Team Canada Basketball Thread

[Treadmill_Team]

Other than wiggins, Barrett is probably the best prospect this country has ever produced. I follow High school ball more than any other level. Montverde Academy is basically gonna be unbeatable for at least for the next 2 seasons.

Awesome. Couple questions for you because I'm pretty unfamiliar with HS basketball in the States...

1) Will Simi and Barrett get minutes next year? How deep does Montverde run their rotation? What's the pecking order looking like next year?

2) Do you know if Andrew Nembhard is going to be joining Montverde next year?

3) After say Wiggins and Barrett, who would you say our best prospect has been or is currently? Tristan Thompson?

Murray, hands down. He was the best player on the Pan Am team last year as a high schooler.

They both will get minutes next year. The team is so deep they had to play like 2 units last year. They might shorten the bench this year tho. The problem last year was their best players were all sophomores and freshman. Not to say their upper class men weren't good players. They're all gonna play College ball. But the best prospects/and even players rn were all soft/freshman. So they had to play 11 deep bc they have to give the seniors/juniors run.

imo Barrett is the best prospect of them all. I'd rank their prospects. 1. Barrett 2. de Sousa 3. Montgomery. All are going to prolly be top 10 if not top 5 NBA draft picks if they continue to develop on pace.

I'm not sure if Nembhard will play for Montverde nor do I think it would be the best situation. When I say that team is deep, I mean like they have guys that will probably make the League and aren't even a top 3 prospect on this team.

It's probably Murray if you're asking out of High school who is the best prospect, but he didn't really play elite-level high school ball. Just had some big performances in international play and all-star games. Believe it or not, Myck Kabongo was a more highly touted prospect than Cojo, Bennett and Thompson coming out of High school.

[mojo13]

. Believe it or not, Myck Kabongo was a more highly touted prospect than Cojo, Bennett and Thompson coming out of High school.

Kabongo was: Scout: 10; Rivals: 26; ESPN: 10;
Bennett at least was #7 for all three. Thompson ended up in the 9-11 range and I think was as high as #2 at one point.

This is quibbling though - I think your point is Kabongo unbelievably was right there with the rest of them.

[Treadmill_Team]

Hmmm...not sure if it is hands down.

Depends when/what you are considering best prospect. this is a snapshot in time question. At what point in time are you asking? Early highschool, senior in high school, college prospect? Bennett was selected #1 overall so he by some definition was our best prospect (besides Wiggins). TT was drafted #4 overall - likely higher than Murray. Is that not by some definition a better prospect?

If you look at high school rankings - it is a little tough to compare Murray as he played in Canada and missed out on many ranking - But Kabongo, Tristan, Khem Birch, Bennett, CoJo were all highly ranked prospects and likely higher ranked than Murray.

What was Murray's peak ranking by any major ranking service? The guys above all peaked in the 5-15 range no? Bennett was 5-10. Was Murray ever in that range?

Just saying it is not hands down and pretty subjective.

And he was not the best player on the PanAms last year. He was sloppy, played poor defense and turned the ball over allot. He had some late game hero ball in a couple games and that is all some people seem to remember (but ya - he was still pretty darn good for his age). Nicholson and Bennett were better in the PanAms if I recall correctly.

EDIT: I found a blurb saying that before Murray reclassified to Class of 2015 from Class of 2016 — he was ranked by 247 Sports as the 9th best prospect and Rivals rankeds him at No. 15. So he is right there with the guys above in high school at least. But even if you look at Murray today (post freshman year) Bennett and Thompson were arguable considered better (or somewhat equal) prospects as the same point.

I agree with a lot of what you said. The only reason I pick Murray is because I do believe his ceiling is the highest of them all. That doesn't mean much tho bc I thought Myck had a higher ceiling than TT, Cojo, Bennett and Birch. We saw how that turned out.

As for Murray's ranking out of High school his decision to reclassify was a very smart. 2016 draft class is way more talented/deeper than 2015. So it's hard to see where he would be ranked coming out of high school.

like you said, It's all subjective, I just believe Murray has the highest ceiling. I will say that I did always believe TT was the safest bet. A big guy that hustles is pretty much a lock to play in this league for 10+ years.

[frumble]

Good discussion.

I tend to use the Ratings Service Composite Index (RSCI) to measure how highly rated a prospect was coming out of high school. It is an average of Scout, Rivals, ESPN, 247, and a few other ratings services.

As Mojo pointed out, it shortchanges Murray because he reclassified and played HS in Canada, and thus wasn't picked up in many of the services on which the RSCI is based. But aside from Murray, I think it provides a fairly good ranking of our top guys.

In any case, we have had 14 guys who were top 40 RSCI:

Wiggins 1 (2013)
Bennett 6 (2012)
Thompson 9 (2010)
Birch 11 (2011)
Lyles 12 (2014)

Joseph 13 (2010)
Famutimi 13 (2003) (the first really highly touted Cdn prospect)
Kabongo 13 (2011)
Wiltjer 19 (2011)
Ennis 23 (2013)

Dalembert 29 (1999)
Brown 34 (2002)
Theo Davis 36 (2005)
Powell 38 (2010)

(XRM, Cadougan, and Ryan Wright were in the 40s. Kris Joseph in the 50s).

Still 3 years away, but I think Barrett has decent chance of being top 5, which would make him highest touted since Wiggins, and second highest touted ever.

[Treadmill_Team]

Good discussion.

I tend to use the Ratings Service Composite Index (RSCI) to measure how highly rated a prospect was coming out of high school. It is an average of Scout, Rivals, ESPN, 247, and a few other ratings services.

As Mojo pointed out, it shortchanges Murray because he reclassified and played HS in Canada, and thus wasn't picked up in many of the services on which the RSCI is based. But aside from Murray, I think it provides a fairly good ranking of our top guys.

In any case, we have had 14 guys who were top 40 RSCI:

Wiggins 1 (2013)
Bennett 6 (2012)
Thompson 9 (2010)
Birch 11 (2011)
Lyles 12 (2014)

Joseph 13 (2010)
Famutimi 13 (2003) (the first really highly touted Cdn prospect)
Kabongo 13 (2011)
Wiltjer 19 (2011)
Ennis 23 (2013)

Dalembert 29 (1999)
Brown 34 (2002)
Theo Davis 36 (2005)
Powell 38 (2010)

(XRM, Cadougan, and Ryan Wright were in the 40s. Kris Joseph in the 50s).

Still 3 years away, but I think Barrett has decent chance of being top 5, which would make him highest touted since Wiggins, and second highest touted ever.

Barrett is ranked as the #1 sophomore in any ranking system you'll find. The only thing that will hold his ranking back is how deep his team is. There's two players a class above him on his team that are top 5 ranked prospects. There's only 1 ball so for the next 2 years he'll be sharing it with them.

For example, de Sousa and Montgomery were both consensus #2 and #3 players in the 2018 draft class last year behind Bagley. Both their rankings dropped bc their team is so deep. Will this happen with Barrett? We shall see but he will get less opportunities than other top ranked prospects around the country.

[Treadmill_Team]

. Believe it or not, Myck Kabongo was a more highly touted prospect than Cojo, Bennett and Thompson coming out of High school.

Kabongo was: Scout: 10; Rivals: 26; ESPN: 10;
Bennett at least was #7 for all three. Thompson ended up in the 9-11 range and I think was as high as #2 at one point.

This is quibbling though - I think your point is Kabongo unbelievably was right there with the rest of them.

You could make an argument with bennett, but he was always considered a tweener. I'm just saying that many Scouts believed Myck had potential that none of those players ever had. He had natural quickness and athletic ability you can't teach. So it was always believed if he continued to develop his game he could get to a level that those players couldn't.

A good comparison in this years draft is Dunn. Boom or Bust type of player. Has the natural athletic ability to reach star status but also could be a bust and out of the league in a few years. Where you look at a player like TT, he was always going to play in the League for a long time. A big guy that hustles is a lock to play. But will he ever reach all-star level? idk maybe he'll get a one year nod like magloire.

[Double Bubble]

Can't blame guys for being spooked over the health crisis in Brazil. Although I heard someone say it's presented as far worse in the media as it actually is...Dunno

Where's D Powell at this summer? It's been mentioned I'm sure but I'm out of the loop.

[Mascot]

Can't blame guys for being spooked over the health crisis in Brazil. Although I heard someone say it's presented as far worse in the media as it actually is...Dunno

Where's D Powell at this summer? It's been mentioned I'm sure but I'm out of the loop.

The media always portrays other countries as third world, they have to make headlines no matter if its true or not.

[TheFutureMM]

Can't blame guys for being spooked over the health crisis in Brazil. Although I heard someone say it's presented as far worse in the media as it actually is...Dunno

Where's D Powell at this summer? It's been mentioned I'm sure but I'm out of the loop.

Doesn't have a contract right now - as he is a fringe big he'll probably be without one until some of the better PFs are picked up.

Legit excuse in my book.

[Mattd97]

I'm happy Olu famutimi was brought up cause he was the first big time prospect before his knee injuries detailed things. Another name is Olu ashaolu. He was in our NT training camps a couple times recently, not sure what he's up to now but for a very short stint there he was very hyped (by sportsnet at least - "Canada's lebron")

[Undefeated]

Another name CB tried to get was Jevohn Shepherd. He declined his invite.

[pantalones]

I don't get why these top kids still feel the need to play highschool ball in the states. It's been proven time and again, that if you're good enough and stay in Canada, you'll be found. Nash, Sacre, Nicholson, Olynyk, Murray, Maker all played ball in Canada and all have been, or will be in the NBA.

[frumble]

Heh...the abuse, I mean "encouragement" Nik is getting on Twitter might be working....

Did any of our GTA posters drop in at the Yorkdale Foot Locker last night to give Stauskas some more "encouragement"?

https://twitter.com/footlockercad?lang=en

[SHFT]

I didn't know Minnesota had NBA fans till I visited this thread

Pretty funny that your team's slogan is "We the North"...

Spoiler:

Toronto latitude: 43.65

Minneapolis latitude: 44.98

What do you know?

It's not wethenorthernmostcity ... it's wethenorth.....we being Canada....north of the United states

[SHFT]

It will be funny if everyone holds off on reporting the obvious trolling and baiting taking place from these Twolves folks on a different team's board and then as the draft gets near report them so that they get suspended right on draft night for clearly baiting and trolling on another team's board.

Also, our non-superstar team went further than MVP KG's team's ever went and probably further than this new Timberwolves core will go before all the players leave as UFAs and bolt to better markets and to get away from Thibideau after he burns them all out like he did the Bulls stars.

Last thing. We the North isn't just for Toronto. It's for all of Canada and the rest of it is further North than Minnesota.

Exactly....you are south of the wall so you are southerners

[SHFT]

Man I don't get it. Isn't enough reward to be able to put your national pride, to represent everything your family and friends living in that country have given to you? To help expand the game you love to the people you lived with day in and day out?

Isn't it a honour to be able to be a potential icon in the eyes of kids and teens across the country? To be able to play on the highest stage for the place you know and love?

Germany hasn't been a great team, but that never stopped Dirk from playing. Argentina knew they wouldn't be able to beat America, but that didn't stop them from playing any chance they get to this day.

Maybe I'm the backwards thinking one, I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this should be a big deal to anyone who gets the chance.

European mindset vs north American one (outside hockey and canada)

[Double Bubble]

Can't blame guys for being spooked over the health crisis in Brazil. Although I heard someone say it's presented as far worse in the media as it actually is...Dunno

Where's D Powell at this summer? It's been mentioned I'm sure but I'm out of the loop.

The media always portrays other countries as third world, they have to make headlines no matter if its true or not.

So true, news is boring unless sensational.

[phanman]

I don't get why these top kids still feel the need to play highschool ball in the states. It's been proven time and again, that if you're good enough and stay in Canada, you'll be found. Nash, Sacre, Nicholson, Olynyk, Murray, Maker all played ball in Canada and all have been, or will be in the NBA.

Because the competition is higher down south..

Just read through the thread from page 16 to catch up on the news and man Wiggins not playing is a real heart-breaker man. That statement was poorly constructed Wolves are still several years away from contending, and probably wont even make the playoffs next year. Preparing for an increased role? - how much bigger can it get with him being the #1 option in his first year and being the 1a/b option in his sophomore year? Dude's coming back with the same role as last year albeit with a stricter coach.

At this point everybody's gotta be rooting for a Cav's win today so TT can go into the summer feeling nice and join the qualifying team!! He'd easily become our best big and I'd love to see the chemistry between him and Cojo on a national stage.

[pantalones]

I don't get why these top kids still feel the need to play highschool ball in the states. It's been proven time and again, that if you're good enough and stay in Canada, you'll be found. Nash, Sacre, Nicholson, Olynyk, Murray, Maker all played ball in Canada and all have been, or will be in the NBA.

Because the competition is higher down south..

Just read through the thread from page 16 to catch up on the news and man Wiggins not playing is a real heart-breaker man. That statement was poorly constructed Wolves are still several years away from contending, and probably wont even make the playoffs next year. Preparing for an increased role? - how much bigger can it get with him being the #1 option in his first year and being the 1a/b option in his sophomore year? Dude's coming back with the same role as last year albeit with a stricter coach.

At this point everybody's gotta be rooting for a Cav's win today so TT can go into the summer feeling nice and join the qualifying team!! He'd easily become our best big and I'd love to see the chemistry between him and Cojo on a national stage.

I thought I read that Orangeville Prep played the toughest schedule in NA last season. Besides, the topp AAU teams in Canada are some of the top in NA and they'll play top comp in NCAA anyways. The notion that they have to go to the states to get discovered is silly and as I referenced earlier, patently false.

[frumble]

Canada's SMNT's first exhibition game is later today against Croatia.

Still no definitive word on who made the trip (only that Shi-ttu is now with U17s, Brooks is out b/c of injury, Boucher out b/c of school requirements, and Joseph and Anthony staying in Canada for a few extra days - that still leaves 17 from camp).