Josh Lewenberg: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray to finally share backcourt for Canada | TSN

TORONTO – If you’re a Canadian basketball fan, you’ve probably gone down the rabbit hole of imagining what a backcourt of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray might look like.

Even their national team peers are guilty of it.

“I feel like the same as everybody else,” said Nickeil Alexander-Walker, their teammate with Canada and Gilgeous-Alexander’s cousin. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be cool. As a teammate, I just get a better view. I get to kind of see the ins and outs of things, the behind-the-scenes, I guess. [They’re] great talents, and I think those guys have done the work to where it speaks for itself.”

We’ve gotten close to seeing that tandem in action a few times over the years.

Famously, when Canada Basketball asked the country’s best players to make a three-year commitment at a meeting in Las Vegas during the summer of 2021, Gilgeous-Alexander was the first to stand up, with Murray soon to follow. Together they would become the faces of the program’s vaunted “Summer Core.”

However, with Murray still recovering from the ACL injury that cost him an entire NBA season, the plan was always for him to sit out a series of qualifying games in the summer of 2022. Then, with Murray poised to co-star alongside Gilgeous-Alexander last summer, the Nuggets guard made the decision to withdraw from the FIBA World Cup, prioritizing rest and recovery coming off a long, championship-winning season with Denver.

Gilgeous-Alexander would ultimately lead the senior men’s team to a historic bronze medal and help punch its ticket to the Olympics for the first time since 2000. While Murray has attended training camp each of the past two years, per his agreement as a member of the Summer Core, he hasn’t represented Canada internationally since the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, when he was an 18-year-old going into his freshman season at Kentucky. Gilgeous-Alexander had just finished his sophomore year of high school in Hamilton, ON at the time.

Now, nearly a decade later, it appears as if the stars have finally aligned. Barring something unforeseen, Canada’s two best players are expected to represent the country together in Paris when the men’s Olympic basketball tournament begins in late July.

There are plenty of reasons to feel optimistic about the club’s chances of making noise on the world stage this summer, and perhaps finishing on the podium, but the biggest is undoubtedly its dynamic backcourt duo.

“They make my job easier,” said Jordi Fernandez, head coach of the Canadian senior men’s team. “I have the best seat in the house to let them do what they do. [I’m] excited to have them, excited to challenge them, excited for them to challenge each other but also to support each other.”

Gilgeous-Alexander had an impressive showing for Canada last summer, averaging 24.5 points per game on 54 per cent shooting in eight games on the way to winning World Cup bronze – he finished fourth in scoring at the tournament behind Slovenia’s Luka Doncic, Jordan Clarkson of the Philippines and Finland’s Lauri Markkanen.

What’s crazy to think is that he’s improved further since then.

The 25-year-old is coming off the best season of his professional career in the NBA, having finished second in MVP voting and leading the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder to the Western Conference Semifinals.

“He’s extremely consistent and it’s a little frustrating how consistent [he is] when you know exactly where he wants to go,” said Dwight Powell, a Canadian teammate of Gilgeous-Alexander and member of the Dallas Mavericks club that knocked the Thunder out of the playoffs in a competitive six-game second-round series last month. “You know his spots, but he finds a way to get there. It was a frustrating series for that but also quietly exciting knowing how important he is to this [Canadian] team right here and our plans for the summer.”

While Gilgeous-Alexander shared the floor with (a 34-year-old) Chris Paul during his first year in Oklahoma City and has the Thunder’s talented young core around him now, he has never played with somebody quite like Murray.

When healthy, the 27-year-old from Kitchener, ON is as clutch as anybody in basketball – a fearless, cold-blooded shot maker. No moment is too big – not the NBA Finals, and probably not the Olympics. With the game on the line, opposing countries will have to worry about two supremely talented guards, both capable of breaking down a defence, making plays for their teammates, or knocking down the dagger themselves.

They can take turns initiating offence, playing on and off the ball, but Murray’s ability to stretch the floor should be the perfect complement to SGA’s masterful mid-range game and knack for getting into the paint or to the free-throw line.

“I drive, he shoots,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of their dynamic. “Simple as that.”

As talented as the guards are on a stacked USA roster – Steph Curry, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton and newly-minted NBA champion Jrue Holiday – Canada’s backcourt has a case for best in the world. Their lack of size in the frontcourt is at least mildly concerning, especially after 7-foot-4 centre Zach Edey – the ninth-overall pick in last week’s NBA draft – pulled out of contention for a roster spot on Sunday, opting to stay in Memphis and get acclimated to his new team. But with Alexander-Walker and Andrew Nembhard – fresh off impressive runs to the Conference Finals with the Timberwolves and Pacers, respectively – behind the two stars, it’s easily the team’s strongest position.

As good as Murray is, he’s also the wild card of this group. With Andrew Wiggins withdrawing a few days ahead of camp – either the Warriors’ call to hold him out or a mutual decision with Golden State, depending on who you ask – Murray will be one of the only new faces on the roster, and he’ll certainly be the biggest addition. His skill set and the fact that he’s been in camp with the team the past couple years should help expedite the process, but it will still take some time for him to get up to speed. Then, there’s always the question of his health.

Murray averaged career highs of 21.2 points and 6.5 assists per game in 59 games with Denver last season, but he also battled a myriad of ailments – including injuries to his hamstring, tibia and both ankles – and faded in the playoffs, as the Nuggets were eliminated by Minnesota in the second round. Had his team made it any further, his Olympic availability may have been in doubt. But Murray reiterated his intention to play shortly after Denver’s Game 7 loss to the Wolves, and by all accounts, he’s arrived at Canada camp in good physical condition.

“He’s [looked] good,” Fernandez said after Canada’s evening practice on Sunday. “I think he’s getting his rhythm back. Obviously, he was a little banged up to finish the season. He’s been working out just to get used to getting up and down. I think every day he’s been better.”

“He’s a guy that can get it going, alone with Shai,” Alexander-Walker said. “So, it just adds another dynamic piece to our team: a three-level scorer, a guy who’s been doing this for a long time now and has had success in the league. I think any time we can add a piece like that to the team we’re going to take it and use it. We know what we’ve got in him.”

Fernandez and the coaches won’t take any chances, though. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them hold Murray out of at least a couple exhibition games in their lead-up to Paris, and perhaps manage his minutes once they get there.

“We’ll be in constant communication [with the Nuggets] and we’ll do whatever is best for Jamal,” said Fernandez, the newly hired Brooklyn Nets head coach, who was an assistant in Denver for the first six years of Murray’s career. “We’ll have a plan together. So far, it looks good. No limitations, and he’s been doing everything with the rest of the group.”

Looking back, Fernandez feels like he may have relied too heavily on Gilgeous-Alexander last summer, burning him out in the process – SGA was second in the tournament in total minutes played, logging one fewer than Doncic.

The team’s impressive depth, particularly at the guard position, could help lighten the workload of its stars, at least in theory. But given the level of competition that’s expected in Paris, and what’s at stake, managing their usage might be easier said than done. Those guys are that good and, once the Olympic tournament tips off, each game is too important.

But if you can’t wait that long to see what Canada’s backcourt tandem looks like, or how it stacks up against elite competition, fear not. After a one-week training camp in Toronto, the team will travel to Las Vegas, where it’ll face the United States in its first tune-up game on July 10.

There, Gilgeous-Alexander and Murray should finally get the chance to share the court for Canada – a moment that’s been years in the making.