The Future of Canadian Basketball

[GirlySports]

bump

FIBA to introduce FIFA-style world cup and olympic qualifying.
NBA will not release their players for an international window like soccer does.

Canada is screwed.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1...fiba-world-cup

[octothorp]

Been in the works for a while but yeah, it screws NBA-heavy Canada more than any other country.

That said, Canada's sub-NBA talent is also the best it's ever been, and assuming they can secure their release, there's no reason that a team composed of guys like Heslip, Ejim, the Bachynksis, the other Josephs, Pangos, Cadougan, Hanlan, Pierre, Birch, Webster-Chan, Jankovic, Notice, etc. shouldn't be good enough to finish top 7 in the Americas. Current NCAA players may be available for some of those tournaments as well, depending on how the windows work out (2 of the 6 windows will be in the summer). If they can finish top 7, then the NBA players can show up for the Worlds, and if they can finish in the top 2 of Americas teams there (so, behind the US but ahead of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, etc.), they get a spot in the Olympics. Definitely a tough road though.

[Senator Clay Davis]

So this happened....



I would also say RJ Barrett is going to be even more hyped than Wiggins was, and that the Raps are positioning themselves well to "Suck #### for Barrett" in 2019-2020.

[Da_Chief]

It would suck if they tank the 19-20 season and RJ goes 1st overall in 2019.

[CofR]

I’m a pretty big basketball fan, but not the best analyst of talent.. how excited should I be for RJ Barrett? Because right now it’s a 10/10

[octothorp]

I dunno, I mean I was really excited for Wiggins... when he was in high-school there was no trace of the weaknesses that have defined his NBA career, so I'm cautious about hyping anyone up too much again. That said, yeah, he's got a ceiling at least as high as Wiggins' was at that point in his development.

[Senator Clay Davis]

So yeah RJ Barrett in one night has already eclipsed Wiggins entire career. He's going to be special

https://twitter.com/user/status/1060047792603832320

[CofR]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

So yeah RJ Barrett in one night has already eclipsed Wiggins entire career. He's going to be special

https://twitter.com/user/status/1060047792603832320

Duke was +2.5 yesterday, what a win

[octothorp]

So with a dominant win over Brazil last night, Canada has officially qualified for the World Cup. The World Cup team we send will be full of NBA players, but this qualification was only possible because of guys who play in Europe or other international leagues, but were willing to fly 50 hours during a brief break in league action to play for Canada on the other side of the world. As someone who has followed this program for a long time, I'm really proud of all of the guys who contributed to this.

Now we can start fantasizing about what a stacked roster they could field next summer:
Murray / Joseph/ Gilgeous-Alexander
Brooks / Stauskas / Heslip
Barrett / Wiggins / Ejim
Powell / Thompson / Lyles
Olynyk / Boucher / Birch

[octothorp]

Huge coup for Team Canada, announcing today that Nick Nurse will be head coach for the Worlds.

Notably, Canada's two tough opponents in the opening round feature Simmons, who Nurse's team just totally neutralized, and JV, who Nurse knows better than any other coach.