Bogut will probably be injured!

haha..hope not..what hasn't he injured yet?

Interesting team Lance. The only guy I don't see being a chance is Khazzouh. That back-up four spot will probably be Brock Motum's.

Yeah the way Motum is tracking he looks to be a good player. Has some range as well as solid post moves.

Will be interesting to see if Khazzouh can develop as a defender in europe in the next couple of years.Brock Motum really seemed to improve this last season at WSU averaging 18 pts, 40% from 3pt land, pretty skilled 6'10 big man.

Are you Brett Brown? WTF is Barlow still doing in the team?

Don't worry fstos no final decision has been made..yet.Barlow was included on the basis that he plays as well he is capable of playing, he has size able to defend well against large euro teams and can hit the 3. he wouldn't be starting anyway and would be on the bench, but i would imagine either Barlow or Wortho at that spot, whoever performs better at this olympics.

would you prefer it looked like this?

Bogut
Jawai
Ingles
Mills
Delly

Maric
Motum
Worthington
Newley
Exum

Broekhoff
Drimic

Better now Lance. I just have this Barlow thing. I keep hearing or seeing stats about his ability to hit the three or things about him being a big asset when playing to his potential. I must be just unlucky because every timne I have watched him he does very little and his misses, which is how I judge good shooters are by large margins and of the long, short and wide variety.He does play some reasonable D but even that is not as good as his rep IMO and he is a poor rebounder for his size and athletic ability.

Can Exum shoot from range and get his shot off quickly enough yet?

Agree but Kendall never made an Olympics.

what about greenwood

I don't get why people keep mentioning Drmic like he's some great shooter or something.. if you check out his % from last season's NCAA for Boise and there a shitty 38% FG and 31% 3pt

Greenwood is a much better player then Drmic right now and I don't see that changing any time soon

And I think you can forget about any of the current under 18 year olds outside of Exum, Duncan/Simmons and co will be still be too young to break into the front court/wing positions.. Exum is the only kid I think who could possibly make the team(Duncan/Simmons might be there for 2016 Olympics tho).

drmic is a gun, excited for his sopho year

I think a lot depends on who's coaching. If it's still BB I dont foresee too many changes, maybe 3-4 at tops. Nielsen will surely retire from int ball and possibly Andersen too, opening up a couple of spots for Jawai, Khazzouh, Ogilvy, M Knight, Motum, Johnson and Nevill to fight over.

If it's someone new coaching we may see some changes to suit a different style of play.

sircreate, Drmic is 6"6 with long as hell arms.

Then Hadziomerovic is 6"5

They have the size and the skill level to not only be offensively potent at International level, but they have those same attributes to defend.

Hugh is a great player, and will certainly be a Boomer.
The only thing concerns me with him is that he is a slight tweener. He is starting to become a PG, but still room to work with..And obviously, I think the biggest thing holding the Boomers back is the 2 man spot..I really dont think Greenwood fits that hole at 6"3.

Hadziomerovic and Drmic do -- They have height, length and better foot speed/explosiveness than Hugh.

Boomers really need to go out and suss out that 2 spot for the future..Dante Exum will be the future, but they need someone to step in before him.

Right now, the 2 spot is a bit of a mess..There is a few combo guards with Gibson, Delly and then Mills.
Then you have PC who BB won't play anyway.

Ingles and Newley (more the latter) can fill that position, but is there foot speed sufficient?

Way too early to pick a team, but an initial squad could include the following 27 players...

Bogut
Maric
Baynes
Jawai
Ogilvy
Khazzouh
Nevill
Kickert
Johnson
Motum
Worthington
Barlow
Ingles
Creek
Broekhoff
Steindl
Newley
Drmic
Exum
Greenwood
Hadziomerovic
Bose
Gibson
Martin
Cadee
Mills
Dellavedova

Any further additions?

I left out Andersen and Nielsen as I would think they would retire from International hoops. I left out Majok as I don't think he has it in him to get to this level.

Simmons, Duncan and possibly a few other youngster could also make their way into the squad by 2016, by which time I would think Gibson and Martin's chances would be done and dusted, and Kickert would be out of contention...

Wagstaff and Lisch who could well be an Aussie by then.

"... [Drmic's] shitty 38% FG and 31% 3pt"

RE: Drmic's shooting

At the 2011 U19s World, Drmic shot the 3-ball 44% (21/48 in 9 games)

I was curious to notice an apparently dichotomous season shooting from behind the arc, separated by roughly the mid-point in the season. His shooting percentages from elsewhere appeared to remain the same throughout the year.

BEFORE 2012 new year (13 games)
FG: 46% (62/136)

2ptFG: 51% (24/47)
3ptFG: 43% (38/89)

AFTER 2012 new year (16 games)

FG: 32% (49/153)

2ptFG: 48% (30/62)
3ptFG: 21% (19/91)


So his 3-ball went from a strong 43% in roughly the first half of the season to a poor 21% in the second half. Something happened to his 3 point shot. Did he lose confidence or did it take a while for teams to scout him and shut his 3-ball down (notice that most of his FGAs are 3s), or both?

I would say fatigue came into it and he maybe went stale (as they say).

I can see how it happened.

He obviously worked really hard with the Emus in their build up to the FIBA WC. He had AIS commitment, then Emu camps, and overseas tournaments.

Then he had the actual U/19 FIBA WC, which despite only 8 games, the preparation was exhausting.

Then, I would imagine, as is the case for NCAA colleges, he would have been put to the sword in summer/pre-season workouts. Then he would have had to play 13 games at the end of the 2012 for Boise State ..All these games he played in 2012 were intense too.

I mean look at where he went for 2011:
-6 prep games and 2 weeks in Europe pre WC
-3 games at Global Games (before WC)
-8 Games at the FIBA WC
-Boomers Stankovic Cup ( 4 games)
-2011 Australian State Champs (6 or 7)
-Emus tour to China (5/6 games)
-13 games at end of 2011
-Various scrimmages with Emus, Boomers camps etc

Hell, remember Greenwood played SEABL a bit last year for Hobart.
He played 13 games in SEABL, and 14 for New Mexico before NYE.
So he probably played 65 games + in 2011 alone, not including scrimmages and that/trainings. Bloody tiring no doubt.

I would say that Drmic/Greenwood, when they were in AIS, generally had leave in January, as the international basketball season for Emus was scheduled mid year (AST - April, Oceania qualifies- Sept, WC- June/July). So they probably weren't adept to the schedule as well.

Can't wait to see them tear it up next year ;)
So Drmic wo

Glad you included Bose, LC - doesn't anyone else consider him Boomers material?

Nice squad LC. I think Wagstaff will continue to be part of Boomers squads in the future, and Matty Knight will come back into the fray if he can stay healthy.

Don't think Bose comes into contention at all when you think of all the options coming through the ranks by 2014, on top of the stalwarts in his position range already there. Two slow / unathletic to play the two, so he's up against all the threes.

He is definitely a prospect as no one has really put a stamp on the SF position, though they might in London. But Bose needs his game to be more efficient. This year he was a high volume, low efficiency scorer on a struggling team. His defence wasnt great and he didnt make teammates better offensively.

His last few games showed his potential, and he is a strong rebounder for a SF, but I definitely think he wont be a Boomer unless he improves those areas of his game.

fstos, good call on Lisch..

He will be an Aussie by then

Good points about Bose, Paul, if I take off the Purple coloured glasses, as I was really disappointed he didn't at least make the YouYi games squad, especially when players like Broekhoff did, he's a strong rebounder, can nail the outside shot, got great size and reach... Would have been a good chance to see what he was capable of, as really, I don't see him improving much with limited minutes, just like most of the other young Aussie talent that went overseas... Only really Ingles has shown anything of worth this time around... Newley still can't hit the side of a barn, AJ didn't even get picked, Barlow is well, what is he? Even Neilsen's limited minutes hasn't really made him a better player if his recent games are anything to go by... Maric has played well these last few games, but he went from one of the best players in Europe to a limited minutes player in Greece? I'm sure they're enjoying the cash, though...

Exum continues to shine, showing an all-round game in the 3-0 sweep of the Kiwis at the FIBA Oceania U18 Championship. He averaged 14.3 points, 6 assists, 4.7 assists and 3 steals in the three-game series, despite not playing major minutes in the dead rubber game 3. In the first game he had 17 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals and 16 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals in the second game.

Perhaps he will be a point guard after all.

He should definitely go to the Cup in 2014, even if he only manages Gibbo/PC London minutes, there is no doubt this kid will be wearing Boomers green and gold for a very long time.

It depends a bit on who is coaching and what style they want to play, but for the fun of it maybe something like:

Bogut/Nevill
Knight/Jawai
Newley/Broekhoff/Wagstaff
Ingles/Lisch/Exum
Mills/Dellavedova

(Most of Nevill, Knight, Jawai, Broekhoff, Wagstaff and Lisch would have to play in 2013 though to get more international experience)