Nope. I think if they were to join the NBA next year, they would struggle with everyone having to step up and play unusual roles they are not ued to. I think they would have 25-30 wins.

Simmons would be the main man and would get his usual numbers a night but the rest are basically role players and i doubt any could step up to be that second star player.

I think if they could keep the team together for 3 years, they could get to 45 wins but it would take time.

Ben Simmons would need to have a MVP like year to win a play off series.

Anon, which are the borderline starters you refer to? Ingles, Mills, Baynes are all starting on playoff teams.

I think the Melbourne Boomers would at least make the Conference Semi Finals. No-one to stop Cambage

Referees stop Liz Cambage mate

Um I think the Boomers would do decent but they feel like they are lacking another go to guy and whilst watching Boomers Baynes seems an option down low a lot, his NBA output gives me doubts that he'd be scoring 15-20 a night.

I don't think they'd be an awful team though

Dante in beast mode is fun to watch, can we see it again

Maybe not the NBA Playoffs, but...

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/australia-s-nba-few-have-the-power-to-overcome-america-s-many-in-tokyo-20180425-p4zbm0.html

I reckon they'd be a 35 win team.

They would give the East a shake if they had the right coaching staff. Stevens, Pop or Snyder would likely get us there. Home court advantage would be interesting as well.

I mean you can't tell me the Boomers wouldn't give the Miami Heat a competitive 7 game series.

I could see them scraping into the playoffs (6-8th seed).

If games were over in 1 quarter then they could get some wins. I don't see how we get 220 minutes of playoff-level basketball over a whole season though.
Simmons, Mills, and (recently) Ingles are playing starter minutes. It starts to drop off after that though. Baynes is mostly starting, but averaging half a game. Are we assuming Bogut stays healthy enough to play the other half?
4 spot doesn't look pretty at all.
I like the optimism and I agree that we could get some wins, but in the realities of a season depth would catch up to us.

I look at the fact that the Boomers have led against Team USA over the ast 6 years, but usually fall short due to a Kobe Bryant explosion or Carmelo Anthony dropping 8 threes due to a dodgy match up - Aron Baynes guarding him!?

Therefore, if you've got the best of the US players struggling to get over the line against our best and having a little trickle go down their leg late in the 4th over the last 3-4 times we've played them, then I don't see why we couldn't be a vert competitive team and make some noise in the playoffs.

Agree that they're probably one piece short of being confident, or Bolden or Maker are a couple of years off providing more of what they need.

But not miles off the pace.

Team USA from cavolo's post have 5+ guys who could romp through, but some of the playoff teams have 1-2 strong players and then drop away. Provide reasonable coverage on them, and our guys are tragic by comparison. Bucks, Heat, etc.

If it was Prime Bogut, I think they'd be a very decent team. Otherwise, quite reliant on Baynes given Maker is shaky and Bolden is still new to it.

I think they'd be competitive but probably would miss out on the playoffs. That's no insult to them though because most (if not all national teams not named USA) national teams would miss out on the play offs. The reason why I hold this view while simultaneously holding the view that Australia can beat Team USA on their night is because a lot can be said about team cohesion and luck when only playing a handful of games together.

"Even in 2004 a mostly NBL composed Boomers led Team USA at the Olympics.

"

Well we've actually been extremely close to them in 5 out of the last 7 games we've played against them. I'd go so far as to say if we didn't start playing dumb and rushing shots we would have beaten them in 2016.

Home Court Advantage would be a corker though.

Above

But the Boomers team would be shallow, and have too much reliance on ageing bigs. Re,ember that Andersen played an important role in Rio.

Logically, the long and game-intensive season would lead to fatigue and injury problems.

A wildcard entry to playoffs though...

Has Bogut's game really degraded in the last couple years? Since Golden State, he has been on rebuilding teams that prefer to invest court time in developing players rather than playing veterans. Just two years ago he was a starter on a 73-win team ffs.

nah, simmons and ingles the only ones you could really rely on