Team Canada Basketball Thread

[WellYouKnow]

Looking ahead and speculating wildly, what do you guys think the November and February lineups might look like

Judging off who they seem to stay in contact with of the guys that will be available, I think something like this makes sense.

Anyone im missing?

Guards/Wings - Kaza, Heslip, Best, Adika, Scrubbx2, Hanlan

Maybes - XRM, Diressa, Anderson, Cadougan

Bigs - Ejim, Bennett, Boucher, Trasolini, Pierre

Maybes - Nicholson, Landry, Klassen

[WellYouKnow]

XRM is playing well for the Lakers summer league team btw

9 assists with a bit left in the third and he's been able to get in the lane really well against a starting lineup of all NBA rotation guys for the kings

[Alpha Mentality]

The only frustrating thing about the next round is that we have to play Venezuela twice without our NBA/Euroleague players. The Brazil game in September is likely the most important game for us to win with the A-Team as we also need a good PD for the potential tie-break. Like you said, Chile should be a gimme in September and February leaving us to try to snag at least 1 off of Brazil (December) and Venezuela (2x) to guarantee a birth - beating Brazil again would guarantee it while beating Venezuela once would put us in favorable condition to clinch outright.

Where do we have to play them? I hope it in the US and not somewhere where they speak Spanish.

Definitely not the US. We will likely get to play Venezuela/Brazil/Chile once each at home and once each in their respective countries. I'm actually kind of hoping the September game with Brazil is in Canada as we cannot afford to drop both of our games with them - rather have the NBA guys playing with home court.

When is that expected to get determined. I would rather focus on the September games before getting to far ahead worrying about when we won't have NBA players. We need Thompson and Murray for that game against Brazil. Has it already been ruled out that Wiggins won't commit for September either

[mojo13]

This is already determined.
We play Brazil at home (Montreal maybe) in Sept and Chile on the road.


Forget about Wiggins already. Murray is more important.

[mojo13]

Looking ahead and speculating wildly, what do you guys think the November and February lineups might look like

Judging off who they seem to stay in contact with of the guys that will be available, I think something like this makes sense.

Anyone im missing?

Guards/Wings - Kaza, Heslip, Best, Adika, Scrubbx2, Hanlan

Maybes - XRM, Diressa, Anderson, Cadougan

Bigs - Ejim, Bennett, Boucher, Trasolini, Pierre

Maybes - Nicholson, Landry, Klassen

I love wild speculation and this is as good guess as any right now. Guys who have already shown up, have proven their interest and availability are the most likely candidates. However,you just wont truly know until guys get their contracts in the fall. A few of these guys have re-signed with their current teams and should remain available (Pierre, Tommy Scrubb, Ejim) the rest are unknowns.

I think you should still speculate that EuroLeague guys wont be released even though the EL and FIBA said they are trying to work something out. Phil Scrubb has been rumored with a couple EL teams so he could be at risk. However I think Doornekamp is moving on from Valencia to Tenerife and could be back in the mix. Kyle Wiltjer could be in play as well if he drops out of the EL.

Jordan Bachynski should be healthy, so that might be another name. Kenny Chery and Dylan Ennis played really well in the ACB and hopefully would be in consideration (still not sure about Ennis's eligibility). Tyler Ennis, for that matter, could be out of the NBA - so there is that. Andrew Nicholson could be available too? Mychal Macintosh played in that developmental exhibition game and should be in the G league. Chris Boucher, Naz Long? Justin Edwards?

So many unknowns at this point. We probably cant speculate until we see where guys will be playing in Sept/Oct.

[Little P]

Are we 1st place in this new group? On the FIBA website it says that we’re 3rd even though we have the best point differential.

[frumble]

Are we 1st place in this new group? On the FIBA website it says that we’re 3rd even though we have the best point differential.

Point differential only matters for games involving the tied teams.
So racking up big differentials against VI or other bottom teams doesn't come into play for breaking a tie with Brazil and Venezuela.

I think we are listed third among the tied teams because first tie-breaker is head-to-head, and 1-1 is considered better than 0-0.
In any case, doesn't matter at this point.

It seems like the WC berth is all but guaranteed. Ignoring Brazil and Venezuela for a minute, the DR will need to win two more games than CA in the remaining six games, which seems virtually impossible given that we should put up an NBA roster in September and have two remaining games against a fairly weak Chile. And even if we somehow manage to finish fourth, our points differential is so overwhelmingly better than anyone else, that it should guarantee qualification if we're in a tie with a team from the other group.

Unfortunately one of the two Chile games is in September. Would have much preferred to have had a Brazil and Venezuela game in September.

So we will have 3 tough games in Nov/Feb - home and home with Ven and at Brazil. Worst case, we drop all 3.

Still, as long as we beat Brazil at home and Chile on the road with what should be a good September roster (although Barrett and Nembhard will be in school, so we will need two replacement guards), and beat Chile at home, that would leave us at 8-4.

Can DR get to 9-3 to pass us? Would need to sweep VI and take 3 of 4 from Brazil and Venezuela. Not out of the realm of possibility.

[WellYouKnow]

Watch on YouTube

XRM with a good showing last night. 12 assists and 4 boards to go with 3 of 4 shooting. I know it's only summer league but still good to see.

Really hope it was just the 10 day contract and summer league that kept him out of the last 2 windows.

Would be real helpful to us to get him back for Nov/Feb

[WellYouKnow]

Found a pretty cool article listing all the Canadians in the summer league and the times they play. There's a little write up up on all of them too

https://ca.nba.com/news/2018-nba-summer-league-canadian-participants-gilgeous-alexander-birch-boucher-hanlan/1msjnxqmj1w8b1v9ugb613zefh

Trae Bell-Haynes - Bucks
Khem Birch - Magic
Chris Boucher - Raptors
Shai - Clippers
Hanlan - Spurs
Heslip - Grizzlies
P Scrubb - Wizards
Naz Long - Jazz
XRM - Lakers
Kyle Wiltjer and MiKyle McIntosh - Trail Blazers

[slothrop8]

Still, as long as we beat Brazil at home and Chile on the road with what should be a good September roster (although Barrett and Nembhard will be in school, so we will need two replacement guards), and beat Chile at home, that would leave us at 8-4.

Can DR get to 9-3 to pass us? Would need to sweep VI and take 3 of 4 from Brazil and Venezuela. Not out of the realm of possibility.

Even if DR do pull that off, we'd have to be really unlucky not to qualify at 8-4. We'll have beaten Brazil once, probably badly at home. DR would need to exactly split with Brazil and beat Venezuela twice - and then Brz/Ven/DR all sweep all other games to leave them all at 9-3 and us at 8-4. If instead DR beats Brazil twice and splits with Ven - Brazil will have 4 losses too and need to overcome what point differential hole we put them in with our NBA guys at home when we meet them in the Nov/Dec window in Brazil.

Then, even if all that happens, given how large a point differential lead we have on the bottom of the other group - realistically we can only lose the better 4th place spot at 8-4 to Argentina in a wild scenario where Mexico sweeps the group, Puerto Rico sweeps the rest but splits with Argentina, USA sweeps the rest but loses both to Argentina. That highly improbable series of events would leave Argentina 4th at 8-4 and potentially in position to out-point differential us. Really any other sequence of results the team coming from behind as it were to get to 8-4 is in too big a point differential hole to realistically catch us.

I know that's a dizzying series of what ifs - the takeaway here is if we win both games in September with our NBA guys and beat Chile at home in February we're going to the World Cup even if we lose all the rest our games and catch a ton of bad breaks in all the other results. We get to 8-4 - we're going through.

[frumble]

...

I know that's a dizzying series of what ifs - the takeaway here is if we win both games in September with our NBA guys and beat Chile at home in February we're going to the World Cup even if we lose all the rest our games and catch a ton of bad breaks in all the other results. We get to 8-4 - we're going through.

Yes, I agree.

[Hair Canada]

Found a pretty cool article listing all the Canadians in the summer league and the times they play. There's a little write up up on all of them too

https://ca.nba.com/news/2018-nba-summer-league-canadian-participants-gilgeous-alexander-birch-boucher-hanlan/1msjnxqmj1w8b1v9ugb613zefh

Trae Bell-Haynes - Bucks
Khem Birch - Magic
Chris Boucher - Raptors
Shai - Clippers
Hanlan - Spurs
Heslip - Grizzlies
P Scrubb - Wizards
Naz Long - Jazz
XRM - Lakers
Kyle Wiltjer and MiKyle McIntosh - Trail Blazers

Thanks for this. Very useful.

[frumble]

So it's now interesting to look ahead and examine the qualifying system for the 2020 Olympics.

Seemingly, things look simple: Japan, the host, will qualify along with the seven best teams from the 2019 WC. The other four teams will come from a last-chance tournament including 4 groups of 6 teams each (24 altogether), with the winner of each group qualifying.

Do you now if the last-chance spots/tournaments will be geographically based?

Thanks.

[frumble]

Looking ahead and speculating wildly, what do you guys think the November and February lineups might look like

Judging off who they seem to stay in contact with of the guys that will be available, I think something like this makes sense.

Anyone im missing?

Guards/Wings - Kaza, Heslip, Best, Adika, Scrubbx2, Hanlan

Maybes - XRM, Diressa, Anderson, Cadougan

Bigs - Ejim, Bennett, Boucher, Trasolini, Pierre

Maybes - Nicholson, Landry, Klassen

Pretty comprehensive list. In addition to the guys you mentioned, I believe there are three who played in the November 2017 and/or February 2018 games:
Anthony, Glaze, and Shepherd

[Pooh_Jeter]

I would imagine there is a decent chance that Justin Jackson is in the G-League most of the year so he is a potential name to be added to the list.

[Hair Canada]

I would imagine there is a decent chance that Justin Jackson is in the G-League most of the year so he is a potential name to be added to the list.

Yes. And I would add Kassius Robertson, who's a very good shooter and just signed his first pro contract in Germany and Naz Long and MiKyle McIntosh, both young fringe-NBA guys who will likely play in the G this year.

[Hair Canada]

I would imagine there is a decent chance that Justin Jackson is in the G-League most of the year so he is a potential name to be added to the list.

Yes. And I would add Kassius Robertson, who's a very good shooter and just signed his first pro contract in Germany and Naz Long and MiKyle McIntosh, both young fringe-NBA guys who will likely play in the G this year.

Speaking of Naz Long, a really good game today in summer league, stuffing the stat sheet with 19 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Should definitely get a shot with the national team.

[frumble]

Speaking of Naz Long, a really good game today in summer league, stuffing the stat sheet with 19 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Should definitely get a shot with the national team.

Anyone know if Long is still in the picture for Canada? Or has he decided to play for Greece going forward?

Also in summer league yesterday, XRM with another 5 assists for Lakers, but 4/11 shooting.

https://watch.nba.com/game/20180703/MIALAL

Heslip and Hanlan still not seeing the floor (for Memphis and SA, respectively).

[mojo13]

Kyle Wiltjer signs with Unicaja of the SPanish ACB. I believe this is a Eurocup team and could put him available in Nov/Feb. as Ejim was.

Not sure how much he has been around the team recently though.

I have seen no word on Long associated with Greece. I asked some Greek fans last year and they said he was not on their radar. Tyler Dorsey is who they are chasing. Not that they know, but that can also change quickly.

Edit. They are following him. We need to lock him up.

Read on Twitter

[Mirotic12]

I have seen no word on Long associated with Greece. I asked some Greek fans last year and they said he was not on their radar. Tyler Dorsey is who they are chasing. Not that they know, but that can also change quickly.

Edit. They are following him. We need to lock him up.

Read on Twitter

If you asked Greek fans on something like interbasket, you asked the wrong people. At least 80% of the "fans" there are pure trolls, or even worse, they are hooligans. Most of them don't even know the basic rules of basketball.

As far as what they told you, it's not at all surprisingly totally wrong info. Greece isn't chasing Tyler Dorsey. He already is a member of their national team. He played with the junior team 3 years ago, and he played with the senior team 2 years ago. So he's already long been part of the national program.

As far as Mitrou-Long goes, Greek media had reports with quotes from the basketball federation all the way back in 2015 about how they had talked with him. So yeah, you were probably talking to Panathinaikos hooligans (mostly what posts at Interbasket), and not actual Greek basketball fans.

Actually, it was already reported Greece's federation already talked with Long's brother also.