MONTERREY (2015 FIBA Americas Championship) - Canada discovered who their Group Phase opponents will be at the FIBA Americas Championship this week when the draw was held in Monterrey, Mexico.

Argentina, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Venezuela will trade blows in Group B, with the top four sides progressing to the next round to meet the best four from a Group A that has hosts Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Uruguay.

The sides that reach the Final will clinch spots in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, while the teams that come in third, fourth and fifth will claim places in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

After Wednesday's ceremony, Canada coach Jay Triano had a teleconference with reporters and fielded a lot of questions, many of them about the country's NBA players like Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Andrew Wiggins.

"He's got an incredible skillset, and I wouldn't say it's just offensively," Triano said.

"His growth throughout the first year in the NBA has been fantastic, and I think that's an important thing for us with the Canadian team as well."

Wiggins has been as good as advertised this season after turning professional following one year with the Kansas Jayhawks.

He has had plenty of highlight reel plays, including dunks.

Triano is hopeful that Wiggins will be with Canada this summer.

"We still have a long way to go as far as our discussions with the Timberwolves, how we can best use and utilize Andrew while at the same respecting where they have him in their plans as he progresses as a professional player."

Triano has had informal talks with people in the Minnesota organization but will not hold discussions with T-Wolves coach Flip Saunders on Wiggins' summer plans until after the team's NBA campaign has come to a close.

"At the end of the season, we'll reach out to the NBA teams and find out whether they want their players to play in the summer league or if they can afford to miss part of the summer league or miss it completely," Triano said.

Canada are not only playing in the FIBA Americas Championship, but hosting the Pan American Games in Toronto.

"Our goal is to have as much of the team as possible for the Pan Ams," Triano said.

"The good thing is that for a lot of our players, they're beyond the summer league, a Kelly Olynyk, Andrew Nicholson, Robert Sacre, Tristan Thompson...but there are going to be some that the NBA teams I’m sure are going to want their hands on their players."

When asked specifically about 24-year-old Thompson, a key man in the title-contending Cleveland Cavaliers squad, Triano was full of praise and said he'd already demonstrated in Caracas two years ago at the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship that he can be a leader in the team.

"He stepped up as a rebounder," Triano said. "He was a physical presence inside." 

Thompson averaged 11.6 points and 10 rebounds per game in Venezuela, while with Cleveland he's averaging 8.5ppg and 8rpg.

Because they finished sixth two years ago, Canada did not qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Triano says that team nevertheless took a step forward in 2014.

I think our guys are growing with their knowledge of the international game, and with their respect of the international players around the world - Triano

He told FIBA.com: "Last summer, our tour of Europe gave them a better sense of the international game and what they are going to be up against," he said.

"We invested a lot into taking our players, our team overseas and they played great competition very well.

"We played Serbia, we played Spain, we played Italy.

"I thought we got better as we went along."

One of the players to benefit from the tour of Europe was Andrew Nicholson.

The Orlando Magic cut back on Nicholson's playing time earlier this season but of late, he has gotten more opportunities.

"Andrew is a stretch four," Triano said.

"I'm glad to see that he's been playing more recently.

"A stretch four is a valuable position in the international game.

"He proved it last year as well, his ability to stretch the defenses and hit the three-point shot at the international line.

"He was very effective for us.

"Both he and Tristan bring different dimensions to the team.

"Our goal is to find ways to play to their strengths."

Triano is optimistic that things will go well this summer for Canada.

They should be able to put a lot of teams under pressure.

We think that the depth and athleticism that we have can hopefully wear teams down - Triano

The team will also have its leading scorer back from Caracas in Cory Joseph, a member of the San Antonio Spurs side that won the NBA title last season.

When it comes to the overall make-up of his squad at the FIBA Americas Championship, though, Triano and Canada Basketball must be patient.

Triano said: "We still have a lot of work to do as far as figuring out who's going to be available and what the time commitments with their NBA teams or European teams are going to be, how flexible those teams are going to be in letting us use those players for this event.

"And, for the Pan American Games for that matter."

FIBA