Surge poised to make another title run with under halfway left in the regular season

The Calgary Surge are sticking to their game despite a few things to worry about. Will it be enough to make it back to their third straight championship weekend?

Jul 09, 2025

Calgary Surge fans are getting used to some pretty good basketball.

Through 14 games, the Surge hold a 9-5 record, which keeps them right near the top of the Western Conference of the Canadian Elite Basketball League. It’s actually quite crazy that the Surge have never been bad. For a little reminder, they finished first in the West with a 12-8 record and ultimately fell just short of the CEBL title in 2023. There was no ‘sophomore slump” in 2024, either. Calgary put up an 11-9 record, returning to Championship Weekend before falling in the semifinal.

Lots of success! Including this year. The Surge put together another incredible roster that is succeeding just over halfway through the 2025 CEBL campaign.

There’s a lot to feel good about if you're a Surge fan right now. Great players, great coaching, and they’ve got a game tomorrow at the Scotiabank Saddledome. During the Calgary Stampede!

Like I said, Calgary Surge basketball is going well. And we’ll talk all about that and break it down. However, there are a few things that are a little concerning, which we’ll also discuss.

Defence to offence

To put it simply, the Calgary Surge have executed their game plan very well. So much so that I think their head coach, Kaleb Canales, deserves to be in the running for Coach of the Year. Time will tell if that is something that comes to fruition and depends on how the Surge play down the stretch, but the way I’ve seen him utilize his personnel has been exceptional.

Canales was presented with a team comprised of excellent athletes. Fast and high-flying players who can kill in transition. If the Surge get a stop, they are immediately looking up the court for the running player. Regardless of whether it’s off a steal or a turnover, the player who grabs the ball on the defensive end turns to look up ahead for whoever has the jump on the opposing defence.

To turn the game into a track meet, you have to get those defensive stops first. The length and size of the lineup ranks them second in the league in defensive rebounds (29.9) and blocks (5.4). Although their defensive rotations can sometimes be a little sloppy when they get tired, Calgary’s athleticism makes up for it.

Playing above the rim

I know I’ve been harping on this a lot, but it really is the motif of Surge games: length and athleticism.

The roster constructed by Calgary general manager, Shane James, is not by accident to how they want to play. Take a look at Greg Brown III. He was arguably the team’s most significant signing and has probably been their best player. Brown is a 6’7” forward with a 7-foot wingspan and a 40+ inch vertical jump.

Photo via CEBL

Brown III is incredibly fast too. His legs are super long and basically impossible to guard him on a fast break. When he was coming out of college and entering the NBA Draft in 2021, one of his biggest flaws was his lack of ability to create his own offence. While that may be true at an NBA level for the Texas native, he has not had issues creating offence in the CEBL. He’s been explosive on the fast break while patient and calculated in the half court. Even though the Surge haven’t been a great three-point shooting team this season (31.8% for 3rd last in the league), Brown III has been one of the more consistent shotmakers from beyond the arc, making him a reliable three-level scorer.

After seeing what Brown III was doing with his long frame, Shane James signed Jamorko Pickett a few weeks ago. The former Detroit Piston is 6’9” with a 7’2” wingspan. Although Pickett isn’t quite as athletic as Brown III, he is similar in a lot of ways. Sometimes it can even be confusing to tell who is who when they’re out on the court. I really liked the Pickett signing. His minutes have slowly been increasing and his production has been as well.

Although Greg Brown III has been a lot better lately, he was repeatedly getting in foul trouble, which caused him to be unavailable during important parts of the game. Having Pickett there to step up might prove to be vital for Calgary down the stretch.

Free throw woes

The Calgary Surge draw more fouls per game than any other team in the CEBL. However, they also have the third-worst free-throw percentage in the league (68.4%). That is not good enough. There have been too many instances where the Surge can easily add to the lead and pull away in games, but don’t because of their inconsistency at the line.

Not much to say here besides the fact that they have to be better.

Roster uncertainty

A week ago, the Surge roster took a pretty big hit. Star point guard Jameer Nelson Jr. and backup forward Osayi Osifo both departed Calgary to join the San Antonio Spurs at the NBA Summer League. The Surge had added a couple of centres to make up for the loss of Osifo by signing Javonté Brown and Enoch Boakye. I wasn’t too concerned about losing Osifo. Brown, especially, has grown into a nice role with the Surge in the past five games. I’d like to see more of Boakye and what he can do with his size.

The big loss was Nelson Jr. at an already thin guard position. He was a frontrunner for Defensive Player of the Year in the CEBL, leading the league in steals with 3.3 per game. Nelson Jr. has such a steady presence on the court in both his mentality and his game. When Greg Brown III is waving his arms around pleading for his coaches to challenge a foul, Nelson Jr. just wants to move on and get the game going. He will also just try to steal the ball back right away anyway.

Nelson Jr. is still young and has a lot to gain from being at Summer League, so it was not unexpected that he departed. All we can do is hope that he’ll come back in time for the end of the season and playoffs.

To make matters worse, Karim Mané also left the team to join the Senegalese National team. Mané has some flashes of great play but I wasn’t a huge fan of his game.

After Nelson Jr. and Mané left, the only point guards on the team were U SPORTS draft picks, DJ Jackson and Javier Gilgeous-Glasgow. Despite the pair contributing well on the court, that won’t be good for a team that’s trying to win a CEBL title.

Calgary went out and signed Evan Gilyard II to fill the spot of starting point guard.

Photo via CEBL

Gilyard II exploded for 25 points in his CEBL debut and helped Calgary grab a win in Brampton. He’s had an immediate impact on both sides of the court, also grabbing a total of five steals in his first two games with the Surge.

He’s undersized but makes up for it with quickness and skill. I think he’ll serve just fine while Nelson Jr. is away.

It’s tough to tell if Shane James will sign any other guards or just wait for Nelson Jr. to return. It will depend on how the team plays. They certainly could’ve used help in a tough 113-90 loss to the Edmonton Stingers on Sunday.

What’s ahead?

The team has been looking forward to the game at the Calgary Stampede all year. It is set to be an incredible event and hopefully, we’ll see the Saddledome filled with thousands of fans.

While the event itself is exciting, the Surge need this win. Suddenly, the Edmonton Stingers are right behind them in the Western Conference standings. With Winnipeg having an automatic bye to Championship Weekend as hosts, only one of Calgary (9-5), Edmonton (9-6) and Vancouver (11-3) will get that other spot in the conference final.

Can’t ask for much more at stake for tomorrow’s game against Montreal. Yahoo!