Why Olynyk, Powell frontcourt is key to Team Canada’s World Cup success

The Canadian senior men’s basketball team has a lot going for it these days, with a roster stacked full of NBA players who have all stayed true to their commitments and showed up healthy ahead of the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Canada has arguably the best player in the entire tournament in point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. There is outside shooting in the form of Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Trae Bell-Haynes and Phil Scrubb. And there is a wealth of two-way wings, led by RJ Barrett, Lu Dort and Dillon Brooks. 

But if there is one area of weakness for the Canadian team, it’s frontcourt depth. For all the star guards and wings Canada has produced in recent years, the lack of elite big men has been an alarming trend — one dating back several decades. In fact, you could argue it was the team’s undoing the last time Canada made it to the Olympics in 2000, when former NBA journeyman Todd MacCulloch was their only traditional centre. And it was certainly their undoing in 2021, when a team with seven NBA players lost to the Czech Republic in the semi-final of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Victoria, B.C. after starting centre Dwight Powell logged just 23 minutes before fouling out. The Canadians played small for most of the game, were out-rebounded 52-39 and allowed the Czechs to go 13/28 from three after collapsing the paint and failing to rotate to open shooters time and again. 

As far as the roster has come in the two years since, frontcourt depth remains a concern. Outside of Powell and Kelly Olynyk, who will both likely start, the bigs that general manager Rowan Barrett and head coach Jordi Fernandez will have to choose from are limited as they cut the roster down to 12 in time for the August 25^th start of the World Cup. 

With Toronto Raptors forward Chris Boucher and Sacramento Kings big Trey Lyles both out of the fold after refusing to commit to a three-year Olympic cycle, the backup bigs will be some combination of 21-year-old Purdue big man Zach Edey and program mainstays Thomas Scrubb and Kyle Alexander. And while each brings something valuable to the table, none are sure things in the way of a third NBA big man. 

After all, Edey has never played meaningful minutes at the senior level of a FIBA event. So while his overwhelming size and dominance of college basketball should count for something, his lack of experience and footspeed render him matchup-specific. Meanwhile, Thomas Scrubb can space the floor but struggled with physicality the last time the Canucks were at the World Cup in 2019. And while Alexander is the most well-rounded of the bunch, with good size and rim protection, he hasn’t been able to stick in the NBA due to a limited offensive game. 

It’s imperative, then, that the Olynyk-Powell frontcourt pairing not only works, but thrives during the World Cup. In fact, due to the lack of depth and the importance of what each of the NBA bigs can do, Team Canada will likely only go as far as Olynyk and Powell can take them. Fortunately for the Canadians, there is reason to believe that might just be pretty far. 

“The rest of the group respects them,” Fernandez says of the Olynyk-Powell pairing. “If I’m thinking about the group we are trying to build, it’s going to be important for us [to have that respect]. We are going to need their experience and the rest of the guys trust them, so that’s to me the most important thing.

“I will rely on them on a lot of the decisions and stuff that we need to go through.”

Neither Olynyk or Powell has the sexiest game or the biggest profile, but they are the two most experienced players for Canada, notching a combined 86 games at the senior level before this tournament. More importantly, the pairing had a successful track record as recently as last summer when they helped lead Canada to the best record in the Americas in World Cup qualifying as the starting frontcourt of former head coach Nick Nurse’s team. In fact, of the 17 Canadians that played at least four games in qualifying, Olynyk and Powell ranked first and third in Player Efficiency Rating, respectively. 

The pairing works because Olynyk and Powell make each other better, each accentuating the other's strengths and making up for weaknesses.

“They're winners, first off,” Team Canada veteran Cory Joseph says. “They have a lot of experience, like myself. They know the FIBA game, they know the game in general. They kind of have different games: Dwight's kind of that bruiser, pick-and-roll, rebound guy … Kelly’s more finesse, outside, shoots the trey ball, moving side to side.

“But the different games, I think, just play well off each other.”

Powell is the ultimate role player who isn’t afraid to do the dirty work to help a team win — things that might not appear on the stat sheet, like setting effective screens, boxing out rebounders and creating space for others with hard rolls to the rim. Plus, he is an underrated passer, which could come into play when defences blitz Gilgious-Alexander and force Powell to make plays in the short roll.

Most importantly for this team, Powell is a true centre, who knows how to use his size and physicality to own the paint, which is more necessary in the international game where there is no three-in-the-key rule to force centres out of the paint.

“My favourite part of playing with Dwight is his motor is unbelievable,” Olynyk says. “From the time the ball is thrown in the air to the time the buzzer sounds, he doesn’t stop. For me, he’s just such a selfless player. He doesn’t need the ball, doesn’t care to have the ball, doesn’t need to shoot. He just does all the little things that make a team a team.”

Having a traditional centre like Powell allows Olynyk to play where he is most comfortable, moving around the perimeter and acting as a playmaking hub and outside shooter. In fact, Olynyk’s combination of creativity and outside shooting is what allows the Canadians to play a traditional centre like Powell without sacrificing spacing or ball movement.

“Playing with Kelly is fun,” Powell says. “He's so skilled and so smart. And I feel like we've been playing together long enough that we kind of can play off each other very well without having to talk it out necessarily. But yeah, he has so many tools in his bag that for a guy like me, it's fun to just watch the defences have to react to him and find my spots.”

Olynyk and Powell will likely play together a lot, but there will be times when one of them is on the floor alone with guards and wings. It will be interesting in those moments to see if the Canadians can survive offensively without Olynyk, and defensively without Powell. However, as long as Canada has one of their two NBA big men on the floor at all times in the most important games — avoiding foul trouble in a tournament where all you need is five to foul out — the Canadians should be set up for success. 

“It means the world to me because they have the experience, but also they have shown commitment,” Fernandez says about the importance of Canada’s veterans, including Powell and Olynyk. “At the end of the day, when you are playing for your country, that is the most important thing. Those tournaments are tough. Those games are a battle, even in pool play. You are going to need to fight to get every single one of them… 

“That mentality, the guys with that experience, we need them because they will help the younger guys that have never done it in this set up.”

After all, while the Canadians are rife with talent, they lack experience in comparison to some of the tournament’s other basketball powerhouses. And there is no one on the roster more experienced than Powell and Olynyk, who both grew up steeped in Canadian basketball culture and understand how rare these opportunities are. 

In fact, Olynyk grew up going to Raptors games because his mother, Arlene, was the first female scorekeeper in NBA history. He chose to stay in Canada for high school and became a B.C. hoops legend with South Kamloops Secondary School. Powell, meanwhile, got his appreciation for international basketball from his mentor Dirk Nowitzki, who helped him understand that nothing compares to attending the Olympic Games with your country.

While both Powell and Olynyk are still in the primes of their respective careers, they are both 32 years old and could be suiting up for their final Olympic window with the national team. This could be their last chance to make good on the lifelong dream of bringing Canada back to the Olympic Games and bringing a medal home to what has become more and more of a basketball nation throughout their lives, in part because of their ability to inspire the next generation.

“Everything accumulates and builds towards the World Cup for us in Canada, and we are definitely looking forward to it,” Olynyk told Sportsnet in February. “It’s a special feeling and something that you have to not take for granted, because you never know when it's gonna be the last time.”

With a lack of frontcourt depth being Team Canada’s primary weakness, Powell and Olynyk will face more pressure than most. But they also have more experience and hunger to finally get the job done. That, along with their chemistry on and off the court, will be the key to Canada’s success.