Team Canada Basketball Thread V2.0

[gundysmullet]

What you described is literally volunteerism. And you are right, they do have the right to choose not to volunteer. But whatever happened to the idea that it is an honor and a privilege to represent your country? Globalism sucks.

Volunteering at a local hospital is different than volunteering to play a sport to make other people money, which is what these tournaments are.

And "Globalism" doesn't suck. You suck.

It's not always about money. It's about doing something you personally value. If the organizers don't run a loss, so much the better. That means international basketball competition is likely to continue in the future. But plenty of Canadian hoopsters, many of whom are very rich, don't appear to care too much about playing for their country. That's the take home message here, not the ticket prices in Beijing.

You've made Howard a bunch of advetising dollars on this site with all your volunteer posting. You like to post. He is profiting. When do you start your boycott?

Personally, I'd rather play basketball for my country for free than to post on this message site for free (as fulfilling as I do find it) -- unfortunately for me, my options are limited!

Great post! Again, it used to be a major honor and privilege to represent your country. But not so much anymore.

[PhilBlackson]

I wonder how Kyle's recruitment of Mason Plumlee is going on Team USA right now...

[mojo13]

Would look like on paper Australia has the best team in our group just off of sheer NBA guys....How good is this Lithuania team?? If one of Sabonis or JV is neutralized does the rest of the Lithuanian team have enough?? I just don't know any of the other guys on there roster at all?

Went through the Lithuanian roster on previous pages. Probably more than a few pages back now.
What do you guys think we do in here all year?


Start here and look for the Lithuanian fans reposnses to my attempt to look at their roster:
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1731269&start=1580

Mojo I respect and enjoy your posts (without you and some others this thread wouldnt keep going) but you seemed to be geussing on your Lithuania roster break down and UcanWill just gave a little knowledge on some of the players. Vibe I have gotten from the thread is they aren't as good as years past but its Lithuania they always find a way to do well in these things.

I think I was just looking for a definite answer if we can realistically beat these guys to advance to the next round assuming we can get a win vs senegal.

If we got out of this group alive I'd feel really good about being a top two team from the americas as PR, DR, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela all look to be fielding their worst rosters in quite some time...I think we can assume the U.S. is going to grab one of those spots

Sorry my tone may have been off on the last post. Yes-I was indeed taking a stab at it. But I think the insight is more from the follow-up commentary from some of the Lithuanian fans that stop in here from time to time.

I think we are underdogs vs Australia and Lithuania but could easily beat both. Australia has historically been fairly up and down, but had a great run at the 2016 Olympics with most of the same core we see now. But they are 4 years older and probably past their peak unless the newbies like Bolden are a big infusion.

Lithuania has most of their top talent show up - but some fans are skeptical and others seem very confident. The issue with Lithuania is historically they are typically more than just the sum of their parts. But then again they seemed quite confident going into the 2016 Olympics but were pretty disappointing (Australia beat them by 30). Ask a Lithuanian and they probably tell you that their most talented teams have disappointed most and some of the lesser talented teams have had the most success.

They have headliners in Domas and JV but weak front court depth after that. Their guards and wings are not special or threatening players, but many are capable EuroLeague professionals who are very proficient team players. Their calling card will be to slow it down and grind it out on D and work through Domas and JV on offense.

I don't know if there is a definite answer but we certainly can beat Lithuania in a single game, Australia too. But betting odds will be against us - maybe 40/60?

[Too Late Crew]

Globalism doesnt suck, but I also disappointed every time player declines playing for his country. With great power comes great responsibility, fans makes this game, if there werent fans, you wouldnt make millions of dollars for playing a game, so you own something to them. They dont even play for free, they still get daily allowance that is more than some people still make in a month. Its only can be called playing for free because it looks that way relatively to their actual salaries in clubs, that are thousands times bigger than any of ours.

So if you are a doctor and you go to some remote area and provide medical services for no charge but get given a tent and free peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you are not “working for free”?



They are in a foreign country where they need to pay for food and other items. Per diem allowances cover that it’s not a salary. They are playing for free, they are putting wear and tear on their bodies that they use to make a living FOR FREE. They are giving up time they could b running camps that make them money FOR FREE.

The fans at the Fiba World Cup don’t pay them anything they owe them nothing. Tell me that you won’t go to NBA games or watch them on TV if a player doesn’t play in the FiBA World Cup.

[Too Late Crew]

Slightly off topic relative to all the World Cup talk, but further to our discussion of the AmeriCup a couple weeks ago, I just realized that we didn't have a men's team at the PanAms because of our poor showing at the 2017 AmeriCup.

Not that it matters, but kind of funny given how much we hyped up men's basketball at the PanAms when it was in Toronto.


Re lack of participation at World Cup, I totally get that its the players' choice and they shouldn't be expected to volunteer their time and risk injury while others make money off it (although they certainly do that for NCAA). What I don't really get is the excuse of wanting to concentrate on preparing for the upcoming NBA season. Its not like they are being asked to spend six weeks doing something random. One would think that practicing and playing with and against some of the best basketball players in the world would be pretty good preparation for the upcoming season. Do they really get more prep out of their own August and early September workouts than they would by participating in training camp, the exhibition games, and the World Cup?

Yes they do eat more prep out of that.

Summer workouts are largely skill development or strength development. Watch an episode of unseen hours. These guys are putting up thousands of shots to build muscle memory,they are doing a new dribble move 1000 times to get it right,they are working with a trainer to correct muscle imbalances or to build protection against the long NBA season. They may be working out with teammates to build chemistry.

This is alll much better prep than spending 6 weeks with some random players who will never make the NBA like the Scubb brothers, in crappy gyms, playing FIBA style basketball maybe for 10-20 mpg ,playing exhibition games agains Senegal and the travelling hours to China to play a tournament. That stuff wears you down more than it builds you up. NBA guys ar much better off with their highly paid trainers, in multimillion dollar gyms and sleeping in their own bed every night.

[yogimvp]

theyre just soft. hockey players wouldnt turn down the opportunity to play for their country.

[OneLifeLoveKing]

is the game on tv? Canada vs Nigeria?

[bozothepope]

is the game on tv? Canada vs Nigeria?

It's streaming on CBC Sports: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/canada-exhibition-fiba-world-cup-1.5236856

[vi3t]

hope more people shows up

[Bobby Plump]

Olynyk is injured. Doesn't look good.

[xAIRNESSx]

Read on Twitter

[MixxSRC]

Damn I feel bad for Kelly

[Mattd97]

Theres an answer for why guys dont play. Damn. That sucks

[GordanFreeman]

Read on Twitter

Damn that looked bad. My bud tore his acl and MCL and he reacted the same way when he got up and tried to walk. He fell to the floor right away.

[super_balls]

Theres an answer for why guys dont play. Damn. That sucks

I felt like Kelly just banged his knee really hard. I’m hopeful that it’s a bruise. Seemed like he wanted to stay in but for pre caution stayed out.

[Double Helix]

**** hell Ryerson. This is awful. Awful for Olynyk. Awful for future recruitment. Awful for the tournament. All of the agents are telling the Canadian stars “Told you so.”

This **** sucks.

[OntZags]

That **** can happen in a Rico Hines run just as likely as a FIBA game.

Hopefully he's fine, he'll work it off back and he'll be back. Lord knows Basketball Canada doesn't haven't anyone more committed at this point.

[mojo13]

That **** can happen in a Rico Hines run just as likely as a FIBA game.

Hopefully he's fine, he'll work it off back and he'll be back. Lord knows Basketball Canada doesn't haven't anyone more committed at this point.

Additional concerns with Boucher and a knee issue and why he sat tonight.
Owen Klassen was added to the roster.

[Dubber12]

The annoying thing is that Team Canada would easily beat a team like Team Australia with both at comparable strength. Ben Simmons skips out on Australia and it’s a huge deal to them, meanwhile NONE of our young/ up and comers decide to play. Full strength we are #2 in the world. Yet we aren’t going to medal in this competition and won’t make the Olympics.

I cannot understand how Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum play for the US while Jamal Murray and SGA don’t play for Canada. They are comparable players at comparable points of their careers!

[Double Helix]

Any news on Olynyk? *Fingers crossed* it doesn’t end up being as bad as it looked.