TORONTO (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers) - Canada Basketball has announced 17 athletes who will report for training camp ahead of exhibition play and the summer window of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers.

The list includes much of Canada's present and a bit of its future as well. Six are NBA veterans and two are rising college freshmen.

Canada has two home matches to close out the first round of qualifying, on June 29 against Dominican Republic in Toronto at the Ricoh Coliseum, and July 2 versus the U.S. Virgin Islands at The Arena at TD Place in the capitol city of Ottawa.

Before that, the team will face China in two exhibition games called the Pacific Rim Basketball Classic.  The games will be played at the Rogers Arena in downtown Vancouver on June 22 and the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria on June 24.

Reporting to training camp will be:

Cory Joseph of the Indiana Pacers captained Canada through its last Olympic qualifying run and will be joined by fellow NBA veterans Kelly Olynyk (Miami Heat), Khem Birch (Orlando Magic), Dwight Powell (Dallas Mavericks),  as well as Dillon Brooks who had a strong rookie season with the Memphis Grizzlies. Also on the squad is Chris Boucher, a two-way contract player with the Golden State Warriors. 

The team will be guided once again by head coach Jay Triano, who has recently joined the bench of the Charlotte Hornets after serving as interim head coach for the Phoenix Suns last season. He will be joined by assistants Roy Rana (Ryerson University), Nathaniel Mitchell (Raptors 905), Dave Smart (Carleton University) and Scott Morrison (Boston Celtics).

The game against the Dominican Republic will be for top of the group honors as Canada lost 88-76 in Santiago de los Caballeros on November 27. Canada is 3-1 while the Dominican Republic is 4-0. The effort will be enhanced by the addition of six NBA athletes prev

The Canadian contingent is interesting and diverse in that it includes NBA, G League and international players as well as two good friends - R.J. Barrett and Andrew Nembhard - who played together at at Montverde Academy in Florida and will be college freshmen this fall at Duke and Florida respectively.

Barrett, 18, is a rising talent who has already been recognized as an MVP on the world stage after leading Canada to a the gold medal at last summer’s FIBA U19 world championships in Cairo.  Nembhard was also on that team and more recently helped Canada to the silver medal at the FIBA Americas U18 championships last weekend.

FIBA