The biggest names in Canadian basketball may be absent from the 2015 Pan Am Games team, but that doesn’t mean the event lacks importance.

With the likes of Andrew Wiggins, Tristan Thompson and Nik Stauskas skipping the tournament, other players will have the opportunity to show off their talents, head coach Jay Triano explained on Prime Time Sports Monday.

“The Pan Am Games are going to serve two purposes,” Triano said. “We have a mixture of veteran players that have been involved with our national team for a long time and we’re also introducing players who are just starting to get involved with the senior national team who have been with our junior team in Jamal Murray and Dillon Brooks.

“Five or six of these guys are going to be on the [Olympic] qualification team, and they’re going to be role players. It’s going to give these guys a great opportunity to showcase themselves and see what we have.”

Triano expressed confidence that Wiggins and company will participate in the FIBA Americas later this summer, where Canada will have the opportunity to punch its ticket to the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

“I was talking to the Philadelphia 76ers, Nik Stauskas is in,” Triano said. “Minnesota has given us permission to use Andrew Wiggins. He was allowed to choose one event to play in and we talked about the [FIBA Americas] being the one that he’s going to play in.

“The one guy that we’ve stayed away from is Tristan Thompson. Coming off a long, long season, we figure to give him the rest of the summer, and see where he is with his contract situation.”

Canada kicks off its Pan Am schedule July 21 against Dominican Republic.