Image via Getty/Alexandra Milani
For Canadian NBA fans, there’s no shortage of reasons to get excited about this weekend’s 69th annual All-Star Game in Chicago. For starters, All-Star Saturday Night is a consistently more enjoyable February holiday than Valentine’s Day. (Come @ me, bro.) There’s more, of course—like Pascal Siakam getting picked to run with the big dogs as an All-Star starter (and in the Skills Challenge) or Kyle Lowry making his sixth ASG appearance, joining his IRL teammate on Team Giannis. Plus, Nick Nurse will be bringing his All-Star worthy fits to the United Center sideline.
Then there’s also all the homegrown Canadian talent that will be repping the Great White North in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night: a record four players, topping the previous best of three from 2016, when the game was held in Toronto. (Even if, OK, fine, many Raptors fans would’ve been significantly more hyped to see their breakout rookie Terence Davis make the Rising Stars roster than any/all of the below.)
Here’s who’ll be showcasing their skills for Team Canada—sorry, Team World—on Friday night, how they’ve been faring so far this season, and what to look out for in the second half.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
From: Hamilton, ON
Plays for: Oklahoma City Thunder
Gilgeous-Alexander’s doing double duty on All-Star Weekend, appearing in Friday’s Rising Stars Game, then taking Derrick Rose’s place in the Skills Challenge Saturday night (after the former Bulls MVP dropped out due to, what else?, injury)—and a case could’ve been made for SGA making an appearance in Sunday’s main event too. That’s because in only his second year in the league, Gilgeous-Alexander’s already looking like a future superstar.
The centerpiece in last summer’s Paul George trade, the Hamilton native went from manning the 1 in LA to playing off-ball in OKC, and so far, he’s responded with a massive leap—his 19.5 ppg is good enough to lead the Thunder in scoring. SGA can rebound, create for himself and others, shoot the three well enough to keep defenses honest, and defend multiple positions. And he’s still only 21. In other words, he’s looking every bit the next great Canadian NBA star that Andrew Wiggins was supposed to be.
RJ Barrett
From: Mississauga, ON
Plays for: New York Knicks
The No. 3 overall pick’s first half hasn’t exactly forced draft experts to walk back their claims that 2019 was a “two-pick draft”… Just going off stats, Barrett’s first 50-plus games look pretty solid—he’s averaging 13.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while playing 30+ minutes. But a closer look reveals a woefully inefficient scorer; Barrett’s .467 True Shooting % puts him at 203rd (out of 207 qualifying players). That’s…that’s not great. In the second half, the former Blue Devil will be looking to prove he’s capable of scoring in bunches based on his talent—and not the fact that the lowly Knicks simply don’t have anyone else who can regularly put points up on the board.
Brandon Clarke
From: Vancouver, BC
Plays for: Memphis Grizzlies
How effective has Clarke been for the Grizzlies so far this season? If the season ended today, his .667 True Shooting %--good for fifth in the NBA—would be the best by a rookie in league history. That’s not all, either: his Real Plus-Minus has Clarke ranked 97th (for comparison’s sake, Zion is 48th, Ja Morant is 119th…and Barrett is #467). Add it all up and the former 21st overall pick, and Summer League MVP, has been almost as big a surprise as the Grizzlies making an honest-to-God playoff push. Between Clarke and Dillon Brooks’ breakout year, Memphis can thank Canada for that.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker
From: Toronto, ON
Play for: New Orleans Pelicans
Alexander-Walker hasn’t exactly lit the league on fire since coming out of Virginia Tech, but the rookie still made enough of an impression to join his cousin SGA on Team World. (The Alexanders better be getting a good group rate at their hotel…) The first-year shooting guard’s numbers don’t jump off the page—he’s only averaging 5.3 points, 2 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game—but the talent is there. It’s the minutes that aren’t. The two games he was allowed to play 30+ minutes, Alexander-Walker scored 19 and 27 points. With the Pelicans nowhere near the playoff hunt, the opportunity’s there after the break for Alexander-Walker to get more run and start proving he’s a puzzle piece NO can lock in alongside Zion for the next decade. And he can start making that case going against Williamson this Friday.