Team Canada Basketball Thread V2.0

[UcanUwill]

The thing is I don’t see all of Canada’s best players being there. It’s just frustrating because they have the talent to be one of the best countries in the world but the players simply don’t care.

I think wildcard is the more plausible scenario right now if you convince FIBA that you are bringing star power. But we have to find out how this plays out and what teams dont make it, anyhow I think chances are slim for Canada right now.

There is no wild card - what are you guys talking about?

Are you talking about the "next 8" for the Olympic Qualifier tournaments next summer? The 8 additional slots that will be given out beyond the 16 that qualify for the Olympic Qualifiers from this is WC? If so, those will be be handing out based on FIBA ranking more than anything.

You are right, I got confused, theres only 4 spots left that will be given to qualifying tournament winners.

Man, I got confused by all these new formats. Qualifiers are next summer, so Canada has a shot, they need to get few of the guys and they have a good shot, somehow I thought qualifying will take place now, my bad.

[Dtown84]

Some good news for Canada, because of Brazil and Dominican Republic's surprising tournaments, Canada's almost a lock for the Olympic Qualifying tournament next year.

Bare Minimum: Argentina, Brazil, Dominican, United States have taken automatic qualifying spots.
The Wild Card goes to the two highest rated Americas teams that don't automatically qualify for the OQT or Olympics.

Taking out those who have already qualified the FIBA Americas Rankings look like this.
14: Mexico (will probably fall in the rankings since they didn't make it)
16: Puerto Rico
20: Venezuela
23: Canada

If Puerto Rico and Venezuela win tomorrow Canada will move into that next highest ranked spot.

If they don't Canada still has a damn good chance of chance of snagging one of the remaining automatic OQT spots. At the moment the teams that finish 17th-21st will still automatically qualify and Canada's next group looks like

Senegal
Germany
Jordan

[GreenGarlic]

Canada shares number 2 with Lithuania in FIBA youth rankings. Canada is number 2 in NBA talent by a wide margin. Everything is great with your basketball. If I was you, I would not care much about FIBA basketball NBA is the most prestigious basketball competition. By far.

It is not easy to build a great team for FIBA tournaments. This current USA National Team has more individual talent than Canada's top 12 NBA players. Even Popovich (a way much better coach compared to Nurse) has serious problems dealing with them.

Maybe Canada will have a chance at making the 2024 Olympics

Can we still make the 2020 Olympics if we somehow get a wild card spot? You must assume we might be the most talented country (if everyone's there) to not be in the games.

[Kenter16]

Glass half full take;
Jamal Murray and RJ Barrett will represent Canada in the future. They were are camp.
Kelly Olynik will be there next summer, barring contract issues. He can opt out of his deal and the play-in tourney will be before free agency. It may be risky for him to play in the play in tourny, but IF we make the Olympics he will be there.
Cory Joseph, Khem Birch and Melvin Ejim always show up.
Dwight Powell has played in the past. Cuban hates his players playing in these Tournies... except Dirk... Maybe he gets traded. He would play if it was up to him.
Stauskis is headed to Europe. He will play at a high level, but will want more exposure to get another chance at the NBA. What better exposure than the Olympics?? Also, the European schedule is a lot lighter. Less wear and tear should make it easier.
NAW and SGA both released statements saying why they didn't come. That's more than a few guys did. To me that shows interest in the program.
Pango's proved he is a good international player. He will get plenty of playing time in Barca this year with Heurtel injured. Hopefully he continues he's upward trajectory.
Oshae Brissett proved something in the exhibition leg. He will likely spend the season in the G league. But a solid role player if he plays again next year.
Dillion Brooks has represented Canada before and would have this time but his season was ended with an injury and needs to be 100% for camp. Couldn't risk a injury.
Brooks and Boucher are good friends. Let's hope they can convince each other it's worth it. Also, if Boucher plays well he could get a multi-year extension. That may sway him. He was there this year, so he is interested. It would have been costly if he got hurt, he was on a non guaranteed contract. It was a weird way to leave the team. To me he really wanted to play, but just couldn't risk his chance to get a contract this season.
Maybe the most glass half full take... What if somehow, someway Anthony Bennett earns a role on the Rockets and get a contract with some security. Maybe he will play then. Everyone still buys 6/49 tickets right?
Tristan Thompson has played a bunch previously. He has also publicly called out guys for not playing. He had a rough season just like Brooks. He needed a full offseason. He will be there next year.
Then there is the whole list of maybes... Brazdeikis (maybe RJ convinces him), Dort, Kabengele, Lyles (played as a youth), Clarke (if someone would just tell him he is Canadian), Mitrou-Long(has Greek passport, they may be in the Olympics), Kyle Alexander, Wigginton (played as a youth), Tyler Ennis, Shayok, Andrew Nicholson and then the European pros.

I guess what my whole point is I think this year was a perfect storm to the negative. Far away tournament, injuries, team situations and contract situations got in the way. What if next summer there are 5-6 of these world class players that show up. We have such an incredible deep pool of talent now. Even if the two guys that came to camp hurt, Murray and RJ, played in this tourny, we would have had a real chance at something special. If Dwight Powell was a Raptor and not a Maverick, he may have made a difference. If Brooks and Thompson hadn't had rough years heathwise we would have been medal contenders.

The real way (I think anyways) to ensure we get a good turnout is to host one of these tournaments. I don't know what that entails financially, but it's not my money so just do it!

[GreenGarlic]

You have Murray, an amazing scorer, to build your national team around. You need as many NBA players (actual players, not prospects-benchwarmers) as possible. Or at least ones from top European clubs like Pangos, Ejim. The names of Istanbul BBSK, Mitteldeutscher BC, University of Florida, Divina Seguros Joventut, Antwerp Giants, SIG Strasbourg, Movistar Estudiantes, Türk Telekom just do not scare other elite national teams

3-4 ex-NBA caliber guys in foreign leagues. The numbers will eventually just add up.

[frumble]

Some good news for Canada, because of Brazil and Dominican Republic's surprising tournaments, Canada's almost a lock for the Olympic Qualifying tournament next year.

Bare Minimum: Argentina, Brazil, Dominican, United States have taken automatic qualifying spots.
The Wild Card goes to the two highest rated Americas teams that don't automatically qualify for the OQT or Olympics.

Taking out those who have already qualified the FIBA Americas Rankings look like this.
14: Mexico (will probably fall in the rankings since they didn't make it)
16: Puerto Rico
20: Venezuela
23: Canada

If Puerto Rico and Venezuela win tomorrow Canada will move into that next highest ranked spot.

Yes, we are now in the position where we want the others Americas teams to do well to grab those automatic qualifier spots.

Would be nice to beat Senegal, Jordan and Germany and finish 3-2, or at least the first two and finish 2-3 to shore up our chances.

However, even if we do qualify for a last-chance tournament, it will be tough. There will be a lot of very good European teams in those tournaments. And we will undoubtedly get screwed on the draw yet again. Even with decent participation from our top guys, our chances in a single-game elimination format against, e.g., Greece in Greece are not great.

[Alfred]

I’ve said it already in this thread but I hope Nick Nurse and the coaching staff isn’t discouraged by this turnout. I hope he continues to coach team Canada.

[mojo13]

Finally some fire from the Canadian media.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/nba/canada-basketballs-progress-unravels-disappointing-world-cup/

hope the players read this.

[Darknemo2000]

Well to tell the truth theres a reason this group was cosidered to be a group of death. Had Canada been in groups A or B they would have taken at least spot 2 there.... But luck had them play in this group...

[Kenter16]

Well to tell the truth theres a reason this group was cosidered to be a group of death. Had Canada been in groups A or B they would have taken at least spot 2 there.... But luck had them play in this group...

Not luck. Canada's world ranking put them in this group. We have never been able to perform on the big stage, so we are stuck with a lower world ranking than our talent suggests. If we beat VEN 4 years ago, we probably win the americas, show well at the olympics, then we are a top 10 team and get into a higher pot and put in a group with teams ranked lower than us.

[frumble]

Finally some fire from the Canadian media.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/nba/canada-basketballs-progress-unravels-disappointing-world-cup/

hope the players read this.

Yeah, good article.

But some of the blame goes to Basketball Canada.
Why not have enough guys in camp to deal with injuries/no-shows? Its unforgivable to not have enough guys in camp and to have to bring replacements in at last minute to fill not one but two roster spots.

Where is the recruitment? Yes, Nash has officially stepped aside, but no mention of how he has been missing in action for years.

And how did we end up with greater NBA participation last summer, with less on the line, than this summer? Presumably there was also pressure from agents/teams not to play last summer.

If an exception is going to be made for Joseph to fly in at last minute and turn a 5 week commitment into a 10-day commitment, was the same exception offered to other NBAers?

And, for the 100th time, what about the non-NBA guys who could have helped? Still no discussion of the glaring absences of Bennett, Nicholson, XRM, Stauskas, Rautins, etc.

[young11a]

americans struggling against the turks too. so at least we're not the only ones lol

Well, in Canada's case there is nothing to be upset about. Lithuania and Australia were clear favourites of the group and the gap between those teams and Canada is pretty big.

USA on the other hand is struggling vs tier 3 teams.

Australia and Lithuania both suck

[El Mas Chingon]

It's interesting that Grange mentions that Basketball Canada treats the players well.

I've been wondering if there's something wrong with Basketball Canada, politics? Personel?

Like how does Nash go from Hero to Zero? How are there only a select few players that are always committed? Is Joseph just that selfless and patriotic, or as some one pointed out, does he get preferential treatment that others don't? I think his previous dedication has earned him some preferential treatment, but is it a systemic issue?

There have been issues with the program since Delambert refused to play for Leo.

I dunno. It's sad because we've had so much, hope so much talent develop over the past few years.

Maybe it's as simple as these guys not giving AF about playing for Canada. Team USA is going through a lull too. Top talent didn't commit this time around. It'll be interesting to see what kind of talent they have for the Olympics. But Canada doesn't have the luxury of sending a B Team to the World's and calling in the A team for the more high profile Olympics.

It's bumming me out man.

[El Mas Chingon]

I'm actually getting mad. How **** stupid is Basketball Canada that they had no clue that most NBA players they invited weren't going to commit?

It was embarrassing that they put out a list that was meaningless. Wtf? That's 100% a sign that they don't have their finger on the pulse of the players. They look clueless. Something is definitely up and I have no faith in the media being able to get a straight answer.

[frumble]

There have been issues with the program since Delambert refused to play for Leo.

Its been going on longer than that.
Remember when Nash and Todd McCullough were pretty reliable but Magloire, Fox, and Wennington rarely played?

Going back to the Pasquale, Triano, Wiltjer days, it seems we had better participation, but there were always rumours that certain players received preferential treatment, that the national team was used as a recruiting tool, etc.

How **** stupid is Basketball Canada that they had no clue that most NBA players they invited weren't going to commit?

It was embarrassing that they put out a list that was meaningless. Wtf? That's 100% a sign that they don't have their finger on the pulse of the players. They look clueless. Something is definitely up and I have no faith in the media being able to get a straight answer.

Yup. Maybe they put players on the invitation list if they were non-committal or non-responsive, and only didn't list them if they flat out said no. But I believe someone mentioned a few pages back that Leo said that Andy Rautins had said no but was on the list anyway.

In any case, they definitely came off looking clueless, whether it was the fault of players being non-committal, teams/agents for forcing players to de-commit late in the process, or Basketball Canada for just not having any sense as to who would be there.

But I can't help but think that if they knew/acknowledged the NBA guys weren't going to be there, they may have had better turnout from the better non-NBA guys.

[El Mas Chingon]

Oh ****, Le Doug went in on Barrett!

https://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/opinion/2019/09/03/why-change-must-start-at-the-top-after-canadas-fiba-world-cup-letdown.html

He mentions the fact that they put out a list not knowing who woukd show up and the preferential treatment.

He also mentions the fact that Nurse was hired and no one even knew the coaching position was open. I assumed I didn't know they were looking g for a coach cause I'm not on top of Basketball Canada.

Let's hope they make the necessary changes to the management of the program. For some reason I thought Glen Grunwald was the head honcho.

Time to blow it up!

[Mirotic12]

Brunno the Giannis Stopper

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Alex Garcia was the one stopping Giannis. That and the FIBA rules. In all honesty, Greece has always played better without Giannis.

[Mirotic12]

Pango's proved he is a good international player. He will get plenty of playing time in Barca this year with Heurtel injured. Hopefully he continues he's upward trajectory.

It seems that way, but there are reports Barca is talking with several NBA players for replacing Heurtel's spot as the lead guard.

You have Murray, an amazing scorer, to build your national team around. You need as many NBA players (actual players, not prospects-benchwarmers) as possible. Or at least ones from top European clubs like Pangos, Ejim. The names of Istanbul BBSK, Mitteldeutscher BC, University of Florida, Divina Seguros Joventut, Antwerp Giants, SIG Strasbourg, Movistar Estudiantes, Türk Telekom just do not scare other elite national teams

I don't think Ejim ever played in a top European club that I remember. I might be wrong, but I don't remember it.

[Kenter16]

Oh ****, Le Doug went in on Barrett!

https://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/opinion/2019/09/03/why-change-must-start-at-the-top-after-canadas-fiba-world-cup-letdown.html

He mentions the fact that they put out a list not knowing who woukd show up and the preferential treatment.

He also mentions the fact that Nurse was hired and no one even knew the coaching position was open. I assumed I didn't know they were looking g for a coach cause I'm not on top of Basketball Canada.

Let's hope they make the necessary changes to the management of the program. For some reason I thought Glen Grunwald was the head honcho.

Time to blow it up!

Do you lose RJ if you fire his dad? They are in a tough position.

[idonk]

basketball players have a few things to learn from hockey players when it comes to representing canada. i really thought this time around would be different and we'll make it to the olympics but what a fool i turned out to be. i dont want to hear about "canadian" playing in this nba team or that nba team anymore like we are suppose to proud of them. they aint canadians as far as im concern. i might be overracting but i dont give a f. canada basketball is a joke.

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