The Canadian national team will have to pare its roster down to 12 players in advance of FIBA World Cup qualifying games vs. Panama on Thursday and Argentina next Monday, but it’s already a certainty that the group will be less star-studded than the one that competed in July’s qualifiers.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Andrew Nembhard, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Kyshawn George, Dillon Brooks, and Ryan Nembhard all suited up for Team Canada last month, but there are only three NBA players on the preliminary 15-man squad this time around, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link): Alexander-Walker, Hawks forward Luguentz Dort, and free agent big man Kelly Olynyk.

According to Lewenberg (Twitter link), the hope had been that Shaedon Sharpe would also be able to take part in this window of qualifying games, but the Trail Blazers guard tore his meniscus prior to Team Canada’s training camp, taking that possibility off the table.

We have more notes from around the international basketball world:

• Former NBA forward/center Kenneth Faried has signed with Baskonia, the Spanish team announced in a press release. Faried, who averaged 11.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game in 478 NBA regular season outings from 2011-19, has continued playing around the world since then, spending time in China, Puerto Rico, Russia, Mexico, Italy, Taiwan, and Greece. This will be the 36-year-old’s first time competing in Spain’s domestic league.
• Argentine swingman Leandro Bolmaro only spent two seasons in the NBA from 2021-23 and made 49 total appearances for Minnesota and Utah after being drafted 23rd overall in 2020. However, he’s still just 25 years old and hasn’t given up on returning to the league at some point. Now a member of Olimpia Milano, Bolmaro told TNT Data Sports that he works “every day to get back to the NBA,” according to Uno Contra Uno (hat tip to Sportando).
• In case you missed it, former Wizards guard Sharife Cooper is headed to China for the 2026/27 season after making 41 regular season appearances for Washington in ’25/26.