Unlike last season, when Jay Triano was forced to look down his bench and pick from fringe NBA players like Quincy Douby, Nathan Jawai, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Patrick O’Bryant, Roko Ukic and Jake Voskuhl, this coming season he’ll have a lot of options at his disposal.

In fact, the team is loaded with so much depth it marks one of the few times in the history of the franchise where the team is 12-deep with backups at each position that can easily step in and start if the injury bug strikes.

Last week I had the chance to chat with Leo Rautins – the head coach of the Canadian National team – at an event hosted by Basketball Canada. During our chat we talked about about the strong play from the cadet and junior teams so far this summer, what kinds of things he would like to see within Basketball Canada, how having well known high school and college players take part in a recent training camp has helped with their growth, the benefit his deep bench will provide during the World Championships qualifying tournament and he talked about the lack of pressure he’s feeling despite being in the last year of his current contract.

Alex Garcia has never been the man in the spotlight, especially after his buddies Anderson Varejão, Nenê, and Leandrinho Barbosa went to the NBA, signed multi-million dollar deals, and became world stars. His short stints with the Spurs and the Hornets, consequences of an NBA career filled with injuries didn’t help much, but one can’t disagree that the power guard is one of the most passionate players in the Brazilian national team.

This morning I had the chance to take part in a press conference organized by Canada Basketball. The senior men’s national team is currently in Peurto Rico for a qualify tournament for the upcoming World Championships next summer and this was a chance for a wide range of people associated with the team to talk to the media.

I’m pleased to announce that Hoops Addict will be running a promotion this week which will allow basketball fans the chance to win an autographed Chris Paul road jersey. To be entered in the contest all you need to do is drop a link in the comments section with your favorite Chris Paul clip on [...]

After talking with countless coaches around the NBA, it’s become clear the bonds formed on the practice court far outweigh any bitterness when those players become opponents.

You’ll have to excuse me if I was shocked when this realization first set in.

Robin Lopez and Eric Gordon took some time out of their busy schedule to talk with me about why they were involved with the adidas Nations camp, what they have been doing this summer, Robin talked about how the trade of Shaquille O’Neal will effect him, Eric talked about the Clippers drafting Blake Griffin, they both talked about what they learned during their rookie season as well as a wide range of other topics.

Last week I had the chance to chat with Michael Malone – an assistant coach with the Canadian National team and the Cleveland Cavaliers – at an event hosted by Basketball Canada. During our chat we talked about about why he would give up so much of his summer break to coach at the World [...]

Last week I had the chance to chat with Andy Rautins at an event hosted by Basketball Canada about his goals for the upcoming World Championships qualifying tournament, what his veteran teammates are teaching him, his thoughts on being a veteran leader at Syracuse this season, what it’s like to have his dad as a coach and he shared his thoughts on the tough competition he’ll face in the upcoming tournament.

With one brilliant move, Colangelo was able to deal a guard that was going to rot on the bench, Roko Ukic, in order to fix the teams most glaring need: front court depth. Even if Amir Johnson only manages to match his 14.7 minutes per game that he averaged last season it will be a great improvement over what Ukic was looking at playing.