were trying to see if they should give him a shot.

But I agree completely that he's a fringe NBA player and would be much better served becoming a key player on some team in a good European league (playing in the ACB would be fantastic if that Gran Canaria offer pans out). It will be even more important going forward for the SMNT to have good players in a variety of leagues as FIBA moves away from single qualifying tournaments towards a series of qualifying games that will be spread out throughout the year. This will make it much less likely for us to be able to put together the "best" Canadian team, and make it even more crucial to rely on that second tier of players. Hopefully Pangos fits in there.

[Dr Comeback]

Unpopular opinion: I don't think Kevin Pango's defense is that bad, he's got solid lateral quickness. The problem is he has zero length, makes it difficult to contest shots.

He's one of those guys that won't hurt you that much on defense because of his intelligence and his reliability in executing the defensive game plan.


It's going to be a fight but I think he can make it.

[bokbok]

I didn't know Danny Trejo was coaching Cuba's womens team.

[bokbok]

cbc interviewer just asked a cuban player after just winning bronze if she was going to watch the gold medal game between us and canada and who she's rooting for... i hope that wasn't her only question lmao.

[raptors2019]

Can vs. US Womens gold medal game about to tip-off

http://panam.cbc.ca/videos/live/video/womens-basketball-2030.html