Pacers' Andrew Nembhard is latest gift for Canada's Olympic aspirations

So far, the NBA post-season is working out perfectly for the Canadian men’s basketball team.

It starts at the top.

There is no single player more important to Canada’s Olympic hopes than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and while the Oklahoma City Thunder star is doubtless still lamenting losing a hard-fought second-round series to the Dallas Mavericks, the upside from a national team perspective is that the crafty point guard finished his season in good health, looking every inch a potential league MVP (he finished second to Denver’s Nikola Jokic) and will be able to enjoy a needed break before ramping up his training in advance of joining Canada's camp on June 26 in Toronto, likely with something to prove.

From a Canadian point of view, perfect.

Similarly, when Jamal Murray affirmed his commitment to the national team moments after his Denver Nuggets were upset in the second round by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Canadian basketball’s metaphorical stock took a jump. Murray has consistently expressed his interest in playing for Canada and has attended the past three training camps, but hasn’t suited up since 2015.

With Murray battling nagging injuries for much of the regular season and the playoffs, had the Nuggets made another run to the Finals in defence of their 2023 NBA title, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine a scenario where the Kitchener, Ont., star cited his health as reason for not joining Canada in France.

But with six weeks between the end of the Nuggets' season and the opening of the Olympic training camp — and 10 weeks until the Olympic tournament starts on July 27 — the hope is Murray’s body will be fresh enough that he can follow through on his intentions.

Pairing Murray with Gilgeous-Alexander will give Canadian head coach Jordi Fernandez one of the most potent backcourts in the world.

But even as the playoffs continue to unfold, the gifts for Canada keep coming.

One of the most significant has been the emergence of Andrew Nembhard, the second-year guard for the Indiana Pacers, who were eliminated by the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the East Final on Monday.

With Pacers starting point guard Tyrese Haliburton battling a hamstring injury, Nembhard got valuable reps running a team in the most competitive time of the season.  The expectation, per sources, is that the 24-year-old — who last played for Canada at the World Cup in 2019 — will be in training camp for the national team in June and is all but a lock to be on the Olympic roster in July.

And while earlier-than-expected starts to their off-seasons for Gilgeous-Alexander and Murray probably works in Canada’s favour, that Nembhard and the Pacers have surprisingly made it to the Conference Finals has already paid huge dividends.

Simply put, the former Gonzaga star has raised his game — and profile — significantly during the Pacers' run, seeing his minutes, production, usage and efficiency all improve, a difficult feat for a veteran, and even more impressive for a second-year player in the post-season for the first time.

Nembhard had the night of his young career on Saturday as the Pacers pushed the heavily favoured Celtics to the limit before surrendering what was an eight-point lead in the final 2:38 of the game, the second time in three starts Indiana fumbled a game they very easily could have won in a series that has been much more competitive than Boston’s 3-0 lead would indicate.

With Haliburton out, Nembhard was Indiana’s best player, finishing with a career-best 32 points on 12-of-21 shooting while connecting on four threes and adding nine assists.

It was an unfortunate ending for the Toronto-born Nembhard, who was corralled by Boston’s Jrue Holiday and forced into a turnover when trying to generate a shot to win the game in the final seconds, but it shouldn’t sully an exceptional performance by the second-year guard.

Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle termed Nembhard’s performance “courageous.”

Pacers teammate and former Toronto Raptor Pascal Siakam put it this way:

“I’m proud of his growth. It’s a tough game when our starting point guard is not in the game and you learn that before the game and it takes a lot of maturity and growth to be able to step in there and play the way that he did [Saturday],” said Siakam. “He controlled the pace of the game, getting people to their spots. That’s something he’s always been able to do, every time he’s had that opportunity, he’s shown it.”

For his part Nembhard downplayed his big night:  “I was just doing my thing, I just wanted to get the get the pace going. I think we play our best basketball when everybody's touching it and we're all moving and we're playing kind of our pace … I just wanted to not necessarily force the issue but just let it come to me a little bit.”

When the game did, he took it and ran.

As one talent evaluator from a Western Conference put it: “Whoever’s eyes haven’t been opened by how he’s playing should either change profession or (see) an ophthalmologist … he’s so sound with the ball, assertive and poised, has heart, leadership. These are qualities that are hard to find in veteran players, let alone someone as young as he is.”

If you were paying attention, you might have seen it coming, but you had to look for it a little bit. His boxscore totals were consistent in his second season compared with his rookie year, as he averaged roughly nine points, four assists and a steal per game in each case. But a good tell for what was coming was that in his second season he improved his efficiency, especially while attacking the paint, as he converted 73.7 per cent of his shots at the rim (compared with 71.7 last season) and also made a big jump from 10-16 feet — crucial area for guards — climbing from 37.6 per cent as a rookie to 53.4 per cent in his second year.

In 16 playoff games prior to Monday, Nembhard’s game has shown even greater signs of growth. He’s averaging 14.3 points per game along with 5.3 assists and shooting 56.1 per cent from the floor and 48.1 per cent from the three-point line (compared with his 35.3 per cent career average) while converting an astounding 69 per cent of his shots from inside 10 feet. He’s playing 32 minutes a game, and shone in his 39 minutes in Game 3.

Nembhard was strong again Monday, notching 24 points, 10 assists and six rebounds on 10-of-18 shooting.

It’s been an eye-opening performance and underscores that the game-winning three he hit against the New York Knicks in Game 3 of the second round was just a highlight — the real story has been five weeks of superb play in the playoff crucible.

“I mean, the confidence he plays with is, it's incredible,” said Pacers veteran guard TJ McConnell. “You see him bringing the ball up the floor, he's getting people involved and when he's open, he’s shooting it and making it at a high level, I think mid-forties [from three]… and, I mean, that’s in the playoffs. In the regular season, he's coming off the bench, he's starting at two he's starting at one, he's the backup point guard. I mean, as a kid at his age, you know, getting thrown around like that could you know maybe mess with your mental but he's just he's answered the bell all year. I mean, his whole career. There's no bigger fan of his game than me. He's a really, really, good player. And like I said, we would not be in this position without him.”

And there should be no question of Nembhard’s fit with the Canadian national team. His ability and willingness to guard multiple positions makes easy to slot in a three-man back court if and when Canada chooses to play with a smaller lineup, and his experience playing off the ball with Indiana should make things relatively seamless in either context alongside Gilgeous-Alexander or Murray.

Canada’s best-case scenario will require some minutes juggling for Fernandez as he tries to find time for two potential starters in Murray and Nembhard alongside projected returnees Gilgeous-Alexander, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks and Nickeil-Alexander Walker in an already deep guard/wing pool, but these are good problems to have when shooting for Canada’s first Olympic basketball medal since 1936.

In other years and in preparation for other events, the demands of the NBA playoffs has occasionally worked against the interests of the Canadian national men’s team.

The way things have unfolded so far couldn’t be better, with Nembhard’s breakout just one more delightful example.