Canada’s Pursuit Of Olympic Glory To Be Tested By ‘Group Of Death’

The golden age of basketball in Canada officially starts this summer.

Again.

Three Canadian teams will be making their way to Paris: the senior women’s team, a 3×3 women’s squad, and the men – who, after planting their flag on the basketball world in 2023 with a bronze medal in the FIBA World Cup — want to thrust further cement themselves on the global stage with an Olympic medal.

They have their hands full. After a week of qualifiers, Spain and Greece joined Canada and Australia in Group A. The top two teams will advance to the knockout stages, while a third team might squeeze into a wild-card spot depending on point differential.

Some call it the ‘Group of Death’. There’s some truth to that—Australia and Spain are ranked 5th and 2nd in the world, respectively, and the Greek side is armed with a motivated Giannis Antetokounmpo. Still, Canada should feel confident in its chances not just to do well but to win the group outright.

They have the star talent: perennial MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 2023 NBA champion Jamal Murray combine to make a star-studded Canadian backcourt.

“I drive. He shoots,” Gilgeous-Alexander joked during training camp when asked about how they’d mesh. Murray later confirmed the tactic.

They also have the depth to round out their core group. While the full roster isn’t set just yet they have seven additional NBA players who have competed in real playoff games. Six returners from the World Cup: RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, Lu Dort, Kelly Olynyk, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Dwight Powell. And two new additions this summer — the defensive-minded Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard and Trey Lyles; a versatile big man who’s been crucial to the Sacramento Kings versatility offensively.

Those are the likely locks. The other two spots will be decided in the coming weeks. Khem Birch, Melvin Ejim, Mfiondu Kabengele, and Phil and Thomas Scrubb continue to battle for the right to represent their country again.

They have the leadership: newly-appointed Brooklyn Nets Head Coach and lead man for Canada two summers running, Jordi Fernandez, who helped galvanize their 2023 group quickly, taking the job just a month before the tournament.

But as has been the case with this team — it’s not enough to ride on talent alone. The right set of players needs to come together to form an identity that bodes well for international play. Away from the comforts of the NBA’s pace and space style, these 12 players have to lean on their strengths as a team and hope it’s enough to put them over the top.

This was an oft-emphasized point during training camp this past week in Toronto.

“Most of the guys know a lot of the concepts,” Brooks told the media during camp. “So we can get right to it. It’s been competitive against each other. It speeds up the process. We have the chemistry already, and we know what we’re good at.”

The Men’s side knew what they were good at in the 2023 World Cup. They were the second-best offense in the tournament behind the United States. Gilgeous-Alexander led the way for the Canadian side, putting up over 24.5 points per game. They were the 4th best 3-point shooting team in the tournament.

However, there was one specific area that Canada trailed behind in Defense.

Canada was 13th in opponents’ points in the tournament. That’s good enough to get a medal in a World Cup that involved 32 teams, but in the 12-team format of Olympic basketball, they’ll need to be better than that, and they know it.

“By the end, we were the number one offense but 11th in shot quality,” said Head Coach Jordi Fernandez. “So we have to take better shots. We have to create better shots. But defensively, our ball pressure, multiple efforts, and shot contests were why we lost to Serbia; we didn’t contest shots.”

The 95 points they conceded to Serbia in the semi-final was the most they allowed up until that point in the tournament (they let the US score 118 in a win in the bronze medal game). The Serbs shot 42% from three and knocked down 71% of their looks inside the paint. It was a poor effort, as Fernandez said.

Things like that tend to only get exacerbated in the Olympics when the talent level is higher and each country puts out its best and brightest—especially in the front court. For example, Nikola Jokic is set to play for Serbia. Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert are going to be formidable forces for France, and the United States has imported Joel Embiid to help them on the inside.

This is, without a doubt, an area of concern for Canada. If there’s one department this team lacks, it’s size. With Memphis Grizzlies rookie Zach Edey withdrawing from international competition to focus on his NBA career this summer, it’ll likely be a collective effort to address the issue.

“Every single guy on this roster has to focus defensively for us to succeed,” said big man Dwight Powell – who anchored the interior for Canada in countless competitions, including the World Cup last summer. “There’s a role that needs to be played by the center in terms of anchoring the defense – or communicating throughout a possession, but that spot could be filled by guard or wing. So we all have to be ready to have each other’s backs and communicate at a level where we understand where we need each other to support ourselves defensively.”

Powell brings up a good point. The flow of any given possession in a basketball game forces players to wear multiple hats. In that regard, the Canadian side is versatile. Dort and Brooks are near the top of the list of peskiest defenders in the league, and both can defend bigger than they are. Nembhard and Alexander-Walker, for their part, are hounds at the point of attack. Ball pressure is a way this team can win defensively.

“I’m gonna come off the bench, just defend and provide playmaking,” said the 24-year-old Nembhard. “I think anybody can push the ball the way we play.”

Perhaps that’s where Canada’s true advantage lies. While SGA and Murray are undoubtedly the head of the snake, Canada has multiple creators and can play offensively in various ways. Why not just lean into that? Lyles, specifically, helps Canada achieve that.

“I’ve been on a few teams that I’ve stepped into that small ball five roles and excelled in that area,” Lyles told me. “So it’s something I think myself, Kelly, and other guys can easily do.”

The 5-out concept is something Dort and Gilgeous-Alexander are familiar with from their time with Chet Holmgren in OKC. Murray runs a potent 2-man game with Jokic in Denver and knows how to slither his way into open shots. And Olynyk and Barrett, two teammates on the Raptors now, work well as a post-hub and cutter. When Canada leans into its offensive identity — their avenues to score are abundant.

Still, a healthy mix is necessary in Olympic competitions. And that balance will be on Fernandez to strike.

“When he speaks, you listen. And he’s really direct,” Brooks said about his Coach. “He’s not scared to make calls. That’s what I love.”

Fernandez and his group will receive their first test in a friendly match in Las Vegas against the team they beat last summer: the United States. They revamped with older but more experienced talent. Last year, Germany and Spain were the preliminary competition for Canada — a measuring stick for how they’ll stack up in the forthcoming tournament. Now, it’s the US who – despite the world catching up on a talent level – understand the idea of sustained excellence internationally.

The pressure is on. Success has only helped elevate expectations for a program with its fair share of failures. If last summer was their “we’re finally here,” then the Olympics in Paris would be their “to stay.”

Perhaps that’s why many call Canada’s competitors in Group A the “Group of Death.” They are better than Spain, Australia, and Greece in almost every way. They have the top-tier talent, depth, and versatility to dominate and win their group handily.

But deep down inside, there lies the insecurities of the past. These insecurities don’t exist within a confident Canadian basketball program but within the psyche of Canadian basketball fans.

There’s a new-found commitment and buy-in. The group’s stylistic identity constantly evolves as it injects more talent into the core unit.

This Olympic tournament should only further cement that.

The Canadians should turn the “Group of Death” into the “Group of Validation.”