Canada has surely dug it’s ground in the NBA; not only as a producer for fairly decent basketball talent, but also home to one of the Eastern Conferences highest rising teams. The Toronto Raptors have successfully gone from the outside looking in to now a perennial playoff team; winning a franchise high 49 games last season and grabbing the 4th seed in the East. Toronto’s even showing themselves as a legitimate free agency destination, landing one of the highest coveted free agent wings, DeMarre Carrol.
The Raptors also landed former Spurs guard Cory Joseph, who just so happens to be from Ontario, Canada. According to reports, this had Joseph’s former high school teammate at Findlay Prep and Texas Longhorn teammate Tristan Thompson (also born in Canada, Toronto) overly exited. Saying “It’s every Canadian’s dream to be a Raptor.”
Source: Warren Little/Getty Images Europe
Now, home is where the heart is and NBA players seem to be more and more employing the idea of playing for their hometown; just ask LeBron James. Obviously Steve Nash, perhaps the greatest Canadian of all time, is now retired so that pitch is out of the line. In general, however, what if all the Canadian-born players in the NBA just decided to fulfill their dreams and flew on to sign veteran minimum contracts with the Raptors?
Tristan Thompson is still in fact a free agent, while his five-year $80 million deal is in hold by the league. Toronto could, in some unlikely manner, swoop in on a sign-and-trade and steal their Toronto-native. Now, if we dive into the imaginary world, an entire team could be built on solely Canadian players.
Source: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images North America
PG: Cory Joseph (Raptors), Tyler Ennis (Bucks)
SG: Nik Stauskas (Kings), Olivier Hanlan (Jazz rookie)
SF: Andrew Wiggins (Timberwolves), Anthony Bennett (Timberwolves)
PF: Trey Lyles (Jazz rookie), Andrew Nicholson (Magic), Dwight Powell (Mavericks)
C: Kelly Olynyk (Celtics), Samuel Dalembert (FA), Sim Bhullar (Kings)
Now tell me that wouldn’t be a sick team to watch? Not to mention more and more college talent that will potentially enter the league, including five star guard Jamal Murray, who is committed to play for John Calipari at Kentucky.
While there is no breaking news concerning this at the moment, who’s to say that it could cause some in the future. What if the Tristan Thompson dilemma does go throw? If Wiggins decides to take his talents home to the Upper North? Only time will tell, but it is an entertaining topic to think about.
