Canada Basketball should be a powerhouse. Alas ...

Jamal Murray is skipping the World Cup for obvious reasons. But is this leading to another guaranteed disappointment in international play for Canada? Or can Shai and depth overcome?

Good morning. Hope you’re well. Let’s basketball.

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Above the Gravel Pit; Emily Carr; 1937

Jamal Murray will not play in the FIBA World Cup this summer. He participated in training camp a couple weeks to see how he felt after a long NBA season, and it turns out that he didn’t feel wonderful. So he’s staying in North America and the rest of the Canadian team heads to Southeast Asia to try to do something Canadian men’s basketball has never done: not be a disappointment.

Canada has long been No. 2 on the list of countries who can claim the highest number of NBA players behind the United States, but that just hasn’t translated into any international success at the senior level. Canada has never medaled in the World Cup, and hasn’t medaled in the Olympic tournament since 1936. Team Canada has seemed cursed since at least the 2000s, when Steve Nash was in-and-out and other players like Sam Dalembert had feuds with leadership.

The biggest persistent issue has been getting multiple stars on the team together to try to place well at a major tournament. Andrew Wiggins. Murray. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Tristan Thompson. Dillon Brooks. R.J. Barrett. Dwight Powell. Trey Lyles. Lu Dort. Brandon Clarke.

They have the players to compete: maybe not with Team USA, full-strength Serbia, France and Spain, but certainly that next tier of teams like Slovenia, Lithuania, Croatia, Australia, Puerto Rico, Greece and Italy. But then there they are with slim star power on the roster, finishing 21st at the 2019 World Cup, not even qualifying for the 2014 tournament, finished 22nd in 2010.

Canada’s men’s team hasn’t qualified for the Olympic tournament (12 teams deep) since 2000. Nash played on that team with Todd MacCulloch and R.J. Barrett’s father. Meanwhile, Canada has had 39 players enter the NBA since then.

Missing Murray is tough because international tournaments are unforgiving; one bad night ruins the whole effort. Shai comes in as one of the two best players in the entire tournament (it’s him and Luka Doncic on the top tier, then a handful of Americans and Rudy Gobert). It just takes one off-night for Shai for the absence of Murray to be acutely felt.

That said, the team is deeper than usual: most of the other NBA players, with the notable exception of Wiggins, are here. Brooks, Dort, Barrett and Nickiel Alexander-Walker provide good wing and guard depth, though there isn’t a pure creator like Murray (other than SGA). Powell and Olynyk aren’t perfect FIBA bigs, but they are a cut above many World Cup teams’ frontcourts. They have reigning 7’4 Big Ten Player of the Year Zach Edey, too.

But the World Cup is tough business.