Canada is asking Andrew Nicholson to step up

Andrew Nicholson has struggled in the first three games for Canada at the FIBA Americas Championship. They quite simply need him to do more to qualify.

The FIBA Americas Championship kicked off earlier this week with Orlando Magic forward Andrew Nicholson and Melvin Ejim coming off the bench for Canada.

Nicholson has put in his time with Canada for the last three years. He played with Canada two years ago during a disappointing sixth place finish at the FIBA Americas Championship. He then went to Europe for an exhibition tour. In both tournaments, Nicholson established himself as a big-time scorer and shooter for Canada. It looked like he was more comfortable with the spacing in the FIBA game and was draining 3-pointers, pull ups and post ups.

With Anthony Bennett and Kelly Olynyk joining the team, it was predictable that Nicholson would see his role reduced. Still, Canada had big expectations for Nicholson off the bench.

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So far, Nicholson has struggled to fulfill them.

In his first two games at the FIBA Americas Championship, Nicholson has played a grand total of 23 minutes in the two games, scoring a total of four points and grabbing seven rebounds. He has taken a total of three shots.

In Thursday’s 82-62 win over Venezuela, Nicholson played eight minutes and scored two points with two rebounds.

Nicholson is coming off the bench, but he is someone coach Jay Triano should have developed some trust in after dominating so well in previous tournaments the last few summers.

The plain fact is, Nicholson has not delivered so far and Canada needs him to, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun writes:

"He has said he doesn’t care how he performs, as long as the team wins, but Andrew Nicholson’s lack of production has to be somewhat of a concern for Canada.Projected, to be one of the team’s main offensive weapons, as he has been the past couple of summers, Nicholson instead has gone AWOL.Nicholson followed up a three-point effort with just two against Cuba in 13 minutes. In exhibition action in Puerto Rico, he was off in three of four games.Canada is going to need some secondary scoring from somewhere and Nicholson would be an ideal source."

This tournament has quickly become Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett’s coming out party for Team Canada. Nicholson was always going to be relied on to provide some offense off the bench. He did that in the Tuto Marchand Cup Final where he scored 16 points. But that was also with more minutes with Bennett and Wiggins getting the night off before the real tournament started.

Nicholson’s struggles are both a product of a lack of opportunity and a lack of ability over his competition. Nicholson’s career has really fallen off with the Magic and now it appears the confidence has left him with FIBA competition.

Nicholson certainly still has it in him to be productive at this level. Why he has not been able to do so — either with Canada or with the Magic — remains a great mystery.

Canada is 2-1 in group play and looks secure to make it to the next group stage. In order to qualify for the Olympics this summer, the team has to make the championship game. Argentina was its first big competition. Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico should also be in the mix.

It was that second group stage, after all, which gave Canada problems and prevented them from advancing to the FIBA World Cup last summer. There is still a lot of work for Canada to do.

And that means still opportunity for Nicholson to step into and succeed in the role Jay Triano envisioned for him. And still an opportunity to have a successful summer before this critical contract year for him.

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