OT: Canada Basketball
Kind of a random topic but watching basketball tonight has made me think of Nik Stauskas, and for whatever reason I've been in an Olympics mood, so this thought came up. Obviously the US has the best national team, but I was thinking about it, and Canada could be really good in the coming years. Looking at the best players of their roster:
F/C Dwight Powell - Plays for Dallas
F Tristan Thompson - Cleveland
F Andrew Nicholson - Orlando
F/C Kelly Olynkyk - Boston
F Andrew Wiggins - Minnesota
G Nik Stauskas - Sacramento
G Tyler Ennis - Phoenix
G Cory Joseph - San Antonio
F Trey Lyles - Kentucky (Still in college)
And a few others.
The biggest thing I notice is that most of the players tend to be on the younger side with minimal NBA experience, but many of them have the potential to be top players. I could very well see this team qualifying for the 2016 Olympics and becoming a serious contender to the US in the coming years, much as the way Spain has been recently. The team also might lack some depth, but certainly the starters and some of the bench will be plenty talented.
A bit random of a topic, I admit, but I just thought I might share it with you all. Thoughts about this?
January 8th, 2015 at 10:23 PM ^
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January 8th, 2015 at 10:56 PM ^
+1 for not hating on Bennett, but I think Nash is currently the GM. Not sure he'd coach.
January 8th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
I still wouldn't watch.
January 8th, 2015 at 10:28 PM ^
Honestly, I hope they do become a serious contender. It'd make Olympic basketball much more interesting if there were more heavy weights in the fight. Now we need to find some foreign women's softball players....
January 8th, 2015 at 10:43 PM ^
The parity isn't ever going to be great (still better than basketball, though) but if softball doesn't get back in I think it has more to do with the stadium being completely useless after the closing ceremonies.
Kind of a coincidence that it's in this thread but I'd know at least a couple girls on the Canadian Olympic team, so I'm definitely hoping they get softball back in.
January 9th, 2015 at 12:58 AM ^
soccer, track and field, football, special events. i doubt any of the olympic stadiums have been thought of as useless after the olympics.
January 9th, 2015 at 1:18 AM ^
The US outscored opponents 51-1 en route to a gold medal here in 2004:
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/olympics/28693970
London handled construction much better than Athens did, but since a softball stadium can't double as a baseball stadium and exhibitions aren't a big money maker, the only real option is to build a temporary facility and tear it down after the games. That's what happened with the basketball, field hockey and water polo stadiums in London. The only realistic exception I can think of is Los Angeles (slash San Diego), unless places like Austin and Tuscon are able to enter serious Olympic bids.
I really hope softball makes it back into the Olympics, but I think the economics behind their bid poses a big problem.
January 10th, 2015 at 4:36 PM ^
..this is why the IOC needs to just take all the damn money corporations throw at them and build 1 permanent facility (likely in Greece) and call it a day. With these things costing billions of dollars nowadays politicians are quickly finding out that the public is not willing to shoulder that much of the burden.
January 10th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^
Have you seen anything about the 2024 bid Boston is submitting? It's basically proposing using Harvard, MIT, BC, BU and UMass-Boston facilities and converting the Olympic Village into UMass housing after the games. They figure big money donors will pay for upgrades because of the prestige of Harvard Stadium hosting Olympic events.
At the very least, using Chicago as an example, I don't know why they can't schedule almost everything between Soldier Field, the United Center, UIC Pavilion (maybe even Allstate Arena and the Sears Centre) and temporary structures on Chicago Park District property. The World Cup in Brazil was a great case-in-point to how wasteful it is to build stadiums for one summer.
Building a permanent Olympic site would be really interesting but seems politically impossible. For the Winter Games especially I can't imagine any of the US, Russia or Canada permanently giving up home ice.
January 8th, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^
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January 8th, 2015 at 10:37 PM ^
So much of that talent comes from the Greater Toronto Area. If this trend continues, Tornoto can one day rival New York and Chicago. I am very excited as a Canadian, especially with the Raptors having a great season.
January 8th, 2015 at 10:38 PM ^
I know the thread is more NBA-centric, but you'll see plenty more in the future, and several of these guys are impact players. NorthPoleHoops had a listing of Canadians currently in the college ranks - LINK. The article is from October, so it is a bit dated, but it should be fairly current all the same.
January 8th, 2015 at 10:42 PM ^
It's in Spanish, you're going to have to deal with it
January 8th, 2015 at 10:42 PM ^
Lot of talent here in the Great White North...what our young people do when not winning WJC championships.
Interestingly, a certain Jevohn Shepard is on the current roster.
January 8th, 2015 at 10:58 PM ^
They'll qualify but that roster is still lightyears behind the US or Spain. It's basically a bunch of pretty good college players vs. Lebron James, James Harden and company.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:03 PM ^
Agreed, I doubt this roster competes for a medal in 2016.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:03 PM ^
January 8th, 2015 at 11:18 PM ^
January 8th, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^
January 8th, 2015 at 11:06 PM ^
January 8th, 2015 at 11:51 PM ^
vivek to unleash the 4 v 5 defense and leave nik at halfcourt for 3s
do it....do it
January 9th, 2015 at 12:03 AM ^
Thon Maker, the #1 overall player in the class of 2016.
Jamal Murray is another highly touted recruit from class of 2016.
January 9th, 2015 at 12:08 AM ^
Olynyk and Wiggins have ridiculous potential, especially Olynyk considering he is extremely difficult to defend when his outside shot is on.
They get hot, guys like Nik (Heslip, etc.) would have a spot-up field day.
One good interior defender and 5 years away, they could be very deadly in time as an all-out attacking force. Just need some LMU jerseys and a bit of Westhead run-run gameplanning...
January 9th, 2015 at 1:10 AM ^
January 9th, 2015 at 7:42 AM ^
Both founded in 1995 and the kids who saw them as kids are grown up now. I think Nik said the Raptors were part of the reason he started playing.
Same reasoning behind why there's a boom in hockey talent from Arizona and Texas - the Coyotes and Stars.
January 9th, 2015 at 9:17 AM ^
He has mentioned this several times. It's changed the bball culture in Canada completely. Kids like Nik and Wiggins are the tip of a very big iceberg.
The Grizz were pretty sad-sack, I was out there when they were starting up, but the local HS basketball scene in BC is already pretty big (Steve Nash, etc.). But all will be dwarfed by Toronto.
Drake and the Leafs are probably the best publicity for basketball there!