Canada asks more from Jordi Fernandez and his boys in the busiest summer for the Badalona coach, with no time to raise his head. The Catalan takes a break from the laborious task of rebuilding the Brooklyn Nets after being named head coach of the New York team, but to take on the role of Canadian coach, in whom the country trusts to forge an Olympic medal at the Games Paris after the bronze at the World Cup.
“I’m busy, but very busy,” he admits after the first training session. Canada with a smile Jordi, busy but at the same time delighted to be so, grateful for the privilege of having two top-level jobs.
“I have not been bored, I have had a lot of work and things to organize, but everything is positive, there is nothing that negatively generates stress for me. It’s work, you have to get it done day by day, think about tomorrow, don’t go any further because otherwise it can take its toll on you mentally. I come to enjoy the group, a unique experience and, from here on, not think about the first game, but think about tomorrow’s training and improve tomorrow,” the Catalan reflects to MD.
Jordi, with that repeated yet realistic philosophy of everyday life – even more so in an increasingly equal basketball – tries to alleviate the weight of expectations that he knows his players will carry. After winning their first ever World Cup medal and stealing the bronze from the United States, Canada is no longer sleeping giant who was postponing his awakening.
The Canadian is a powerful emerging selection, a confirmed NBA power between the abundance of talent that it has and the way it bit metal last year. And the demand skyrockets when Jamal Murray will join the cause to form a point guard duo with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander which can be devastating and with the great youth season like Andrew Nembhard y Zach Edeythe dominant 2.24 giant that the Grizzlies of Ja Morant and Santi Aldama just drafted at number 9.
Although the Golden State Warriors just left Canada without Andrew Wiggins in the news that yesterday marked the beginning of the preparation of the North American team.
“I feel sorry for him, he wanted to be here, but it is something that is not in our hands,” lamented Jordi Fernández when asked by Canadian media. “We don’t like it, we respect it. We have to turn the page. I have a lot of respect for the Warriors, they take care of their business,” added the coach. Badalona
Leonard Miller, The former NBA player who has played most of his time with the Minnesota Timberwolves’ G-League team in his first NBA season will replace Wiggins. In any case, the absence of the 2022 NBA champion with Golden State will give the Catalan less headaches when it comes to putting together the final roster. Up to 11 players from the best league in the world are among the 20 who have started training camp.
“We don’t like it, we respect it. We have to move on.”
Jordi Fernández, about the absence of Wiggins
Attack dogs as the villain Dillon Brooks, Luguentz Dort y Nickeil Alexander-Walker They lick their lips in the face of a friendlier FIBA game with its defensive intensity and we must also mention names like RJ Barrett and Kelly Olynyk. But Canada also has a handful of ACB players like Khem Birch (Girona), Thomas Scrubb (Monbus Obradoiro), Trae Bell-Haynes (Casademont Zaragoza) and Melvin Ejim (Unicaja), a blessing to help NBA stars make the always difficult transition to the FIBA game.
Jordi Fernández acknowledged that gold is a dream, but the Catalan reflected deeply on the goal of Canada, a possible rival of Spain in the Olympic Games.
“I think the expectations from outside the group are good, what they do is promote Canadian basketball, but we have our internal expectations within the group, talking about gold for us is not the important thing, that is just a result. For us, the important thing is the process and the day to day, how we can approach the first game,” the first NBA coach born in Spain explained to MD.
Murray and Gilgeous-Alexander, a luxury duo for Canada
Nate Billings / LaPresse
“That people outside of Canada talk about how a powerful team is positive, which cannot affect us and cannot make us adjust. You have to keep working and be hungry, I think that is the most important thing,” warns Jordi Fernández.
The Canadian team is in Group A and only has Australia as an opponent, as the other rivals will come from the pre-Olympic tournaments in Piraeus (Greece) and Valencia. Slovenia is in Group A and will face Australia. Luka Doncic and Greece of Giannis Antetokounmpo aare fighting for a place in the first, while in the second the favourite is Spain, which Canada has already eliminated in the World Cup.
Another advantage of the North American team compared to last year is that the group of players now knows Jordi Fernández and what he wants much better. The Catalan was named the new coach less than two months before the World Cup the previous summer, despite which he was able to assemble a group that made history for the country.
“We can improve defensively, we were the 11th team in defence but we have the talent to be in the top three. It was my fault, I made certain players play too many minutes. Offensively we were the best team in the World Cup but that doesn’t mean anything, we have to do it again and there are things we can still improve,” analyses the 41-year-old coach, who has the former Barça player on his coaching staff. Boniface Ndong.
Thanks to Fernández and another Spaniard like Victor Lapeña, Canadian women’s coach, Canada will have its two senior teams in the Olympic Games for the first time since 2000. The women’s team has never won a medal while the men’s team won the last one in black and white, in 1936.
Canada, the foreign country with the most NBA players with the 26 it had last season, is one of the strongest alternatives to the powerful Team USAwhich they will face in a friendly in Las Vegas on July 10. Canada can take a step to the next level if they can fit together what could be a dazzling point guard duo in Gilgeous-Alexander and Murray.
The theory goes that the Thunder player can take on more of the ball after leading Canada last year and the second can move more away from the ball as he does in Denver with Nikola Jokic.
“I think that in the end they will teach us what will be best for the team,” says the former Sacramento Kings.
“We have to let them play, let them be comfortable, and at the end of the day what we know is that we have two players, as soon as things get difficult, they will be able to take the game forward and it is important that they do what is best for the team.” cluster. From here, they are going to teach us and give us the easy solution, we have to be from the outside and observe how they evolve,” explains Jordi, growing faster and faster and helping the emerging Canadian team to discover some boundaries that still seem to be far away.
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2024-06-29 06:31:44
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