I haven't been able to watch many of the warmup games, but the few I did see it seemed like Delly was in "coach-Delly" mode rather than "baller-Delly" mode. That's fine for some of the opening games, trying to facilitate and get everyone touches and involved. But come show-time I'm hoping that he will more often flick the shoot-switch in his head and start looking for his own offense more. The floor opens up a lot more for your passing once you've hit some shots.

Agree with lots of the other comments on that link. Ingles has been too timid. Exum needs to just attack the rim, rather than be deterred/intimidated by the help (potentially our bigs need to get better at timing their cuts on Dante drives too).

I never thought I'd be saying this before those warmup games, but I think we'll go as far as Broekhoff goes.

Without shooting we are toast, even against some of the international minnows.

That lack of shooting is the reason all the driving lanes are clogged up, which makes life hard on our slashers: Newley, Ingles and Exum, which in turn makes it harder for the few shooters we do have to get open.

Delly needs to do a better job of getting to the rack. Way too passive. He needs to know when to facilitate and when to go get his.

Baynes has been great so far.

After seeing us play those warmup games, I don't think a medal is a realistic expectation without consistent outside shooters, of which we have one, who also happens to be our second youngest player (Broekhoff).

Lemanis needs to do a better job of coaching this team, full stop. If you're going to go huge then you better figure out how to play bully ball. Because Lemanis went huge and now wants to play fast break basketball. Ain't gonna cut it. Go watch some Memphis Grizzlies tape.

I'd like to see a starting line up of

Delly
Broekhoff
Ingles
Motum
Baynes

Broekhoff and Motum probably the 2 less obvious ones, id start them both for there shooting ability so they can spread the floor for our other players, we dont have many other great shooters on the team so id give these 2 good minutes, id have Goulding and Andersen back them up as they are probably our next best shooters.

Actually Andersen is the better 3pt shooter, so id start him at PF,

Another question: can Goulding shoot the ball at a decent clip with only limited touches...and off catch and shoot situations... or does he need volume and off-the-dribble looks to find consistency?

Watching most of the warm up games I would say Ingles needs to lift and get more aggressive offensively he seems to defer too much.I have been quite impressed by Newley and Baynes but Anderson could struggle guarding those mobile 4 men that can shoot the 3.

Yeah I don't think you can play Anderson at the four unless it's against lower-tier teams.

This whole "Ingles as point forward" thing is a double edged sword for me. We need him finishing more plays and not initiating them. He's one of our more athletic guys and I can count on one hand the number of tough finishes at the rim he had through those warmup games.

Yea good point re Andersen, what would others starting 5's be?? who should start PF??

Yea Goulding will be an interesting to see how effective he is, he is probably more of a volume scorer, but not sure we have anyone else who is a significantly better shooter either, Gibson and Delly would probably both be around a similar level to Goulding in terms of pure shooting and Exum would be a step below, so id use one of Goulding or Gibson behind Broekhoff at SG, with Newley also playing some SG minutes whilst backing up Ingles at SF aswell, want to see some minutes of Newley and Ingles on together aswell.

I have looked at the Fiba 'power rankings' for all the pre cup games, I think you will find every team has either lost to, or had an unreasonably close game with, a team, or teams which aren't 'in their league'

this proves to me, that not a lot can be taken out of the pre-cup games. I think we do have the three point shooters. I think Goulding needs more minutes also. Anything is possible with this team, we CAN medal.. but the most likely scenario for mine is top 8. Which is nothing to sneeze at either. But we have hope, and I expect the way we play at the cup will be in contrast to how we played before.

I would go with
Dellavadova
Newley.
Ingles
Andersen
Baynes

Starting fives will likely vary during tournament.
Broekhoff would be my first wing player in off bench, really hope he continues his 3pt shooting form.
Exum and Motum should see plenty of minutes and Bairstow will get some backup centre mins as I currently don't see Jawai as much of a factor at this stage.

I would start Broekhoff, what better way to start the game than raining threes?

Mick, Goulding shot 48% on threes in the lead-up matches suggesting he's fine as an off-the-bench guy, a role he's very used to.

The group has opened up nicely for the Aussies with Slovenia's frontcourt missing most of its guns and Lithuania losing Kalnietis this week, their key PG.

Having said that, they will both still be very tough to beat, and a lot will come down to which of the inconsistent Boomers teams we've seen so far presents on the key nights.

Prep - Has been solid. I like that we have seen some differing combos, and that a lot of guys have had decent court time, pretty much straight off the plane. Coach hasn't shown all his cards yet. Really looking forward to seeing some pressing in the tournament.

Over Performing - Baynes and Motum both have looked good. A number of posters were giving Baynes a bit of stick here in the pre warm ups, and he has shown his power. Motum has looked really aggressive around the rim.
Mid road - Delly and Ingles....we have seen some glimpses but these two really need to excel for us to be a chance of advancing.
Under - Exum and Anderson. Dante was man handled by Battum and the French, and he missed a few cheapies as a result. Really want to see him just cut loose in the open court where his game excels. David needs to hit his jumpers or sit on the pine.

Medal - We are a chance, as in Dumb and Dumber type chance. Not really likely unless things really go our way. Compacted schedule could work to our favour as we are pretty deep and generally pretty young which should help with recovery. Injuries to key players in other teams could make a big impact here.

Win - Im going the "roughie" here with Spain. Lets face it, US are still odds on, but my heart wants the Spanish bigs to smash the US, and Spain has 5 guys playing the 1-3 that are quality players, so they somehow need to break even with the US back court.

the problem with Goulding is not his offensive output, its his defensive lapses

Correct. he has been very dangerous offensively as a shooter and a passer. Some of his defence has been excellent too, but unfortunately he has lapses where he loses sight of his man and that limits his minutes.

He and Broekhoff are still going to be very important for us though, their shooting could really break open some scoring droughts and open things up for teammates.

I would say we are likely top 8, and Medal dark horse. Despite having 5 NBA guys on our team I don't think we are the team many are looking at to win a medal, but thats what makes us dangerous. We will be in the mix when all is said and done, and I think they will represent us well. Hopeful of a medal, but lets not set all our hopes on it. Top 8 would be an adequate achievement.

The problem with the Boomers is that they are a jack of all trades but not masters of a few key areas.

Ok/good shooters, ok/good rebounding, ok/good defense etc.

But I struggle to see how they are going to beat certain opponents..like what's their 'go to' strength?

A 'Go to' strength can also be a weakness. Australias strength could be its unpredictability?

Interesting times ahead this week in any case with a smorgasboard of quality hoops on ABC2 and FIBA's livebasketball.tv!