I think we need to throw Dante to the wolves and hope for the best.

The rest of the team should be better than at the London Olympics, with Delly and Baynes having NBA experience and adding the likes of Goulding and Bairstow.

Need to stop mentioning Drmic for the Worlds. He has a bad foot injury at the moment.

Martin's too limited to make a full strength Boomers team but I'd take him now over Greenwood in a heartbeat.

Chances of a medal at this tournament are gone, so I would go young and build for next olympics and world's to have a chance at getting a medal.

I like GWB's team but would replace Anderson with Bairstow to see how the young guys can handle the pressure.

PG - Delly / Exum / Martin
SG - Goulding / Broekhoff
SF - Ingles / Newly
PF - Bairstow / Motum / Simmons
C - Baynes / Jawai

I know Martin doesn't fit the youth mould, but you need a 3rd PG incase Delly gets injured. A really high risk/high reward strategy would take Greenwood in that spot.

Delly/Martin or greenwood- really tough call.
Goulding/Exum
Ingles/Newley/Simmons
Bairstow/Anderson/Motum
Baynes/Ogilvy

Martin is better defensively, great hustle and can steal the ball on multiple occasions.
Greenwood causes very little turnovers and is a better ball handler, maybe a slightly better basketball iq. (not to mention plays well in combination with bairstow)

Patty is irreplaceable. We are talking about the guy who has gone hammers at every Olympics and world champs he has been to. He was all sorts of crazy at the last olympics beating out all the USA point guards.

No way can start Goulding over Newely. Damian Martin pretty much a shoe in now as the 3rd lead guard behind exum and delly.

martin and greenwood both good rebounding guards too.

On the other side of the coin youve got a good shooter in gibson who could also play as SG?

Goulding and/or exum need to step up

I can picture Goulding going bananas and shooting 50 points in a game. Kid can shoot.

Time to blood the youngters and build towards Rio.

Simmons in his age group is a natural PF.
At the next level... with his speed, shooting ability and being able to finish around the rim, I think he's best suited to the SF position for the time being. At the world cup he'll only be guarding people around the 6'6 to 6'9 100 kg range(much like himself). He would be completely overpowered in the PF position with veteran 6'10+ big bodies over 120kg.
In a couple of years time, I'm sure he will have no problem playing both the SF and PF at the international level.

Vart, Chris Anstey played the 2000 Olympics so not sure what Bulls stunt you're referring to?

How to replace Mills, here's is one from left field!

Can Kevin lisch play for Australia?

There was a lot of talk of him getting Australian Citizenship in 2013. Did it happen.

I wouldn't normally suggest using the FIBA one player naturalised rule but it makes sense right now.

Great scorer, mongrel on defence, has the Aussie mentality

then

starting

Dellavedova 192cm
Newley 199cm
Ingles 203cm
Bairstow 208cm
Baynes 208cm

Bench

Exum 197cm
Lisch 188cm
Broekhoff 201cm
simmons 208cm
Andersen 212cm
Jawai 208cm

then one of the following depending on need eg go bigger or smaller

Goulding, Motum, Johnson, Ogilvy

We dont have a chance of medaling even with milks

what about with Milks AND Cookies

"No way can start Goulding over Newely. Damian Martin pretty much a shoe in now as the 3rd lead guard behind exum and delly."

I reaaaaaly don't want Newley to start. I've said it before but he's been terrible 80% of the time i've seen him play for the Boomers. His shot is very inconsistent and when it's off, it's off. I mean airballing and completely bricking off. His basketball iq is also terrible. He takes bad shots and makes bad passes. I remember one time at the last olympics he had an open team mate and instead opted to drive to the rim and got the shit blocked out of him by the opposing center. He might be good for his European club but not as a Boomer I know he'll be a part of the team i just hope he plays better than he has for us in the past.

"GWB, I personally think Simmons will be fine against grown men. He's 6'10", 235 pounds himself, so not exactly small. He hits the weights really hard to, has done for a while, so I think his strength (for an 18 year old) would be pretty good."

Yeah, Simmons is 6'10 and has put on a fair bit of muscle. I'd say a better question is how the grown men would handle Simmons.

"The story goes the Bulls told him they wouldn't re-sign him if he played at the 2000 Olympics and he chose to play anyway.

Never played in the NBA again either.

I still remember Longley being traded during the 2000 Olympics from Phoenix to New York."

Wasn't Anstey doing quite well aswell. Wasn't he averaging over 10 ppg?

I don't think any one player can replace Mill's input. No Boomers player has the offensive abilities of Mills. I think in general, everyone has to stand up. We have to make the extra pass, take the best shot available and have as few mistakes as possibly.

"That's the Anstey story I was referring to. He was a free-agent after the 99-00 NBA season. The Bulls wanted him to skip the Olympics and remain in Chicago during the off-season to work on his game. He chose to play in Sydney, and never played in the NBA again."

You gotta respect that. He could of made millions in the NBA but gave up his chance to play for his country instead.

"GWB - Simmons reminds me of, you better sit down, LeBron. I don't specifically remember watching LeBron at the same age, but just the athleticism, full court game, passing ability, finishing strong at the rim, high basketball IQ. Simmons is arguably a better outside shooter than LeBron was at the same age too."

Lebron is actually not a bad comparison. Simmons isn't as athletic but in terms of skillset and their games, they're not that dissimilar. Though Lebron is on a whole other level, of course.

As has been said before - the whole Simmons is a kid, he can't play against men should be put to rest. At 6'10 and 235 i think he'll do just fine.

Improved Markedly? He barely played in the last series and when he didn't he wasn't terrible.

I'd rather him starting over Goulding.

Wasn't Anstey doing quite well aswell. Wasn't he averaging over 10 ppg?

Vart, love the comparison, love that you had the balls to go there. There are a lot of things that Lebron can do that Simmons can't, but go back four years and he was being crucified for not posting up JJ Barea in the Mavs/Heat finals. A reliable 3-pointer is also something he's added to his game in the last 5 years. Simmons is obviously not as athletic, and I think that's true both vertically and laterally, so a defensive comparison to Lebron would be unfair. But offensively, he's got a similar combination of size, strength, skill and IQ to a 19-year-old Lebron. Hope LSU is the right environment for him to keep getting better, because it's sure off the beaten track for elite hoops prospects.

Can't believe Greenwood is being discussed for a Boomers gig right now. The guy seriously struggled to face up his man and throw a decent pass against China, let alone create genuine offensive opportunities.

Shaq went to LSU

"He averaged 6ppg @ 44% with the Bulls."

Thought it was more than that. Oh well.

No probs unfortunately Anstey was a pretty big bust in the NBA.

5.2ppg, 3.4rpg, 0.4bpg @ 41% from the field in his 3 years in the NBA as an 18th pick.

#557, Larry Bird went to Indiana State, Paul George went to Fresno State, Damian Lillard went to Weber State, Kenneth Faried went to Morehead State, Hakeem went to the University of Houston, David Robinson went to the damn Naval Academy.

I'm not saying Simmons can't go to LSU and be successful, but with the exception of Emmanuel Mudiay (Southern Methodist) in the class of 2014, you have to go back to 2009 and Derrick Favors to find a top-5 recruit (Simmons is #2) at a school outside of Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Carolina, UCLA, Texas, Arizona, Baylor, Ohio State, UConn and Florida.

It's come to the point where we should really only be taking NBA/Euroleague players plus some of the future NBA prospects (Simmons/Maker) and maybe one elite NBL player (like Goulding). We're deep and strong enough now that guys like Barlow/Martin/Worthington etc shouldn't really be playing for us.

And also regarding Simmons - There was a recent interview with Kevin Goorjian who has coached Andrew Bogut, Chris Anstey, Jason Smith etc and he says that Simmons is the best player he's ever coached.

Also a recent article about Simmons finished with this possible lineup for Rio


Starting five:

Patty Mills

Dante Exum

Andrew Bogut

Ben Simmons

Joe Ingles

Bench:

Aron Baynes

Matthew Dellavadova

Thon Maker

Cameron Bairstow

Brad Newley

Replace Newley with Bolden and i could definitely get behind this lineup.

"Rio team....probably a bit early to speculate

Exum/ Delly
Mills/ Goulding/
Ingles/ Simmons/ Bolden
Bairstow/ Maker
Bogut/ Baynes"

I'd add Humphries and find a place for Adel. Maybe swap him with Goulding.

My world cup team 2014:

PG
1. Dellavedova 6'4 92kg
2. Exum* 6'6 86kg (offense)
3. Martin 6'1 92kg (defense)
SG
1. Ingles** 6'8 98kg
2. Goulding 6'4 92kg
SF
Simmons*** 6'9 105kg
Newley* 6'7 93kg
PF
Bairstow 6'10 114kg
Anderson**** 7'0 112kg
Motum 6'10 111kg
C
Baynes 6'10 118kg
Jawai 6'10 127kg (Ogilvy 6'11 113kg to step in if injured.)

Makes the starting 5:
6'4/6'8/6'9/6'10/6'10

*SG also.
**SF also.
***PF also.
****C also.

Delly over Exum to start (better at creating, a better defender and is a much safer ball handler at this point in time.)
Ingles although primarily a SF, he makes a great SG and has much better size and versatility than goulding, aswell as defense.
Simmons I believe is more than ready. Good size frame who can pretty much do it all. Will be a better defender than the other options at SF aswell and add a rebounding capability to the position along with backup interior offense and defense.
Bairstow over the other 2 (anderson and motum)
for his size, toughness on defense and his range of offensive skills (post and mid range).
Baynes over Jawai purely because of his gas tank.
Ogilvy would be an overall better option than Jawai, but Jawai's size makes it much more difficult for opposing frontcourts. (without Bogut)

Not a bad thought on team selection, keeping an eye on the future by including some young guns for their first senior international experience, but Maker and Humphries still too young IMO.