Good to see a near final squad is going into camp rather than the 2 months that has been spent on culling fringe players.

Weigh hard done by based on numbers in China.
Obvious casualty of Newley and Ingles coming back in

Who do u think are starters?

I know this 5 will struggle a little defensively, but i like:

Mills
Ingles
Newley
Neilsen
Maric

Brown may go with his 2 PG thing and bring Newley off the bench... that would mean either Martin or Gibson to start.

A couple of guys on this 17 man squad are going to feel hard done by to miss out. the easy culls for me are Aron Baynes and Daniel Kickert... none has EVER done anything on the court that indicated to me that they deserve a boomers spot. They shouldnt even be in the equation... Kickerts stunk up every boomers game hes played and Baynes is fairly similar.... neither have a place in the team and there inclusion (especially bthis late in the game with far better players already cut) really shits me.

ok.... My team?

David BARLOW, CAI Zaragoza, Spain
Matthew DELLAVEDOVA, St Mary's College, USA
Joe INGLES, Regal FC Barcelona, Spain
Aleks MARIC, Panathinaikos, Greece
Damian MARTIN, Perth Wildcats
Patrick MILLS, Portland Trailblazers, USA
Brad NEWLEY, Lietuvos, Rytas, Lithuania
Matthew NIELSEN, Olympiacos Piraeus, Greece
AJ OGILVY, Valencia, Italy
Mark WORTHINGTON, Gold Coast Blaze

and 2 of these 3

Jesse WAGSTAFF, Perth Wildcats
Hugh GREENWOOD, AIS
Adam GIBSON, Gold Coast Blaze



I think on names alone its a pretty solid team 10-11 of them having played together for atleast a couple of years now. looks like Drmic didnt have the kind of impact he should have?

oh, actually add crawford to the 3 other maybes.... because the tem ive already listed does seem a bit light on consistant 3 point shooting.

and wing defenders.

Hurley. I agree with your team and would add to your 10, Crawford for reasons previously stated and Wagstaff for a few spot minutes here or there if you need to try to get under someones skin by putting a few body shots on them. He always puts the effort in and fills a bit of a stoppers role on the opposition 3 or 4 man.
As for Kickert, who is that underwhelming I can't even be bothered to spell his name properly at times, I have to agree...enough chances. Brown needed to get a look at some stage at Larry Davidson to give us a big with some perimeter range.This must be the role that they see Kickert filling but he fails miserably. I would say Davidson is stronger, a better rebounder, shoots the ball better, has at least some interior game and is a far better defender than Kickert. On top of this he is also disruptive. He is the only big we have who can give us a different look in an Anstey type role.

i saw on the ABC on the weekend that dontae exum is on the fringe of the aussie team. Is or was this ever remotely the truth?

BTW wheres big Nate?

Hurley and Old Snakepit, I think you have the most likely final team between you there. My final two would be Wagstaff and Dellavedova. Although I'm not really a fan of either Crawford or Gibson, I think I'd also go with Crawford as the backup at SG for his experience and three point shooting.

Old Snakepit, I rate Larry Davidson too and would also go for him over Kickert given the choice. However there is an even better option! What about Khazzouh if he was available? Wouldn't you go for him ahead of Davidson?

Beantown. Khazzouh is certainly a mystery. I would love to see him perform against better opposition and he may well be a better option than some in the squad. Would love to know why he as well as Davidson never got a look. He is also a better player than Davidson, but my point is about team balance and getting different looks from players. He is a guy who is at his best close to the basket and although he can step out his only option from there is a slow release set shot type three and at best he is still not a good shooter from range. So similar in lots of ways to the 2 other bigs in the team already. So again I would be looking for someone who can play at the same time as Maric or Ogilvy and also defend the 4 man of the other team. Khazzouh is very slow laterally and cant defend anyone with some speed or range.

I think Davidson is actually better prepared for international basketball right at this point. He is stronger, better defensively, a better passer and a better shooter. Khazzouh needs to get in the gym, keep improving his defence and shoot hundreds of shots per day, then he could be a very good international.

Of course, against NZ he would already be a very good option given they dont have someone who could guard him, whereas most top 20 countries would have someone who could push him out of position.

Is Bogut still injured and is that one of the reasons why he's out and I believe David Anderson's name deserves to be there aswell as Jawai's

also... wheres ballinger and redhage... who needs kickert when u have 1 of them? are we just shunning naturalised players nowadays? either one of redhage or ballinger could slot into our top 12 team... infact they would be some our biggest scoring threats and 3 point shooters. this is crap i say, kickert hjas not had a single play, that ive seen... that was memorable in any way shape or form... in 2006 worlds he was out classed... in some of the scriommage matches against NZ before he was made to look like a lumbering retard... why are we slotting this guy in when Liam Rush didnt even make the squad and hes an allstar in sweden? (sure thats not exactly nba but it deserves a look)

far out ....Bruce isn't a cut on any of them...good reason why he isn't even in the squad...

Can't believe we are taking Kickert, Baynes and Wagstaff.
Kickert is 3/5 of useless from what I've seen. Want a big who can stretch the defence with outside shooting? Forman/Ballinger/Davidson say Hi.
Nevill was clearly better than Baynes and Kickert. No question.
You've got a player who was pretty much unanimously considered the best Aussie in the NBL last season and he doesn't get a look in. You can't tell me Wagstaff is better than Khazzouh.
Then just a side note. Schenscher doesn't get a look in and nor he should, yet they insist on rating him a 10 every year when the likes of Wagstaff (7), Crawford (8) make the team. Ballinger and Khazzouh are 10s and rightly so, but don't even get a trial game. Assuming Ballinger's injury played a part, but not sure why Khazzouh misses out.

Picking a full team and rating players within a league are different things. Some of that point rating comes from a statistical base too.

I think it pretty much all comes from a statistical base these days.

Ballinger chatted urbanely about the Boomers camp
he went to.
" Things are tough , out there. "
I noticed he was signed to play NZBL at the time, also.
Did pretty good , in that League.
But now is injured.

To those complaining about Baynes and Kickert making the squad, isn't it clear they aren't NBL players? We all know (ie. Brown) that all NBL players are inferior to role-playing Europe-based Aussies, no matter what level of competition they play.

tragardh is bertter then either all day

The squad for the Europe tour has been announced

http://www.basketball.net.au/index.php?id=302&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2145&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&cHash=c9f345df93

They are taking a fourteen man squad, so only two miised the cut, those being Greenwood and perhaps more surprisingly, Wagstaff.

So, Brown opted for Kickert over Wagstaff in the end. He must have shown something in the camps we as Boomers fans have yet to see on the court, as for mine Wagstaff was solid in the Stankovic Cup, but Kickett was poor in the YouYi Games.