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

No. 1: Canada has to find some big men

The most glaring weakness of the Canadian team was at the big position, something everyone knew heading into the Olympics and which reared its head in the flameout loss to France. The Raptors had a collection of fringe rotation players to rotate at center, all of them pushing 30 or well into their 30s. 

Dwight Powell, Kelly Olynyk, Trey Lyles and Khem Birch were not equipped to offer much resistance against the size and strength of France, not only Victor Wembanyama but also the bully-ball of Guerschon Yabusele and Mathias Lessort. What’s more, Canada didn’t have much int he way of forwards, either, to match up: Dillon Brooks and Luguentz Dort were already playing a position down at the 3 and 4 in the starting lineup and didn’t have the size to take on opposing bigs with regularity.

It wasn’t only France that bullied Canada, either. Giannis Antetokounmpo was nearly unstoppable against them. Australia’s Jock Landale put up 16 points and 12 rebounds. Canada had overmatched bigs and a lack of forwards, and their team of wings and guards was unable to punch up enough to counteract that deficiency.

Can It Be Fixed? The answer is…maybe not. There are talented young guards and wings in the pipeline for Canada, but the list of young bigs is relatively short. Zach Edey should play for the team in the next cycle, and he certainly has some of the size and rebounding this team was missing, but he’s the only player the team can obviously point to. Perhaps players like Leonard Miller or Olivier Maxenxe-Prosper will develop significantly over the next few seasons to provide depth at forward.