Gilgeous-Alexander will leave Team Canada roster debate to GM Barrett

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is Canada’s best player, yet he isn’t willing to weigh into the great debate surrounding the team this summer.

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That would of course be whether or not to go with the players who made three-year commitments to the national team a few summers ago, the ones who helped Canada win an historic bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup and qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 2000, or add some reinforcements.

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Gilgeous-Alexander was asked for his take on Friday morning ahead of the lone visit to Toronto by Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Based on his answer, he might have a future in politics, like, say, in diplomacy.

“Great question. Great, great, great question,” Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters at Scotiabank Arena.

“I would stay out of it. Yeah, I would let Rowan (Barrett, the Canadian senior men’s team’s general manager) — he’s really good at his job — I would let him do his job. We have so much talent, so many guys that’ll be ready for the stage, that whoever they pick will be warranted, for sure, and they’ll deserve a spot,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

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Canadian head coach Jordi Fernandez was in town earlier this week with the Sacramento Kings and said lots of top Canadians have been telling him they want to join the cause for the Olympics. The most commonly mentioned names have been Jamal Murray, who committed for three years but has been unable to do more than attend training camps and has to be considered as questionable given his injury history and the fact his Denver Nuggets might again get to the NBA Finals, leaving him little recovery time, Andrew Wiggins, who has been either Canada’s best or second-best player the last two times he suited up for the program (with both sides falling agonizingly short of Olympic returns), Indiana guards Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin and stretch big man Trey Lyles, of Fernandez’s Kings.

One of Gilgeous-Alexander’s Canadian teammates, Dillon Brooks, of the Houston Rockets, is more willing to shoot from the hip with his comments and recently said the more the merrier.

“When you come and play for your country it’s all about the pride, it’s not about the money it’s not about anything else except pride and representing your country,” Brooks told the Canadian Press recently. “They’ve played with Team Canada before and we need to get better. It doesn’t matter who’s on the team or whatever, we just to get better and to be ready.”

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Brooks scored 39 points in Canada’s 127-118 win over the United States to earn the bronze medal and the Olympic berth.

“I said this after we won the bronze that it doesn’t matter, we gotta re-up. We gotta get better,” Brooks told the Canadian Press. “So add Jamal, add in Nembhard, add in Wiggins.

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