Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign welcome to the Canadian Basketball show, your go to spot for the latest news stories and analysis on Canadian basketball. I'm your host Lee Ben Osman. Canada Basketball training camp for the senior men's national team for the FIBA World cup qualifiers is officially underway. It was a long, long day.
[00:00:25] Canada Basketball handed me up at 7am for a press conference on a Monday of all days. I'll give you a rundown of the day, how it went, insight from Gordy Herbert, the new head coach of the team, players like Shay Gilgis, Alexander speaking for the first time, Dylan Brooks, Nikhil Alexander, Walker also speaking and others.
[00:00:46] And yeah, the biggest takeaways from camp if you're not already leave a five star rating and review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. I got a lot of fun stuff planned in the next coming weeks. I'll be heading out to summer league actually next week and I'm trying to get a player on the pot while I'm out there. And I'll be traveling to then Augusta, Georgia for Peach Jam eybl. I'm actually going early to Vegas to catch some of the last sessions of the EYBL games and then summer league should be fun. If you're going to be out there, hit me up. Let's, let's chat, let's connect, but let's break down this roster for Canada, give you a full rundown afterwards of the day's events. And I also made a call out on social media fielding for some questions about camp stuff that you guys want to know. So I'll answer that at the end of this podcast.
[00:01:40] But yeah, 16 players in camp.
[00:01:43] I think only 12 players will make the roster for the games.
[00:01:47] Let's go through it. Nikhil Alexander, Walker, Charles Bediako, Aaron Best, Ken Burch, Dillon Brooks, Marcus Carr, Keyshawn George, Shay Gilgis Alexander, Mafondu Cabingeli, Thomas Kennedy, Leonard Miller, Andrew Nemhard, Ryan Nemhard, Cassius Robinson, Jackson Rowe and Kyle Wilcher. Seven out of the 16 players are NBA guys. Pretty good turnout if you ask me. Guys that are expected to be in camp might already be in camp but not playing are Lou Dort, Ben Mathurin, Kelly Olenek, Dwight Powell, RJ Barrett and Zach Edie. I've seen four out of six of these guys in camp on the first day. The last two guys RJ Barrett, Zach Edie, nowhere to be found.
[00:02:41] I got a lot of questions from people on social media asking me where is RJ Barrett? That's the biggest question right that's the biggest question.
[00:02:52] And I'll just say I'm kind of shocked that people are asking this.
[00:03:00] By the time I'm recording this, it's Monday evening and a trade could go down by the next few minutes, the next hours, maybe the next days, who knows?
[00:03:14] But there's a guy named Kawhi Leonard who might be traded to Toronto, and it's not 100% guaranteed that RJ will be involved in that trade. I know it's been reported that the Raptors prefer to part ways with Brandon Ingram instead, but there seems to be a holdup on that trade right now, and who knows what that is.
[00:03:41] RJ Barrett is also contract extension legible.
[00:03:46] When that happens. Guys usually don't play for the national team until things get resolved, obviously to kind of be patient, not risk injury of some sort, especially during a non World cup or Olympic year. It makes no sense for RJ to put himself in that situation. I'm trying to think back to his, his playing days with the New York Knicks and if he did play or not with Canada during that time. But that might have been also during like his rookie extension years. So it was like guaranteed he was going to get a deal done. But yeah, I haven't felt this anxious to be honest about a trade in a while, man.
[00:04:27] It's kind of crazy. It's feeling like somewhere 2018, you know.
[00:04:32] But yeah, the biggest question was RJ Barrett not being at camp.
[00:04:39] And I was a bit shocked that he wasn't even there, to be honest with you, because other guys that are up as free agents, Lou Dort just got his deal done. In the last few hours, Ben Matheran, the Clippers have tendered a qualifying offer making him a restricted free agent.
[00:04:59] In Lou's case, they exercised his team option. But these guys were in camp while they had this situation going on, you know, Kelly Olenek is an unrestricted free agent. He's in camp.
[00:05:12] So I think a lot of people were wondering, like, why isn't RJ around?
[00:05:18] My best guess is that the Raptors probably told him, hey, just lay low for a few days. He's probably hollowed up in Mississauga somewhere. You know, that's my guess. My best guess. But yeah, no RJ Barrett in camp.
[00:05:33] But other guys, like Zach Eady is not playing this summer, but he's expected to be around camp. He's still recovering from a left ankle injury and he's been out since I think December, but he's not expected to play.
[00:05:47] And the other person, Dwight Powell, I Don't know if Dwight Powell's a free agent this summer, but my guess too is like you have guys like Dwight Kelly, they did their time, you know, they're probably giving them time off for service. You know, I don't know if that's the thing in the military, but you know, when you take like paid vacation from work, that kind of reminds me of Kelly and Dwight in the situation. That's kind of what I think about for them. They did their time, who knows if they're going to be part of the core moving forward, but they'll be around. They'll be great voices, great veteran presence.
[00:06:21] I saw those for Lou Dor, Ben Mather and Kelly, Dwight. They're all like working out, working out, just lifting weights, that kind of stuff. And then a bunch of them got got up, shot shots late. I'll get into maybe some of the stuff that I saw later on too. But yeah, if you're a can of basketball fan, man, or you're within the program, this is a good turnout, a really good turnout. If you are Canada basketball.
[00:06:46] Yeah. Let me go through the entire day.
[00:06:50] I Woke up at 7am for this press conference at an undisclosed hotel in downtown Toronto.
[00:07:00] Not your normal press conference, I would say.
[00:07:04] Gordy Herbert and Rowan Barrett spoke first. Kind of same messaging they had maybe at their last press conference and they didn't take any questions, but instead they invited Shay, Dylan and Nikhil to the podium and they did like a Q and A type of style.
[00:07:28] And in the audience was the media, some people from Canada, basketball, and then a bunch of reserved sections. I was like, a lot of people have reserved sections, but the reserve section was for the players and all of them were there right before they're about to head out to their first official practice at the Mattamy Athletics Center. It was, I thought it was, I thought it set the tone, you know, just having all those guys, guys maybe playing for the first time, hitting, hearing from Shea, Nikhil, Dylan, guys that are pillars, that are core pieces within this program, you know, getting to hear from them and just takeaways like Nikhil I think said it best. It's like for them, they're just so excited to play with guys they grew up with, you know, guys they played against, growing up, some of their homies, you know, like, I think Nikhil said he played with Marcus Carr when they were in, I don't know if it was, he said sixth grade or like they were six years old, but they've been playing together for a while and there's Just a lot of banter. You could just see, like, Shay and Dylan, they have this fun little rivalry, but when they put on that Canada jersey, it's just love. And it's like, this is my brother. We're going to go to battle. And Dylan says something about, like, when I'm guarding Shay in the league, I want to tackle him. Like, that was a funny moment from the presser, you know, and he just talked about, like, Shai's ability to be unfazed in moments and. And how he's not rattled and.
[00:09:03] Yeah, and he basically said that's why he's the captain of our team. And it was later confirmed by Gordy Herbert that Shai is the captain for Canada going forward.
[00:09:14] Him and Dylan, a bit of co captains. Last time it was Kelly Olenek, Dwight Powell.
[00:09:21] But I think it's important to have Shea as your captain, the best player arguably in the world. Dylan Brooks, your emotional leader.
[00:09:30] I think it's important to have those guys as your captains. It says a lot, too, that they're willing to step into that role, you know, and my biggest thing was just hearing from Dylan how important commitment was for him.
[00:09:48] Like, he talked about a meeting that they had last summer at the AmeriCup where all the guys got together.
[00:09:55] We had President and CEO Michael Barlet on, and he mentioned this meeting about them all buying in and talking about what it will take and when you get your two best players. Talking about, yeah, commitment is important.
[00:10:11] Dylan mentioning the highs and the lows and how much he learned from losing to Brazil in the FIBA World cup in 2023 and how it helped them later on in the tournament.
[00:10:20] And they only have four days, Four days of practice, when you think about it, which is insane to get familiar with each other. I don't know if they did much in their first practice because, like, what do you expect? Guys are just getting in.
[00:10:38] Like, Ken Burch, I think, was playing overseas, like, five, six days ago. That's what Gordy Herbert was saying. So it's like these guys, man, shout out to them and their commitment.
[00:10:48] They understand what's in front of them. That's the message that I also got.
[00:10:53] I felt like everybody understood what they could really accomplish in the red and white.
[00:11:01] And Dylan said it perfectly. He said, quote, unquote, our time is now. We have a lot of talent.
[00:11:07] They see that gold is achievable.
[00:11:13] And it speaks a lot when it comes from your top guys, you know, like, it's not.
[00:11:17] They're not thinking that this cycle you can come in and out.
[00:11:24] It's very important for them to get things done in Shay. I thought he was in his bag with this one quote he gave me.
[00:11:33] He said something like, logistics are difficult, but playing for your country isn't.
[00:11:38] Bro wants to be Drake part time, I think.
[00:11:41] And he talked about like, for him it's not a burden playing for Canada. He always dreamed about it as a kid and you kind of hear them talk about like memories they had playing in the Olympics, the love that they have. So it was cool. This press conference was cool.
[00:11:56] I enjoyed the three player format because often you get to hear them play off each other, sometimes joke with each other. I thought it was cool, possibly intentional from Canada basketball, maybe having those three guys speak directly to the media and also speak to some of the players that are going to be playing with them and fighting for a role on this team that you have these three at the head of the table leading you.
[00:12:26] That's big time.
[00:12:28] I just wish it kind of went a bit longer, to be honest. I think they spoke for maybe like 10, 11 minutes max. So like sometimes it's like that's not enough, to be honest with you. But they had to go to practice, you know, had to go to practice. It was in the morning, so I understand it.
[00:12:43] A few hours after the press conference, Canada held some scrums.
[00:12:48] They had Andrew Nemhard and Ryan Nemhard. Both speak.
[00:12:52] Nothing crazy really came from those scrums, to be honest.
[00:12:56] Andrew Nimhard had a good quote where he said, canada has the best guards in the world.
[00:13:03] I'd agree with him, to be honest, in feeble competition.
[00:13:08] And Gordy also said he doesn't know how he's going to manage all these guards. He kind of joked. He said, I have no idea, but it's a good problem to have, you know. So I asked Ryan Nemhard if he plans to play summer league. He said he does, which makes me wonder if he's going to play both games against Puerto Rico and Jamaica or if he plays just one game and then heads over to summer league. But yeah, shout out to Ryan Nehemiah. Being committed like that, you know, because the game against Jamaica is on the 6th. Summer League starts July 9th and you got to get with your team before that oftentimes. Right.
[00:13:45] I just hope in one of these games, Gordy gives me a backcourt of the cousins, Shane Akil and then a backcourt of the brothers, Ryan Nemhardt, Andrew Nemhardt, that would be cool. I think they both talked about how Ryan and Andrew haven't played together since, like seventh grade, which is kind of crazy, but it'll be cool. Cool to see them get some run together.
[00:14:08] Very similar players. You can see just the way they move on the court.
[00:14:12] But also Ryan is also just a wizard with the ball in his hands. Andrew has advanced his game a lot since entering the league, becoming a scorer.
[00:14:22] So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens, how Canada looks. They have to get down to 12 players, I believe. So I wonder how that's going to go and how they prioritize certain guys.
[00:14:37] Yeah, I'm trying to think of what else was interesting in camp before I get into these questions from you guys.
[00:14:44] But overall, pretty tiring day. I ain't gonna lie to you. I just want a nap after this, but I don't want to in case Kawhi Leonard gets traded to Toronto. How crazy would that be? This bro left. He said, I want to trade the snow Kawaii and dine. Free food. We offered this guy free food.
[00:15:08] Free food. And he said, nah, I want to go live in la.
[00:15:13] They don't love you in LA like we. We did, man.
[00:15:17] So it'll be interesting to see because I think he's gonna be asked straight off the gate, like, did you regret leaving?
[00:15:23] It'll be interesting to see his answer on that kind of stuff.
[00:15:27] I'll say this too, before I get into some of the questions. It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces in terms of, like, support staff at training camp, helping around, like, trainers, coaches, all that. All that stuff within the space from a lot of different programs, whether it's prep school coaches. I saw in the gym with Canada basketball, some probably for the first time with the senior team getting the opportunity. I thought that was really cool for me kind of basketball, investing in those guys and getting people from all levels within the Canadian basketball ecosystem. But, yeah, let's get into your questions. I don't want to make this a long podcast, but kind of wanted to give you guys a takeaways from. From day one from training camp. And the first question here, why aren't they training at OVO Athletic Center?
[00:16:19] The answer is simple. The FIFA World cup is happening, like, a few minutes away, plain and simple. The traffic is insane to get from place to place. And that's the reason why, yeah, FIFA is taking over. I've been covering the World Cup. The fan marches are literally some of the coolest things I've seen culturally.
[00:16:42] The sport brings out everybody.
[00:16:46] Iraq had a crazy march.
[00:16:49] Germany took over the lakeshore I couldn't believe what I was seeing in my eyes. Bosnia on the first day.
[00:16:56] I couldn't believe that.
[00:16:57] And now Ronaldo is set to play in Toronto in the knockout.
[00:17:05] The ticket prices, Good Lord. Good luck to anybody. I was looking at it the other day.
[00:17:10] Good luck getting into that stadium. I'll be there, though. I ain't trying to make a joke out of it, but I'll be there, which is going to be fun covering that.
[00:17:19] But yeah, that's the reason why, man, like Ronaldo versus Luca Mardrich, Croatia, man, it's going to be insane. But yeah, they can't use OVO Athletic center because of the World cup and just the traffic that's going to. They couldn't be able to get from place to place. But that's the reason why I'll also say this, being at the Matamy Athletic center, and I'm saying this as a person that went to that school, but their trading gym doesn't compare to the ovo. Like, it's not even close, man. Like, we're talking about where TMU plays basketball.
[00:17:53] Like, that's kind of how bad it is right now with the traffic and just the way things are in the city.
[00:17:59] But yeah, some of the guys that weren't playing, like I said, I seen Lou, those guys working out. But imagine Lou Door, Ben Main, I think it was Kelly Linick. I saw Dwight Powell. Imagine them working out in one of those, like, like a good life. And then random strangers also working out near them. That's literally what was happening at the Madame Athletic center during, like, camp. So that was kind of funny to see.
[00:18:28] But yeah, you got to do what you got to do, right? You got to. You got use what you can.
[00:18:32] Next question here. Why no Will Riley?
[00:18:36] That's a good question. From what I've heard, he's focused on his development right now, as he should be. He's going to be playing summer league with the Washington Wizards. From what I know.
[00:18:47] I don't know if he. I don't know if he even plays this summer, to be honest with you. I'll be at summer league, so it'll be fun to catch up with Will.
[00:18:55] I know everyone is excited for the Darren Peterson AJ DebonSA game to open up, but Will Riley might steal that show. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes and he has a game, especially what he did to end the season.
[00:19:12] Man, it'll be interesting. But yeah, I know Will Riley, at least for this session. We'll see. See in August, if he shows up how much usage do you foresee sga, Dylan Brooks, etc to have usual minutes? Honestly, maybe like not as like not playoffs, maybe a bit less than NBA. But Gordy talked about, like I mentioned, like there's such little time to coach these guys, get them acclimated with each other. They have four practices, like I said, which is crazy. So you're going to want these guys to get out there and play. So I expect them to get some time out there.
[00:19:54] I do see him maybe mixing and matching a lot to see what works. Trying to get some different lineups with different looks so he gets some, some data on that kind of stuff. But yeah, I expect, I mean Chase playing in Hamilton, I don't think he's going to want to play like 10 minutes, you know, so I expect him to play quite a bit. I think the last time he played in the FIBA World cup qualifiers in 2022, he had like 30 points.
[00:20:19] So the guy is going to play. He's going to play, he's going to put on a show, especially in his hometown.
[00:20:24] So if you haven't got tickets, go get tickets, man. She's going to put on a show. It'll be fun to watch.
[00:20:30] But yeah, these guys want to play. That's kind of like what the message that I got you might see maybe reduced roles from guys that might have other commitments coming up, like Ryan Nampar, like I mentioned mentioned, like if he's playing summer league, he might not, you know, go full out.
[00:20:46] So we'll see.
[00:20:48] Are they planning to bring guys like A.J. lawson, Delano, Benson, Omax Prosper in case of availability issues?
[00:20:57] I kind of doubt it right now.
[00:20:59] At least in the case of AJ and Delano. I don't see it necessary to be real with you. You got a lot of guards already.
[00:21:07] You're likely not calling those guys up because you already have a plethora. Like why, why do that? Omax maybe. I'm still a bit shocked that Canada basketball denied him when he was interested in playing. Like he put his hand up in Canada basketball, said no thanks.
[00:21:24] I was a bit shocked that he wasn't included in the, in the player pool.
[00:21:30] But yeah, I wouldn't expect, especially with, with Gordy as a head coach, he doesn't like new guys just jumping in and not being familiar with this system. So yeah, and on the big takeaway, like Jordan talked about, they're going to be playing a FIBA NBA style meshed together and that, that's the, the model style that Shay put his hand up first and said we have to do this.
[00:21:55] It's not going to be the way USA Basketball plays. Like, they're gonna be playing FIBA style mixed with NBA. So expect a lot of that.
[00:22:08] Who seems motivated, slash hungry to make an impression on the coaching staff? It's kind of hard to tell after day one, to be honest with you, but I do think that's probably the younger guys on this training camp roster. Maybe guys like Leonard, Miller, Keyshawn, George Ryan, Nemhard.
[00:22:33] It's kind of big for them to be here. What do you think about it? Those guys just a few years removed from being drafted, like, those guys have a lot to learn still, and, man, they're going to want to prove that they belong, you know, on this stage, Especially with guys that have won at the highest level, especially the guys that are part of the core. I don't feel like they have really anything to prove.
[00:23:03] Maybe not anything to prove, but, like, I feel like you don't have to get Dillon Brooks motivated to play in FIBO or any game, you know what I'm saying? But I feel like the younger guys that are seeing maybe the last few roster spots at a World cup or Olympics up for grabs, they probably feel like they have a lot to prove, a lot of hunger, you know what I'm saying? So Ben Matheran, to me, showing up when he's a restricted free agent, it's kind of huge if you ask me. He seems like he's bought in.
[00:23:38] Briefly chatted with him, he seems like he's really bought in. So I'm excited for. For Ben Matheran and won't be playing this window, but probably plays the next one.
[00:23:50] Shout out to guys, especially like. Like I said, Kim Bir, man, to me, that shows hunger. You know, you finish your season five, six days ago and you're in camp, that's a different type of hunger, you know. So shout out to Kim Burch.
[00:24:06] Next question here was wondering why the original guys picked are not there now.
[00:24:13] Like I said, some guys are going to be playing in different windows, right? So July window, some guys are going to play, and then in the August window in Quebec, other guys are going to play.
[00:24:22] I think it's safe to assume the guys from Quebec are going to be playing in the August game, which is going to be in their hometown. Like Lou Dort, Ben Matheran. I didn't really expect them to play in July because of the contract stuff that they're dealing with. And then, I mean, come on, wouldn't you want to go home to. To see your friends and family playing there do and put on a show over there. I think that's going to be huge. But I wouldn't read too much into it until August on who doesn't and doesn't play because at that point we know who's in and who's out because Gordy Herbert said it. You got to commit this summer. So if you're not around camp, if you're not in the gym with these guys in any of these sessions, that's something to know.
[00:25:12] Unless you're Zach Eddie, right? I think Zach Eddie gets a pass because he's injured and you need, you need that big man. You need him. Zach Eaty. I don't care if you don't show up.
[00:25:23] You're signed up to me. And I also think Gordon Herbert was talking about they did a big man camp. They had that done. I'm not sure how many players exactly were part of it, but doesn't seem like it was a lot.
[00:25:35] But they did the big man cut before training camp. And yeah, I'm looking to find more info, details about that, how it went, all that kind of stuff. So stay tuned for that kind of stuff and next question here. Did they share why no RJ Matheran, Lou and Kelly not playing?
[00:25:54] Like I said earlier, contract stuff. Kelly free agent.
[00:26:00] I wonder, to be honest, if he's going to be in the league after this was with the San Antonio spurs, didn't play much. Obviously it's the San Antonio spurs at the end of the day. But yeah, I just wonder for Kelly and Dwight what their future kind of looks like with the national team.
[00:26:17] I kind of see value in them still.
[00:26:21] But then I'm also kind of like in a year or two, I kind of want to see some of these younger guys that are, that can play crucial minutes, kind of get that opportunity, you know, like a Keshan George, those guys. And that kind of leads into. Let's do one more question, like who are you most excited to see play?
[00:26:42] Kean George, to me is by far the one player I'm excited to see play.
[00:26:48] I view him as, no pun intended, a Swiss army knife. I know he SW from Switzerland, but play last summer I thought he looked really good with the ball in his hands. Took a leap in his sophomore season with Washington and he's been in the gym all summer. From what I've been told, 5am sessions in Washington, this guy's committed. He looks a bit different, a little haircut, little trim.
[00:27:15] Now I'm eager to see how does he look with guys like Shai, Dillon, Brooks, the kill, all those guys. How does Keyshaw look with more players by his side? I think that's the biggest question.
[00:27:38] But yeah, those are the biggest takeaways from trading Cam. Somebody didn't leave a comment. Didn't leave a question, but left a comment saying care effing weight.
[00:27:51] I'm with you brother.
[00:27:52] Now we're just getting started.
[00:27:55] This will lead into the World cup next year and then the Olympics the year after the World cup happening. Qatar, a lot of stuff just getting started. The age group stuff going on. FIBA U17 kind of a disappointing start so far. We'll see how they do in the next few games. But USA is looking tough as many expected. They probably won the tournament easily. But yeah, a lot of stuff happening. Go get your tickets. July 3, July 6.
[00:28:27] It'll be a great opportunity to see Canada's stars in action.
[00:28:33] I want to check Ticketmaster. I keep checking just to see if the tickets how they do it, but I'm a little concerned if they're going to sell out which is kind of crazy.
[00:28:44] You get to watch Shay in Hamilton and you're not selling out.
[00:28:52] We got to do better, man. We got to do better as a Canadian basketball fans. We got to do better as a community just to go support watch these guys.
[00:29:04] And yeah, those are the takeaways. My biggest takeaways from camp.
[00:29:11] Training camp for Canada basketball FIBA World cup qualifiers officially underway.
[00:29:18] Like I said at the top, leave a five star rating and review.
[00:29:22] I'll be out. Summer league next week will be fun.
[00:29:27] I might do some like live blogging. Like I, I wanna, I got meta glasses recently and I wanna start recording my experience out there. Let me know if people are interested in that kind of stuff. I feel like we got to post more on the ig that kind of stuff. But yeah, let me know what you guys want to see. Any stuff from summer league you're interested in. Like I said, I'm trying to get a player. We're, we're close to locking it down, but we'll see. You know, sometimes schedule change for guys. So I'm really excited for Eybl Peach jab. Going to be out there as usual and watching Canada's next rising stars.
[00:30:04] Yeah.
[00:30:05] Stay tuned. Follow along.
[00:30:07] This has been the Canadian Basketball show your go to spot for latest news stories and analysis on Canadian basketball. I've been your host, Steve Ben Osmond and we out.
