My Two Cents: The Senior Men's National Team will Qualify for Spain in Venuezuela

After some much anticipated waiting, about a year to be exact, the Senior Men's National Team will be playing for something significant:  a spot in the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain in 2014.  But to get there, the team must grab one of four spots in Caracas over the next few days at the FIBA Americas Championships.  Can Ball Ray spent a late night babbling on why he thinks the team will find it's way into the top four slots and punch their ticket this time around ...

The Senior Men’s National Team are done with their exhibition games are primed for the big show, the FIBA Americas Championship.  All the marbles are on the line now and by all the marbles I mean one of the coveted automatic bids to the FIBA Basketball World Cup next summer.  This will be a big step for Canada Basketball to have the men qualify for this particular world basketball event after the new hope was ushered in by the appointment of Steve Nash to the National Program as general manager but is it a step that will be taken by this group of players at this time?

Looking at the bodies assembled on this current SMNT, there is no question that there is incredible talent.  This has to be one of the most decorated group of players that have worn the Red and White in a long time.  We’re looking at four current NBA players three of which are NBA First Round Draftees, two former NBA players, five European professionals, one former and one current NCAA player.  If you look at past rosters from the last eight summers, there may have been one guy who’d have played in the League.  We are in the boon of the burgeoning talent pool that Canada has been steadily producing in the last four to six years for sure.  The team’s collective goal is the get to the FIBA Basketball World Cup next summer but the question entered my mind:  Are we expecting too much from the SMNT this early in the new direction of the program?

The coming of Steve Nash has brought some new blood and hope to the program that may have been sorely lacking and possibly even waning after the team failed to qualify for the Olympics due largely to the disappointing results at the FIBA World Championships in 2010.  The return of Canada Basketball’s prodigal son has brought along the commitment of the young elite players that may not have been available in the recent past also.  The program needed this infusion and it comes at the perfect time.  But with the inflated talent pool come the raised expectations.

Can our Men’s National Program make that incredible turnaround in short time as one summer?   This will depend on how you look at the team and the program as a whole. 

Individually, I think that the mix of new, young, experienced and skill is what has been sorely lacking in the last few summers for the SMNT.  The parts are all there to make a very formidable team:  tough ball-handlers, outside shooters, tough rebounders, slashers, do-dirt guys, interior and perimeter defenders, and international experience.  There has always been a size issue for Canada for international events but they have seemed to make up for it with team play and this team should be no exception.  The SMNT has always played a scrappy type of basketball largely because they needed to.  The parts that made up these teams were largely underappreciated basketball players that really had to work to earn their minutes, their jobs and their money from high school, to college/university and the pros.  The ones that make up this team are more NBA than anything else now.  With that being said, the expectations were just propelled into the stratosphere by just about everyone. 

Well, here’s how I see it.

The casual basketball fans will assume that, yes, this team should qualify by virtue of there being NBA players on the team so the expectations are warranted.  The astute basketball fan will realize that this team, and program, is still learning and growing together and that this may or may not be the summer for the team to really take the leap into the vast improvement category.  To the casual and astute fans credit, there are four spots available to qualify for next summer’s event.  That means a four in ten shot at getting in now and bypassing next year’s world qualifying tournament that will be much harder to come out of with a ticket.  This will likely be the best way for Canada to get into the Basketball World Cup but can they do it?

The showing that the SMNT put on at the Tuto Marchand Cup in Puerto Rico a few days ago would have you scratching your head, much like it may have the rest of the Canadian basketball fans.  But as my colleague Drew Ebanks of On Point had said, they may have been holding back some and this makes sense.  Why would they go all out when they have to really play a few days later?  At this level, everyone should already know what everyone is running in terms of plays and defenses so the real advantage will be health.  Keeping something in the bag for later is what the SMNT will need for sure. 

In my mind, I think yes this set of players can qualify for Spain in 2014.  The team has the players, the depth at each position and right amount of experience and athleticism to counter the lack of true bigs and overall muscle.  There is just enough of everything that, if healthy, can really take teams by surprise.  Having won against Jamaica in Toronto in back-to-back games was the precursor to how the team can play.  Puerto Rico, despite the losses, showed that the players could come in, play hard and contribute in spot minutes while also staying competitive which is incredibly important in an international tournament.  The elements that the SMNT was just short of in the past are all here now and the big show is about to begin.

All we’re waiting for now is for the ref to toss the ball up in Venezuela.