Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, R.J. Barrett Headline List of Players 'Committed' To Canada Basketball

Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and R.J. Barrett are among the 14 players committed to the Canadian Senior Men's National Team for the next three years

Russell Lansford-USA TODAY Sports

The moment the Canadian Senior Men's National Team walked off the court in Victoria, B.C. last summer following the heartbreaking loss to the Czech Republic, Rowan Barrett, the Canadian men's general manager, and Nick Nurse, the team's head coach, knew something had to change.

The Canadians were the more talented group. From an NBA talent perspective, Canada outnumbered the Czechs seven to one. It shouldn't have been close. The problem, however, was a lack of chemistry. Canada returned just one player from its previous qualifying tournament. The Czechs, conversely, returned almost everyone.

"We determined we needed to have continuity and cohesion within our teams," Barrett said. "We have talented teams. We have talented players. But we need them somehow to be together, kind of, the left hand needs to know what the right hand is doing, (which) is a little bit more important for us this time."

This time around, the organization is demanding a commitment from its players for at least the next three years. Following discussions within the system and a meeting in Las Vegas at last year's NBA Summer League, 14 players have agreed to show up through this Olympic qualifying cycle: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, RJ Barrett, Khem Birch, Oshae Brissett, Dillon Brooks, Luguentz Dort, Zach Edey, Melvin Ejim, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cory Joseph, Jamal Murray, Kelly Olynyk, Kevin Pangos, and Dwight Powell.

That commitment level, however, isn't entirely clear. All 14 players have agreed to attend at least three days of training camp, Nurse said, but being committed doesn't necessarily mean taking part in games.

"There might be one window where you know that a player is in the middle of a negotiation with their team and they might need to miss, maybe one window here or there. But as we look at our athletes generally and how their contracts are lined out over the next few years, we feel that as we're moving into the World Cup, and as we're moving into the Olympics, we won't have tremendous difficulty with that," Barrett said. "I definitely think the contract piece is going to be a big piece. We will have a little bit of that this summer, but hopefully moving forward less and less."

The team is already expecting to be without a few players when Canada opens the World Cup Qualifiers in Hamilton on July 1 against the Dominican Republic. With so much depth in the system, there should be no shortage of players willing to step up and fill the void. Andrew Wiggins, for example, has already expressed interest in joining the team, albeit without a three-year commitment.

"He said, 'I can't commit to three summers in a row, but I want to play,'" Nurse recalled Wiggins telling him following the loss in Victoria. "I said, 'if you commit you're in, if you don't commit, you're gonna have to hope there's a spot or two open and you're gonna have to make the team.' He said, 'cool.'"

The biggest question for this roster is going to be its size. The international game is loaded with tough physical teams who roll out veteran seven-footers one after another. The 7-foot-1 Ondřej Balvín, for example, scored 14 points and grabbed 19 rebounds for the Czech Republic in Canada's loss last summer. To fill that void, Canada turned to 20-year-old Zach Edey, a 7-foot-4 center playing college basketball at Purdue.

"He was a pretty big priority," Nurse said. "We just thought that every time we see Zach he’s a problem for, well, when we're scrimmaging against him it's a problem for us, right, on the floor and practices and things. And he's a problem for other teams.

"And I've already been to watch him workout and stuff for this summer, and he looks great, man, physically looks amazing. Whatever they’re doing at Purdue to get his body right. His body is right. His legs are strong and lean, and his upper body is lean and he looks really good."

Now it's time to finally breakthrough. After two decades of disappointing losses, Canada has a group with enough talent to make a run and earn a spot in the Olympics. They've been here before, though.

"We haven't done anything yet," Barrett said. "We need to win."