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Lord Shitlord aka El cibernauta
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hey Zags guys
Olnyk played almost all his minutes matched up against Boris Diaw (he had 8 points)
IZMIR, TURKEY—There just seems to be something about Kelly Olynyk that makes you notice him on a basketball court, a knack for being in the right place at the right time, a way of always being around the ball in the middle of the action, an intelligence level for the game that’s strange for a 19-year-old.
Get ready to see a lot more of him.
In a debut that would impress those who see the 6-11 teenager as a staple of the Canadian national team for many years to come, Olynyk had 13 points in a 68-63 loss to France here Tuesday and cemented himself into the mind of his coach, who now feels he should have been playing him long before he did.
“I was kicking myself in the rear end, we didn’t bring him here to sit him on the bench,” coach Leo Rautins said of Olynyk, the youngest member of Canada’s team. “This kid’s a big part of what I think our future is going to be. He’s a talented kid; he plays with balls.
“He’s not afraid and there’s not been one game where I’ve put him in and he’s been timid, and we’ve had some other guys who’ve been timid at times.”
With this appearance by Canada at the worlds more about gaining experience than instant gratification, it is important that the native of Kamloops, B.C., get a chance to see what the game at the world level is all about. It’s one thing to bring him over and let him sit on the bench and ride the buses and live the life, it’s far more important that he gets on the floor and sees what the game is truly all about.
“You pick up things (watching) but you don’t realize the pace of the game or the speed of the game or how physical it is,” said Olynyk, who played 19 minutes against France, hit four of five field goals, made his only three-pointer and grabbed two rebounds. “That’s a big thing with my learning curve that I discovered (Tuesday): just how important everything is, how much every possession means.”
But as Rautins said, it wasn’t as if Olynyk was a pacifist in his first extended run of the tournament. He was in the fray under the basket trying to get rebounds, he set screens and made hard cuts, he grabbed huge rebounds at both ends in the final two minutes of an aborted Canada rally.
He just has a knack for knowing what to do.
“I think it’s instinctual,” said Olynyk, the son of former University of Toronto coach Ken Olynyk. “But if you have a high basketball IQ, you’re going to be able to make plays. And sometimes making a play is setting a flare screen for a shooter, I mean a play doesn’t have to be making a basket or getting an assist, it can be a flare screen, it can maybe be a rebound, it can be a tipped pass, it can be anything like that.”
Those in the Canada Basketball program know that Olynyk is going to be a part of the next wave and his play Tuesday would indicate his role will be expanded immediately. It is interesting that he played nearly half the game while veteran Olu Famutimi didn’t get off the bench, Jermaine Bucknor played only 10 minutes and Jevohn Shepherd just 13. “It’s great for us to have somebody to come in and give us a spark off the bench,” said Canada’s Levon Kendall. “It shows a lot of character for a guy his age to come in and play with no fear at this level. In these tournaments, you need guys to do that when you have so many games and certain things happen with different matchups and it’ll be good if he can do that on a consistent basis.”
Olnyk played almost all his minutes matched up against Boris Diaw (he had 8 points)
IZMIR, TURKEY—There just seems to be something about Kelly Olynyk that makes you notice him on a basketball court, a knack for being in the right place at the right time, a way of always being around the ball in the middle of the action, an intelligence level for the game that’s strange for a 19-year-old.
Get ready to see a lot more of him.
In a debut that would impress those who see the 6-11 teenager as a staple of the Canadian national team for many years to come, Olynyk had 13 points in a 68-63 loss to France here Tuesday and cemented himself into the mind of his coach, who now feels he should have been playing him long before he did.
“I was kicking myself in the rear end, we didn’t bring him here to sit him on the bench,” coach Leo Rautins said of Olynyk, the youngest member of Canada’s team. “This kid’s a big part of what I think our future is going to be. He’s a talented kid; he plays with balls.
“He’s not afraid and there’s not been one game where I’ve put him in and he’s been timid, and we’ve had some other guys who’ve been timid at times.”
With this appearance by Canada at the worlds more about gaining experience than instant gratification, it is important that the native of Kamloops, B.C., get a chance to see what the game at the world level is all about. It’s one thing to bring him over and let him sit on the bench and ride the buses and live the life, it’s far more important that he gets on the floor and sees what the game is truly all about.
“You pick up things (watching) but you don’t realize the pace of the game or the speed of the game or how physical it is,” said Olynyk, who played 19 minutes against France, hit four of five field goals, made his only three-pointer and grabbed two rebounds. “That’s a big thing with my learning curve that I discovered (Tuesday): just how important everything is, how much every possession means.”
But as Rautins said, it wasn’t as if Olynyk was a pacifist in his first extended run of the tournament. He was in the fray under the basket trying to get rebounds, he set screens and made hard cuts, he grabbed huge rebounds at both ends in the final two minutes of an aborted Canada rally.
He just has a knack for knowing what to do.
“I think it’s instinctual,” said Olynyk, the son of former University of Toronto coach Ken Olynyk. “But if you have a high basketball IQ, you’re going to be able to make plays. And sometimes making a play is setting a flare screen for a shooter, I mean a play doesn’t have to be making a basket or getting an assist, it can be a flare screen, it can maybe be a rebound, it can be a tipped pass, it can be anything like that.”
Those in the Canada Basketball program know that Olynyk is going to be a part of the next wave and his play Tuesday would indicate his role will be expanded immediately. It is interesting that he played nearly half the game while veteran Olu Famutimi didn’t get off the bench, Jermaine Bucknor played only 10 minutes and Jevohn Shepherd just 13. “It’s great for us to have somebody to come in and give us a spark off the bench,” said Canada’s Levon Kendall. “It shows a lot of character for a guy his age to come in and play with no fear at this level. In these tournaments, you need guys to do that when you have so many games and certain things happen with different matchups and it’ll be good if he can do that on a consistent basis.”
