tout court wrote:Bhullar, Bhullar, Bhullar ...
Anyone but Klassen.
Get the retired Bobby Sacre out of retirement.
Why do we not know why Nicholson, Bennett and Hanlan were not even on the invite list when Rautins was even though he told CB he wouldn't/couldn't play according to Leo?
Instead of being stenographers and going to their pre-arranged media availability where they get a bunch of cliched nonsense, why don't the beat writers covering this team (Smith, Grange, Murphy, etc) actually do some investigative work for once? I know it would inconvenience their cozy arrangement. But they might actually come closer to fulfilling the role news media purportedly play in our society.
Did any of them reach out to the players who declined to get a comment as to why they did so? I mean how much load will Stauskas have to manage next year in Europe?!?
And if someone like Michael Meeks is on CB staff to build relationships with these guys at a young age in order to get buy in at the senior level, then he along with the GM appear to be failing miserably. What are they doing wrong?
Or, if pride of country just isn't a big thing for this generation, that's fine, maybe even a good thing, but as reporters do something to find out the why. Have a Network moment where you're disgusted with your slovenly selves and you actually get to the root of things. Jesus!
I believe the Bhullar comment to be a joke - but if not, he is pretty terrible and playing at a pretty low level (much lower than Klassen).
Klassen is not the worst thing in the world for a depth bigman - hopefully he is only there to bang around a few minutes a game and at worst provide some insurance against injuries and foul trouble. He has been an ok German BBL bigman for the past few seasons and he is on a similar level as Kyle Landry, Robert Sacre, Marc Trasolini etc. Klassen may be the best of that group for the role needed. Sacre is retired and frankly might be the worst of these four nowadays. Trasolini I really like but is smaller and more a PF. Klye Landry is semi-retired as well- didn't play pro ball this year but has been playing 3x3. I did enjoy Landry in the Qualifiers.
The real question is Nicholson, Bennett or Anthony (who I all think are better than Klassen) - I really suspect Canada Basketball in some way has alienated some (or all) of them, but assuming we'd have so much front court depth to not have kept them warm and in the mix. Anthony is pretty old and who knows about his health or ability to pick things up as an emergency call up and get in shape. We have seen an out of shape Anthony in the early Qualifiers and it is ugly (could barely dunk).
I suspect Bennett is fully focused on his redemption attempt with the Rockets. Not sure how much different he is from a Wiltjer now a days in terms of role and ability.
Nicholson is the main question to to me as he looks great in China (~45% from three on heavy volume) and the World Cup is right there in China. However he wasn't involved in any Qualifier games when boats load of CBA played for their countries and I suspect he is peeved at the program in some way. He was a regular for team Canada for many years - perhaps he feels devalued by the program in the last two years?
Conor Morgan is also a serious question here - young big on the upswing. Playing at a high level in the ACB and should be part of the programs future. Where is he?
But all in Klassen may be the beefiest of all of those mentioned above at 6'10 and 254. If we needed someone to bang with JV, Domas, Baynes, Bogut for short runs - he could be better than some of the others.
