Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray are ready to play together for Canada — finally

TORONTO — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander handles incoming questions like he handles defenders. He will not be rushed. He will survey the landscape, think things through and get to his spot.

On Saturday evening, he was at OVO Athletic Centre, where the Canadian men’s basketball team is holding its training camp. The two-court gym was packed — not only by his teammates but also by many of the 49 former Olympians in Toronto who represented Canada between 1976 and 2000. Team general manager Rowan Barrett wanted the alumni in town to give the program a feeling of genuine lineage, understandable given the quarter-century between appearances by the men’s team in the Olympic basketball tournament.

“They didn’t really say this, but they all seem like it was the best time of their lives,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And a lot of times, you have so much stuff going on in your life, you tend to zone out or look ahead or look behind. And I think it’ll be important for us to just stay in the moment and really enjoy the opportunity. I think if we do that together, then we’ll get the most out of it.”

No wonder the Oklahoma City Thunder star can dissect what is in front of him so well. As much as the experience is to give the current players a sense of the past, it is also a chance to show the alumni what their hard work from previous generations has yielded. They are watching a Canadian team with a decent chance to become the country’s first men’s team to win an Olympic medal since 1936. That possibility starts with the superstar backcourt of Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray. Despite both making three-year commitments to the program in 2022, they have not played together for Canada in either of the last two summers because of Murray’s injuries and long playoff runs.

Knock wood, that will change this summer. That reality is a good reminder that as patient as Gilgeous-Alexander is, he also has a dynamic first step.

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

“I would say he’s on point,” Murray said a day later.

The two guards will propel the Canadian offence at the tournament and are the main reasons if any team is going to upset the stacked United States team, Canada feels like the biggest threat. The Americans will have, conservatively, a dozen of the best 35 players in the world on their roster, with no other country in that stratosphere. They will score in bunches and have more than enough excellent defenders.

However, Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada to the best offence (and a bronze medal) at last year’s FIBA World Cup. While Germany’s Dennis Schröder won the most valuable player at the tournament, Gilgeous-Alexander was the best player in the tournament, averaging 24.5 points per game on 54.4 percent shooting. He added 6.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game and had the biggest moments in a comeback win over Spain that clinched the Olympic berth.

Canada also struggled to create when he wasn’t on the floor, so he played 34 or more minutes in each of Canada’s last four games. Remember, FIBA uses 40-minute games. Canadian coach Jordi Fernández has repeatedly blamed himself for the team’s comparatively poor defence in the tournament, saying he relied too heavily on his best players, running them into the ground. With Murray, it is easy enough to imagine the coach being able to stagger the two — each running the show for 10 minutes each game and sharing the duties for the other 20.

It is one thing to say that now, and another to do it in real time when a game feels like it is getting away from you. Murray gives Canada more margin for error, an answer when possessions go nowhere.

“He can get hot and he’s a guy that can get it going along with Shai,” said Canadian wing Nickeil Alexander-Walker, whose Minnesota Timberwolves beat Murray’s Denver Nuggets in seven games in the second round of the NBA playoffs in May. Alexander-Walker had some of the defensive assignment on Murray. “So (Murray) 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. And I think anytime we can add a piece like that to the team, we’re going to take it, use it. We know what we got in him.”

It has helped that Murray has been at training camp in the last few years when he hasn’t been rehabbing an injury. Still, it requires more than just reps in a scrimmage to build chemistry.

The two guards are different enough (and talented enough) that they should be able to find a rhythm. Broadly, Gilgeous-Alexander is more of an isolation scorer while Murray operates more in the pick-and-roll. Gilgeous-Alexander took 75 catch-and-shoot 3s compared to 194 pull-up jumpers, while Murray took 141 and 184, respectively. Murray was fairly efficient this year as he battled injuries, with a 58.6 true shooting percentage. Gilgeous-Alexander was at 63.6 percent. He suffered a little dip in the playoffs, but it was mostly due to shooting just 79 percent from the free-throw line. He still posted metronomic production.

“That’s one of the things about him that’s so special — the things he does, he does (them) every single night,” said Canadian forward Dwight Powell, whose Dallas Mavericks knocked out Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder in six games. “He’s extremely consistent and it’s a little frustrating how consistent when you know exactly where he wants to go. You know his spots but he finds a way to get there. So, it was a frustrating series for that, but also quietly exciting knowing how important he is to this team right here and our plans for the summer.”

There must be more to the Canadian team than just two players. Canada was weaker on the defensive end in the World Cup, and won’t have big man Zach Edey to provide some rim protection off the bench. Edey announced Sunday night he has to focus on his rookie season with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Murray is a relatively weak defender, although Canada has no shortage of perimeter support with the likes of Alexander-Walker, Luguentz Dort and Dillon Brooks. Canada has a versatile roster, but one that will likely play aggressively on defence as opposed to laying back.

Outside of the United States, no country has the luxury of having a great version of every type of player there is. Whoever winds up filling out the roster, this will be the deepest team Canada has ever sent to a major international tournament. Still, the guards will be the offensive focal points, and that should give Canada a sense of order.

There is no doubt that those Olympic veterans who have kept up with the program have been familiar with the dominant discussion. So many times in the years between Olympic appearances, many have wondered whether Canada could get even one NBA cog to show up. There were conversations about whether Steve Nash, Jamaal Magloire, Samuel Dalembert or Andrew Wiggins would play. They felt like the only conversations that mattered.

Now, finally, Canada has two stars signed up and ready to make music together.

“(I) feel like the same as everybody else,” Alexander-Walker said. “It’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be cool. As a teammate, I just got a better view.”

(Top photo: John Leyba / USA Today)