Lovely. Tall blacks are winning while the boomers debate about whether to bring in their best player.

Surely someone has to point out to LC that there's already a thread on this?! Oops, I just did. ;-)

^yeah, that'll work because the Oceania series is only 2 games :)

They played China, Venezuela and Mexico. Hardly, basketball powerhouses....

King James,

2 of those 3 teams are above the TBs on the FIBA World Rankings.

Granted I am not getting overtly excited by some of those wins but they have been building nicely and you can only play what's in front of you.

We've seen the TBs come agonisingly close to beating LTU at the world champa (and they always seem to at least compete against some of the bigger Euro teams) - so there is pat evidence which points to them been able to run with the 4+ ranking teams in the world.

They'll be taking more out of how they played than just winning games, but certainly their ability to close out games strongly would be very pleasing for Henare and Co, particularly the way they came from 11 down in the last quarter against Croatia only to be beaten by a buzzer beater.

I still think turnovers are too big an issue (17 in the final), they have to fix that or the Boomers will wear them down.

paul,

Yep and can't see that improving without a more controlling PG and more PG depth.

Tait can be TO prone at International level, Bartlett can be a turnover machine some days and is a massive proponent of the 50:50 ball (sometimes loves the 1:99 ball too), Shea and Kenny are probably out of their depth (no offence).

Would be great if we had a Dickel type coming through along with Wynyard, Adams, Fotu, the Websters, Te Rangi, Loe but sadly not :(

MACDUB those teams aren't bad as you said and are ranked above NZ (China 14th, Mexico 19th). So from that point of view it was a great effort.

However, Australia did play against stronger opponents recently. Slovenia 13th and Lithuania 4th, Granted that both teams werent at full strength but neither was Australia.

I think both Australia and NZ will be confident going into the matches.

The China team played in the tournament was a 2nd unit team, their best is in Europe tour in preparation for Asia region Olympic qualifier. Other opponents were without their best players I think, at least Mexico were without 2 NBA players on their roster. Anyway congratz to the Tall Blacks on getting first title with new coach Pauli.

I think you're a little harsh on Tait there MACDUB, since the start of the 2010 WC he's only averaged a turnover every 17 minutes in FIBA tournament play.

I think he's generally a safe pair of hands even if not 100% reliable. The Tall Blacks sure could have done with him during the 2013 Oceania champs.

Re warm-ups, NZ played Great Britain x 2, Croatia and Slovenia in Europe, the last two being quality opponents. They beat GB twice and lost narrowly to Croatia and Slovenia.

The Stankovic Cup field was development teams from each of the three opponents and they went 4-0 in what were mostly very physical affairs which will be good preparation for the Boomers.

NZ are the opposite of Australia in basketball - don't look strong on paper, but play with class on the court.

So did Steve Adamas play? If not, that's their best starting 5 out for this event and with him in the side it makes a big difference I imagine. Aussie beware...

Adams didnt play, but C Webster, Vukona, Fotu and Abercrombie could all make strong cases to be in their best starting five and they all played. Adams is the only guy missing who'd clearly be in their best starters.

Pledger would normally be the starting centre and Tai Webster would make a strong case to start next to Corey

Tai, Alex and Kirk could all make cases for starting - Tai has been fast tracked without necessarily being at that level just yet - but I think Adams is the only one who could just walk into a starting position next year without any doubt. The Tall Blacks certainly aren't missing their best starting five this year

Sounds like the cohesion will be in place for NZ, my hope is that the Aussies are not too disjointed and can get their game going in time.

Bogut was great in that first Slovenia game. He had a hand in everything on both sides of the court. If he is that form against New Zealand, I don't see what they are going to be able to do about him.

I got the tall blacks paying 12/1 with paddy power UK.. They have gone down to 10/1 since the exum injury!!