Team Canada Basketball Thread

[Hair Canada]

I'm assuming they're having trouble getting commitments right in the middle of everybody's season.

Kind of expecting alot of unattached guys

I'm almost expecting a Rick Fox, Leo and Bill Wennington frontcourt at this point.

In reality Im sure they just realize that there's only about 8 to 15 of us that actually care enough to check for roster updates.

I see it differently. I am 90% sure we will see mostly the same team we saw in November.
The only real question from that team is Phil Scrubb with his knee (who just returned from sitting out 6 weeks).
If he is out, my guess is Best comes in (with an outside chance of Ward, Peter-McNeilly, or Cherry). Naz Long now seems out due to his 10 day contract (but maybe not - he played in the G last night).

Owen Klassen has moved teams since Nov. but down a level in competition (solid Greek team to a below average German team), so not sure how that impacts him. He is now a more important player to his weaker team. Perhaps Joel Anthony realizes it is time to hang things up? (he was awful in November)
We don't know what is going on behind the scenes with players or clubs, but what else has changed since November (that we know)?
Hanlan, XRM, Heslip, T. Scrubb, Pierre, Trasolini, Bennett should be the core crew. And I'd be ok with that if we dumped most of the minutes on them. Tras, Pierre, T. Scrubb and Bennett were poorly utilized in November.

I think the delay is that there are a few important pieces like Ejim and Nicholson - maybe Sacre that all could have been close to playing the last time around, and might be able to join this round. Ejim is with a Europe Cup team in Russia and shouldnt be impeded from playing. Nicholson is in the China with the CBA and they are releasing players - in one move Nicholson completely changes this team. Also note Yi Jianlian will be playing for China and is Nicholson's club teammate. Sacre plays in the same league as Trasolini. Sacre might not be a game changer to many here - but it is possible having a true center make it easier for someone like Pierre or Bennett at the PF. Both who seem to be excelling at the 4 with their respective club teams.

I am still hoping we can add a few decent pieces especially up front - and ditch on guys like Glaze, Keane and Joel Anthony who were all useless. People need to realize how specialized Heslip is too. He can be just awful and single-handedly lose games for us. We need to realize when his minutes should be very limited.


and if any of you are curious about Jordan Bachynski - he is still out due to a viral infection in his heart. No exercise for 6 months and he is about 4 months in. He'd have been a nice add to this qualification team. A pretty darn good defensive anchor, rim protector to pair with stretch and undersized 4s..
He is an interview with him (Google Translated):
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elcorreogallego.es/deportes/ecg/intento-ser-positivo-madre-siempre-decia-vale-pena-esperar-mejores-cosas/idEdicion-2018-02-08/idNoticia-1098891/&prev=search

Interesting stuff mojo, thanks. Agree with your assessments. Seems like we'll be highly dependent on XRM and Hanlan to be able to give big minutes and play well in the backcourt. Let's hope that works. Acquiring another loss in this window might be playing with fire.

[mojo13]

Blake Murphy is the only one responsive with info so far. He might also be the only one who cares.
All he knows is Kaza Keane will be at camp and it starts Saturday.
That might mean Aaron Best won't be there as Blake is the 905 beat writer and knows all those guys well. So hopefully that means phil Scrubb is playing.

[frumble]

mojo, thanks for the update.


Re the lack of interest, could it be that interest (among fans and the media) is even lower than it was before (if that is even possible)?

Along with the other flaws of the new qualifying system, has it also dampened interest because it is such a long, fragmented process? Easier to get into a 10-day tournament with everything on the line, as opposed to two games at a time, months apart, years before the actual Worlds?


On a separate note, I must have reverse-jinxed Brisset. He had his best game of the season last night. 25 pts on 8/13 shooting.

[Hair Canada]

mojo, thanks for the update.


Re the lack of interest, could it be that interest (among fans and the media) is even lower than it was before (if that is even possible)?

Along with the other flaws of the new qualifying system, has it also dampened interest because it is such a long, fragmented process? Easier to get into a 10-day tournament with everything on the line, as opposed to two games at a time, months apart, years before the actual Worlds?


On a separate note, I must have reverse-jinxed Brisset. He had his best game of the season last night. 25 pts on 8/13 shooting.

I think that's actually quite likely (reduced interest across the board). I see signs for this in the media coverage and public interest in other countries (ones where mainstream media actually bother to write regularly on basketball). This new system is dumb and annoying on so many levels, and this is just one of them.

Of course, the most obvious fault with this system is that despite the expansion to 32 teams, the fact that most good teams are unable to bring their A unit (or sometimes even unit B) might leave out of the tournament some of the most interesting and worthy national teams.

I almost wish that a Spain or a Serbia would somehow miss the tournament, just to expose the stupidity of the system. Or ideally even the US. Because then they'll definitely have to do something.

Unfortunately, this team might also end up being Canada...

[Hair Canada]

A bit more on Kassius Robertson and his fantastic season at Mizzou:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ben-frederickson/benfred-stats-that-show-kassius-robertson-s-importance-to-mizzou/article_bc2f3889-f5c8-5284-a607-322eff025072.html

[aminiaturebuddha]

From the "let's read too much into minor gestures" file - it looks like Murray and Brooks were chatting it up after the rising stars game and having a good time. We definitely want these guys to want to play with each other - the more camaraderie amongst them, the better chance of having higher turnout of our best players for the big tournaments...assuming that we don't fail to qualify because Basketball Canada forgot to put a team together for the qualifying games.

[mojo13]

5 days out and still nothing from Basketball Canada on a roster (or extended pool).
Can't help but having a foreboding feeling about this. It just screams incompetence from my outside perspective. It seems counterpart Banana republics like USVI, Cuba and Bahamas are the only other federations in the Americas where nothing has been announced on the their teams.

Anyways, if camp starts today. Maybe some photos will start trickling out on Twitter. OR maybe one of our more intrepid forum posters in the GTA will go to wherever they are camping and give us a report. Might be the only way we get something.

Keep an eye on Blake Murphys Twitter account as he seems to report on anything he hears with the SMNT.

[TooBad]

Maybe Canada will buy their way into the Olympics if we don't qualify. I think it would be almost as big of a failure for FIBA/Olympics as it would be for Canada to not have them in the Olympics.

[Mirotic12]

I think that's actually quite likely (reduced interest across the board). I see signs for this in the media coverage and public interest in other countries (ones where mainstream media actually bother to write regularly on basketball). This new system is dumb and annoying on so many levels, and this is just one of them.

Of course, the most obvious fault with this system is that despite the expansion to 32 teams, the fact that most good teams are unable to bring their A unit (or sometimes even unit B) might leave out of the tournament some of the most interesting and worthy national teams.

I almost wish that a Spain or a Serbia would somehow miss the tournament, just to expose the stupidity of the system. Or ideally even the US. Because then they'll definitely have to do something.

Unfortunately, this team might also end up being Canada...

FIBA would not care at all. Teams like Italy, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, France, Russia, Turkey regularly miss World and Olympics, and not once did FIBA bat an eye. If I remember right, France missed 2 straight Olympics when they had like 10 NBA players, and FIBA never did a thing about it. Same with China and Brazil, not once did FIBA care in missing an Olympics or World Cup.

The only way FIBA changes is if USA misses the tournament, and then the NBA starts complaining about it. Otherwise, FIBA won't care at all.

On another note, now some Champions League teams are telling FIBA they don't like the system, and are also threatening not to release their players. So if that happens, then FIBA has zero legal grounds to keep punishing EuroLeague, and a lot of national federations have lost their 2nd tier players also.

A Kyle Wiltjer update - EuroLeague's deadline to sign any new players is February 28, and now Greek media is claiming Wiltjer might get cut by Olympiacos for poor play. They are saying Hollis Thompson is definitely cut from Olympiacos, and that Brian Roberts is almost for sure cut also, but that Wiltjer is like 50/50.

Personally, I would for sure cut Thompson and Roberts (they have been absolute disaster signings), but I would keep Wiltjer. He struggles on defense, but he's such an amazing shooter, and at 6-10, he can really stretch the defense, to where the opposing bigs just can't guard him from deep. So I would keep him if I was Olympiacos, but if he does get cut, at least he can say two NBA rotation players were also cut by the team, so it would probably not look that bad to NBA general managers as it could.

[mojo13]

Mirotic your memory is short.
FIBA has a long history of giving Wild Cards to favored nations for the World Cup. They have no opportunity to do so with the Olympics with no Wild Cards.

Brazil, Turkey and Greece have all somehow found their way in after failing to qaulify for the 2014 WCs. Even Finland bought its way in, but that was purely a money matter. Russia, Lithuania and Germany got wild cards in 2010. I wonder why? Prime Nowitzki, Kirelenko etc.

[Mirotic12]

Mirotic your memory is short.
FIBA has a long history of giving Wild Cards to favored nations for the World Cup. They have no opportunity to do so with the Olympics with no Wild Cards.

Brazil, Turkey and Greece have all somehow found their way in after failing to qaulify for the 2014 WCs. Even Finland bought its way in, but that was purely a money matter. Russia, Lithuania and Germany got wild cards in 2010. I wonder why? Prime Nowitzki, Kirelenko etc.

I remember plenty of times that those countries missed the big tournaments and FIBA didn't give wild cards. As for Greece and their wild card - yeah they got one, but they had to do ridiculous things.

Paid $5 million cash, and then they had to host and pay 100% for something like 5 FIBA tournaments, while also agreeing to fund several new arena projects. Then all of their clubs besides the EuroLeague ones had to sign contracts that they would only play in BCL and not in EuroCup, something AEK for example, was openly very pissed about.

It was really controversial and the government took tons of heat for it. You have to understand FIBA is a political organization before a sporting one (why they try to take EuroLeague down, which is a private company). You have these political appointees to basketball federations that use their power to try to transfer government money to FIBA as kickbacks for their power in FIBA's organization.

I can tell you for certain that Greece's wild card had nothing to do with basketball, or FIBA caring if they were in the tournament, absolutely nothing. And I am pretty sure the case with Russia and Turkey was 100% the same, while Finland was said to be a purely marketing gimmick - something with a Finnish company giving a free app platform to FIBA.

I even remember FIBA bragging about when Nigeria was in the Olympics over Greece (after ridiculous ref calls), and how Nigeria would generate much more money and exposure than a European team would have.

I really seriously don't think they care at all, unless it's USA.

Did they seem to care when Canada misses tournaments for teams like Venezuela? When China missed for Iran or Philippines or whatever? Brazil for Dominican Republic?, etc.......There was a time they helped Argentina, now Spain - both of those will be of the past soon. They do seem to favor Lithuania for whatever reason consistently (my guess is because it's part of anti Russian Europe-USA policy). But I see no evidence that they care about what happens with any other country's team long-term status, other than Lithuania and USA.

[TooBad]

Mirotic your memory is short.
FIBA has a long history of giving Wild Cards to favored nations for the World Cup. They have no opportunity to do so with the Olympics with no Wild Cards.

Brazil, Turkey and Greece have all somehow found their way in after failing to qaulify for the 2014 WCs. Even Finland bought its way in, but that was purely a money matter. Russia, Lithuania and Germany got wild cards in 2010. I wonder why? Prime Nowitzki, Kirelenko etc.

I remember plenty of times that those countries missed the big tournaments and FIBA didn't give wild cards. As for Greece and their wild card - yeah they got one, but they had to do ridiculous things.

Paid $5 million cash, and then they had to host and pay 100% for something like 5 FIBA tournaments, while also agreeing to fund several new arena projects. Then all of their clubs besides the EuroLeague ones had to sign contracts that they would only play in BCL and not in EuroCup, something AEK for example, was openly very pissed about.

It was really controversial and the government took tons of heat for it. You have to understand FIBA is a political organization before a sporting one (why they try to take EuroLeague down, which is a private company). You have these political appointees to basketball federations that use their power to try to transfer government money to FIBA as kickbacks for their power in FIBA's organization.

I can tell you for certain that Greece's wild card had nothing to do with basketball, or FIBA caring if they were in the tournament, absolutely nothing. And I am pretty sure the case with Russia and Turkey was 100% the same, while Finland was said to be a purely marketing gimmick - something with a Finnish company giving a free app platform to FIBA.

I even remember FIBA bragging about when Nigeria was in the Olympics over Greece (after ridiculous ref calls), and how Nigeria would generate much more money and exposure than a European team would have.

I really seriously don't think they care at all, unless it's USA.

Did they seem to care when Canada misses tournaments for teams like Venezuela? When China missed for Iran or Philippines or whatever? Brazil for Dominican Republic?, etc.......There was a time they helped Argentina, now Spain - both of those will be of the past soon. They do seem to favor Lithuania for whatever reason consistently (my guess is because it's part of anti Russian Europe-USA policy). But I see no evidence that they care about what happens with any other country's team long-term status, other than Lithuania and USA.

One big problem with Canada is that a lot of our players skip out for no reason so its a risk to send give us a wildcard. If you're FIBA you want Canada in there but only if the stars are all going to be there.

[TooBad]

Read on Twitter

This is a cool video about Dillon Brooks

[mojo13]

So in November there was allot of mention on Twitter the week before about our guys heading to the FIBA games or training camp. Teams or beat writers wishing a player a congrats for being selected or a good luck. Players dropping a tweet about heading to Halifax or seeing family for the first time in months.

This time around , next to nothing. After and hour of scouring I have one mesely morsal to report. Sassari threw out a good luck in the FIBA games to Dyshawn Pierre. It is so weird that I am wondering if there is some sort of black out with the intent to surprise our opponents and interfere with their game planning? Is that too crazy to consider? This just seems so weird to be this late on reporting.

[TheFutureMM]

So in November there was allot of mention on Twitter the week before about our guys heading to the FIBA games or training camp. Teams or beat writers wishing a player a congrats for being selected or a good luck. Players dropping a tweet about heading to Halifax or seeing family for the first time in months.

This time around , next to nothing. After and hour of scouring I have one mesely morsal to report. Sassari threw out a good luck in the FIBA games to Dyshawn Pierre. It is so weird that I am wondering if there is some sort of black out with the intent to surprise our opponents and interfere with their game planning? Is that too crazy to consider? This just seems so weird to be this late on reporting.

This is bizarre. We are playing in literally 5 days and have not announced a roster yet. I've always been under the impression that Team Canada holds out on confirming a roster because the players who they really want to have participate are usually the last minute acceptances (we saw this specifically with Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson in 2016). It becomes an issue of what is better for the team - is it better to have a less talented team who has more time to practise together or do you want to take a chance at getting a more talented team which has less time to practise with each other. The important thing to note is that by waiting to get a 'yes' from our more talented players doesn't necessarily guarantee their services - they can still say no which screws us over even more.

I have always been under the impression that Team Canada values talent first and foremost, and in basketball they have a point. They could always operate under the 'player x we conditionally invite you to the team however if player y decides he's in then you are cut'. The issue with this is that you are asking guys the guys who are probable to get cut, to take time off of their actual careers on a chance that they can play. If I'm part of Canada's C or D guys I'm not waiting around unless you give me a confirmation.

[aminiaturebuddha]

I reached out to a few people at Basketball Canada, expressing my frustration at the lack of information, and basically saying that even though it may not be the case, it gives the impression that the organization isn't taking these games seriously enough.

Here's a response I received - he suggests that keeping the competition off balance is at least part of the consideration:

Good Day,

Thank you for your email and your support for Canada Basketball.

As you noted there are many factors at play when selecting a roster for one of our competitions. Unfortunetly the World Cup Qualifying process presents even more challenges due to it taking place during the professional season when all of our players are with their respective clubs around the world.

I can assure you that everyone associated with the Canadian National team take the Qualifying process extremely seriously and have dedicated significant time and resources into ensuring our team is successful.

With regard to the announcement of the team, this information will actually be made available tomorrow. From a competitive stand point it isn't in the best interest of the program to make our rosters public prior to the start of the competition window.

Best regards,


Bryan Crawford
Senior Director, Operations
Canada Basketball

[mojo13]

Hmmmm. That’s really interesting and thanks for relaying that info. I am trying to figure out if i feel better knowing there is a reason for the info blackout. I’m still skeptical that just don’t have their act together and this is a convenient excuse. Hope I am wrong.

Almost makes me feel we will see a surprise Nicholson or Ejim showing. Let’s get after it!

[TooBad]

I reached out to a few people at Basketball Canada, expressing my frustration at the lack of information, and basically saying that even though it may not be the case, it gives the impression that the organization isn't taking these games seriously enough.

Here's a response I received - he suggests that keeping the competition off balance is at least part of the consideration:

Good Day,

Thank you for your email and your support for Canada Basketball.

As you noted there are many factors at play when selecting a roster for one of our competitions. Unfortunetly the World Cup Qualifying process presents even more challenges due to it taking place during the professional season when all of our players are with their respective clubs around the world.

I can assure you that everyone associated with the Canadian National team take the Qualifying process extremely seriously and have dedicated significant time and resources into ensuring our team is successful.

With regard to the announcement of the team, this information will actually be made available tomorrow. From a competitive stand point it isn't in the best interest of the program to make our rosters public prior to the start of the competition window.

Best regards,


Bryan Crawford
Senior Director, Operations
Canada Basketball

Sh*t I literally had this thought in my head yesterday but I thought you guys would think it was dumb so I didn't post. The training camp is blacked out too right (no leaks that I have read/heard about as of yet)?

[WellYouKnow]

Roster was announced

http://www.basketball.ca/en/news-article/roster-announced-for-second-window-of-fiba-basketball-world-cup

Way better than i expected.

Ejim is there, so is kyle landry and Aaron Best.

PG might be a lil weak as Jermaine anderson, Kaza Keane and i guess heslip and akida mcnielly are the only guys.

Jevohn Shepherd found his way back.

[WellYouKnow]

I'm guessing XRM and Hanlan are thinking they may be getting a call up soon or didnt wanna jeopardize their chances at this time of the year