The level of games he has played in is so many light years away from facing Spain, USA, Lithuania, Argentina etc that it's impossible to tell.

He has the physical tools, whether his knowledge of the game will be ready who knows, but either way the Boomers will take him if available.

Ben Simmons should be going to Rio. The kid is awesome. Rather him, than Bairstow or Jawai.

Is Exum can play for the Boomers than Simmons should be starting...

I'd put him on the team but deep on the bench. The college teams Ben has paid wouldn't even compete with the Townsville crocs on a bad game. Ben certainly will be the main guy soon enough though

Simmons looked fine against NBL teams in the preseason tour. Definitely ready for Rio.

Pre-season games are also many light years away from playing the USA, Spain, Lithuania and Argentina. There's no way of knowing if he'll be ready to compete at that level mentally, but he should go either way because he's likely going to be phenomenal someday soon.

You'd put him on the team, certainly.

He needs to be on this team as a bench rotation player, why bring a done and dusted bench player like jawai when we can get a youngster into the system

Hard to judge on his first 2 games as they were walks in the park.
But I feel pretty confident that the answer will still be yes by the time he is done facing some adversity and superior opponents. The sooner the better in fact, as these "man among boys" type contests really don't test him or expose aspects of his game requiring extra attention.

Absolute lock IMO.

Must be taken.

He offers something which none of Australia's other forwards can provide.

Take him - even if he doesn't play. Get him to learn the systems, hang with the older guys, get his feet wet with International basketball.

He is going to be our best play in 5 years - so get him used to it now. They did it with 18 year old Gaze

Agree 100% SVD. Hopefully he'll be able to have an impact off the bench too. His athleticism at PF could be perfect with a pressing second unit.

How is he not ready?

Any NBA team would take hit tomorrow if they could, seriously talented and ready for any level you want him to play in!

Dante Exum was a lottery pick but he wasn't ready in 2014. You get drafted on how good you're going to be, not whether you can play the high IQ ball needed against the USA, Spain, Argentina, Lithuania etc.

I suspect he'll be ready to play some sort of burst role, I hope so because he brings an element we've rarely had.

Not too fazed about Exum. To me he is an athlete who is still waiting for his basketball ability to catch up. Lots of potential, but his play for the Boomers so far hasn't been compelling. Even if healthy the Jazz would be pressuring him to stay away from Rio and fair enough too.

Simmons though is a guy who already has a fairly complete game. Experience is the main thing he is lacking, he's the biggest ever no-brainer as a lifetime fixture in the Boomers team, so yeah as others have said, get him in there ASAP.
I'd ease him off the bench, but if all goes well and he is comfortable out there then by all means throw as many minutes his way as he can handle.

"Paul, Lebron dominated the NBA out of HS and would have dominated the Olympics too"

LeBron played at the Olympics when he was 19. Against Argentina, Spain and Lithunia he played a combined 23 minutes for 9p on 4/10 shooting, 1r, 2a and 2to. I don't class that as dominating.

It has been exciting to see Simmons' start to his NCAA career with his silky, effortless play, and surely he is a lock for the Boomers on potential alone.

Although I'd wager that Simmons will need to prove that he has a reliable jumpshot in order to even crack rotation minutes as a 4 or 3 on the Boomers team. He is too inexperienced and we have other playmaking options for his playmaking skills to warrant minutes. It's no secret that Lemanis likes stretch 4s, as does the modern game generally, but how good is Simmons' perimeter shot at this stage? Is it just a case that his competition so far makes it inefficient for him to attempt anything beyond short-range baskets, or a jumpshot is a clear deficiency in his game?

This is a good breakdown of his weaknesses by DraftExpress:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR_MSoFc4iA

Despite all the hype surrounding Simmons, to me it highlights that he probably isn't ready for decent rotation minutes on the Boomers team yet. At this stage any NCAA team would be happy to build around him, but Boomers selection is a different beast. The last teenagers to make an impact on the Boomers were in positions of major weakness or while the team was obviously in a rebuilding phase.This Boomers team is not rebuilding. Mills in 2008 appeared as the Boomers had no real PG prospects and Heal was on the verge of departing, Bogut got minutes in 2004 on a rebuilding Boomers team by proving himself in warm-up matches (Goorjian didn't project he would end up starting him). Meanwhile, players with potential like Drmic, Dwight, Bruce (when he was a star freshman) received garbage minutes in international tournaments, while Nielsen and Anstey didn't make the team until later in their career.

While I described his NCAA games so far as "effortless", the intensity of the international game warrants a different attitude. Can he adapt for the international game? The lack of urgency or intensity was also something I noticed last time he played for the Boomers, albeit at a very young age. Reports indicate that he clearly wasn't ready in Boomers practices prior to the World Cup.

He is used to the game coming easily to him, with other players sucked into his orbit; but in the Boomers team with so many clearly defined roles being established already, can he adapt to a role that the team requires? His defense, rebounding fundamentals, and his jumpshot all need improvement to take him to the next level. Of course, they are 3 areas that a Boomers 4-man is expected to have at least one strength in.

I expect that Simmons will need to prove himself as a competent point-forward at other levels before the Boomers even consider that role for him on the Boomers team. Until that happens, Simmons needs to prove himself in another role to complement the other players on the team. Make it into the team and prove himself during practice games, as Bogut and Mills did. He can't expect minutes to be automatically allocated to him based on being a lottery pick.

I think he'll be ready, the question is for what? Which of his skills will he be able to do well at the intensity of international level? Or will he be more about bringing energy and athleticism in short bursts ala LeBron in 2004?

Well we have an entire freshman season to observe and assess, but unless he bulks up significantly he is an international 3 at the moment, and therefore ideally he'll want to have opponents respecting his 3 point shot. With his vision and ability to create off the dribble it really could make life easier for someone like Patty to play more off the ball.
If he starts knocking down threes as well then look out.

If anyone remembers watching Ben's dad play here back in the day, what was his demeanour on court? Ice-cool like Ben or more emotive?

I remember him being very business-like, just got on with the job of defending, rebounding, screening and dunking!

Also, with regard to Exum. Yeah the Games is early August but that's not the deadline for fitness. The deadline is long before that considering camps and whatnot.

I hope for the Boomers' sake Lemanis' Brisbane Bullets contract comes in to effect after the Olympics. The last thing we need is a coach with two separate basketball teams on his mind.

Dave Simmons was a banger - completely the opposite to Ben.

Righto, maybe he has taught Ben how to hold himself on court because the only time he has gotten visibly excited was when he dimed a teammate which led to a timeout.

His movements and demeanour on court are so smooth they're almost haunting

...Which is actually the reason I asked him about his dad's on-court attitude. I have a hypothesis about Ben but it's pretty out-of-the-box atm, just limited to a couple comments in the media and the way he's handled himself over the first two NCAA games. Really keen to get to know the kid more as his media stuff ramps up. He's a seriously intriguing personality already, that's for sure.

Ben Simmons will be a number one draft pick in the feckn NBA. But people are saying that he isn't good enough for the Boomers.

For me, Simmons should be in the starting five.

I think so far he knows there are a lot of eyes on him. It's been pretty easy for him not to do anything that might rub anyone the wrong way, because the 2 games so far were easy wins.

I'm sure more will be revealed when he has to face a bit more adversity in terms of playing a superior team or matching up on a quality opponent that serves it up to him.
Hopefully that will bring out a bit of fire in the guy, because as a fan it's nice to see some intensity in a player and know that he seriously cares about winning. It's a fine line, because getting fired up over beating up on a clearly inferior opponent isn't a good look either.

Lots to look forward too. It's awesome that all those games will be telecast for us.

I agree that the United's coach should be the Boomers coach.

Ben Simmons in 2016 will be starting for a NBA Team. At the moment only Bogut is a starter.

The kid is 6'10 point forward who run, jump, awesome handles and out of this world basketball IQ. By the way, he can defend, rebound, steals, block shots play help defense and assist/turn over ratio is better than most point guards.

Needs to work on his 3 pt and mid range shooting and get stronger.

For me, Start with Bogut, Baynes, Simmions, Mills, and Delly. Bench with Goulding, Bairstow, Ingles, Andersen, Motum, Newly, Maker.

Pretty sure Simmons will be a consensus no. 1 for NBA teams. Labissiere is a special special talent (may be a once-in-a-decade type; then again it seems there are more and more once-in-a-decade bigmen materialising), but Simmons is the best talent by a mile.

I guess teams like Philly, Denver and Charlotte (Al Jefferson is really a PF) desperately need a centre so they may want to fill a need with Labissiere but apart from that Simmons should land with the lucky team that gets dat ping pong combo.

+Dean Dinop---- as Boomers coach? I hadn't considered that. It isn't a half bad idea, but lets see whether United keep on winning into the finals first.

Through three games - 18.7 PPG 12.7 RPG 4.7 APG on 62% shooting. Yeah, LSU haven't exactly been playing Div 1 heavyweights, but those are some eye-opening numbers regardless.

There's no way in hell you don't include him in the squad, he's the future of Aussie basketball.

Not picking him for Rio would go down as one of the dumbest moves ever from the Boomers!