Wiggins: Canada has '2nd most talent' after U.S.

Canada Basketball is on the rise and their leader, Andrew Wiggins, isn't shy.

Boasting a lineup full of NBA talents, Canada could be the heir apparent to aging empires Spain and Argentina as the toughest challenger to the United States. And while Canada couldn't even qualify for the 2016 Olympics, Wiggins loved his team's chances.

"I wish we would have made it when we had the qualifier in Mexico last summer," Wiggins told postgame.com. "Even looking at the Olympics now, looking at the teams that were in there. The Canadian team has the second most talent on there."

"I feel like we would have competed and played hard and played a big factor in that Olympics but you know, we're looking forward to Tokyo in four years," Wiggins said.

Just based on the names on paper, Canada should have qualified for Rio 2016 through the FIBA Americas tournament in 2015. They had nine NBA players, compared to zero for Venezuela, and a semifinal win would've seen Canada through to Rio.

However, Canada's young stars showed a lack of defensive rigidity in that game which allowed the plucky South Americans to stay in the game until the final seconds.

That left the door open for a controversial foul call (certainly not uncommon in FIBA play) to decide the game in favor of Venezuela.

Wiggins and the rest of Team Canada will have a shot at redemption in Tokyo 2020.