Canada moves forward minus Wiggins
Managing a fluid roster is one of the challenges Canada’s national men’s team faces as it prepares for the next year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.
“This is something we are always going to face with our teams,” Rowan Barrett, assistant GM and executive vicepresident of Canada Basket- ball’s senior men’s program, said Monday. “Different windows we are going to have different athletes.”
Canada, has a 3-1 record in Group D of the World Cup Americas qualifying, will prepare for its next round with a pair of games against China in the Pacific Rim Basketball Classic. The teams will play June 22 in Vancouver and June 24 in Victoria.
Facing China will allow Canada to find its legs before World Cup qualifying resumes with games against the Dominican Republic June 29 at Ricoh Coli- seum and the U.S. Virgin Islands July 2 at Ottawa’s TD Place.
Canada Basketball also announced the list of 18 players that will form the roster for the qualifying games. The list includes NBA players such as Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets and Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers, plus players from Europe and the NBA G League, including guard Aaron Best of Raptors 905.
The most notable player not on the list is Minnesota Timberwolves small forward Andrew Wiggins.
“His initial desire was to play,” Barrett said of Wiggins. “I do think he had some circumstances come up that are going to limit his ability to play for us in June.
“The door is open for September potentially as well.”