Moncton Magic's China Trip A Useful Tool for Upcoming Season

By: Cole Shelton
Photo Credit : John Gonzales

National Basketball League of Canada teams are starting to fill out their roster and getting ready for training camp to open. Training camp will open at the end of October, where coaches will meet players for the first time and players will meet other players for the first time as well. Training camp is so crucial to a teams success, and for the Moncton Magic, they are a step ahead.

The Magic participated in a trip to China to play three games against professional basketball teams in China. When head coach Joe Salerno first heard about the opportunity he knew it was too good to pass up on.

"I have a contact, a close friend of mine who is pretty engraved in the basketball community in China. He had set up a tour back in 2015 that I went on, that is when I first met him," said Salerno in a recent phone interview. "We had a lot of success with that tour. He had actually reached out to me earlier this spring, he kind of asked if that is something we would be interested in doing, bringing the Magic over this year."

Bringing Moncton over is what Salerno did, he and an assistant coach and the team's physiotherapist went over with 11 players. Although not every player who will be in training camp attended the trip, the trip was a useful tool to evaluate players Salerno had questions about.

"I think it will help quite a bit. There were some players that I wasn't overly familiar with, some guys that I may have just met this summer," said Salerno. "It gave me an opportunity to get a feel for their personality and get to know them a bit. I think from a chemistry standpoint, that is a big plus for us looking forward to the season. I think anytime you open up a training camp, one that we will open up with here in late October, there is always those three, four, five days of tension and guys getting to know each other and feeling each other out."

"I think with this trip when we arrive in camp in October the majority of the guys will already know each other and know each other's games and their character. I'm really hoping for it to be a much smoother transition into training camp."

Not only will Salerno and his coaching staff use the trip to get a feel for players character and their personality, but the main goal of the trip was to establish chemistry. Early on in the season, teams often don't play their best basketball because a lot of the guys have never played with each other. That will not be the case for Moncton this season.

"There were a lot of things we wanted to get out of the trip. First and foremost, we wanted to get players to start and establish chemistry with each other both on the court and off the court," said the Magic head coach. "We wanted to get players familiar with my coaching style, what the foundations of what our offensive and defensive systems would be.

"Then we wanted to get a look at some players over the span of 12 days before we open camp. It may have helped us make decisions on players before camp even started. There were a lot of things we got out of the trip so it was a huge benefit to us."

A huge benefit indeed, and looking back on the trip, it is something Salerno knows will help his team. The contact Salerno has is a good one, and it is one he hopes to utilize in the coming years.

"Yeah, I think it is a great opportunity for the league and for our organization," he added. "We look at it as not only a promotional tool not only for the NBLC but for the Magic. It is a good tool for our team to prepare for the upcoming season so it is something that I would look to do again."

"The trip was extremely well done and for us, we really treated it as a true mini-camp. Yeah, we played the three games but we also had eight or nine practices. I think that will really give us a leg up in camp to introducing our systems and what not. It is certainly something I would be interested in doing again."

Ultimately, the Magic are ready to get training camp started, with a lot of new players and NBLC veterans, Moncton looks like they will be making another deep playoff run. The veterans Salerno has added to the team will be a big plus.

"I think it will help a lot. I think anytime you have veteran players who all have a common goal of winning the championship, it sets a good tone in the locker room," Salerno added. "They understand the league and they know what it takes to win. It is a huge benefit to have a solid group of veteran guys. Even more important to have guys who have done it in the NBL Canada. It is really is a different beast. We are very excited about the different combination of veterans and young players we have."

The China trip was the first step into what Salerno and the Magic hope will be a successful season again this year in the NBLC.