Canada National Team

[BBallfanJ]

Here's what I think Canada's problem is. We're not thinking outside the box. Other countries have hired coaches from outside their borders, ex: Del Harris in China. We should hire a coach who has considerable experience either in the NBA or in Europe. Here's a name I'll just throw out there - Greg Popovich. The Spurs coach is a proven winner and he has experience coaching international players. Also, Canadian NT member Cory Joseph just happens to be one of his new players for the Spurs. Just an idea.
I can't remember if Pop has already coached team USA and if that would make him ineligible. If not Pop maybe someone like Mike D'Antoni would work.

[cadeceus]

There was no way Nash was going to play.

Nash said injury would have kept him from playing even if he wanted to.

"I didn't even really know going into the summer it was an Olympic qualifying year," Nash said. "It just wasn't on my radar because I retired so long ago. If I would have known we weren't going back to work until December, and if I was healthy and Canada Basketball came to me and said, 'Would you consider playing this summer?' I would have considered playing. But I'm not healthy. I didn't know how the lockout would go. I retired seven years ago. So it wasn't necessarily up for debate."

[Hepcat]

Here's what I think Canada's problem is. We're not thinking outside the box. Other countries have hired coaches from outside their borders, ex: Del Harris in China.

How about Jonas Kazlauskas then?

[rikhardur]

CAN - Joseph willing to 'stick his nose in'

SAN ANTONIO (NBA) - The San Antonio Spurs have a very good track record when it comes to identifying talented players from abroad.

There have been France's Tony Parker, Argentina's Manu Ginobili and Brazil's Tiago Splitter, all members of the current squad.

San Antonio also drafted Luis Scola when he was still a player in Europe but never managed to get the Argentinian in a Spurs uniform because of his contract with Baskonia in Spain.

The Spurs ultimately sent his rights to Houston in a trade, and the Rockets were able to bring Scola to the NBA.

The latest non-U.S. player to cause a stir with the Spurs comes from north of the border.

He is young Canadian point guard Cory Joseph.

San Antonio had ample opportunity to watch Joseph last year because he was a freshman with the Texas Longhorns.

On Sunday, Joseph, who decided to turn pro instead of going back for his sophomore campaign, played 13 minutes for San Antonio in their 102-91 victory over the Phoenix Suns.

Joseph had a couple of steals against the Suns, whose most famous player is Canadian superstar Steve Nash.

"He's a young, energetic player who is willing to stick his nose in," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, when asked why he'd used the 1.91m playmaker as much as he did against Phoenix

"For a sophomore in college (he said jokingly), I think he's pretty special."

Joseph, just 20 years old, had only played three and two minutes, respectively, in the Spurs' previous two games.

San Antonio's Richard Jefferson has been in the league a long time and he says the key for Joseph is to play defense.

"I think tonight was one of the first times he was able to get up and play defense and know how to control the offense," Jefferson said.

"He was able to direct the plays, kind of break the offense in and do the right thing.

"For him it's going to be key to continue playing defense, but he's quick, he's young, he's got a lot of energy, and he's going to use that to his advantage. "

Joseph competed for Canada at the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship in Mar Del Plata.

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/new...0346/arti.html

[CKR13]

Jay Triano is a strong candidate to be the national team head coach.

Courtside: Triano next Capt. Canada?

[BBallfanJ]

Team Canada should never have let him go in the first place. It would be great to have him back coaching our national team.

[CKR13]

Steve Nash could be involved with the national team not within a playing capacity, but more of a director.

Steve Nash to be tapped as ‘overseer’ of Canada’s men’s basketball team

[CKR13]

Canada Basketball has Triano and Nash in its sights following Olympics

TORONTO Canada Basketball is looking to reload after the 2012 London Olympics, and have both Jay Triano and Steve Nash in their sights.

Triano could step back into his former role as Canada’s men’s head coach, while Nash, a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player with the Phoenix Suns, is being tabbed for an executive director role.

Wayne Parrish, Canada Basketball’s president and CEO, said he’s spoken with Triano and Nash on numerous occasions, and has had his eye on the two playing key roles within the national organization.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of different folks including Jay and including Steve, and obviously everything has to fit perfectly,” Parrish said.

The men’s team has been without a head coach since Leo Rautins resigned in September following the team’s disappointing performance at the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament.

Parrish said, however, that there has been no rush to name a new coach as the team has no FIBA competition until world qualifying in the summer of 2013.

Canada’s men’s team hasn’t played at the Olympics since 2000, when Nash — and Triano as coach — led the team to a seventh-place finish.

Triano is committed to USA Basketball through the 2012 Olympics, with whom he’s an assistant coach.

Parrish said Canada Basketball was currently reviewing a complete restructure of the program, with an eye on identifying and nurturing young players from age 14 and up. He also said the goal was to create a full-time position — Rautins and Triano both had other jobs when they coached Canada.

“The biggest challenge has been the tiny manpower resources to connect with young players,” Parrish said.

Both Triano and the 38-year-old Nash are currently members of Canada Basketball’s Council of Excellence.

The 53-year-old Triano coached the Canadian team for seven years, and was head coach of the Toronto Raptors for almost three seasons.

-TheSpec

Canadian basketball looks promising in the coming years. To start, the next generation and the leadership in personnel tapped are bright signs.

[CKR13]

Canadian hoopsters need to step up

This year’s NCAA tournament has been a global showcase for Canadian talent. Baylor’s Brady Heslip draining threes, Marquette’s Junior Cadougan running the point and Gonzaga’s Robert Sacre controlling the paint. But as a country how close are we to winning on the international stage?

Canada did not qualify for the 2004, 2008 or 2012 Summer Olympics and the program is currently without a head coach. But our country is starting to peak, talent wise we are bursting with more skill than we have seen since the early 80s.

“We are on the cusp of something that has the potential to be quite phenomenal, this is something that has been building for a number of years,” said Canada Basketball’s president and CEO Wayne Parrish.

Canada Basketball has set the goal for the 2016 Olympics as not just a reappearing act in the world’s biggest basketball tournament but to be standing on the podium at the end of the competition.

There are a lot of steps between now and then. First, there needs to be a new coach appointed as head of the national team. That person is widely rumoured to be former Canadian coach and former Raptors coach Jay Triano although any announcement about his involvement won’t come until he has completed his commitment with USA Basketball. Steve Nash is also expected to step into a leadership role similar to the one Wayne Gretzky assumed for Team Canada in the 2002 Games.

“It is difficult to say now what role Steve will play. It has always been our ambition that Steve would play a more prominent role,” said Parrish. “It would be wonderful to think that we could come together.”

There are very few basketball players that have bled red and white like Nash. One of them is Canadian basketball legend Leo Rautins. The former national team head coach, who no longer has official ties with Canada Basketball after resigning last year, agrees Canada has a lot of talent. But he says Canada is a long way from success on the podium unless significant changes are made to the national program.

“You have to hear players saying, ‘I want to go to the Olympics.’ If they begin to say this then we have a chance, if it doesn’t happen we don’t have a chance (to win any medals),” said Rautins.

And right now we aren’t hearing those Canadians stepping up to say ‘I want to play for Canada in the Olympics.’ According to Rautins, for Canada to win a medal in the 2016 Olympics it will take the elite group of players to step up now and not in 2015. According to the former pro they need to start developing together and playing in international competitions. The U.S. team that will compete in this summer’s Olympics is a roster full of NBA all-stars. Currently there are barely enough Canadians on NBA rosters to make up a starting lineup.

“There is a lot more than talent needed to win a medal. You aren’t going to win without talent and there is enough talent in Canada to compete. But if the talented players don’t have experience at the highest competitive level you are not going to win,” added Rautins. “Without playing you aren’t going to win. We aren’t the U.S., we don’t have 12 NBA all-stars. They put the best in the NBA together for three years and barely survived against Spain (in the 2008 Olympics).”

The expectations of fans in Canada are also out of whack. Many basketball fans in this country feel NBA players wearing the red and white is the recipe for instant success. What is lacking in this country is the understanding that international experience and depth play a bigger role than just suiting up in the NBA.

“No other country would do that, take a player with very little experience because you are in the NBA and claim we are going to win now,” Rautins explained, using the example of first round draft pick Cory Joseph and his role in Olympic qualifiers last year. “I think our basketball community needs to get more educated on what makes it a successful program.”

What helps make a program successful is money. According to Rautins the top teams from the Americas get between $2 and $5 million for their national men’s teams. The Canadian program gets $1.6 million, for all 10 teams.

“The team sport system (in Canada) is at times laughable. There is no understanding of success of team sport in this country. There is too little appreciation of the importance of funding. Basketball may be one of the most popular sports in the country from a participation perspective but where is the funding that reflects it?”

Parrish acknowledges the issue is a chicken and egg conundrum. The team needs to do well to get Own the Podium money, but to do well they need money now.

The first competitive games for the next crop of young Canadian basketball players will be in the summer of 2013. Borrowing an idea from Rautins, a start may be suiting up a competitive team in 2012 that would play exhibition games against the best national teams in the world.

The countries getting ready for London will be looking for competition and Canada’s best players not in the NBA could put together a competitive team.

But to get to that point it would require two things: the players stepping up to play and the money from both private and public sources. Only if these things happen will Canada make a name for itself again on the world’s top basketball courts.

-London Free Press

[CKR13]

Another fun editorial and this time from the Sadbury Star.

Canada hoops talent at fore

[CKR13]

Kyle Wiltjer of the Kentucky Wildcats is another up and coming talent for Canadian basketball.

Kentucky's Wiltjer part of promising hoops future for Canada

[CKR13]

The Nike Hoops Summit have Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett in the World Select Roster. I am looking forward to seeing both play and how they will do against the USA selection.

[CKR13]

Steve Nash is back in the fold of Canadian Basketball.

Steve Nash to become Canada GM

[CKR13]

[BBallfanJ]

Jay Triano to return as Canada senior men's National Team coach!

[JGX]

Canada having a training camp this weekend...the roster is here:
http://www.basketball.ca/canada-bask...letes--p151673

[CKR13]

Laurentian coach looks to put men's basketball back on map

By the time the 2016 Olympic Summer Games roll around in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, only a dozen Canadian male basketball players will have experienced the thrill of the event over a period covering almost 30 years.

Laurentian Voyageurs head coach Shawn Swords was part of the 2000 team that travelled to Sydney, Australia, finishing seventh. That squad is the only national team that has qualified for competition over the past six Olympiades — a period dating back to the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea.

Over the weekend, Swords was part of an effort to rewrite a more positive basketball legacy in this country. Along with a small handful of teammates from the 2000 team, Swords was in Toronto as Basketball Canada introduced Jay Triano as national team head coach.

Small surprise, as Triano was also the man at the helm a dozen years ago when Canada competed with a roster that included the likes of Steve Nash, Rowan Barrett, Greg Francis and Todd MacCulloch.

When it comes to outlining the message he wants to share with those players hoping to crack the top 12 in the World in 2016, Swords speaks from experience.

"No matter what the talent, you have to be willing to sacrifice for the team," he said between sessions of a training camp that was staged, Aug. 24 to 28, at the Air Canada Centre.

Ironically, Swords is far more confident in the ability of the current crop of rising hard court stars to tackle this challenge than was the case at the turn of the millennium.

"The talent level in Canada is ridiculous right now," he said. "There is no doubt at all we have the talent to be there."

That said, Swords acknowledged that there is some work ahead in terms of restoring the attraction of participation in a national team program that last medaled at the Olympic Games in 1936.

"We have to get the players invested in each other and invested in the program," he said.

Still, with a current training camp roster that features NBA and NCAA stars Joel Anthony, Tristan Thompson, Myck Kabongo and Cory Joseph, and with two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash installed as general manager, there is a sense of optimism that has been lacking for years.

For coach Swords and others, it's a chance to do whatever they can to help put Canada back on the world map in men's basketball.

-Northern Life Canada

[BBallfanJ]

I want your projections on who you'd like to see make up team Canada in the 2016 Olympics - we'll just skip 2014 World Cup for the moment.

Mine:
Starters:
F Tristan Thompson
F Anthony Bennett
C Tanveer Bhullar
G Tyler Ennis
G/F Andrew Wiggins

bench:
F Kyle Wiltjer
F Andrew Nicholson
C Robert Sacre
G Myck Kabango
G Kevin Pangos
C Sim Bhullar
G Cory Joseph

Am I missing anyone in particular?

[JRS Bonnet]

Am I missing anyone in particular?

I kind of like Devoe Joseph (G, 1.93, 1989) ‒ I think he’s Cory’s brother. He will start his pro career playing for BC Khimik Yuzhny (Ukraine), a EuroChallenge team. It will be interesting to follow his evolution.

[CKR13]

FIBA | CAN - Pangos part of a fresh start