Canada is the next international basketball powerhouse

[Steadysoul]

Who do you consider first tier powers then? Apart from USA, that is ? Because if France is in a second tier ,Spain would have to be in a third for me.

For me Spain is in the first tier....but just barely. How they do in Eurobasket this year matters. They have to at least medal. Anything less and they get demoted to second tier though I'm not sure I would promote anyone else to the top tier. The top euro teams are for the most second tier with a few (Lith France and Serbia) always on the cusp on moving up. Being in the same zone has a habit of preventing that.

[mojo13]

For me Spain is in the first tier....but just barely. How they do in Eurobasket this year matters. They have to at least medal. Anything less and they get demoted to second tier though I'm not sure I would promote anyone else to the top tier. The top euro teams are for the most second tier with a few (Lith France and Serbia) always on the cusp on moving up. Being in the same zone has a habit of preventing that.

I'd have Spain solidly in the second tier. They are slipping but I still think the Gasol brothers are the best non-american players in the world (Nowitzki and Parker are well past their prime). Marc is in his prime and arguably the best center in the world. It hasn't seemed to translate too well to FIBA recently, but any Spanish team fielding both of them should be a favorite in European or World competitions.

Tier 1:
USA

Tier 2(a)
Spain
France

Tier 2(b)
Serbia
Greece
Croatia
Lithuania

Tier 3
Australia
Canada
Brazil
Argentina
Italy
Turkey
Russia
Solvenia

[Federoy]

Who do you consider first tier powers then? Apart from USA, that is ? Because if France is in a second tier ,Spain would have to be in a third for me.

I'll put it this way...the USA is Tier 1A and Spain is Tier 1B. Keep in mind, for as much as the US has dominated international basketball since 2007, the Spanish have come close to defeating the US in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold medal game. Those games were in doubt well into the latter stages of the 4th quarter.

[greenarcher]

Lots of intriguing prospects for Canada like Thon Maker and Jamal Murray.

[Joško Poljak Fan]

I'm pretty sure Thon Maker is playing for Australia

[Andy7984]

Yeah, Thon Maker does not have Canadian citizenship. He only moved to Canada last September to play at a high school in Canada.

[PacerFan21]

Andrew Wiggins, Tristan Thompson, Kelly Olynyk, Nik Stauskas, Cory Joseph and then another really good prospect in Jamal Murray, they do have the potential to field a really good team but they need some guys to develop to be a powerhouse.