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No Wiggins or Bennett but Steve Nash likes national hoops team

  • Frank Doyle's Author profile. Frank Doyle

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As a two-time NBA most valuable player, Victoria’s Steve Nash knows a thing or two about assessing talent on the basketball court. On Monday, he was happy to announce Canada’s national basketball training team roster and had some high praise for the group – despite a number of glaring omissions.

Nash, the team’s general manager, announced a squad of 18 players invited to Friday’s training session at the Air Canada Centre. That list included Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, Kyle Landry, Kris Joseph, Joel Anthony and Carl English. The list didn’t include 2013 No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett or Kelly Olynyk, who was selected 13th in the draft by the Boston Celtics. It also didn’t include the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 draft, Andrew Wiggins.

Bennett and Olynyk are recovering from injuries, while Wiggins is in Kansas, preparing for his freshman year as a Jayhawk. Still, Nash is confident in the roster he has put together and in the state of Canadian basketball as a whole.

“This really is the golden age of Canadian basketball,” Nash told reporters. “You look around the country and in and around the world at what our athletes are able to do at every single level, we’re thriving. We have talent and potential and depth at every age group.”

He certainly has a point there. The crop of potential NBA starts Canada is beginning to produce is starting to put the rest of the basketball world on notice. While Canada can’t compete with the sheer number of prospects the US produces annually, it isn’t the basketball wasteland it once was. And with players like Bennett, Olynyk and Wiggins following the trail that Nash blazed years ago, things are looking up for Canadian basketball. That said, Nash did acknowledge his group has a long way to go yet, while the team’s coach Jay Triano says he wants to take time in building a winning program.

“We have a great depth of talent and I am keeping close watch over all of our players in every age-group,” Triano told reporters. “This team will be built over time from the emergence of our young players and the leadership of our veterans.”