Ottawa – Cory Joseph breaks his man’s ankles with a dribble move, spins and leaves his man grasping air as the Team Canada point guard – by way of the Indiana Pacers – goes in for the lay-up.

Duke signee and presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft R.J. Barrett sends a slick, no-look, around-the-back pass to Kelly Olynyk from the Miami Heat for the slam on the run.

The seven-foot Olynyk puts it on the floor from the three-point line and when the defence collapses on him snaps a pass to Dillon Brooks of the Memphis Grizzlies who knocks down the open three.

Joseph finds Dwight Powell of the Dallas Mavericks for the above-the-rim lob.

These and other moment were examples of the full power of the new age of Canada Basketball on display at TD Bank Place on Monday afternoon as the men’s national team easily tossed aside an over-matched U.S. Virgin Island squad, 99-69, in FIBA World Cup qualifying; a result that was never in doubt but which Canada salted away with a 31-16 surge in the third quarter.

The nation of 104,000 fielding a team of players with mostly lower-tier Division I NCAA pedigree was simply over-matched against a Canadian team that aspires to be recognized as among the best teams in the world. They’ve shown why at times over two weeks of play on Canadian soil highlighted by a pair of blowouts over the Canada Day long weekend.

"I’m pleased," said head coach Jay Triano. "We got together two weeks ago and we won four games (two of them exhibition games in BC) all by 30 points or more. I like the fact that we were locked in, that we didn’t play to win as much as we played one possession at a time. Play the right way. That was the message."

Canada had seven players with at least eight points, led by 14 from Olynyk as the home team shot 53 per cent from the floor even though they only connected on 7-of-29 from three. They held the Virgin Islands to 34.6 per cent shooting.

But Canada’s hopes of advancing will hinge as much on players that aren’t in the NBA as on their growing pool of players in the world’s best league – players like Melvin Ejim or Phil Scrubb or Brady Heslip who have been available to lead the team when the NBA players are not available and can comfortably slide over and fill a role when the likes of Joseph, Olynyk or Powell and the rest can’t play.

"We knew it took a lot of games before this to get to this point so we definitely appreciate them," said Joseph who finished with 11 points and six assists in 22 minutes. "And we show it when they’re here."

The win concludes the first stage of qualifying for the 2019 FIBA World Cup set for China.

Canada won Group D with a 5-1 record (3-1 against teams advancing to the next round) and a +153 point differential, best in the Americas.

The Americas tournament is now whittled down to 12 teams divided into two groups of six. The top three in each of the remaining groups along with the fourth-place team with the best record — for a total of seven teams – advance to the 32-team World Cup field.

Canada’s next action will come in mid-September when they are hopeful that at least some of the missing NBA contingent – Tristan Thompson and Jamal Murray in particular – will be available for what should be a stiffer round of competition. They have windows in November and February as well.

The nature of the revamped FIBA qualifying format demands that rosters be large and fluid. The NBA and EuroLeague teams won’t be releasing their players for qualifying mid-season anytime soon which creates an odd hybrid where the players who help a team qualify may not have prominent roles if they do, or may not be on the roster at all.

At this time of year and in September the rosters swell with NBA players, but games in November and February count just the same and will require contributions from the likes of Ejim, Scrubb and others – providing they haven’t jumped to EuroLeague or even the NBA (Scrubb is with Sacramento in NBA Summer League next week).

Ejim gives Canada a little bit of everything – he can shoot well, defend multiple positions and excels at smaller plays that generate loose balls and extra possessions. The first play he made when he hit the floor Monday was a steal that led to a fast break. The only reason anyone can reasonably argue that he’s not in the NBA is that at 6-foot-7 he’s a bit under-sized for the frontcourt and lacks the elite slashing athleticism that NBA wings usually have, but his fans see his strengths more than any short-comings he might have.

"He’s got a high IQ for the game, he’ got good feel, he’s tough as nails, a very edgy guy, gets in there, fights for rebounds," says Joseph. "He gets us second opportunities and has a good stroke and can knock down shots. He’s a key to our team, for sure. He gets us going."

Against the Virgin Islands he kept up a steady in-game dialogue with Andrew Nembhard, the talented 18-year-old point guard who will be heading to the University of Florida this year and may be in the NBA a year after that but has handled himself well in his debut against senior competition.

He says Ejim and others have helped further his education.

"The whole two weeks he’s been talking to me, giving me advice, being an older guy," says Nembhard, who along with Barrett was one of two 18-year-old on the roster where every other player was either on an NBA roster or had NBA summer league or NBA G-League experience. "He was just telling me where to space the floor, what reads to make, where he would be cutting, stuff like that. As an old guy and a veteran on this team, he has lot of knowledge I can take from him."

It’s a role Ejim — who didn’t have a field goal and only took three shots in 21 minutes but contributed a team-high seven rebounds and was +11 for the day – takes to comfortably.

"My role is to be a leader, to be a guy who brings energy, communicates with young guys, old guys, help guys get through," says Ejim, 27, who will be playing in Russia again this coming season. "We have so much talent, so just bring everyone together, play the right way and be unselfish and help however I can, rebounding, defending, whatever we need.

"My role changes depending on what group I’m with," he says. "Whether I’m with the NBA guys, the college guys or both, I think being adaptable is one of my skills."

Being adaptable is essential in international basketball and never more than in the new FIBA World Cup qualifying format, and in Ejim Canada has the kind of talent that is just as important as the higher-profile NBA players that make headlines – someone who can lead a team in scoring one night and lead a team to victory while barely figuring in the box score the next.

Most of all he’s available and amenable and able. He may well be good enough to crack an NBA roster, but for the purposes of Canada Basketball, they are very lucky he hasn’t.