A Look Ahead to Summer for Canada Men’s Basketball

NORTHSCORE/Jonathan Reynoso

The approach of summer 2026 signals the end of the first round of qualifying matches for the 2027 Qatar FIBA World Cup. With their final games of the first round being played on July 3 and July 6, the Canadian men’s national team looks to continue to dominate group B and advance to the second round of qualifying matches. 

Canada has been the strongest team by far in the group, going 4-0 in round-one matches, highlighted by a dominant 111-75 win over the Bahamas. Overall, Canada won its matches by an average of over 17 points per first-round contest.

“You never know whose night it’s gonna be. We got 12 guys all playing at high levels overseas and I’ve played with every single guy before. So having that familiarity, we understand each other,” said forward Kyle Wiltjer after defeating the Bahamas in the second round-one match Dec. 1, 2025.

Wiltjer has been a star for the men’s team, putting up huge numbers across the board, averaging 17.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists to go along with 2.5 steals in the first four games. The 5-foot-10 forward is the driving force behind Canada's recent success, proving to be a vital piece of the men’s roster.

NORTHSCORE/Jonathan Reynoso

The rest of the matches being played in the month of July means some of the current roster will be pushed out by returning NBA players.

With the full team lineup for this summer not being officially announced yet, we can look to Canada's previous Olympic roster to forecast which pros will be donning the red and white threads this July.

NORTHSCORE/Jonathan Reynoso

Names including Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Lou Dort, Jamal Murray, Dillon Brooks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are ones to watch to possibly represent Canada this summer. With the rise of talent coming out of Canada’s basketball programs, it has become more and more difficult for Canadian players, who are not in the NBA, to make the team in the summer.

There are 25 [Canadians] in the NBA who can play meaningful minutes. I mean it's incredible,” said Sam Ibraheim, owner of the Scarborough Shooting Stars. “And per-capita, based on our population, we have the most NBA players in [the] NBA.”

The influx of Canadian basketball talent is evident at each professional level, with Canadian players impacting winning at the Division 1 (D1) college level.

At this year’s NCAA tournament, it was often names like Syla Swords, Xavian Lee, Toby Fournier and Emmanuel Sharp—all players who spent time developing their game on Canadian soil—showing out to be valuable, if not the most valuable, assets on their respective teams.  

For years, basketball in Canada faced the problem of athletes needing to leave the country to develop their talents south of the border, because programs and resources were severely lacking in the Canadian Basketball infrastructure.

The Sport Information Resource Centre identified the importance of “giving young athletes the tools they need to develop from local leagues to top-level competition.” The initiative to do that in Canada led to 168 Canadians suiting up for D1 colleges this past year.  

“They stayed. They played our local circuits. They played in our high school circuits and in the AAU. And then they go to top-tier American colleges and some of them will go pro quickly. So that's also because of them. The community has matured so much,” said Ibraheim.

Looking ahead to their next matchup, the Canadian men’s national team will take on Puerto Rico for the second time this round, where in their previous matchup, Canada came away with a comfortable 96-85 victory. 

But as the basketball World Cup approaches, Canada will have to close out the summer strong to secure a spot in Qatar. 

*AI was used in this story for the transcription of interviews