Why Canada has a unique advantage over the USA and everyone else in the Olympics – Raptors Republic

The FIBA tournaments in recent history have usually seen two very contrasted kinds of national teams: on one side, very crowded, the ones with some NBA stars but made of a majority of overseas players. On the other side, standing alone, Team USA is entirely made of NBA superstars without any horizons beyond America. 

But Canada is bringing up one new type that stands alone. One unique mixture that might make the Canadian even better than the feared Team USA in practice ahead of the upcoming Olympics. 

Canada represents the perfect mix between the glamorous and valuable NBA stars and the not-so-known but much-needed overseas players. 

Jamal Murray is an NBA champion, a dazzling point guard who might be unstoppable when in a bad-guy mood. 

But someone has to teach Kitchener native the tricky rules of other basketball leagues before and during the tournament, decipher the complex FIBA game ahead of his first experience in a senior FIBA competition. Melvin Ejim, Trae Bell-Haynes, and Phil Scrubb filled that role for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Dillon Brooks, and the other NBA stars last year for the World Cup. And Jordi Fernandez has a bunch of guys who can help, spearheaded by 33-year-old veteran Melvin Ejim. 

FIBA has various rules that make its game different from the NBA game to the point that it might even look like a distinct sport. However, there is a rule that changes everything and is always mentioned first by NBA players and coaches when discussing the most remarkable differences between both games: the non-3 second rule. 

Unlike in the NBA, where a defender can’t stay in the paint for longer than three seconds if he is not actively guarding an opponent, defenders can remain in the restricted area with no time limits. This rule impacts the pace and the space of defensive movement, as the paint will almost always be occupied. This factors into more compacted zones when teams set this kind of defense. 

As for another important changes in rules, FIBA courts are smaller, measuring 28 meters in length and 15 meters in width, while NBA courts are 28.65 meters in length and 15.24 meters in width. 

FIBA games are up to eight minutes shorter. While this is one of the most evident differences, it means a seminal change that makes every possession more meaningful.  

The actual Canada should feature 10 NBA players with Gilgeous-Alexander, Murray, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, Andrew Nembhard, Luguentz Dort, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dwight Powell, Kelly Olynyk and Trey Lyles, but also up to six overseas players. 

Among those, four players competed in Spain last year: Ejim (Unicaja), Trae Bell-Haynes (Zaragoza), Thomas Scrubb (Obradoiro), and Khem Birch, who had a good taste of the European experience in Girona, the club founded and chaired by charismatic former Raptor and NBA champion Marc Gasol. Phil Scrubb, with two stints in Spain, played with Bahçeşehir Koleji from Turkey and Mfiondu Kabengele with Venezia from Italy. Ejim, Bell-Haynes and Scrubb brothers are long-experienced players in Europe with five-year tenures or longer. 

Other teams in the Olympics have a mix of several NBA and overseas players. It’s the case of  France with generational talent Victor Wembanyama and Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. Reigning world champion Germany is another example, with former Raptor and last World Cup MVP Dennis Schröder leading the team and other NBA players in Daniel Theis, Franz Wagner, and Moritz Wagner. 

However, Canada has the highest number of NBA players, with 10, and its group of overseas players, unlike the USA.   

In addition, Jordi Fernandez is a well-versed coach with a deep knowledge of the opposite worlds like FIBA and the NBA. While he made a name for himself in the NBA, he was raised in Spain, where he soaked up the FIBA game firsthand, first playing in the fourth Spanish tier and then coaching youth teams in Badalona, his hometown, and other cities in Catalonia. 

Fernandez remarked on the importance of having a group of players used to FIBA rules. 

“It’s very important, (FIBA rules) affect the play style. We won’t play as a European team, we will be a mix, a very physical and fast team, which makes us what we are,” he said. 

“We can’t play like Spain or any European team, but we can draw things that make us stronger,” said Fernandez, who also an assistant in 2013 to Sergio Scariolo, the coach of the Spanish national team and former assistant coach of Nick Nurse in the Raptors. 

There’s less space in the international game, and it’s not because there are fewer shooters. Thomas Scrubb mentioned the key to opening up space. 

“We have to try to move the ball more versus paint touches, not holding the ball for too long. I think there is less space compared to the NBA and teams can lock in to stop one guy,” he said. 

“But if we move the ball, we pass around quickly, they won’t have the chance to catch these guys,” said Scrubb, who has just signed with Tenerife. 

Offensive unselfishness was the first principle that Fernandez promoted and the formula that led Canada to become the best offense in the last World Cup according to Fernandez. Gilgeous-Alexander orchestrated the business through his scoring in a lot of games, but constant movement on and off the ball to prevent help from the rivals was key, as well as the astuteness of the Thunder point guard to draw more defenders and his timing to release the ball to find open looks. 

“NBA guys pick up everything very quickly,” Kabengele said. “Sometimes guys slam off the rim, they can get lost there. But other than that, they are fast learners.”

The center brought up what often is an overlooked point. 

“In Europe, every game is more meaningful. There is more intensity game by game,” Kabengele said. 

While the NBA gives multiple chances, even in the playoffs, FIBA tournaments push mental pressure to the limits with do-or-die games. Jordi Fernandez acknowledged last year this mental challenge is one of the toughest adjustments. 

“You have to get the guys ready mentally because most of them don’t know what is and you have to explain it, get to their heart,” he said. 

Phil Scrubb also plays the role of a professor as one of the overseas players. 

“It’s a kind of process over the years, of playing together a lot. You help to learn the roles and little tricks that help in the FIBA game,” he said. 

Sometimes, it all comes down to not getting trapped through the simplest things in a game full of sneaky veterans, old foxes who will try to catch the FIBA game beginners through the least perceptible details. 

Bell-Haynes talked about these. 

“You teach things they don’t notice. For example, in FIBA players can’t call timeouts on the court. You tell them what refs call, what they don’t, and what they can get away with,” Zaragoza’s point guard said. 

Even if the four that Jordi Fernandez has to rule out to trim the roster to 12 are four of these overseas players all the NBA stars will have benefited from their teaching and their FIBA expertise in training camp. 

Some players on the actual roster have participated in FIBA competitions LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant, but Team USA doesn’t feature any players with experience overseas. Steve Kerr, Team USA’s coach, acknowledged how much the FIBA game has improved after the Americans lost against Germany in the semifinal. 

“The game has been globalized over the last 30 years. These games are difficult. This is not 1992 anymore. Players are better all over the world. Teams are better. It’s not easy to win the World Cup or the Olympics,” he said. 

In addition, most NBA coaches consider the FIBA game to be closing the gap with the best basketball league, mentioning that the league is becoming increasingly international as one of the reasons. Since 2019, all the MVPs came from outside the USA: Giannis Antetokounmpo (2019, 2020), Nikola Jokic (2021, 2022, 2024) and Joel Embiid (2023).  

Moreover, among the teams with more experience in FIBA tournaments and with more overseas players, it’s hard to match two world-class finishers in Gilgeous-Alexander and Murray. 

Time will tell, but Canada is learning to play the particular FIBA game quickly. Jordi Fernandez is a good professor and has star pupils to teach the NBA stars.