Autopsy Report: Ottawa Blackjacks
Another season, another short playoff run in the Nation's Capital. What went wrong?
Record: 10-12 (6th) Team MVP: Isaih Moore
Cause of Death: Lack of Direction
What a wild season it was for the Ottawa Blackjacks. They started things off by announcing that Jevohn Shepherd would be stepping away from his general manager role and head coach James Derouin would be promoted and take on double duties. The front office change was immediately evident in the roster construction, as the Blackjacks moved away from the big, athletic wings that Shepherd loved to see utilized and more towards the guard heavy, 3-point shooting lineup that Derouin prefers to employ.
Speaking about player signings, let’s talk about that for a minute. The Blackjacks dressed a league leading twenty-four (24) players over their twenty (20) game season. To put that into perspective, only six NBA teams dressed more players over their 82-game season. Sure, some of those signings came as a result of injury, but the team announced 20 signings before the season even started and players who figured to play key roles like Peter Jok and Yasiin Joseph only ended up being available for one game each. Adding to that, with so many players signed fitting into the same score-first shooter archetype, Ottawa set themselves up with a roster that had obvious holes in interior scoring, rebounding and defense.
Brandon Sampson was seen as the crown jewel of the new look offense heading into the season, having logged NBA minutes and proven himself a 20 point-per-game player in the CEBL with the Newfoundland Growlers (RIP). However, within the Blackjacks system, Sampson underwhelmed. While he put up decent scoring totals, his shooting numbers were subpar, and he struggled mightily on defense and with turnovers. Making matters worse, Ibi Watson – expected to provide most of the secondary scoring – had an even tougher go at it, averaging just 10.8 points on .420TS% and 2.5 turnovers a game. With the team off to a slow start and needing a change, Watson was given his walking papers and replaced by Isaih Moore, a 6’10 wing who helped address the inside scoring and rebounding woes. Still, it was nearly impossible for the team to develop any sort of chemistry with a constant rotation of players coming in and out of the lineup, and they were just 2-7 nearing the halfway point of the season, fighting with the lowly Brampton Honey Badgers for the final playoff spot.
It was around this point of the season that we saw the Blackjacks bring in a number of forwards to try and find someone who fit into the system with no avail; JaKeenan Gant (injury), Kyree Walker (poor play) and Jermel Kennedy (who just couldn’t get playing time) all failed to make an impact. But while all the stars failed to live up to expectations, a number of secondary and role players began to step up.
Tyrrel Tate, Keevan Veinot, Lloyd Pandi and Javon Masters all began to show that they could carry the load for the team. Furthermore, fan favourites Deng Adel and Zena Edosomwan finished their overseas seasons and were able to return to Ottawa. And while then-team-leading scorer Sampson would be lost to an Achilles injury, that opened the door for Tevin Brown to sign with the team and take over as the offensive facilitator. Suddenly, the team had a core that could contend with the other top teams in the East that was joined by Miryne Thomas and Patrick Whelan as they finished their seasons in the U.K.
With the new roster and strongly defined roles, the Blackjacks were able to go on a 7-4 stretch in the second half of the season to pull away from Brampton and punch their ticket to the playoffs. Moore ended the season averaging 15.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, while Brown scored 18.4 points a contest on highly efficient shooting. Pandi and Veinot both averaged 11.9 PPG, the highest of their CEBL careers, and Tate’s 13.3 PPG was his highest CEBL average since 2019. Shamar Givance was also picked up after being cast aside by the Scarborough Shooting Stars and would play a huge role for the Blackjacks, averaging 11.3 points and 3.4 assists over 9 games.
Those very same Shooting Stars would play host to Ottawa in the first round of the playoffs. After getting absolutely dominated 31-18 in the first quarter, some masterful adjustments by Derouin allowed the BlackJacks to storm back and win 90-73, largely on the back of Moore’s 22-point, 10-rebound effort. Up next was a trip to the Meridan Centre in Niagara, where the home team had compiled a perfect 10-0 record. Despite giving the hosts their toughest test of the season, including a near triple-double from Adel and a heroic 19 points off the bench from Givance, the season came to an end with a 94-91 defeat.
The Blackjacks face a number of questions heading into the offseason, first of which is what happens with James Derouin. He’s a hometown kid who still works in the city as the head coach of the University of Ottawa Gee-Gee’s men’s basketball team. Since taking over as head coach of the Blackjacks early in the 2022 season, he has gone 29-28 in the regular season and 1-3 in the playoffs. While it’s hard to imagine him losing his coaching job, I think it’s valid to question what happens with the general manager position. Derouin struggled in his first season in a professional front office, initially creating a roster which such obvious holes and then failing to find players to address the issues that fit within his system. Shepherd is still with the team and presumably took a lesser role as his job in the media required him to spend his summer focusing on covering the Canadian national team in the Olympics. With that not being an issue next season, it’s possible we see him retake his role at least in some capacity to offer Derouin some guidance in a role he is unfamiliar with.
Another issue with the team remains their low attendance numbers. They ranked 8th in the league in that area, besting only the Scarborough Shooting Stars in their tiny arena and the Brampton Honey Badgers, who as previously mentioned, have their own serious issues in that department.
As someone who lives in the city and has covered and down work for the team, I can assure you that they’ve made almost no impact in the city since officially arriving in 2021 (they started in 2020, but that season was played entirely within St. Catharines). Their social media presence is weak, and they essentially don’t exist within the city. I’ve talked to people who have season tickets to teams who play in the same venue that are unaware Ottawa has a professional basketball team. That’s unacceptable. The team will point to ticket sales and online engagement to say that there has been growth, but the season-over-season improvements are so minute it’s hard to say it points to any sort of upwards trend in popularity.
I know the team is league owned, but the CEBL has to step their game up when it comes to marketing the team. Spend the money so the team can have some sort of “Street Squad” that makes appearances at local events. The team has a full-time “Digital Content Director” – why is the online content so poor? The only thing that gets posted to the team Instagram are game recaps and some lame, walk-by interviews with players as they leave practice. You haven’t told anyone who these players are or why they should care, so why would they?! The TikTok page has been abandoned and the Facebook page is rarely updated. Even the media doesn’t cover the team; the local newspapers (Ottawa Sun/Ottawa Citizen) featured 3 articles on the Blackjacks in the calendar year, and CTV Ottawa covered just 3 stories in the same time period as per their website. I know I’m rambling at this point, but it’s frustrating to see the team fail to get any following in such a sizeable city.
Like most teams, I don’t have a fear about the Blackjacks being shut down or relocated. The venue, city population, and the fact that Ottawa is the nation’s capital all but assure the team will be here as long as there is a league. But the league can’t grow if teams are running at a deficit, and that’s precisely what the Blackjacks are doing. This market should be a layup to grow a team in, and their failure to do so doesn’t speak well for any expansion teams on the horizon.