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With around 10 games left in the regular season and teams jockeying for playoff position, here’s a look at how the top Canadian NBA players are doing:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder)
A longtime favourite of basketball aficionados, SGA has finally earned more mainstream attention with a superstar-calibre season. The 24-year-old guard ranks fourth in the NBA in scoring with 31.4 points per game while averaging 5.5 assists, close to five rebounds and 1.7 steals (tied for third in the league).
Shortly after playing in his first All-Star Game last month, Gilgeous-Alexander suffered an abdominal injury that some feared would compel the rebuilding Thunder to shut him down early for the third straight season. But with surprising OKC (36-36) currently holding down a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament, and just a half-game back of defending champion Golden State for a full-fledged playoff entry, the Thunder are even rethinking their plan to shield him from playing on back-to-back nights.
Another young Canadian, Lu Dort, also starts for the Thunder. Though his scoring average is down about three points this season to 13.9, the high-energy guard is posting career highs in rebounds and assists while often guarding the other team’s best perimeter player.
Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets)
It’s been almost three years since Murray’s breakthrough performance in the Disney World playoff bubble, where he scored 50, 42 and 50 points in consecutive first-round games and 40 in Game 7 of the second round to upset Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers. A few months later, Murray was enjoying a career year when he suffered a torn ACL that knocked him out for the rest of the season and the entire 2021-22 campaign.
Finally healthy enough to return, the 26-year-old point guard has played 58 of Denver’s 72 games this season and is averaging 20.1 points (not quite back to his 2020-21 peak, but close) and a career-high 6.1 assists. With Murray as the top sidekick for Nikola Jokic, the incomparable centre who’s in the hunt for his third consecutive MVP award, the Nuggets (48-24) are the top team in the West.
Andrew Wiggins (Golden State Warriors)
After years of failing to fulfill the potential he showed as the No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft, Wiggins finally found his niche with Golden State and shed the “bust” label last spring by playing a vital role in the Warriors’ championship run. Golden State rewarded him with a four-year, $109-million US contract extension that kicks in next season — after he completes the five-year, $148M deal he signed with Minnesota in 2017.
But even a quarter-billion dollars doesn’t necessarily buy happiness, and Wiggins has fallen on hard times. Though his production on the court has remained about the same this season, the 28-year-old hasn’t played since Feb. 13 due to unspecified personal issues. The 16-game (and counting) absence is the first significant stretch of missed time for Wiggins, one of the most durable and unassuming players in the league. No one is saying what’s going on, but the Athletic’s Marcus Thompson reported that Wiggins has the full support of his teammates, who are trying to hold onto a playoff spot at 37-36 and could certainly use Wiggins’ two-way game in the lineup.
Other top Canadians to watch: Fourth-year wing RJ Barrett is averaging about 20 points for a resurgent Knicks team that’s closing in on just its second playoff appearance in 10 years. Gritty starter Dillon Brooks (14.2 points per game) and reserve forward Brandon Clarke (10) have helped Memphis to the West’s second-best record, and the Grizzlies should get a boost as American star Ja Morant returns from an eight-game suspension for brandishing a gun on Instagram. Rookie Bennedict Mathurin is scoring close to 17 a game after going sixth overall in last year’s draft to the Indiana Pacers, who appear bound for the lottery again as they visit Toronto tonight. The Raptors (35-37) look to be headed for the East play-in tournament.
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