Who could replace Jordi Fernandez as Canadian men’s basketball coach?

Jordi Fernandez’s time with Canada Basketball was, by any honest measure, very profitable and unusually brief.

Fernandez was parachuted into the boys’s head teaching job on the eleventh hour in the summertime of 2023 after incumbent bench boss Nick Nurse needed to step away, citing his duties as the brand new head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers following his time with the Toronto Raptors.

It was Fernandez who helped the boys’s crew win a bronze medal on the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup after which guided Canada to a 3-0 report in pool play on the 2024 Olympics in Paris earlier than the crew misplaced its quarterfinal to eventual runner-up France. The final sport was one of many solely contests the Canadian males performed beneath their stage underneath Fernandez’s watch.

Fernandez, named the top coach of the Brooklyn Nets in April 2024 after a two-year run affiliate head coach of the Sacramento Kings, and Canada Basketball parted methods amicably in early February.

“He’s nonetheless a pal of this system,” mentioned Canada Basketball chief government officer Michael Bartlett.

A lot so {that a} small celebration of males’s crew staffers are in Brooklyn as company of the Spain native on Wednesday evening because the Raptors tackle the Nets.

Nonetheless, the nuances of partings, as all the time, are open to interpretation.

Canada Basketball mentioned after the Olympics it was reviewing each the boys’s and ladies’s packages with an eye fixed towards figuring out any modifications it needed or wanted to make upfront of the following quadrennial. On the ladies’s facet, head coach Victor Lapena stepped away to pursue skilled teaching alternatives Europe, although the sense was Canada Basketball needed to pursue some completely different choices in any case after going winless in Paris. Denise Dignard, the long-standing ladies’s program common supervisor, retired in October after 26 years with Canada Basketball.

On the boys’s facet, Fernandez gave indications as just lately as his go to to Toronto with the Nets in mid-December that he was a minimum of open to persevering with with the boys’s program. But it surely will also be taken at face worth that teaching an NBA crew – particularly a younger and rebuilding one, just like the Nets – is extra of a year-round endeavor than it ever has been earlier than, with groups and staffs working collectively nicely into the summer season and reconvening once more earlier and earlier to construct as much as coaching camp.

In that context, it’s utterly believable that there’s nothing extra to Fernandez shifting on than him having a full plate with the Nets and his younger household. And who is aware of, had Fernandez helped Canada win an Olympic medal, maybe he might need moved on regardless, having pitched the equal of an ideal sport within the two most essential tournaments the boys’s program has ever had.

The opposite doable interpretation is that in taking the nation to the brink of enjoying for an Olympic medal solely to have his membership fall brief, the door was open for Canada Basketball to think about its choices heading towards the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Regardless of the subtleties, Fernandez report will arise exceptionally nicely over time, as the boys’s crew went 9-3 mixed on the World Cup and the Olympics and 14-6 general, with signature wins over top-ranked opponents equivalent to the USA, Spain, France, Germany, Australia and Greece.

“This was Jordi,” says Bartlett. “He deserved the precise to make this determination.”

And whereas Lapena didn’t get the Olympic outcome anybody hoped for, main Canada to fourth on the 2022 World Cup is this system’s finest end since a bronze on the world championship in 1986.

Who will attempt to prime both of these requirements is a query the group is hoping to have answered quickly, in response to Bartlett.

“I believe each males’s and ladies’s, we do not wish to go too far into the spring with out realizing the who the top coach is as a result of there’s an entire bunch of issues that should occur linked to that,” mentioned Bartlett. “From a head coach perspective, the assistant benches, winter lead coaches … we acquired to take a look at all that, so we hope we are able to button this up within the spring on the top coach facet after which work out all the opposite stuff.”

Canada has gone worldwide for its final three teaching hires – the American-born Nurse in 2019, adopted by Fernandez on the boys’s facet, with Lapena, additionally from Spain, taking on from Lisa Thomaidis, who led Canada two consecutive Olympics and took Germany to Paris final summer season. They might accomplish that once more, although the plan is to have sturdy Canadian illustration among the many assistants and as head coaches on the age-group stage.

“It is not simply because we’re valuing their passport,” mentioned Bartlett. “It is as a result of we worth their expertise and experience and what they’ll convey to the desk in our successful surroundings, too. It isn’t the default … as a way to be eligible or to be thought of, nevertheless it’s actually one thing that we’re weighing as essential.”

In accordance with males’s crew common supervisor Rowan Barrett, the chief standards for the incoming head coach is worldwide expertise and success.

“We consider our crew can be able to go for the rostrum within the LA 2028 Olympic Video games 2028,” Barrett mentioned, by way of textual content. “And that we’re first searching for coaches which have expertise successful medals on the World Cup or the Olympics … there (has) been curiosity candidates from everywhere in the world.”

Whereas Canada Basketball wouldn’t provide any additional touch upon their course of, a number of sources have recommended that Gord Herbert is the main candidate for the boys’s crew.

He actually checks off loads of containers.

The previous Canadian Olympic crew (1984) participant has had an extended and profitable profession in Europe and is presently head coach for EuroLeague membership Bayern Munich. Herbert was the top coach for the German nationwide crew when it received bronze at EuroBasket in 2022 and gold on the 2023 World Cup earlier than ending fourth on the Olympics in Paris. He was with Canada throughout World Cup qualifying previous to Nurse being employed in 2019.

However Canada Basketball’s teaching pool has by no means been deeper on the boys’s facet.

Listed here are some names anticipated to be thought of both for the top teaching place or as a part of the nationwide crew:

Nate Mitchell: The Toronto native has labored as an assistant coach or participant growth coach with the Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Hornets and presently is a head coach within the Chinese language Basketball Affiliation. Was an assistant with Canada on the World Cup and the Olympics and has been a head coach throughout a number of winter qualifying home windows in addition to on the age-group stage. Does low season coaching with a number of nationwide crew core members, together with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Jama Mahlalela: A extremely revered NBA assistant in his second stint with the Raptors. Performed his school basketball in Vancouver at UBC.  Has championship expertise with the Raptors in 2019 and with the Golden State Warriors in 2022. Was head coach of Raptors 905 in 2018-19. Has deep ties all through worldwide basketball with the potential to construct a employees with appreciable FIBA championship expertise.

Scott Morrison: The PEI native is a former assistant coach with the Boston Celtics and is now with the Utah Jazz. Beforehand head coach of the Celtics and Jazz G-League associates, and was G League coach of the 12 months in 2014-15 with the Maine Crimson Claws.  Was a head coach within the Australian Basketball League and has a profitable report teaching for Canada on the age-group stage. Was a part of Fernandez’s employees in preparation for the World Cup and Olympics.

Ryan Schmidt: Initially from Oregon, Schmidt is an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks and was beforehand head coach with the Hawks’ G-League entry. Earlier than that he was head coach with the London Lions, sweeping all competitions within the British Basketball League and taking the Lions to the quarterfinals of the EuroCup, the second highest competitors in Europe. Spent 4 years as an assistant with Raptors 905 and was head coach of the Hamilton Honey Badgers within the CEBL.

Nate Bjorkgren: An assistant to Fernandez on the World Cup and the Olympics and to Nurse on the 2019 World Cup and 2021 Olympic Qualifying Event. Head coach with the Indiana Pacers in 2020-21, presently assistant coach with the Portland Path Blazers, beforehand an assistant with the Phoenix Suns and Raptors.

On the ladies’s facet, one of many candidates is Carli Clarke, presently the top coach with U Sports activities powerhouse Toronto Metropolitan College. She boasts an in depth monitor report as a senior crew assistant coach on the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, in addition to podium finishes as a head coach for Canada on the age-group stage. Noelle Quinn, head coach with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, and an assistant with Lapena on the 2024 Olympics on the identical employees with Clarke, is also within the operating.

The plan on the boys’s facet is to carry a senior crew coaching camp in August upfront of the FIBA AmeriCup, Aug. 22-31 in Nicaragua. And whereas the core members of the boys’s Olympic crew received’t be enjoying this summer season, the hope is that they may spend a few days in camp to achieve some familiarity with the brand new head coach forward of the 2027 World Cup in Qatar. The plan for the AmeriCup crew is to incorporate a mixture of youthful nationwide crew prospects from the NBA ranks, and the European execs principally prone to make up the core of the World Cup winter qualifying window groups in 2026.

The subsequent ladies’s international competitors is the World Cup in Germany in 2026, which places extra emphasis on the upcoming summer season. The plan is the have a coaching camp in Toronto in June with a brand new employees in place in preparation for the Girls’s FIBA AmeriCup in Chile, June 28-July 6. The highest six groups in that occasion will advance to one in all 4 World Cup qualifying event in February of 2026.