[octothorp]

Yeah, it'll be interesting, A mostly nba-player game with the best overall player on Canada, the US far deeper, but playing with FIBA rules and (from the games I've watched... only watched a couple full US games) Canada playing more of a FIBA style. It'll be tough but winnable.

This game really highlighted what a difficult position Canada is in in regards to bigs. Olynyk and Powell are both 32 and will be 36 next world cup, and even they give up size against international bigs. Brandon Clarke and Trey Lyles are undersized for playing C in the international game, same with Oliver-Maxence Prosper. I'm a big fan of Edey in terms of how his game translates to FIBA as he continues to develop, but there's no guarantee he gets there (I do really like how Canada Basketball realizes how important his development is to the program and doing everything they can to include him). But there's a real lack of quality bigs in the pipeline, compared to guards where Canada is nearly best-in-the-world in terms of high-end talent and depth. Charles Bediako is the only other guy you could maybe project to be a true C who's got both the size and a dcecent skill level to the point that he's a borderline NBA prospect (not sure what his current status is, signed a non-guaranteed one-year-deal with San Antonio but I'm not sure they've got the roster spots to keep him, but would be great for his development if they did). Lots of bigs emerge during their college years, so hopefully another C emerges. (17-year-old Olivier Rioux is 7'8 but is a loooong way from having any high-level skills.)

I think there's a development issue that the second-tier of Canadian prospects have: they just barely fall through the NBA cracks, and so they go to the G-league, which becomes about developing a skillset that gets you noticed enough that you get a crack with an NBA team... especially true for bigs. But a not-quite-NBA prospect from Europe stays in Europe and is developed as his team's star player under FIBA rules.