Canada focuses on defensive improvement ahead of Olympics

Jordi Fernandez bet on the high.

Last year, Canada's senior men's national team took a step in the right direction. After years of disappointing results on the world stage, Canada finally broke through. A 127-118 victory over the United States at the FIBA ​​World Cup gave Canada a bronze medal and its most successful campaign in decades.

But Fernandez wants more.

Canada was the tournament's number one offense and looked unstoppable at times. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander kept the Canadian attack moving with RJ Barrett and Dillon Brooks alongside him.

And yet, Canada's defense failed.

Despite a team featuring Brooks and Luguentz Dort, two of the best defensive players in the NBA, Canada finished the tournament ranked 11th in defense. As general manager Rowan Barrett acknowledged, that number needs to improve.

The goal now is to be among the top three defenses, Fernandez said, as Canada opened training camp this week in Toronto.

There is no reason why Canada should not be.

“It’s hard for me to look at guys like Dillon Brooks and Luguentz Dort and think we don’t have a defense in our country,” Rowan Barrett said. “Guys that are just hoping to maul you on the field. They don’t care if they score or not. That’s what we’re looking for.”

But if Canada had a problem last year, it was relying too much on too few players, Fernandez said.

“One of the reasons we went from a really good team to a struggling team at the end is because I worked those guys hard,” Fernandez said. “I played some of them too many minutes. And that’s definitely my fault. I have to get better.”

The addition of Jamal Murry, who is healthy this year and expected to play in Paris, should help Canada limit Gilgeous-Alexander's offensive workload. It will hurt not having Andrew Wiggins around, but Canada should have enough talent to hold their own defensively this year.

“A lot of communication, limiting offensive rebounds and just being a more aggressive team on the defensive end,” Brooks said. “Those are the three things I think we weren’t as good at.”

It wasn't like Canada was bad defensively. There were good games, good halves and a lot of good quarters. But defensive lapses proved costly on a few occasions. A 29-point second quarter against Serbia ended Canada's gold medal dreams and Canada's bronze medal hopes nearly ended when the U.S. scored 33 points in the third quarter and nearly eliminated the Canadians.

That will be Canada's priority in the coming weeks as the organization trims its roster at training camp and prepares for the Olympics in a month.

The offense will still be there. Canada has too many high-level scorers to not post lopsided numbers, but improving at the other end is what Canada wants to focus on.

“We have a lot of special defensive players,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I think you just have to put it all together and be a unit. The possibilities are endless for us on both ends of the court. »