Selecting Team Canada’s ideal 12-man roster ahead of Olympic Qualifying

Canada Basketball Head Coach Nick Nurse catches up with Danielle Michaud as the Canadian Training Camp roster is announced ahead of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Victoria, BC.

Canada Basketball unveiled the 21 players who accepted Senior Men’s National Team training camp invites ahead of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Victoria, B.C., on Thursday.

Training camp will run from June 16-24 in Tampa, Fla., at the Toronto Raptors’ temporary training facilities, and this group of 21 needs to be whittled down to just 12 men in advance of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which takes place from June 29-July 4.

Overall, the names who accepted invites look pretty strong and Canada should perform well. However, due to the nature of the tournament, just performing well may, ultimately, not be good enough as this is a winner-take-all event where only the winner earns an Olympic berth. Fall short, and you'll have to wait to try to make it into the 2024 Games.

That’s a lot of pressure, but Canada certainly has the capability to do it.

We took a look at the 21 unveiled names and came up with what we believe is the best possible roster Canada could field.

Canada’s ideal roster

Of the selected list of names, this is what we view as the team’s ideal 12-man roster:

Guards: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dillon Brooks, Luguentz Dort, Cory Joseph

Forwards: R.J. Barrett, Oshae Brissett, Melvin Ejim, Andrew Wiggins

Bigs: Khem Birch, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Tristan Thompson

Cut: Kyle Alexander, Trae Bell-Haynes, Anthony Bennett, Brandon Clarke, Aaron Doornekamp, Trey Lyles, Mychal Mulder, Andrew Nicholson, Andrew Nembhard

Chances are you won’t agree with all the choices made here, and that’s OK because this is a really, really tough decision that head coach Nick Nurse and his soon-to-be-unveiled coaching staff are going to have to make.

It’s always been half-jokingly said that Canada boasts so much NBA talent that NBA players will have to be cut from the senior national team. Well, that time is now.

So, apologies to players like Clarke and Lyles -- in the past, you’d have been a lock to make the team, now you’re a victim of the fact Canada has too much talent.

Looking at the team we’ve assembled, we’ve constructed it this way because it features a good balance of that signature Canadian length, athleticism and raw talent with some always important, but hard-to-define chemistry.

In terms of raw ability, there are, of course, players like Wiggins, Barrett, Brooks, Dort and Alexander-Walker on the team, and they’re counter-balanced by senior team stalwarts like Joseph, Olynyk, Thompson and Ejim.

And it’s for that latter point that we opted to cut Nembhard, a supremely talented young guard coming off a fabulous season with Gonzaga. Even though he has some senior team experience, it just isn’t enough for such a high-stakes tournament, particularly because of how the FIBA game is played and what it seems Nurse and Team Canada are looking for in terms of roster construction.

“You know I think the physicality part of the game is different,” said Nurse during a Team Canada availability Thursday. “I think that's the biggest thing we're gonna have to make an adjustment to. The slower pace, the high level of execution and just getting used to driving the ball and getting banged pretty hard and they're not getting that call, and you might get pin-balled from one guy to the next guy and then not getting either call and they call that stuff in the NBA because of the freedom of movement rules etc.

“So, some guys that are used to that and some guys can handle that, physically, and all that kind of stuff, too, is a big consideration. It's a big consideration to style of play and fitting the team together.”

Yes, the FIBA game is a far grittier, rough-and-tumble style of basketball than anything played in North America. That’s why Canada needs to have veterans who understand how to play that kind of game – like an Ejim, who should be a lock on the roster despite not being an NBA player – and have gone through the wars together for many years.

“I think one of the things that we've done for a number of years is that you're always looking at caps, you know how many games have they played internationally and exposing them to the international game at an early age,” senior men’s team general manager Rowan Barrett.

“And so, for the majority of these athletes that you see, they played for us in the age-group level, they understand FIBA rules, they've been to multiple competitions for us and have been overseas, a number of them have played during the windows in November and February for us getting that FIBA international experience in addition to what they do with their clubs. So I think, from that perspective, you're hoping that those experiences will carry into this one.”

Notable omissions from the training camp roster

Of course, as has become tradition whenever Canada’s senior men’s team unveils a roster, there was a lot of focus on who didn’t make the list.

This year, the most notable absentees are Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chris Boucher and Kevin Pangos.

Of course, Murray was never going to play because of the brutal knee injury he suffered in the middle of the Denver Nuggets’ season. Gilgeous-Alexander and Boucher are also missing out with their own injury issues as Gilgeous-Alexander is dealing with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, and Boucher is focused on rehabbing a sprained knee to be 100 per cent ready to play next season with the Raptors.

As for Pangos, he would’ve been a veritable lock to make the team as he’s arguably the best point guard playing club basketball in Europe right now. But even though he’s reportedly signed a new deal to remain with his current club Zenit Saint Petersburg in Russia, he’s likely erring on the side of caution after playing a compressed season coming off a major injury and appearing for Team Canada at the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

So as disappointing as it may be not to see these gentlemen suit up for the Red and White, there’s no need to get upset with them. They all have very legitimate reasons for not playing for Canada this go-around.

Who Canada will see at the OQT

Lastly, in case you forgot, here’s a quick rundown of the other teams Canada will see in Victoria.

Including Canada, it’ll be a six-team field with China, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey and Uruguay making up the other five nations.

The tournament is split up into two groups, with Canada in Group A alongside Greece and China. The top two teams in each group will advance to the knockout round, and, theoretically, the only real test in Canada's group is Greece, but that’s a team that won’t have Giannis Antetokounmpo -- it’s already been confirmed.

According to FIBA world rankings, No. 6 Greece and No. 12 Czech Republic look like the steepest tests for the No. 21-ranked Canadians. However, Canada’s never really been at full strength at a major international competition, and even though it won’t be again this time, on paper, this team should be the most talented in Victoria.

Whether or not that means it’ll punch its ticket to Tokyo is anyone’s guess right now, but there should be optimism that this group can do it and then medal at the Games themselves.

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