Watch Out For Canada Basketball In The 2024 Olympics
As the 2024 Summer Olympics draw near, eyes are set on Team USA to walk out with the gold medal. However, Canada’s team is not a team to underestimate.
Team USA basketball is the heavy favorite to win the gold medal in the 2024 Summer Olympics. For good reason though. Having a team loaded with former MVPs, All-Stars, and All-NBA talent.
While Team USA has a stacked roster of NBA talent, Team Canada is nearly as good and could potentially beat the United States in the Olympics. Canada’s clear best player is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the runner-up to the NBA MVP award and placed third in the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year award. During the season Shai averaged 30.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists, and 2.0 steals per game. He also shot 53% from the field on 19.8 attempts per game.
Team Canada also has players such as Luguentz Dort, a great defensive player as well as Shai’s teammate. Jamal Murray, an NBA champion as well as a player who is known to elevate his game during the playoffs. And then there’s Dillon Brooks. Nicknamed the “supervillain” of the NBA, Brooks is a great defensive player who was selected for the All-Defensive Second Team in 2023 and tends to trash-talk other NBA players to get into their heads.
All players except for Melvin Ejim have NBA experience. Most of the players on the roster are current NBA players.
Canada should not be underestimated by anyone, as they placed third in the FIBA World Cup in 2023, ironically beating Team USA to earn the bronze medal. Several basketball fans were interviewed, and a majority have Team USA as the favorite to win the gold medal. However, one fan was not so convinced. He said, “The world is catching up to the United States when it comes to basketball as we saw last Olympics where Team USA lost their first game since they won bronze in 2004. It’s no longer a cakewalk, and I think the team to beat America is Canada.”
Recently it was announced that Kawhi Leonard will step down from his place on the roster and will be replaced with Derrick White. This adds another guard to Team USA which already has a problem with too many guards. Canada can find a way to exploit this issue and end up beating Team USA.
As the USA and Canada game concluded, although Canada lost, they gave the United States a decent fight. Gone are the days of Team USA beating teams by 30+ points. One takeaway, however, is the fact that some of the guys mainly the best players on team Canada were not playing up to par. This can possibly be due to the players having to adjust to international rules rather than NBA rules.
Even though Team USA won by double digits, once Team Canada can adjust to these rules, Team USA may have a difficult time against Canada.
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