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wiggins, nembhard, sharpe ?
primo, clarke, naw, hausten, zach edey ?

aminiaturebuddha wrote:

WaltFrazier wrote:

DaFroMan wrote:
Is it though? Would mathurin even get minutes let alone make the squad?

Brooks, barrett, Murray, shai heck even Alexander walker likely gonna eat before him. If wiggins n sharpe are ready to go and willing, id also want them on the squad over a mathurin.

This injury made it easier for canada basketball. You don't have to cut this guy at the end of camp and risk him getting PO'd and not playing down the line, which is when he will actually be needed.

Is NAW actually better than Mathurin though? Doesn't matter now, but hopefully Mathurin plays for Canada in 2025 and beyond.

What about Nembhard? I know all the commitment thing, and loyalty, but is he better than NAW straight up, as a PG? And is there room for him in any case? I'd rather see him than a non NBA player, start including the next generation.

NAW may not be better overall, but he definitely plays his role better than Mathurin at this point. Team Canada needs a secondary ballhandler and a guard defender. That's what NAW brings.

Nembhard though is someone I would love for the National Team to add for this summer. He also plays within himself and right now is a better defender than Mathurin.

This is it to a tee. mathurin, while more talented than NAW, does not fit what the squad needs.

I'd also agree a Nembhard needs to be added to the program asap. Perfect team player and fills a position of need.

Statistician MK wrote:I'm surprised no one mentions Dalano Banton...
His stats with Portland: 14.0 - 4.5 - 2.6

It speaks to how deep Canadian NBA talent has become, that Banton is not in the conversation.

He did go play in one of the Americas qualifying games or two, down south somewhere, right. A few years ago? So he's been connected to the program. Maybe not a fit for the Paris team, but if he keeps his NBA career going with the improved shooting we saw the other night, it would be nice for him to play in the near future.

https://www.basketball.ca/news/banton-gibb-named-toyota-canada-players-of-the-week

https://raptorsrapture.com/2022/09/14/raptors-dalano-banton-team-canada-fiba/

WaltFrazier wrote:

Statistician MK wrote:I'm surprised no one mentions Dalano Banton...
His stats with Portland: 14.0 - 4.5 - 2.6

It speaks to how deep Canadian NBA talent has become, that Banton is not in the conversation.

He did go play in one of the Americas qualifying games or two, down south somewhere, right. A few years ago? So he's been connected to the program. Maybe not a fit for the Paris team, but if he keeps his NBA career going with the improved shooting we saw the other night, it would be nice for him to play in the near future.

https://www.basketball.ca/news/banton-gibb-named-toyota-canada-players-of-the-week

https://raptorsrapture.com/2022/09/14/raptors-dalano-banton-team-canada-fiba/

He played in the AmeriCup tournament in summer 2022 and was by far our best player (though none of the other guys was an NBA player or even close).

greekman wrote:wiggins, nembhard, sharpe ?
primo, clarke, naw, hausten, zach edey ?

Injured: Mathurin, Sharpe, Clarke, (Boucher)

Hair Canada wrote:

WaltFrazier wrote:

Statistician MK wrote:I'm surprised no one mentions Dalano Banton...
His stats with Portland: 14.0 - 4.5 - 2.6

It speaks to how deep Canadian NBA talent has become, that Banton is not in the conversation.

He did go play in one of the Americas qualifying games or two, down south somewhere, right. A few years ago? So he's been connected to the program. Maybe not a fit for the Paris team, but if he keeps his NBA career going with the improved shooting we saw the other night, it would be nice for him to play in the near future.

https://www.basketball.ca/news/banton-gibb-named-toyota-canada-players-of-the-week

https://raptorsrapture.com/2022/09/14/raptors-dalano-banton-team-canada-fiba/

He played in the AmeriCup tournament in summer 2022 and was by far our best player (though none of the other guys was an NBA player or even close).

That was it. Seemed like it was a good thing for him to take part in. I doubt it's in the cards for this summer but I hope he can maintain his NBA career and play for Canada again.

Olympic Group draw next Tuesday. We cannot be drawn into the same group as USA (geographic restriction), France (same pot), or the winner of the Puerto Rico OQT (same pot - likely Lithuania?). No more than one Asian/American/African per group, and 2-3 European teams per group. USA has already been assigned to Group C due to being reigning Olympic champs, and France will be assigned to Group A or B due to hosting, which means Canada will be in group A or B (opposite of whichever France is drawn into).

Also, the draw from Pot 4 pretty important. The difference between drawing Japan/South Sudan vs. the winner of the Greece OQT (Slovenia, Greece, Croatia) is huge.

Optimistic scenario (with some guesses on the OQT winners):

Group A: Spain (OQT), Australia, France, Slovenia (OQT)
Group B: Germany, Latvia (OQT), Canada, Japan
Group C: USA, Serbia, Lithuania (OQT), South Sudan

Pessimistic:

Group A: Germany, Latvia (OQT), France, South Sudan
Group B: Spain (OQT), Serbia, Canada, Slovenia (OQT)
Group C: USA, Australia, Lithuania, Japan

Brutal upset loss by Princeton in the Ivy League tournament semifinals to a 12-17 team (before the game, Princeton was 24-3), and they didn't get into the NCAA tournament as an at-large team. Unfortunately that robs us Canadian basketball fans of getting a chance to see Xaivian Lee against some top competition in the tournament.

He still had a great sophomore year, but picked the worst time to have one of his worst games of the season. Still, he was undoubtedly one of the bright spots in terms of Canadian players in the NCAA this season.

There are no Canadians on the 2024 Nike Hoop Summit World Roster. When is the last time this happened? We always seem to have at least one, sometimes more. Not going to lie, the lack of high-end Canadian prospects the past couple of years has got me slightly concerned about our development pipeline. Will Riley should be there next year at least.

?t=5FASZRHgruhjFLVJKu-4pQ

BilboBanginz wrote:There are no Canadians on the 2024 Nike Hoop Summit World Roster. When is the last time this happened? We always seem to have at least one, sometimes more. Not going to lie, the lack of high-end Canadian prospects the past couple of years has got me slightly concerned about our development pipeline. Will Riley should be there next year at least.

Read on Twitter

?t=5FASZRHgruhjFLVJKu-4pQ

I kinda think Riley is going to reclassify and go to college this year. ESPN has him as a 2025 1st round pick.

Damn we got the group of death on the mens side.

Ugh. It's been a few months since we discussed this in detail, but my recollection was that there was an excellent chance we would have Japan or South Sudan in our group.

Horrible draw.

Shai's got us

It is certainly not a Group of Death until we see if Spain and Slovenia/Greece come out of the OQTs.
Even then Canada should be favoured over every team in our Pool. I'm not sure that would hold true in the other Pools.

In the 2020 OQTs I don't think any of the highest ranked teams in each OQT actually won the thing. So we certainly need to wait and see here. This could easily end up the easiest group for all we know at this point.

Australia and Spain on on a downswing. SLO/GRE are extremely dependant on one player.

A realistic power ranking as of today is something like:
1. USA.
2. Canada
3. Serbia.
4. Germany.
5. France.
6. Spain.
7-10 Australia
7-10 Latvia
7-10 Slovenia/Greece
7-10 Lithuania/Italy

Lookimg at it this way, we could have a deep and competive pool, but something we should still be odds on favourite to win.

frumble wrote:Ugh. It's been a few months since we discussed this in detail, but my recollection was that there was an excellent chance we would have Japan or South Sudan in our group.

I don;t think any of us really understood the draw principles and probabilites.
I was shocked to see both Japan and South Sudan drawn ahead of OQT PUR only to pass over our Group A and forced into Group B and C.
It took me some time to figure out why. they treated all OQTs as Euro teams and had to have max. 3 (ok) and min. 2 (weird) Euro teams in each pool. Essentially once we got drawn with Australia we automatically were NOT getting Japan or South Sudan. Not sure anyone realized that before hand.

Start winning they said. It will improve your ranking they said. That will avoid all these groups of death they said.

Let's just hope Ben simmons heals up in time

mojo13 wrote:

frumble wrote:Ugh. It's been a few months since we discussed this in detail, but my recollection was that there was an excellent chance we would have Japan or South Sudan in our group.

I don;t think any of us really understood the draw principles and probabilites.
I was shocked to see both Japan and South Sudan drawn ahead of OQT PUR only to pass over our Group A and forced into Group B and C.
It took me some time to figure out why. they treated all OQTs as Euro teams and had to have max. 3 (ok) and min. 2 (weird) Euro teams in each pool. Essentially once we got drawn with Australia we automatically were NOT getting Japan or South Sudan. Not sure anyone realized that before hand.

Thanks for the explanation - I did not realize that.

Anyone read the Cathal Kelly column in today's Globe and care to give a quick summary?
I am no longer a subcriber so can't access it.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/article-mens-olympic-basketball-team-faces-test-of-ambition-as-murray-and/

Thanks.