Canada has never had a stronger basketball team — if everyone actually plays

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If you’re a basketball fan it’s easy to get excited about the roster Canada Basketball unveiled this week for the upcoming men’s World Cup.

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Headlined by Jamal Murray, fresh off averaging over 26 points and seven assists per game in helping the Denver Nuggets win the first NBA title in franchise history, and by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who might already be the second-best Canadian hooper ever, behind only Steve Nash, the listed group is extremely formidable.

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On paper, the roster — which also includes former No. 3-overall selection R.J. Barrett and fellow NBA players Lu Dort, Dillon Brooks, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Cory Joseph and Oshae Brissett, plus the first-ever Canadian NCAA player of the year, 7-foot-4 Zach Edey and a handful of solid veterans — is easily the best this country has ever assembled.

And that’s even without Canada’s other elite player, Andrew Wiggins, and other solid NBAers like Bennedict Mathurin, Andrew Nembhard, Chris Boucher, Trey Lyles and Shaedon Sharpe.

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Gilgeous-Alexander is fresh off becoming just the second Canadian ever to make the all-NBA first team and was the first to average 30 points (31.4) a game. An unstoppable scorer despite being only an average three-point shooter, the Hamilton native has dominated all competition in his recent appearances for the white and red.

Murray, of Kitchener, is also a dominant scorer and Barrett, who hails from Mississauga, has played well internationally, as has the elder statesman Olynyk, who grew up in Toronto and Kamloops, B.C.

Dort, of Montreal and Brooks, of Mississauga, are two of the NBA’s best defenders and should thrive in FIBA ball, where physical play is tolerated more.

Powell and Edey, both Toronto natives, bring size and international experience, along with the Euroleague veterans like Brampton’s Melvin Ejim, Holland Landing’s Kevin Pangos and the former Carleton stars Phil and Thomas Scrubb, amongst others.

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Alexander-Walker, Gilgeous-Alexander’s cousin, also has played extremely well for Canada in the past.

The 32-team World Cup goes from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10 and Canada will start off with the group stage in Jakarta, Indonesia. Canada, ranked 15th in the world by FIBA but with the most NBA players only trailing the USA, is in one of the toughest groups.

France, ranked No. 5, is the toughest opponent (though super prospect Victor Wembanyama will not play for his country this summer as he prepares for the NBA), but Latvia (No. 29 and boasting giant Kristaps Porzingis, coming off a career season, and other solid shooters like Davis Bertans, plus some pesky guards) and Lebanon (No. 43) aren’t considered the pushovers their ranking might indicate.

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From there, the top two teams in Group H (France and Canada are the heavy favourites) would advance to meet the two best teams in Group G, which unfortunately should be Spain (currently ranked No. 1 in the world) and either Brazil (No. 13) or Iran (22), barring a huge underdog run by Ivory Coast (42).

Still, if everyone listed actually plays, this team can challenge anyone, perhaps even a strong-but-not-stacked American team (which will be led by Anthony Edwards, Brandon Ingram, Jaren Jackson Jr., Tyrese Haliburton, rookie of the year Paolo Banchero, Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson). Canada would not meet the U.S. until either the semifinals or final, meaning it’s possible to medal without beating the perennial favourite.

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All that said, the key is if everyone listed actually plays. It’s a bit surprising that Murray appears to be locked in, given his long season which followed well over a year off to recover from injury. Most stars would shut it down after the run Murray has had and focus on resting, before trying to repeat with Denver.

Based on the history of Canada Basketball (speaking of the men’s side only, the women always show up when called upon), until we see Murray and others actually in uniform and on the court next month, it’s more than fair to curb one’s enthusiasm. Though many have committed through next year’s Olympics, should Canada make the big event for the first time since Nash was the star in 2000, the head coach who secured those commitments, Nick Nurse, has already bailed, replaced by Sacramento assistant coach Jordi Fernandez.

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And we’ve seen rosters presented too many times, only to wonder where players are or why exactly they aren’t actually competing when the time comes to take this latest list as gospel.

Forgive us for throwing a bit of cold water on what should be a glorious time for hoops fans here, but in 2019 in China at the World Championship (since renamed the World Cup), of the NBA crop, only the reliable Olynyk and now-injured Khem Birch actually played. Canada finished 21st.

More recently, Murray had tweeted he’d be in, but could only attend and not participate last year. Brooks was supposed to be in last summer, too, but didn’t appear. There was constant “will he or won’t he” questions about Wiggins and Tristan Thompson over the years.

Some of the commitments have been just to attend camp and who knows from there. Hopefully this will be different.

Talent isn’t everything, of course. Wiggins, Barrett, Alexander-Walker and other NBAers were part of a more talented squad playing on home soil in Victoria in 2021 that was stunned by the Czech Republic, ending that Olympic dream.

But the goal of garnering commitments was to generate cohesion and chemistry, to complement the overwhelming talent. If this group takes the court and can bring it all together, Canada’s Olympic drought will be over.

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