It's been a tough start to the season for Canadian ballers
The 2013-14 NBA season was supposed to be a banner year for Canadian basketball players, with a record nine Canadians on NBA rosters.
Unfortunately, it's been uniformly a terrible half-season for ballers from north of the border. While it's still a major positive for the country's basketball development to have so many names in the league - with more, like Andrew Wiggins and Tyler Ennis, on the way - only one individual has had what you'd call a successful performance so far.
Almost to a name, things have been disappointing.
Tristan Thompson - Easily the best of the bunch, Thompson is making his presence felt with 12.2 points and 9.7 rebounds a night. He's doing so for a 16-29 team, but that's hardly his fault.
Samuel Dalembert - Still a defensive presence, the Haitian-Canadian's role has been inconsistent with the Mavericks. He is, however, shooting 57 percent from the floor and averaging two blocks per 36 minutes.
Cory Joseph - Life as a reserve for the Spurs is probably pretty sweet, but it also means little playing time. Joseph gets just 11 minutes a night and has made the most of them by providing league-average offensive efficiency.
Kelly Olynyk - Olynyk is getting plenty of chances but is shooting a terrible 41.6 percent from the field. He's averaged 6.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in under 20 minutes but he should be carving out a bigger role on this rebuilding team.
Andrew Nicholson - Remember his 18-point, 19-minute performance from opening night? Neither does coach Jacque Vaughn, who has yo-yo'd Nicholson's minutes dramatically. The end result is a 44.4 percent mark from the field and 2.5 points per 36 minutes fewer than his rookie season.
Robert Sacre - The rare center who can't score inside or rebound, Sacre finds himself getting 13 minutes a night on a woefully-thin Lakers squad. He's a part of the core, though, as one of only three Lakers with a contract for next season.
Joel Anthony - The Miami Heat paid in picks for the Celtics to take his salary off their hands. He's played 55 minutes on the season, two years after averaging over 20 for a championship team.
Steve Nash - The issue here is obviously injuries, which have limited Nash to just six games. We refuse to believe he can't still shoot and create when healthy, but who knows when that might be.
Anthony Bennett - Gunning for the title of worst number one pick ever, Bennett just scored in double-digits for the first time. That pushed his average all the way to 2.8 points on the year and increased his field goal percentage to 27.9 percent.
Add up all the individual performances and the "NBA Canada" stat line is unsightly:
| Player | G | FG% | 3FG% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS | WS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tristan Thompson | 45 | 0.46 | 0.00 | 0.65 | 438 | 38 | 20 | 20 | 70 | 548 | 2.6 |
| Cory Joseph | 33 | 0.46 | 0.32 | 0.79 | 44 | 42 | 11 | 5 | 19 | 139 | 1 |
| Kelly Olynyk | 37 | 0.42 | 0.29 | 0.82 | 161 | 55 | 18 | 16 | 54 | 246 | 0.8 |
| Andrew Nicholson | 44 | 0.44 | 0.30 | 0.80 | 180 | 11 | 10 | 17 | 35 | 297 | 0.7 |
| Joel Anthony | 16 | 0.30 | 1.00 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 0 | |
| Anthony Bennett | 33 | 0.28 | 0.19 | 0.60 | 80 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 28 | 92 | -0.8 |
| Samuel Dalembert | 44 | 0.57 | 0.00 | 0.72 | 271 | 21 | 28 | 50 | 51 | 264 | 2.4 |
| Robert Sacre | 31 | 0.46 | 0.63 | 92 | 16 | 10 | 27 | 15 | 124 | 0.6 | |
| Steve Nash | 6 | 0.26 | 0.38 | 0.92 | 9 | 29 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 40 | -0.2 |
| Per-36 | 289 | 0.44 | 0.29 | 0.71 | 9.04 | 1.55 | 0.78 | 1.03 | 2.01 | 12.35 | 7.1 |
Look closely at the last row - Canadians are averaging just 12.3 points per 36 minutes on 44 percent shooting, below the league averages of 14.9 and 45.1 percent. They rebound well as a group but that's largely because they're big men (which should also mean a higher field goal percentage, theoretically).
As mentioned, having NBA players struggling is better than not having them at all, and most of this group is still very young. There are plenty of positives to take from the Canadian basketball program right now. But they're taking their lumps, that's for sure.