goorj says australia plays better without nielsen and anderson because they're forced to work it inside a lot more which they weren't used to. I hope Bogut starts playing team ball otherwise combined with this style we're f**ked.

Is Bogut a sure thing for the Olympics?

I heard there was some concerns over his contract extension with the Bucks being in jeopardy should he get injured before it takes effect, therefore making the Olympics a worrying time for Andrew and his agents...

If this is true and he still plays for Australia in the games, i will be awarding him an unprecedented amount of cool points and may even start to use the bucks on x-box. Seriously.

That said, if i sense he is not playing committed ball due to fears of sustaining a contract negating injury... all cool points will be removed and i will revert to my "why bother" rule regarding bucks on x-box.
I may even go as far as editing his player profile so every shot, even dunks, clangs hard.
Just like i did to Kobe.

yeah that will show him

two of 28 three-point attempts, just shows there is no pure shooter in the team, harvery should be there for this.

2/28 from 3-pt shows the Boomers need Bogut as a legit inside presence alongside Andersen. the Boomers have played small ball now for so many years, they look like they just don't know how to play an inside-out game.

Agreed, I thought Harvey should have been there as well, pity boy goorj hates him, and seems to let personal feelings affect his choices.

DB5 wouldn't you say that it IS his personal feelings that lead to his choices?

Kendall, Hinder, Saville, Smith etc etc should not be in the team or should have be making way for younger talent.

Could it be that Chris Anstey is our best catch and shooter from 3 point territory.

Agreed, in both ways it is detrimental to our national team. Obviously not everyone will agree on the final team, but for so many to see how blatant his selection policy is frustrates the hell out of me. Unfortunately (and I hope that I am wrong) I do not see us challenging for a medal until this changes and we have the best team available on the court.

3 of 27 is pretty bad, especially at this level. Noticed on box scores that Wortho only played 15 mins and Barlow only played 10 minutes and didn't attempt a shot. He's been one of their best 3 point shooters so far. Pity Bogut isn't with the team already - hope he's in for the Gold Coast camp - 8 straight days of training to get it all together isn't very long!

If we pick a team based soley on the talent level of the players- we will get pumped hard. We just are not as talented over-all as the teams we will be facing at the olympics.
Our selections need to be made with a team concept in mind as well as talent level.
Now i am not a fan of boy goorj but to play devils ad-he is behind the scenes and we are not.
So maybe the selections of players we think are not up to it are made with team designs in mind.
(he writes while shrugging his shoulders..)

Here's a thought- we roost a ton of treys and hit none, get scouted as a poor outside shooting team, opposition teams clog the paint, and then we light em up when it matters!!!!

Now there's a conspiracey theory for ya!!!

Hey LC, I don't recall the Boomers EVER playing an inside-out game, even when we had Longley, Bradtke and Vlahov!

I hope that changes with Bogut in there, but its going to be hard, when none of our players are used to playing that way.

Love this quote from the game recap:
"Australia tried at first to take the lead of the game with Brand Newley in the leading role, but the Croatian zone defence corrupted their plans."

GO BRAND NEWLEY!

Never said they did Beantown - I agree with you. I'd just like us to play inside-out instead of the way we are playing now.
I still reckon Goorj is playing around with the team and not letting too many people see how we are actually going to play at Beijing. Mind you some of the other countries are playing funny buggers as well. It wouldn't be the first time teams did this, and it wouldn't be the last.

Quagmire, there was an article a few days ago saying that Bogut will play no matter what. If they can't work out a contract by the Gold Coast camp, they'll leave it, and he'll join the team.

Cheers twenty four. I will award cool points accordingly.

Agreed LC, there will be some foxing going on, as well as the perennial integration problems with our overseas based bigs.

It really is frustrating never having your marquee big man for most of the lead up games. I do wonder how much the Boomers permanent lack of post play is due to the coach's preference and how much is just the lack of time available to integrate our best big man into the offence properly.

My mate lent me 3 Bucks games recently and it was great to see how effective Bogut can be when used correctly. He is a real threat from the high post with his passing and does a great job of running the pick and roll with quick guards. He can also post up and score in the right situations and does an excellent job of crashing the offensive boards.

I'm really hoping that Mills and Bogut can do a lot of damage with the pick and roll and that the team learns to throw the ball into Bogut in the high post to kick off our offence.

That would be soooo much better than watching us pass the ball around the 3pt line for 15 secs before jacking up a contested 3, which is basically what every Boomers team I have ever watched has done!

Australia definately needs to utilise ALL of its strengths with the variety of players we have on our roster. Bogut and Andersen working high-low is a world class combination and needs to be involved in the offense everytime down the floor. Our shooters arent as good as people think but if we can get them shots through the offense and not just from swinging the ball back and forth they should be more effective. Don't expect too much out of Mills, as much skill as he has he is still only 1 yr removed from the AIS. He'll be coming up against seasoned international veterans so alot will be on Bruton's shoulders to run the team.

The fact remains the NBL style of game doesnt involve much complex offense at all, alot of teams win or lose by jacking 3's so it difficult to translate to a completely different style of game.

M, good post but I disagree with you Mills. I think he will be one of the best point guards at the Olympics. I know that is a massive call but I have seen him play since he was 15/16 and he is the real deal.

Even if there was a hand in the face of every shot, 5 for 33 shooting from outside is atrocious. I guess the bright side is that we couldn't possibly suck that much from 3-point territory again?

What is worse is that, if everyone was having such a poor shooting night, why on earth didn't we try a different tactic?

The only conclusion is that the Boomers will once again die by the three pointer at Beijing.

Talent wise i agree with you, however running an olympic team into the correct sets everytime down the floor is a different thing...as a spark off the bench however he is exactly what you need