3 Reasons Team Canada flamed out in the Paris Olympics: Can they fix them?

No. 2: Jamal Murray didn’t show up

This is a piece examining the failures of the team as a whole, but offensively they start with the complete inability of Jamal Murray to be the secondary scorer this team needed. He was supposed to give Canada a 1-2 punch of elite shot creators and shooters in the backcourt and propel the guard-heavy squad forward.

Instead, the only NBA champion on the team didn’t show up to play in the Olympics, struggling to separate from subpar defenders and taking ill-advised shots because he couldn’t get to better ones. Whether he was injured or has lost something from his game forever, Murray looked slow, indecisive and overmatched.

Canada looked its best when Andrew Nembhard was in the game instead of Murray, but Nembhard isn’t going to carry the team’s offense. That was supposed to be Murray, and instead of carrying anything he merely pulled down their efficiency, using possessions up on low-percentage shots and doing very little on the defensive end to make up for it. 

He played 20.5 minutes per game but shot just 29 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from 3-point range, averaging just six points per contest. On a per-minute, per-play basis, he was perhaps the worst player at the Olympic games - and certainly the worst on this Canadian team.

Can It Be Fixed? Jamal Murray is just over a year removed from a stunning performance in the NBA Playoffs to help lead the Denver Nuggets to the title. The hope is that he can heal from whatever is ailing him and be in a better place by the Los Angeles Olympics, but it’s possible he doesn’t regain that level of play. In that case, young players like Nembhard, Shaedon Sharpe and Bennedict Mathurin need to grow into larger roles over the next four years.