Canada taps 9 NBA players for tourney
The Canadian men’s basketball team will go with a 13man roster for the Tuto Marchand Continental Cup exhibition tournament starting Sunday in Puerto Rico.
Nine current NBA players were named to the squad Thursday as the team wrapped up its camp with a final workout at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
NBA rookie of the year Andrew Wiggins highlights the roster, which also includes Minnesota Timberwolves teammate Anthony Bennett.
Other players include Melvin Ejim and Andrew Nicholson of the Orlando Magic, Nik Stauskas of the Philadelphia 76ers, Robert Sacre of the Los Angeles Lakers, Dwight Powell of the Dallas Mavericks, Kelly Olynyk of the Boston Celtics and Cory Joseph of the Toronto Raptors.
The roster is rounded out by European league players Aaron Doornekamp (Braunschweig, Germany), Olivier Hanlan (BC Zalgiris, Lithuania), Brady Heslip (Pallacanestro Cantu, Italy) and Phil Scrubb (AEK Athens, Greece).
“We’ve had an intense camp, and we’re looking forward to transitioning into game play,” said Canadian head coach Jay Triano.
“Tuto Marchand will give us an opportunity to play against some of our key competition prior to the Olympic qualifier.”
Team Canada will take on teams from Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in the five-team exhibition tournament, which will through Wednesday.
The tourney is a warm-up event ahead of the FIBA Americas tournament that runs Aug. 31 to Sept. 12 in Mexico City.
The final 12-man roster for that competition will be released after the exhibition tournament.
The top two teams at the FIBA Americas will qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.