In the latest edition of Basketball Central, Canada’s NBA hoopers got some more shine.
This time the focus was on some of the country’s up-and-coming talent. Host Brady Fay posed an interesting question to panellists Michael Grange, of Sportsnet, and Jason Thom, of top Canadian high school scouting organization North Pole Hoops: What NBA players or emerging ballers who have yet to reach the league should we all be keeping our eye on?
Furthermore, the episode highlighted the talent coming out of Quebec.
“Instead of going for one name, the thing I really want to put on everybody’s radar is the province of Quebec is really going to be dominating things for Canadian basketball in the near future,” Thom said of the nation’s high school prospects.
“There are some great names like a Bennedict Mathurin, who’s going to Arizona, Jefferson Koulibaly, Washington State – he led Canada in scoring last year across the nation – Olivier-Maxence Prosper is going to Clemson, and then I think the real big name for is Karim Mane right now.
“He’s 20 years old coming out of Quebec. They have a different educational set up there, so he right now could go into the NBA draft — he’s waiting to see if he can get a first-round guarantee — he could go the G League professional route or he could still go to the NCAA as a 20-year-old in his first year. Tom Izzo has been up to Quebec on numerous occasions to see this kid, so it seems like Michigan State there is ready for him, and it’s just him deciding which way he wants to go.”
[snippet id=4725691]
This talent explosion from Quebec isn’t limited to just the junior ranks either. In the NBA there’s a Montreal native who has been turning heads, too.
“We’ve gotta tip a hat to Brandon Clarke who was born in Vancouver, raised in Arizona. He could be the rookie of the year if it weren’t for Ja Morant,” Grange said. “But I think just a notch below that you’ve got to look at Luguentz Dort, who’s from Montreal, forced his way into the starting lineup in OKC out of a two-way deal and is already an elite NBA wing defender.”
Dort went undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft after a stellar one-and-done year at Arizona State that saw him average 16.1 points per game and named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.
He signed a two-way deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder shortly after the draft, but quickly impressed head coach Billy Donovan so much that he became a fixture in the team’s starting lineup before the NBA season was suspended.
The future of Canadian basketball looks very bright, and it seems that Quebec will be leading charge soon.
[relatedlinks]
