Team Canada Basketball Thread V2.0

[Pooh_Jeter]

Tristan was a lock regardless, but he certainly will be much needed against all 3 teams. Senegal has Dieng as well who isn't a slouch.

Olynyk does play on the perimeter quite a bit and typically plays next to a more traditional centre, but I think he can be serviceable against Dieng and a past his prime Bogut. The JV/Baynes match-ups would be problematic though.

I think Powell and Birch should be locks for the team, but I imagine Joel Anthony gets real consideration as a 5th big if he wasn't already on the roster bubble as is.

In terms of a Ben Simmons match-up if he does play that is complicated. Ejim/Brooks/Wiggins are the biggest wings, but all have their issues. I just think Thomas Scrubb is way too limited athletically to keep up with him. SGA is an interesting option although he is so slight that brings issues of its own. I imagine playing some zone defense would help mitigate things.

[Matty]

Anyone who thinks Wiggins is going to help a team by being on the court is not an opinion I’d trust.

It depends. There's so many good players that we can field a solid team without Wiggins, but there will also be a lot of skill duplication. Wiggins can get a bucket in an isolation situation probably better than any Canadian. Not the most important skill, but would be nice to have in the tool set. BUT, the reason I would ultimately cut him is because he probably won't accept a Lou Williams type role on Team Canada. He would want to be the guy, and that's not what we need.

I think his mindset would be different knowing the talent that would be surrounding him. Plus he's still technically the most accomplished Canadian playing in the NBA right now. To cut him off knowing the group that we're in is basically waving the white flag.

However if he cannot commit to the same standards as the rest of our top NBA guys then he should just be excommunicated from participating in the future. We can excuse the qualifying tournaments but not the World cup. It's 2nd to the Olympics and together the only 2 championships that matter internationally for Canada.

[Matty]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

[mojo13]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

I’d pull Wiggins and Lyles out of there until they show us one shred of evidence that either want to play.

[frumble]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

I think we will only get 5 or 6 of these guys this summer, so we will need to go a lot deeper. Especially at guard/wing.

[Sakkreth]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

I think we will only get 5 or 6 of these guys this summer, so we will need to go a lot deeper. Especially at guard/wing.

I think that Pangos is more solid option than Shai anyways.

[Matty]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

I’d pull Wiggins and Lyles out of there until they show us one shred of evidence that either want to play.

Not sure about Lyles as he's never actually played at the senior level yet but he has represented Canada at the U-19s.

For Wiggins, barring an injury he'll be there. This is what he said last year.

Read on Twitter

He played at FIFA Americas before which is a lesser tourney in comparison to the FIBA World Cup. The top players in the NBA including the Americans will be there this summer. If anything he will be begging to play for Team Canada. The same goes for Lyles.

[TheFutureMM]

I know I'm late to the party but this is absolutely ridiculous - why play a 12 game qualifier if you are going to revert back to rankings from 8 years ago? We clearly proved that we were the second/third best country in the America's (without most of our best players) and yet we get stuck playing Lithuania and Australia in the pools? FFS

How are we expected to increase our overall ranking if we don't get any points for the Qualifiers and therefore have to play two of the top 10 countries in the pools?

[Matty]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

I think we will only get 5 or 6 of these guys this summer, so we will need to go a lot deeper. Especially at guard/wing.

Are you saying that because of players not wanting to commit?

The Americans fielded 5 NBA All-Stars and some of the top young talent in the NBA in the 2014 tournament. You can bet they will do something similar this summer.

Lock ins are ; Joseph, Murray, Barrett, Olynk, and Thompson. The rest really don't have an excuse to not participate in this tournament especially given our group stage matchups. That competition alone should motivate them.

[mojo13]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

I think we will only get 5 or 6 of these guys this summer, so we will need to go a lot deeper. Especially at guard/wing.

Are you saying that because of players not wanting to commit?

The Americans fielded 5 NBA All-Stars and some of the top young talent in the NBA in the 2014 tournament. You can bet they will do something similar this summer.

Lock ins are ; Joseph, Murray, Barrett, Olynk, and Thompson. The rest really don't have an excuse to not participate in this tournament especially given our group stage matchups. That competition alone should motivate them.

None of those guys are locks. We don’t know their contract situations, injuries, family issues, agent/club pressure etc. Yes we think guys like CoJo, Thomson and Olynyk are more likely based on history but Murray, Barrett, SGA are far from locks.

[Mattd97]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

I think we will only get 5 or 6 of these guys this summer, so we will need to go a lot deeper. Especially at guard/wing.

Are you saying that because of players not wanting to commit?

The Americans fielded 5 NBA All-Stars and some of the top young talent in the NBA in the 2014 tournament. You can bet they will do something similar this summer.

Lock ins are ; Joseph, Murray, Barrett, Olynk, and Thompson. The rest really don't have an excuse to not participate in this tournament especially given our group stage matchups. That competition alone should motivate them.

US has a stocked team cause their B team is all allstars. They didnt have everyone playing. There are many things at factor from their personal and professional lives.

[young11a]

We could of been laughing in group A instead of Venezuela of Triano wasnt obsessed with Doornekamp and playing him over Wiggins

[aminiaturebuddha]

One thing I worry about is our relative lack of big three's - certainly Ejim is a lock. I'd even consider Doornekamp and Scrubb as roster fillers.

Here's a spreadsheet Murphy put together;

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13T0uSaED8_0pPMycsAa6BrumGjvTe8KbM7_ouz9qYHU/edit#gid=0

Yeah, our quality and depth at the 3 is somewhat concerning, especially if Wiggins doesn't play or doesn't buy into the team game, and if Brooks isn't ready to come back off of injury. Ejim has also played way more PF than SF for Team Canada, so I don't think we should count on many minutes from him at the position (although I agree that he's a lock for the team).

I think Scrubb will be there (and likely both Scrubb brothers). Beyond that it's just hard to tell. Dyshawn Pierre has been extremely disappointing every time he's suited up for Canada, with the exception of about half of one game. It's a real shame that Justin Jackson's game never panned out and that he's been hobbled by injuries. His defensive ability would really come in handy.

If Barrett plays, I assume he'll get most of his minutes at the SF spot. And I also wonder if Shayok gets a good look, if he's signed with a professional team by the time roster selections are made.

[frumble]

This is currently our depth chart:

PG: Cory Joseph/Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG: Jamaal Murray/Dillon Brooks/Nik Stauskas
SF: Andrew Wiggins/RJ Barrett
PF: Kelly Olynk/Trey Lyles/Chris Boucher
C: Tristian Thompson/Dwight Powell

I think we will only get 5 or 6 of these guys this summer, so we will need to go a lot deeper. Especially at guard/wing.

Are you saying that because of players not wanting to commit?

The Americans fielded 5 NBA All-Stars and some of the top young talent in the NBA in the 2014 tournament. You can bet they will do something similar this summer.

Lock ins are ; Joseph, Murray, Barrett, Olynk, and Thompson. The rest really don't have an excuse to not participate in this tournament especially given our group stage matchups. That competition alone should motivate them.

I am saying that because players may not want to commit, or may not be able to commit because of injuries, team demands, and other factors.

I think Joseph, Olynyk, Thompson, and Powell are high probabilities.

But I wouldn't call anyone a lock. Even KO, who has probably been our most reliable NBA big. He wasn't able to participate in the 13 Tournament of Americas or the 16 Olympic last chance qualifying. You never know when team pressure will prevent him from playing, like it did with the Celtics. I would call him 90%.

I would also put Powell at 90%. Great track record, not a free agent, and no factors that we know of that might prevent him from playing.

I would normally put Joseph as 90% or so, but he will be a free agent this summer. Most likely he will be signed before camp, and certainly before the tournament, but you never know. So I would call him 80%.

Thompson played at the 13 Americas and the 16 last chance qualifying, but missed the 10 Worlds, and the Americas in 11 and 15. Its great that he was able to play in the Brazil game last summer, but I believe that was the only game we have had both TT and KO in the last 10 years (since their days with the junior program). I would put him at 70%.

Those are the only four of the 12 guys you listed that I would have at over 50%.

Barrett certainly has the desire and the family factor. But as has been discussed on this board, its rare for incoming rookies to play FIBA. If the team that drafts him strongly discourages him from playing, he may not be able to. I put him at 50%.

Re SGA, maybe it was politics that prevented him from playing more than once (2016) as a cadet or junior. But I can see the Clippers putting pressure on him to not play, especially if they have him play summer league. He and/or LAC may decide rest or workouts would be better than a long (5-week?) commitment to Canada. I put him at 40%.

Murray doesn't have a great track record of participation since his cadet days. No appearances since Pan Am games 4 years ago. Only notable NBA guy to not play any of the 12 qualifying games this cycle. My best guess is 40%.

The lack of participation of Lyles, Wiggins, and Stauskas has been well documented on this board. I would put Wiggins at 20% and Stauskas at 20% (at best) and Lyles at 10%.

Given Brooks' injury, I can't see him at any higher than 10%.

I have no idea re Boucher. Not much data, don't know what the Raps want him doing this summer. Call it 40%.

Olynyk 90%
Powell 90%
Joseph 80%
Thompson 70%
Barrett 50%
Boucher 40%
SGA 40%
Murray 40%
Wiggins 20%
Stauskas 20%
Lyles 10%
Brooks 10%

So I figure we end up 5 or 6 of those guys, with the team also featuring the Scrubbs, Heslip, Pangos, Ejim and Birch. And, if we need to go deeper, perhaps one or two of Wiltjer, Anthony, Best, and Keane.

Perhaps I am being unduly pessimistic re the NBA guys. I hope I am.

[mojo13]

Frumble - i agree with most of what you say but I do think you are overly pessimistic on a few guys.
First You didn’t mention Khem Birch who I think is very committed but also a FA. I’d put him at 80%.

Nik Stauskas is on the record saying he wants to play, but is also a FA and hanging on for dear life with the NBA. 50 percent.

Andrew Wiggins is at least making sounds he wants to play so I’d bump him to 30-40 percent or so.

Dillon Brooks’ recovery is proceeding well and he should be back on the court in June. I could see him playing as part of the recovery process. I’d put him more in the 30-40 range.

The Raps and Team Canada have a good connection. I don’t see them preventing Boucher if he wanted to play. I’d bump him up to 60-70 % if we needed him.

I’m a little higher than you thinking we will be around 7-9 NBA players with A few of Pangos, Wiltjer, Ejim both Scrubbs and Heslip filling in the holes. There are some very valuable and much needed skills sets amount that group though and 3-4 included will make us a better team than if we ran with 12 NBA guys.

[frumble]

Frumble - i agree with most of what you say but I do think you are overly pessimistic on a few guys.
First You didn’t mention Khem Birch who I think is very committed but also a FA. I’d put him at 80%.

Yeah, I mentioned Birch in the paragraph below the discussion of the 12 guys Matty has listed on his depth chart. My original point was re how many of those 12 guys we will likely get. Matty had Boucher, but not Birch, on his 12-man list.

Nik Stauskas is on the record saying he wants to play, but is also a FA and hanging on for dear life with the NBA. 50 percent.

Andrew Wiggins is at least making sounds he wants to play so I’d bump him to 30-40 percent or so.

Dillon Brooks’ recovery is proceeding well and he should be back on the court in June. I could see him playing as part of the recovery process. I’d put him more in the 30-40 range.

I hope you are right.

I’m a little higher than you thinking we will be around 7-9 NBA players with A few of Pangos, Wiltjer, Ejim both Scrubbs and Heslip filling in the holes. There are some very valuable and much needed skills sets amount that group though and 3-4 included will make us a better team than if we ran with 12 NBA guys.

Agreed.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Let's take a moment away from the World Cup talk to recognize some more excellent performances by the young Canadians in the NCAA.

Iowa State won the Big-12 tournament yesterday, and Marial Shayok and Lindell Wigginton were both named to the All-tournament team, and Shayok won the Most Outstanding Player award. After the game, in and interview Wigginton said, "Shout out to all the Canadians. We just keep putting people on the map."

Also, Barrett and Kabengele both played well in the ACC tournament final, which Duke won yesterday. Canadians playing important roles in a lot of big games in the NCAA. Great to see!

[TrueNorth31]

Lost in all the talk about Lithuania and Australia is that Senegal is pretty good.

How Fiba can justify putting the top team in Africa - the number 1 team in Asia/Oceania and the number 2 team in the Americas into the same group is utterly stupefying. I imagine the Fiba - Eurocentric bureaucrats back in Zurich are having a good laugh about how they pulled this stunt off....

Read on Twitter

[TheFutureMM]

Let's take a moment away from the World Cup talk to recognize some more excellent performances by the young Canadians in the NCAA.

Iowa State won the Big-12 tournament yesterday, and Marial Shayok and Lindell Wigginton were both named to the All-tournament team, and Shayok won the Most Outstanding Player award. After the game, in and interview Wigginton said, "Shout out to all the Canadians. We just keep putting people on the map."

Also, Barrett and Kabengele both played well in the ACC tournament final, which Duke won yesterday. Canadians playing important roles in a lot of big games in the NCAA. Great to see!

100% - I can't think of another season in the last 20 years where there have been so many Canadians playing such influential roles on NCAA best teams. At the rate were going, we are likely going to have at least 50 players in the NCAA going forward at all times leading to an increased depth in our program.

However, as HairCanada has said a couple times, the well of Top 100 players appears to be running pretty dry over the next 2-3 years. Hopefully we have another couple Olynyks, Birchs, or Ejims come out of nowhere and surprise us.

[mojo13]

Let's take a moment away from the World Cup talk to recognize some more excellent performances by the young Canadians in the NCAA.

Iowa State won the Big-12 tournament yesterday, and Marial Shayok and Lindell Wigginton were both named to the All-tournament team, and Shayok won the Most Outstanding Player award. After the game, in and interview Wigginton said, "Shout out to all the Canadians. We just keep putting people on the map."

Also, Barrett and Kabengele both played well in the ACC tournament final, which Duke won yesterday. Canadians playing important roles in a lot of big games in the NCAA. Great to see!

100% - I can't think of another season in the last 20 years where there have been so many Canadians playing such influential roles on NCAA best teams. At the rate were going, we are likely going to have at least 50 players in the NCAA going forward at all times leading to an increased depth in our program.

However, as HairCanada has said a couple times, the well of Top 100 players appears to be running pretty dry over the next 2-3 years. Hopefully we have another couple Olynyks, Birchs, or Ejims come out of nowhere and surprise us.

Well, we have Brandon Clarke and Mfiondu Kabengele come out of seemingly nowhere this season to become first round talents, so the trend continues. Just when we thought the pipeline of bigs had dried up too.