Canada Basketball

[Primer]

Yeah, my sister and her family have lived in the US for decades, paid lots of taxes, put 3 kids through university, done lots of community work etc… and they’re still waiting for green cards.

I moved from Canada to USA when I was 6 and was sponsored by my grandparents and it still took 10 years to get my citizenship.

I understand random countries like Jordan naturalizing players so they have some talent (still not a fan), team USA doing it is ridiculously unnecessary and pathetic. Like USA didn't already have a ton of fantastic options at Center? France is similarly pathetic, they've got plenty of nba talent that was actually born there.

[Primer]

To clarify (since we still cant edit posts), I'm totally fine with players who became citizens not solely for playing for the national team. Lots of guys moved to other countries as kids and became citizens, totally fine with them repping either country. If you got your citizenship solely to play on a national team that is dumb and should be discouraged. It's particularly egregious in the soccer world cup where you have guys that have never lived in countries and don't speak the language playing for national teams.

[WJF]

To clarify (since we still cant edit posts), I'm totally fine with players who became citizens not solely for playing for the national team. Lots of guys moved to other countries as kids and became citizens, totally fine with them repping either country. If you got your citizenship solely to play on a national team that is dumb and should be discouraged. It's particularly egregious in the soccer world cup where you have guys that have never lived in countries and don't speak the language playing for national teams.

Those are my thoughts as well. Embid moved to the USA at 16 to pursue basketball. Giannis was born in Greeece to recent imigrants from Nigeria. If he chose to play for Nigeria instead of Greese I wouyld have been OK with that. There is a very close connection to the country and culture. Kyle Anderson suiting up for China was foolish. He qualified through a great grandparent and had previously played for some age group US teams.

[Primer]

[guyroch]

The FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2024 groups have been announced - Eurohoops

Wow glad Canada doesn't have to go through this ..

[guyroch]

We have a 1st in Canada basketball history .. 5 NBA players on same might put up 25 plus points in a game ..

SGA 30 points
Mathurin 30 points
Murray 29 points
RJ 27 Points
Sharpe 27 Points

Also SGA is Canadian Athlete of the Year !

[Primer]

We have a 1st in Canada basketball history .. 5 NBA players on same might put up 25 plus points in a game ..

SGA 30 points
Mathurin 30 points
Murray 29 points
RJ 27 Points
Sharpe 27 Points

Also SGA is Canadian Athlete of the Year !

Pretty awesome. Just need some bigs to join that group.

[guyroch]

With the Raptors getting RJ Barrett I was thinking .. My question is who is better .. talent wise , who will have a better career , etc ., I think if RJ had Wiggins talent he would be great .. I think if Wiggins had RJ passion he would he would be multi all star ..

[WJF]

With the Raptors getting RJ Barrett I was thinking .. My question is who is better .. talent wise , who will have a better career , etc ., I think if RJ had Wiggins talent he would be great .. I think if Wiggins had RJ passion he would he would be multi all star ..

This would be a very good debate.

Wiggins had what many would consider empty stats on a bad Wolves team, became a winning player with the Warriors, and now is in a funk. Still only 28 I think, still has time to climb out of it and solidify himself as a winner once again.

RJ put up decent numbers with New York but was inefficient. He shows two steps forward in becoming a better shooter then takes two steps back again. Will the Raptors be what he needs to show that his desire to be great can match his productivity?

[Primer]

This would be a very good debate.

Wiggins had what many would consider empty stats on a bad Wolves team, became a winning player with the Warriors, and now is in a funk. Still only 28 I think, still has time to climb out of it and solidify himself as a winner once again.

RJ put up decent numbers with New York but was inefficient. He shows two steps forward in becoming a better shooter then takes two steps back again. Will the Raptors be what he needs to show that his desire to be great can match his productivity?

RJ has his most efficient season in his 2nd year playing with a pass first PG in Payton (40% 3PT, 50% eFG), and has been less efficient playing with score first PGs (Burks, Walker, Brunson).

My hope here is playing with Scottie gets him back to that level and beyond. Scottie is gonna get him better looks than Payton did, and way better than Brunson, Walker and Burks.

I'd imaging playing with a score first PG makes him try to get his own too much. He won't need to do that with Scottie.

[The Great One]

I watched the Thunder/Celtics game last night. SGA might be the best player in the league. He looked like Kobe Bryant last night. He just schooled any player that the Celtics put on him - and the Celtics have great perimeter defenders.

I think he's the MVP of the league. I know what Embiid is doing in Philly but it would be weird to give him the MVP in back to back years.

If SGA was on a big marker, he would be one of the faces of the league if not THE face of the league.

[A.I]

I watched the Thunder/Celtics game last night. SGA might be the best player in the league. He looked like Kobe Bryant last night. He just schooled any player that the Celtics put on him - and the Celtics have great perimeter defenders.

I think he's the MVP of the league. I know what Embiid is doing in Philly but it would be weird to give him the MVP in back to back years.

If SGA was on a big marker, he would be one of the faces of the league.

OKC is a surprise 2nd seed. He'll definitely be top 3 for MVP. Probably should win it too.

We already know how good Embiid is and how good the Sixers would be in the regular season.

[The Great One]

OKC is a surprise 2nd seed. He'll definitely be top 3 for MVP. Probably should win it too.

We already know how good Embiid is and how good the Sixers would be in the regular season.

The thing with Embiid is everybody knew he didn't deserve to win the MVP last year but the voters gave it to him because of voter fatigue. Would they really give it to him again this year?

As for the Thunder, nobody saw this. Second best record in the West? SGA being this good?

I take everything I said about Anthony Edwards. If I'm building a team around a young player? I'd take SGA. What I saw last night was different. This OKC team can win the whole thing if he plays like that.

[planetmars]

SGA has so many tricks in his bag. The guy is super legit. I hope he gets MVP, but I don't think he will. I'm not even sure if he starts for the ASG though and would be criminal if he doesn't.

[guyroch]

This would be a very good debate.

Wiggins had what many would consider empty stats on a bad Wolves team, became a winning player with the Warriors, and now is in a funk. Still only 28 I think, still has time to climb out of it and solidify himself as a winner once again.

RJ put up decent numbers with New York but was inefficient. He shows two steps forward in becoming a better shooter then takes two steps back again. Will the Raptors be what he needs to show that his desire to be great can match his productivity?

The thing that brought this to my mind is Wiggins has been rumored to have been coming to Toronto and I was thinking who would I
have been more excited to have woke up to the news that he was coming to Toronto ..

Barrett summer stint with the Canadian team is a good barometer of what to expect from him .. He will tease us with a 35 point game against Germany but then will go 1-10 against France ..