Canada's Olympic men's basketball team is a medal contender

The Canadian men's basketball team announced its roster for the Paris Olympics today, just hours ahead of an exhibition game against the United States in Las Vegas.

The squad is loaded with NBA talent. Ten of the 12 players are currently in the league, and veteran forward Melvin Ejim is the only one who hasn't played in it at some point.

Canada will be led by a pair of bona fide star guards in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray. SGA was the runner-up in NBA MVP voting this season and ranked third in scoring with 30.1 points per game for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who had the best record in the Western Conference. Murray averaged 21.2 points for the Denver Nuggets and was MVP Nikola Jokic's main sidekick on their 2023 championship team.

Gilgeous-Alexander, 25, led Canada to its first-ever medal at the men's Basketball World Cup (formerly the world championship) last summer, beating the United States in the bronze game in the Philippines. En route to the podium, the Canadian men clinched their first Olympic berth since 2000, when future back-to-back NBA MVP Steve Nash carried his team to the quarterfinals.

Murray skipped the World Cup, saying he needed a break after Denver's long championship run in his first season back from a devastating knee injury. His addition to the Paris team gives Canada an excellent shot to win its first Olympic basketball medal since 1936 in Berlin. To give you an idea of how long ago that was, basketball inventor James Naismith presented the Canadians with their silvers after they lost the final to the U.S. by a score of 19-8 on a rain-soaked clay tennis court. Seriously.

Another potentially impactful new face is point guard Andrew Nembhard, who just helped the Indiana Pacers reach the