Canada’s future as bright as its stars
From Wiggins to Olynyk and Thompson, squad finds itself with world-class roster for first time
As much as anyone, Steve Nash understands the challenges facing the Canadian men’s basketball team even as he acknowledges the unprecedented talent level in his program.
For starters, Dream Team North will be built around the prodigious Andrew Wiggins and a group of top NBA draft picks who’ll form, for the first time in this country’s hoops history, a world-class roster. How good is this team? Anthony Bennett, the first overall choice in the 2013 NBA draft, is going to have a hard time making the starting lineup. So is Kamloops’ Kelly Olynyk, the 13th pick in the same draft who’s currently in his second season with the Boston Celtics.
“It’s amazing,” says Nash, the country’s resident basketball icon and the general manager of the national team. “It’s incredibly exciting and I’m incredibly proud.
“We just want to keep it building. It’s like any organization. You want to build a culture and a standard.
“They can really inspire a whole country and a generation of basketball players.” Then there’s the challenges. The Canadians are blessed with jaw-dropping individual skill but they’re also inexperienced in the backstreet-tough international game. The United States you know about, but Spain, Argentina, Lithuania, Russia, Serbia, Croatia, France and seemingly half the known world have tough, battle-tested teams.
For Nash, head coach Jay Triano and their company of young Canadians, just making the 12-team Olympic field in Rio will be a notable achievement even if the country’s ambitions are slightly higher.
It makes for an interesting balancing act for the GM and the program, but the least you can say is Nash doesn’t have any false illusions about his team.
“They’re all figuring out who they are,” he says.
“The hardest thing for us is they’re all, basically, 24 and under, and they’ve never played international basketball at this level. Nothing is guaranteed, but on paper we have a really good team. If anyone can do it, we can do it.”
Nash is about to begin his fourth year as the GM but, with Rio now just around the corner, this will be the first year the team steps into the national spotlight.
While questions remain about some of the players’ participation — Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph are both free agents this offseason — it’s expected something close to the full complement will be available for the Pan-Am Games in Toronto this summer. The team will then reconvene in Monterrey, Mexico in August for the FIBA Americas Championship, which will qualify two teams for Rio.
There’s another Olympic qualifying tournament in the summer of 2016, but if everything goes according to plan, Canada will punch their ticket to Brazil in Monterrey.
The problem there is the powerful Argentines, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic might have something to say about that.
“They’re going to go into a really difficult environment against guys who’ve played together for a long time,” Nash says.
Still, this Canadian team can call on resources that its predecessors coached the Sydney team. Rowan Barrett, the Nats’ assistant GM, and Mike Meeks, who works in player development for Basketball Canada, also played on that team.
Together, they now help form an organization which has been entrusted with the golden generation of Canadian basketball talent, and to a man, they understand the responsibility.
“These are high-level players,” Barrett says.
“When they commit, the program has to be what’s sold to them. They know an environment that’s conducive to winning and they know it immediately.”
To that end, it’s invaluable that Nash is the face of that program. He and Triano have credibility with the NBA and the larger basketball world which is a major consideration when teams consider releasing their multimillion dollar investments.
Nash’s stature also resonates deeply with the young players. Sacramento rookie Nik Stauskas, for example, grew up idolizing Nash and the two have forged a relationship.
When asked about the importance of Nash, Barrett first talked about his role as a mentor, then said: “I mean he’s Steve. When he comes calling, it’s a powerful thing.”
And, so far, the players have answered when he’s called. That could change this summer depending on Thompson’s and Joseph’s contractual situation.
Thompson, the most complete big man in the program, has already turned down a four-year, $48-million US offer from Cleveland according to one report.
Joseph, who’s competing for the starting point guard spot, is looking to cash in after serving as a backup in San Antonio for four years.
“It’s difficult because you never know who’s going to carry an injury into the summer or what team isn’t happy about their guy going,” Nash says. “Free agency is going to be an issue. It depends on the timing of their deals. It does get tricky but everyone wants to play.”
That’s because they all understand what this team could be, especially the general manager. could only dream of and Nash and his staff are acutely aware of this.
In 2000, the two-time NBA MVP became fully invested in the program when he led a motley collection of international journeymen and backup NBA centre Todd MacCulloch on an inspired run at the Sydney Games. Canada beat Australia, Spain, Yugoslavia and Russia in the tournament, but, alas, were knocked out in the quarter-finals by France.
Nash, who was just establishing himself in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks, wept as he left the court. He’s since called it the best experience of his basketball career.
Triano, as luck would have it,