Team Canada Basketball Thread

[mojo13]

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.

Ugh. Losing our top three guards is going to hurt badly. Ejim is seemingly our only upgrade. Landry is no better than Trasolini.

Again not much in the paint. Not much outside shooting and a major over lap in position and skill set of the best players (Ejim, T Scrubb , Pierre, Bennett).
Heslip is unfortunately going to need to get major minutes and that will hurt badly.

Maybe Peter Mcneilly can step up here. I don’t much about him.

Hopefully they can meld a decent team out of what seems like an ill fitting roster on first glance. Too much turnover as well. This is starting a new team from scratch with a new coach. We got nothing from the AmeriCup or Nov window.

[TooBad]

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.

Ugh. Losing our top three guards is going to hurt badly. Ejim is seemingly our only upgrade. Landry is no better than Trasolini.

Again not much in the paint. Not much outside shooting and a major over lap in position and skill set of the best players (Ejim, T Scrubb , Pierre, Bennett).
Heslip is unfortunately going to need to get major minutes and that will hurt badly.

Maybe Peter Mcneilly can step up here. I don’t much about him.

Hopefully they can meld a decent team out of what seems like an ill fitting roster on first glance.

Having Ejim is big but losing Rathan mayes will hurt a lot. Don't sleep on Bennett he has been shooting very well from deep lately (I think he hit like 27 threes or something in his last 5 games in the g-league). Is Arron Best any good? I saw him in the dunk contest but I know nothing about him.

[aminiaturebuddha]

I'm happy to see Ejim in the fold, but aside from that...

Hopefully the new coach can design an offensive system that doesn't rely heavily on PG play, because it definitely looks like that'll be a weak spot without XRM.

Also, hopefully he can find an effective way to play Ejim and Pierre together, which no other coach has done, as they're almost certainly 2 of the best 5 players on that roster. It would be a major drawback if they can't be in the court at the same time.

I'm definitely not encouraged looking at this roster. Guess I'll just be nervously crossing my fingers for the rest of the week.

[TooBad]

I'm happy to see Ejim in the fold, but aside from that...

Hopefully the new coach can design an offensive system that doesn't rely heavily on PG play, because it definitely looks like that'll be a weak spot without XRM.

Also, hopefully he can find an effective way to play Ejim and Pierre together, which no other coach has done, as they're almost certainly 2 of the best 5 players on that roster. It would be a major drawback if they can't be in the court at the same time.

I'm definitely not encouraged looking at this roster. Guess I'll just be nervously crossing my fingers for the rest of the week.

when is the first game?

[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.

Ugh. Losing our top three guards is going to hurt badly. Ejim is seemingly our only upgrade. Landry is no better than Trasolini.

Again not much in the paint. Not much outside shooting and a major over lap in position and skill set of the best players (Ejim, T Scrubb , Pierre, Bennett).
Heslip is unfortunately going to need to get major minutes and that will hurt badly.

Maybe Peter Mcneilly can step up here. I don’t much about him.

Hopefully they can meld a decent team out of what seems like an ill fitting roster on first glance.

XRM and Phil are definitely guys I'd rather have there.

Hanlan I've been kind of meh on and I think you could argue Best is about the same level of player. Hanlans probably a better shooter while Best is a way better athlete

I've always liked Jermaine and thought he played well in the minutes he got in the americup.

Not gonna pretend to know a huge amount about Mcnielly but he looks like he can shoot the ball. No clue is he can handle PG duties

I think Ejim is a massive upgrade in the frontcourt for us. Id say he's pretty easily our best player outside the NBA.

Wouldn't mind seeing T Scrubb play some minutes at the 2. His perimeter D really impressed in the November games

[TooBad]

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.

Ugh. Losing our top three guards is going to hurt badly. Ejim is seemingly our only upgrade. Landry is no better than Trasolini.

Again not much in the paint. Not much outside shooting and a major over lap in position and skill set of the best players (Ejim, T Scrubb , Pierre, Bennett).
Heslip is unfortunately going to need to get major minutes and that will hurt badly.

Maybe Peter Mcneilly can step up here. I don’t much about him.

Hopefully they can meld a decent team out of what seems like an ill fitting roster on first glance.

XRM and Phil are definitely guys I'd rather have there.

Hanlan I've been kind of meh on and I think you could argue Best is about the same level of player. Hanlans probably a better shooter while Best is a way better athlete

I've always liked Jermaine and thought he played well in the minutes he got in the americup.

Not gonna pretend to know a huge amount about Mcnielly but he looks like he can shoot the ball. No clue is he can handle PG duties

I think Ejim is a massive upgrade in the frontcourt for us. Id say he's pretty easily our best player outside the NBA.

Wouldn't mind seeing T Scrubb play some minutes at the 2. His perimeter D really impressed in the November games

Honestly, XRM cost us one of those games last time didn't he? I seem to remember him playing very poorly at one point.

[TheFutureMM]

Would not be surprised if Canada Basketball held out on the roster hoping to get a confirmation from our 3 guards from November. Scrubb is an expected loss due to injury as Mojo points out but losing XRM and Hanlan is heavy at this stage - I have low expectations going into this week. I'd be happy with one win.

[mojo13]

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.

Ugh. Losing our top three guards is going to hurt badly. Ejim is seemingly our only upgrade. Landry is no better than Trasolini.

Again not much in the paint. Not much outside shooting and a major over lap in position and skill set of the best players (Ejim, T Scrubb , Pierre, Bennett).
Heslip is unfortunately going to need to get major minutes and that will hurt badly.

Maybe Peter Mcneilly can step up here. I don’t much about him.

Hopefully they can meld a decent team out of what seems like an ill fitting roster on first glance.

XRM and Phil are definitely guys I'd rather have there.

Hanlan I've been kind of meh on and I think you could argue Best is about the same level of player. Hanlans probably a better shooter while Best is a way better athlete

I've always liked Jermaine and thought he played well in the minutes he got in the americup.

Not gonna pretend to know a huge amount about Mcnielly but he looks like he can shoot the ball. No clue is he can handle PG duties

I think Ejim is a massive upgrade in the frontcourt for us. Id say he's pretty easily our best player outside the NBA.

Wouldn't mind seeing T Scrubb play some minutes at the 2. His perimeter D really impressed in the November games

Melvin Ejim is nice but he essentially the same player as Dyshawn Pierre who may be just as good or even better. Pierre is playing fantastic in Italy this season. Ejim has been good but not great in Russia. Bennett fills a similar role too.

Also Nicholson would be much better add than Ejim. Even a healthy Phil Scrubb would be more valuable to me. Let’s not forget our Euroleague players when claiming Ejim is our best non NBA player. I’d put Pangos and Nicholson above him at least.

What’s the starting line up here?
Can Pierre play the three effectively?

Ejim and Bennett would have to get the start for me. After that, what the heck do we have?
Heslip at the 2? Ouch. Anderson and Shepherd or are they over the hill? Best at the 2? Scrubb at the three? An Anderson/Keane PG rotation scares me but maybe if they just take care of the ball, defend and allow the other guys to step up we might be ok.

Please don’t start the corpse of Joel Anthony again.

[slothrop8]

The guard options are underwhelming - especially at the point, and our Centres aren't very good - at least I assume, I haven't seen Landry play in a while. The roster is such that we're likely going to need big games from Anthony Bennett - I root for him but that's a dicey situation to be in as your never really sure what you're going to get with Bennett. Hopefully Ejim and Pierre can step up, but that's a pretty shaky roster.

[Pooh_Jeter]

Oof, that's a pretty bad roster.

If there was a commitment to playing small, a forward rotation with Bennett, Ejim, Pierre and Scrubb isn't too bad. The problem is that Anthony is probably going to start at centre and given the sad state of the guards you almost have to play Pierre/Scrubb at SF.

Feels like Jermaine Anderson is the guard version of Joel Anthony. I was thoroughly unimpressed with Keane at the last qualifying rounds. From my understanding, Best is an athlete/slasher and not any kind of ball handler. Heslip is going to be asked to do something other than shoot which is going to be a disaster. I know nothing about McNielly, so hopefully he isn't just a warm body.

If you have Jokic or Gasol you can get away with not having great ball handlers at guard, but we certainly don't have that. Either this team is going to have to be outstanding defensively or that core group of forwards/bigs is going to have to ball out. It could be really really ugly.

[slothrop8]

It's been said many times, but looking at this roster that we have to cobble together for important games, what FIBA has done here is monumentally dumb. Like they are going out of their way to hurt international basketball - it's bizarre.

[Pooh_Jeter]

It's been said many times, but looking at this roster that we have to cobble together for important games, what FIBA has done here is monumentally dumb. Like they are going out of their way to hurt international basketball - it's bizarre.

Not only are the games during the NBA season, but the only way to see them is to stream them on DAZN and to boot the games are largely during the workday. I'd be hard pressed to find a way to get less people to watch/care about these games.

[TooBad]

Arron Best and Mcneilly were teammates in the CIS for quite some time so there should be some chemistry there. Also, Mcneily can shoot the 3 quite well (he had a game where he hit 10-13 in the CIS). I am hoping these guy surprise us.

[frumble]

Ugh. What an awful guard situation.

Not sure what the ideal line up is. Our best four players are all PFs: Bennett, Ejim, Scrubb, and Pierre. I guess we should be able to go for long stretches with no true C in the game, so maybe we can have two of those four in the game at the same time. And maybe T. Scrubb at the 3.

Anderson
Heslip
T Scrubb
Pierre/Ejim
Bennett

I don't know who the first guard off the bench is. I guess McNeily.

Where are Anderson, McNeily, Best, and Keane on our overall guard depth chart? Outside top 10? (I think safe to say that Joseph, Murray, Pangos, Ennis, Stauskas, P. Scrubb, XRM, Hanlan, Heslip, Rautins, Edwards, Daniel Mullings, and Long are all ahead of them (as well as D. Ennis, if eligible, and arguably Duane Notice, Kenny Chery, Grant Mullins, and I might be forgetting a couple others).

So the guards we have for these qualifying games are, at best, 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th on our depth chart?!?
Almost makes me long for the days of PMAC, Ryan Bell, and Tyler Kepkay.

I figured we wouldn't return all the key guys from November, and with the injury recovery P. Scrubb's absence is understandable. But XRM, Hanlan, and Trasolini all missing is quite a blow.

[Hair Canada]

Ugh. What an awful guard situation.

Not sure what the ideal line up is. Our best four players are all PFs: Bennett, Ejim, Scrubb, and Pierre. I guess we should be able to go for long stretches with no true C in the game, so maybe we can have two of those four in the game at the same time. And maybe T. Scrubb at the 3.

Anderson
Heslip
T Scrubb
Pierre/Ejim
Bennett

I don't know who the first guard off the bench is. I guess McNeily.

Where are Anderson, McNeily, Best, and Keane on our overall guard depth chart? Outside top 10? (I think safe to say that Joseph, Murray, Pangos, Ennis, Stauskas, P. Scrubb, XRM, Hanlan, Heslip, Rautins, Edwards, Daniel Mullings, and Long are all ahead of them (as well as D. Ennis, if eligible, and arguably Duane Notice, Kenny Chery, Grant Mullins, and I might be forgetting a couple others).

So the guards we have for these qualifying games are, at best, 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th on our depth chart?!?
Almost makes me long for the days of PMAC, Ryan Bell, and Tyler Kepkay.

I figured we wouldn't return all the key guys from November, and with the injury recovery P. Scrubb's absence is understandable. But XRM, Hanlan, and Trasolini all missing is quite a blow.

So true. Can add to the depth chart SGA, Kassius Robertson, Koby McEwen, and RJ Barrett for good measures. The only potential silver lining I see here is that one or two of the guards that did show up might step up and we'll know we have someone for future competitions.

But the risk is quite high. Another loss in these two games can cost us dearly down the road. The results games against the other two teams that qualify to the next level (likely DR and VI) carry. In this next stage, we're likely to meet the US, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. None of them a breeze and only three of the six will qualify to the WC. Most of these games will also be in the fall/winter, so once again we will not have any NBA or Euroleague players. So I would say the game against VI now is actually really important (the one against Bahamas probably less so). And we lost to them this summer with arguably a considerably better roster...

[aminiaturebuddha]

But the risk is quite high. Another loss in these two games can cost us dearly down the road. The results games against the other two teams that qualify to the next level (likely DR and VI) carry. In this next stage, we're likely to meet the US, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. None of them a breeze and only three of the six will qualify to the WC. Most of these games will also be in the fall/winter, so once again we will not have any NBA or Euroleague players. So I would say the game against VI now is actually really important (the one against Bahamas probably less so). And we lost to them this summer with arguably a considerably better roster...

Just a small correction, I believe in the second round the teams from Group D actually cross over to face the three teams from Group B, so we'll likely be facing Brazil, Venezuela and Chile, not the US, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Still, your bigger point still stands, and none of those teams will be pushovers when the majority of these games will be during the NBA season, and therefore we'll likely end up with a similar roster to the disappointing one we're seeing this week.

I'm starting to get a little worried. Basically, Canada Basketball needs to be lobbying our NBA talent now to ensure good participation in the games this summer in Canada against the DR and VI, and the second round games in September. We absolutely need wins in each of those games to have a good chance to qualify.

[Hair Canada]

But the risk is quite high. Another loss in these two games can cost us dearly down the road. The results games against the other two teams that qualify to the next level (likely DR and VI) carry. In this next stage, we're likely to meet the US, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. None of them a breeze and only three of the six will qualify to the WC. Most of these games will also be in the fall/winter, so once again we will not have any NBA or Euroleague players. So I would say the game against VI now is actually really important (the one against Bahamas probably less so). And we lost to them this summer with arguably a considerably better roster...

Just a small correction, I believe in the second round the teams from Group D actually cross over to face the three teams from Group B, so we'll likely be facing Brazil, Venezuela and Chile, not the US, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Still, your bigger point still stands, and none of those teams will be pushovers when the majority of these games will be during the NBA season, and therefore we'll likely end up with a similar roster to the disappointing one we're seeing this week.

I'm starting to get a little worried. Basically, Canada Basketball needs to be lobbying our NBA talent now to ensure good participation in the games this summer in Canada against the DR and VI, and the second round games in September. We absolutely need wins in each of those games to have a good chance to qualify.

If that's the case, then it's better I think. Couldn't really find good info on the crossover, so I just assumed it's A with B and C with D. Where did you find this info? It's not really clear on the FIBA website (what a surprise).

[macNcheese3]

Coaching change will work wonders now.

[slothrop8]

But the risk is quite high. Another loss in these two games can cost us dearly down the road. The results games against the other two teams that qualify to the next level (likely DR and VI) carry. In this next stage, we're likely to meet the US, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. None of them a breeze and only three of the six will qualify to the WC. Most of these games will also be in the fall/winter, so once again we will not have any NBA or Euroleague players. So I would say the game against VI now is actually really important (the one against Bahamas probably less so). And we lost to them this summer with arguably a considerably better roster...

Just a small correction, I believe in the second round the teams from Group D actually cross over to face the three teams from Group B, so we'll likely be facing Brazil, Venezuela and Chile, not the US, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Still, your bigger point still stands, and none of those teams will be pushovers when the majority of these games will be during the NBA season, and therefore we'll likely end up with a similar roster to the disappointing one we're seeing this week.

I'm starting to get a little worried. Basically, Canada Basketball needs to be lobbying our NBA talent now to ensure good participation in the games this summer in Canada against the DR and VI, and the second round games in September. We absolutely need wins in each of those games to have a good chance to qualify.

If that's the case, then it's better I think. Couldn't really find good info on the crossover, so I just assumed it's A with B and C with D. Where did you find this info? It's not really clear on the FIBA website (what a surprise).

As always, Wikipedia is usually on top of things:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_FIBA_Basketball_World_Cup_qualification_(Americas)

So, assuming the information there is accurate - we would draw the Brazil group in the newly formed Group F. A few things, the top 3 in Group F once it exists go through to the World Cup and all results from the current groups carry forward. That being the case, Brazil is already 2-0, it's likely better for us if they just keep winning. Brazil sticking everyone else in their group with as many losses as possible is to our benefit. Secondly, we catch a bit of a break in that the Dominican are 2-0 in our Group - but we catch them next at home in Canada during the summer with our NBA players at least theoretically available. That game will be a great opportunity to not only hang a loss on DR - but also try to beat down their point differential as much as possible. Lastly, point differential is a key tie-breaker - I feel bad for the good people of the Bahamas, but we need to absolutely destroy them.

Long story short, and this involves lots of speculation and forward looking to things that may not actually happen, but if we can squeak out a win over the Virgin Islands at effectively a neutral site in Nassau this window - we should roll through our Group stage and get to Group F sitting at 5-1 with a very healthy point differential and be in great shape to go through. Top 3 from F plus the better of the 4th place finishers out of E &F go - and anyone finishing 4th in E is likely to see their point differential take a beating
from the USA. My crystal ball suggests if we can beat the Virgin Islands we're likely well on our way.

[Mirotic12]

It's been said many times, but looking at this roster that we have to cobble together for important games, what FIBA has done here is monumentally dumb. Like they are going out of their way to hurt international basketball - it's bizarre.

The whole thing is just a way to bankrupt EuroLeague, so they can take ownership of it again. That's all this is.