Canada Basketball

[Axel]

I looks like Canada will be putting in a bid to host one of the 3 qualifying tournaments next summer. I think we will have a great shot at getting one of the bids and that can only help our chances next summer.

I would be surprised if we didn't land one. We have a few factors in our favour (imo):
- great facilities and transport system (in multiple cities)
- rising basketball profile
- time zone compatible with Rio (since the tournaments are close together, players would likely prefer)
- Steve Nash
- cheaper location than other cities (yay poor economy!)

[golden]

I would be surprised if we didn't land one. We have a few factors in our favour (imo):
- great facilities and transport system (in multiple cities)
- rising basketball profile
- time zone compatible with Rio (since the tournaments are close together, players would likely prefer)
- Steve Nash
- cheaper location than other cities (yay poor economy!)

Yep. Toronto & GTA has a bunch of shiny new athletic facilities leftover from the Pan-Am games, that really need to be used to start recouping some tax dollars. Might as well put them to a good use, like home-court advantage and hopefully light a fire under Wiggins.

[Axel]

Yep. Toronto & GTA has a bunch of shiny new athletic facilities leftover from the Pan-Am games, that really need to be used to start recouping some tax dollars. Might as well put them to a good use, like home-court advantage and hopefully light a fire under Wiggins.

Raptors 905 court is facility that comes to mind. How many competing sites can offer NBA affiliated facilities?

[rocwell]

Raptors 905 court is facility that comes to mind. How many competing sites can offer NBA affiliated facilities?

what so special about playing in NBA affiliated facility though?!

[golden]

Come on Cody, you're better than this. We lost. We fouled the guy and put the ref in a tough position where someone would complain regardless of the decision.

But none of that is Venezuela's fault. They earned this gold. Sour grapes and poor sportsmanship won't change that.

Like CoJo said, it should never even have come down to that (correct) call. It was an epic collapse at the worst possible moment and Team Canada has to look in the mirror, starting with Nash and Triano. At least CoJo manned up and took some responsibility. It can't just be "it was a great learning experience for our young guys".

Like big boi posted, Venezuela took away the up-tempo game, but were getting destroyed by Olynyk and Nicholson in the post, yet Canada failed to adjust. That game was highly winnable, even as bad as they played, which clearly demonstrates the talent gap. Would love to see Triano man up a little and admit he could have done things a bit better, in addition to just throwing the "young guys" under the bus. I'm expecting that we'll being hearing that mantra/excuse for the next 5 years until 2020.

[JimiCliff]

I blame the Ven loss entirely on youth and inexperience. The Canadian team literally looked like boys playing against men. Timid; unlearned; bullied. Nothing the coaches could have done - although, I think that having the veteran presence of a Carl English could have been a big help in a game like that, so I suppose you could fault Nash there.

[Axel]

what so special about playing in NBA affiliated facility though?!

Nothing special but in terms of known quality standards I'd think it would be ranked fairly high.

[GLF]

Like CoJo said, it should never even have come down to that (correct) call. It was an epic collapse at the worst possible moment and Team Canada has to look in the mirror, starting with Nash and Triano. At least CoJo manned up and took some responsibility. It can't just be "it was a great learning experience for our young guys".

Like big boi posted, Venezuela took away the up-tempo game, but were getting destroyed by Olynyk and Nicholson in the post, yet Canada failed to adjust. That game was highly winnable, even as bad as they played, which clearly demonstrates the talent gap. Would love to see Triano man up a little and admit he could have done things a bit better, in addition to just throwing the "young guys" under the bus. I'm expecting that we'll being hearing that mantra/excuse for the next 5 years until 2020.

Throwing the young guys under the bus is such a Casey thing to do. Can never take blame for anything.

[big boi]

I blame the Ven loss entirely on youth and inexperience. The Canadian team literally looked like boys playing against men. Timid; unlearned; bullied. Nothing the coaches could have done - although, I think that having the veteran presence of a Carl English could have been a big help in a game like that, so I suppose you could fault Nash there.

Sure, in hindsight it probably made sense to have another primary ball handler on the squad, instead of say, Robert Sacre, who didn't feature when it mattered. How much of that selection decision was Nash and how much was Triano, we don't know.

In that game there was absolutely things that could have been done. First, take a time out. Tell the team we're going to slow the game down and play a half court offence. In order to get the ball over half court in time, we're going to have X player (best inbound passer) inbound every time. Then we're going to have Corey Joaeph come back to collect the ball every time. If they trap that, rub him off a screen. When Joseph passes and moves the ball goes back to him. When Joseph out insert Heslop or even Scrubb.

What we shouldn't have had is every player handling the ball and trying to push it up the court, falling exactly in to the trap(s). Getting stripped and making bad decisions with the ball, leading to turnovers. Olynyk bringing the ball up should have been a help move, not our primary ball handler. He should have been an outlet, before setting up the half court offence.

Recognize that olynyk could score at will inside. Either add Nicholson, probably our best post player, and go 2 post players. Or ensure that one of them on at all times. It could have also allowed Olynyk to rest as would have not expecting him to the bring the ball up as well as score.

In the half court offence: Make Venezuela stop either Nicholson or Olynyk inside (they couldn't). Run a high low motion offence. Or one on each block. If one of them is doubled pass out of the double team to an open shooter or to a player with good position (both Olynyck and Nicholson are decent passers).

The number one focus should have been to take care of the basketball. And I didn't observe any significant plan or adjustment to do that.

[jerome]

it's been a couple days since the heart breaking loss and hopefully everyone has had a chance to calm down.

Despite the tough finish, this was still an amazing summer for basketball in Canada. We got the silver medal in the Pan Am games, we dominated Tuto Machant and 90% of the Fiba America Championship. We have way more talent than any country other than the USA. And Triano, despite his pitfalls, have installed a run-and-gun offense for the team, which jerome thinks is a perfect fit for the talents we have and very much entertaining to watch (he also managed getting the kids to play good defense). Hopefully the coaches and management has learned something from this year and will be making improvements to make our system more robust in the future. We are definitely on the rise and will only be better for next year, and the years to come.

We still have one last chance at qualifying next summer, the tournament format isn't clearly explained anywhere but it'll be three 6-team tournament of some sort, and the winner of each tournament will qualify. So again, luck will be heavily involved, but Canada should try to host one of these tournaments!

[Cody73]

Come on Cody, you're better than this. We lost. We fouled the guy and put the ref in a tough position where someone would complain regardless of the decision.

But none of that is Venezuela's fault. They earned this gold. Sour grapes and poor sportsmanship won't change that.

My thoughts are this: Canada gave into pressure and fucked up.


I wanted to see the Olympics....

[golden]

I blame the Ven loss entirely on youth and inexperience. The Canadian team literally looked like boys playing against men. Timid; unlearned; bullied. Nothing the coaches could have done - although, I think that having the veteran presence of a Carl English could have been a big help in a game like that, so I suppose you could fault Nash there.

Not to pick on you, Jimi, because I usually agree with your posts, but this is a typical Canadian "losing is expected and blissfully accepted" type of attitude, that exists in almost every Canadian sport except hockey. If somebody read your post without seeing the game and the score, you would assume that a bunch of newbie Canadian kids got steam-rolled by experienced FIBA vets. Yet Canada was leading the game by 5 pts late, despite playing as bad or worse than anybody could have imagined. In a game this close, it comes down to 1 or 2 plays that make the difference (in this case, one play).

Now people are acting like, well we should have all expected this and there is absolutely nothing that could have been done to change this pre-ordained outcome. Like big boi posted, just one adjustment to eliminate one turnover or get one basket and Canada still learns their lesson while still qualifying for 2016.

At some point, talent trumps veteran savvy, otherwise you've got a built-in excuse for failure for half a decade or so. And somehow it's being glossed over that the "experienced veteran" Doornekamp is the guy who made that bone-head reaching foul that gave Venezuela the reason to review the call. He was deliberately subbed into the game at the timeout for that play, specifically. Again, in a game like this, just one adjustment can make a difference in the outcome and it did (in the wrong way, unfortunately).

Not calling for anybody's head here, but when people talk about a the team having a brain cramp or sphincter tightening, I think it's the whole team, not just the players.

[Axel]

My thoughts are this: Canada gave into pressure and fucked up.


I wanted to see the Olympics....

Well they didn't cancel the Olympics

Now we just have to really earn it. Builds character

[JimiCliff]

Not to pick on you, Jimi, because I usually agree with your posts, but this is a typical Canadian "losing is expected and blissfully accepted" type of attitude, that exists in almost every Canadian sport except hockey. If somebody read your post without seeing the game and the score, you would assume that a bunch of newbie Canadian kids got steam-rolled by experienced FIBA vets. Yet Canada was leading the game by 5 pts late, despite playing as bad or worse than anybody could have imagined. In a game this close, it comes down to 1 or 2 plays that make the difference (in this case, one play).

I'd argue that Canada did get steamrolled, in that they should have won the game by 25, and yet they lost by 2.

And I don't think it's an excuse to say they lost because they're young and inexperienced. Basketball seems to be, for whatever reason, a sport where you need to take your lumps and losses before breaking through to the top. The NBA certainly works like that - even generational talents like Jordan, Shaq, Kobe and Lebron had a bunch of tough playoff losses before winning a title.

I'd also argue that, just based on the personalities of this group playing for team Canada - which doesn't really have a single dominant/alpha/leader type - the youth and lack of experience was even more crucial. That's why I think Murray is going to be key to the success of this team going forward, because he seems like the one guy who can step into that role.

[SkywalkerAC]

I'd argue that Canada did get steamrolled, in that they should have won the game by 25, and yet they lost by 2.

And I don't think it's an excuse to say they lost because they're young and inexperienced. Basketball seems to be, for whatever reason, a sport where you need to take your lumps and losses before breaking through to the top. The NBA certainly works like that - even generational talents like Jordan, Shaq, Kobe and Lebron had a bunch of tough playoff losses before winning a title.

I'd also argue that, just based on the personalities of this group playing for team Canada - which doesn't really have a single dominant/alpha/leader type - the youth and lack of experience was even more crucial. That's why I think Murray is going to be key to the success of this team going forward, because he seems like the one guy who can step into that role.

You gotta hope that Wiggins can grow into that role as well. Hopefully this was a good lesson for him because he's got a lot of work to do to become any kind of takeover player. His ability to power into his finishing step with the dribble (ala Lebron, Harden, DeMar, Ginobili, et al) needs to get a lot better.

Having a 3-ball ready-to-go at his tender age won't hurt though.