:/

#sacklemonass

Something feels wrong with the Boomers.

Seems an odd choice based on the amount Australian Basketball has supposedly moved forward in the past twelve months.

What we have compared to what we could have had appears worlds apart. Hopefully we see something better at the Olympics!

Baynes
Simmons
Ingles
Broekhoff
Delly

Maker
Bolden
Creek
Mills
Exum
Landale
Green

Coach: Bevo
Assistant Coach: Will Weaver, Luc Longley

Be a serious shot at Gold in my humble opinion

Excellent choice.

Absurd.

I like DB but this is terrible.

Do we know if Adel and or Motum were offered the role? If not its farcical. He's an aging role player in a second rate league. Yes he plays that role well, but the step up to international ball is huge.

Did they even ask Motum?

I'm waiting for the announcement that Bogut is out injured and will be replaced by Spuddee.

Lemanis = Lost the Plot.

We won't make it out of the group stages

Lol to describing Barlow as an international power forward! We're really only making do here aren’t we?

How are you all getting upset?

It was between Barlow and Adel. Adel is a solid young player who's still growing into his game, but is mostly a streaky scorer. Barlow can defend inside and out, so will provide some foul trouble assurance. That's it.

Motum was the better choice but unavailable

From the squad of 18, Simmons withdrew.
Cooks out injured. Creek replaced Cooks.
Bolden departs.

Enter David Barlow.

Leaving Adel, Motum and McCarron as the last 3 standing not selected from the original squad of 18.

Hmmmm.

Motum unavailable. McCarron and Adel not bigs. Seems pretty simple.

And i think unless we have 100% full healthy team, a medal should be considered a very good result, not par for the course.

We're not a top 3 basketball nation and shouldn't be considered though until proven.

Rio was a good result. Need to be realistic.

Much as I respect Dave for all the good he's done for Australia, this really is a bad move.

He's not tall or quick enough to guard the big guys like Bolden could, and not versatile enough to create his own shots. His only assets seem to be that he's been a part of the system, that he's tough and dogged on defence, and that he can bury 3s when left alone.

Given that he's unlikely to get (m)any minutes, they should have just taken a punt on a young 3/4 regardless of whether he fitted into the system. (Someone who could actually provide something different whenever following the system doesn't work and everyone starts playing hero ball.)

"But not good enough to be in the original squad?"

I doubt Lemanis expected Bolden to withdraw, Simmons to withdraw, Motum to become unavailable(?), Cooks to get injured. That's 4 guys that are known to be able to defend 4s. He rightfully aimed for a small camp to make final 12 selections easier. When Goorjian did the opposite with a big camp, everyone criticised him for taking too long to settle on a team to create chemistry.

Deng no less of a big than David barlow.
Least the kid can get creative.

Strange move, but I'm guessing at this stage availability was 90% of the criteria. Not sure he can play the 4 at this level though.

"they should have just taken a punt on a young 3/4 regardless of whether he fitted into the system."

I had always supported selecting promising young guys as end of bench selections to give them international experience, but I'm struggling to think of any good examples of this in the last 20 years. Can anyone help me? I remember seeing Drmic, Dwight and Melmeth in 1998 and thinking these were later going to be core Boomers, getting valuable international experience. Then what happened?

The only young guys I can think of that made an impact in subsequent tournaments had already earned rotation minutes in their first major tournament.

Hey hoopie, for the record, Dave is definitely tall enough.

I am certainly not knocking Barlow for stepping in...to the contrary his being ready to go is just another notch up for him in terms of his outstanding professionalism.

I think my sentiment is just one of disappointment. Australia has never medalled at a major tournament and I just think it would do wonders for our game locally to do just that.

I see the 2019 as a Golden opportunity (pun intended) but one that would appear to have been missed (on paper at least).

Again in my opinion, Creek and Motum should have made that initial squad but arguing over it now seems like spilt milk.....best of luck to who is left because they are absolutely going to need it!

Really amateurish stuff by all involved it seems (Barlow aside, no knocks on him personally). There's just no world that Motum isn't the best choice here.

If Motum decided he wasn't interested that would be interesting. Even then it throws up questions about management of players considering last minute injuries are always a possibility.

In the short term we're now paying heaps of $$$ to watch a guy who "had a good NBL1 season" and long term sending a 35 year old to the WC in a position that, by all accounts, won't see much court time and could have been used on a developing player like Adel.

I don't think there's any good scenarios out of this

Congrats barlow but what disappointment, #lemonass wtf are u thinking, barlow wont play in Olympics so why not put in younger talent??

We not shot creators not a bloke that can't shoot off the dribble to save himself.

I cant see us even getting out of the pool yet to medal, hope im wrong but as boomers fans know we never get our hopes up as we still waiting on that elusive medal.

Even before the replacements, realistic for the Boomers at this World Cup was anywhere from 1st to not progressing past the group stage. Now its looking towards the second. Top 8 would be a great result from here

Difference between Barlow and Adel is four centimetres. Seems strange to me given Adel is a chance to play in Rio and Barlow has 0% chance and that Barlow won't even be playing more than 5 mins a game. At least Adel could learn from the experience.

I'd say making it out of the second round (into the quarter finals) will be considered a good result.

Two teams can come from this 8- France, Lithuania, Australia, Germany, Canada, Senegal, Dominican Rep, Jordan

If we're one of those two, that's a great result.

Good point, Greggo. Just to advance to the 8 we need to perform better in group stage than at least 3 of Lithuania, Germany, France, Canada, not to mention avoiding possible upset losses against those other lesser nations. Look at the rosters of those teams. Even at full strength, that's no easy task.

He must have been pretty excited to get the call, good on him.

Broke NBL record in season 2007-08 for the 'perfect game' scoring 37 points at 100%, 8 of 8 threes and 14 of 14 from the field

"Frankly a good result will be if we can finish above The Kiwis and qualify for the Olympics. I'll be happy if we do that but have to say I'm worried "

Agreed

Does anyone understand how Olympic Qualification works, or has bothered to spend 10 seconds to find out? Or is everyone just going to regurgitate the same misinformation forever.

Do englighten us Greggo

"Australia needs to finish higher than NZ to get an auto olympic qualifying spot. Australia could easily get knocked out by Canada and finish 17-32. Kiwis could sneak into top 16. Players who were unavailable for WC could be throwing away Olympic spot as well."

Correct

2012 called. They want their Boomers back.

and then.....

Spots available through qualification tournaments before Olympics...

-"Players who were unavailable for WC could be throwing away Olympic spot as well."-

Those players would be available for the qualification series. If you are so certain we deserve a medal, you'd think we'd get through the qualifying series.

Obviously qualifying now is ideal. My gripe was more generally directed, than at this thread. Mostly in the Simmons/ Bolden slag fests

Bit of an indictment on Adel as the word is he doesn't understand the system which is a heavy part of Boomers play, probably gets away with it in the G league and NBA as they're more free flowing comparatively

so many wrong player selections by lemanis.
All these nbl players should not even be in the team, except Bogut.
Also Players with lesser abilities were given more minutes than better players. Bolden was hard done by and player less minutes than kay.
lemanis simply has no clue what he is doing. He and longley Should be sacked.

Griffin in the womens and Barlow in the mens - my favorite players..

Dave, who are you replacing all the NBLers with? List of names, please.

Warm up games Dave. Don't need to be playing tournament rotations.

Honestly, I'll hear it all after the tournament if we fail. But can I ask.... what has he done wrong so far?

So far I'm hearing he should be sacked for including Barlow and Sobey? Over Adel and ....?

Interesting

Honestly, I'll hear it all after the tournament if we fail.

Koberulz the voice of reason lel but legit is

Johnson would have been a better option than Barlow. Shoots the three better, doesn't play tough defence because keeping him on the fooor is the priority at NBL level. Playing backup big, he can get tough on D because a few fouls ain’t going to hurt his minutes.

David Barlow? Oh my. If word comes out that Motum was available and overlooked for Barlow someone needs to tap Lemanis on the shoulder.

Were DJ or Jawai even asked? Barlow, unreal.

So basically your complaint is that:

We didn't play to win a meaningless game at the 2014 World Cup.
We played to win a meaningful game at the 2016 Olympics.
We didn't play to win the meaningless warm-up game vs Canada.

Your priorities may need adjusting.

Jawai? You're kidding yourself and Johnson? Mate i setup witches hats and they play harder D than Johnson could ever hope to

DJ or Jawai? We need a versatile big. Not a statue. We already have plenty of post bigs.

And Jawai hasn't even performed at NBL level for 5 years.

To the person that listed "failures" such as individual plays. Australia over-achieved in that period. And the Phillipines disaster hahahaha. Dear lord. Axe to grind.

Actually a fan of AL huh?

He implemented a tremendous offense and team game, that got a bunch of role players clicking and well and truly achieved all the way to almost ggetting a medal. Period.

Grego, yes the pre Olympics qualifying will be an option but they're gonna be tough.

Team on our day we're a chance to beat almost anyone. Put enough good days together and we can medal. But I think we're equally capable of losing any given game.

And then ya gotta convince Simmons and co to play a qualifying tournament. More time committed. Imagine the face they'd lose if losing?

Rjd, plenty of better options out there

mathiang, humphries, green, adel, reath just to name a few.

Motum was presumably unavailable

Barlow is a good fit and knows the system. At this point, those are very significant factors.

You guys need to watch NBL a little more closely if you think Johnson is slow. He is one of the most agile bigs in the league. He has also become a better defender over the past few seasons. If you can't get Motum, but want the nearest thing to him, then DJ is that guy.

Personally I think he would have been a better option, because he is:
1) agile enough to defend the high pick and roll Bogut was having so much trouble with against Canada;
2) he is a much better rebounder than Barlow
3) he has more length to challenge shots than Barlow
4) he can stretch the floor on offence better than any other big on this team
5) you can actually put the ball in his hands offensively and he can create his own shot or set someone else up

I just think that if Baynes and Bogut can't defend the high pick and roll then we basically only have Landale to fall back on as a small ball centre. It just would have been handy to have DJ there because he can play that small ball centre role and he can also play minutes next to any of our other bigs because of his shooting. With Barlow, the options are just less IMO.

Personally I think that a wooden deck chair is the best type for us to add to the Titanic. Just has a classier feel to it than a metal one, and 5 years from now it will be suffering less from the effects of corrosion from that salty Atlantic air.

A great role player with high IQ....

Team balance, sensible pick, bah humbug.

I didn't pay $350 to see David Barlow at Marvel; I can see him at a Sabres game anytime for under $10.

I, like most people attending on Thursday/Sunday, paid big bucks to see the best of the best, as advertised.

I get it, team selection, avaiability, whatever.

When you put an exhibition game on at a 55,000 seat stadium, you expect to see a spectacular show. Hopefully that’s what we’re in line for ... but I doubt it.

Do we have confirmation that Deng Adel was definitely available?

As much as the Barlow selection makes sense, it probably would have been more exciting to see Adel play. There are good arguments for either player to replace Bolden.

Sorry anonymous but the only things Barlow has over DJ is that he's a bit better with catch and shoot 3’s and he’s played more Boomers games in Lemanis system. If Barlow is so strong and good defensively, why can’t he guard DJ in the post? DJ would just back him down and score over him at will - which is exactly what most other 4s at international level will do.

To be clear, it’s possible Lemanis asked DJ and was turned down because he’s just flown out to the Phillipines, but I suspect he just went with Barlow because he was the easiest realistic option. Nothing against Barlow, but he’s not a 4 at international level.

"This is what I feel strongest about as someone who wants the Boomers to win a medal and do really well: you've made a commitment."@liam_santa regarding the Jonah Bolden situation on #NBLOvertime last night. #GoBoomers pic.twitter.com/eREiNox2DK

— NBL (@NBL) August 21, 2019

Olgun:

Andrej Lemanis said everyone except Dave Barlow (back) will be active for Thursday's Australian Boomers vs Team USA game.

Who will replace the replacement?

— Frugal Howard (@jonnytfor3) August 21, 2019

Barlow is a better fit with the team than Bolden anyway!

Bolden was about as popular with his team mates/coaches as Pauline Hanson in a Western Sydney mosque!

Isn't it funny how losing 5 Boomers, 3 who haven’t even proven themselves on the international stage, has suddenly seen us going from massive optimism about Boomers strength and depth to scratching our heads about who the next replacement should be?

Creek had his doubters but is in, Motum and Adel had some doubters and aren’t in, Blanchfield and Cadee have heaps of doubters ... seems like the only one who comes out as a popular replacement (except to those who will always point out that he couldn’t guard Terrico White), and a long way behind are Humphries and Green and various others.

So Barlow has apparently brought an injury with him into the Boomers team and will not play tomorrow night.

You can't make this stuff up. Farce

Isaac, I agree with those sentiments. Bolden needs to have a very good reason for pulling out at the last minute like that. It's possible he has one, but I think he should do better than 'personal reasons’. If it’s an unexpected family issue then fine, but if it’s just because he’s unhappy with minutes, or would rather spend his time preparing for the NBA season then he should’ve said that much earlier. Now he’s hurt the team preparation and a guy like Motum, who has been a committed representative in the past, has missed an opportunity to wear the green and gold.

I haven't seen much of Adel.

DJ is obviously a better player than Barlow, but Barlow has some factors in his favour:

1. More versatile defender

2. Better 3 point shooter

On the Boomers chances, people have short memories.

This starting 5 ripped through the Rio Olympics. The Boomers lost 3 games for the entire tournament- to the 3 medalists! 2 of those games were tight. They won all their other games by 15 or more, including a 15 point win over silver medalists Serbia in the group stage. They destroyed France. Destroyed Lithuania. Missed a medal by a solitary point after some shocking refereeing.

The reaction to Lemanis reminds me of St Kilda fans and Ross Lyon. So many people hate Lemanis, yet if one more jump shot falls into the net, then he’s the undisputed saviour of the Boomers and into the history books. Sport is cruel like that.

The bench is weaker than Rio, sure. Bogut and Delly may have declined. But regardless, this group has runs on the board. Landale looks a nice addition too.

Bottom line- If the starters find form, then Australia’s a chance.

Apparently Lucus Walker spent all day at training shadowing Barlow ;P

Olgun again:

Fit and familiarity. Andrej Lemanis made his reasoning relatively clear, when talking about his decision to fill the vacant Australian Boomers spot with David Barlow.

Why Moller. Can't see the fascination with him.

Team "fit". How he fits into the team.

Also another Moller mention just to rile me up. Moller's ceiling is below David Barlow's floor. Seriously.

You get picked for the boomers team if you
know the system. According to lemanis Ability is obviously the last consideration for picking a boomers squad.
I Don't think players like Durant, Harden and LeBron would get into the boomers team because they don't know the bookmers system. What a joke lemanis is.

There are probably half a dozen players who should not be in the playing 12.

I would not even bother to watch the boomers
World cup matches because lemanis has not picked the best players available.

Hope the boomers lose all WC matches so we will not have lemanis as boomers for the tokyo olympics. He has messed up this team completely.
It is time to have someone else as a boomers coach

Maybe not quite half a dozen, but 5 players should not be there.
Barlow, gliddon, sobey, goulding, kay
should not be in a WC squad

Green, Adel, Humphries, mathiang, Reath are simply better players.

Also Motum should have been picked as a replacement player at least, now he is back in Europe and is unavailable for selection.

Bolden would not have withdrawn if he had played a more prominent role in the team. Bolden played less minutes than these nbl guys in the team, what a joke. The team is a mess right now It is all lemanis fault.

@ Dave Maker, take away Bolden, Simmons, Broekhoff,Exum and Bolden as all are injured or unavailable.
Now take out your "NBL duds" as you call them in Sobey, Goulding, Gliddon,Kay and Barlow.

Other than Motum can you name at least 4 more players that are not in this post or in current 12 man team.

Waiting on 4 more names from you ...

"Hope the boomers lose all WC matches so we will not have lemanis as boomers for the tokyo olympics. "

If that happens, the Boomers might not even qualify for the Olympics.

"mathiang, humphries, green, adel, reath"

- Mathiang: still has question marks at international level and may not have impressed enough in the Asia qualifiers; one of the only Boomers players to have a negative +/- in the qualifiers
- Humphries: with Bogut and Baynes, he is strictly a 3rd string 5-man; wouldn't get minutes unless lose Bogut/Baynes; not versatile enough to play other positions; might only be able to offer something as insurance at this stage.
- Green: could leave a spot for him as experience; a future star, but hasn't even played college level yet, so unproven at higher levels; realistically, 11th/12th man only
- Adel: definitely good enough to make the A-team, but may be disadvantaged by having no experience in the system.
- Reath: it would be nice to get a better look at him after being used sparingly in NBA summer league and his first pro season. Not convinced he is an obvious selection ahead of Landale, Kay, Motum etc.

A lot of unproven talent, mostly without any experience at international level. The Boomers have to rely a lot on chemistry and knowing the system, especially the new role players.

Posting around the same time.
Maker Dave why would you have Reath or Green in there.
Green is fine for 2023.

I'm not overly happy with this team either but someone has to fill in for the 5 missing NBA players.

Steven, dont give me the " too young "
crap, delly and mills were picked for the boomers at age 18, 19. And green is a better player than these 2 at the same age.

You have also left out Adel who should have been picked in the original 12.

Mathiang, Humphries and Reath can't possibly play worse than these 5 nbl guys.

anon, if you are good enough, you are old enough. Harry kewell got picked for the socceroos when he was 17.

A conservative player selection approach will only damage the bloomers' chance of pedalling in major tournaments

* medalling in major tournaments

When citing players that were young on debut and played rotation minutes, such as Mills and Bogut:
- we lacked depth at those positions (PG in 2008, C in 2004)
- they starred in the junior world championships (Bogut MVP of gold medal junior team; Mills 2nd leading scorer in 5th placed 2007 team)
- there were instances of trying out but not making the national team (Mills was part of the 2006 national team squad, but not selected in the final team)

As for Delly, he wasn't expected to start in his first Boomers tournament, but he earned more and more minutes as he proved his worth in practice games. This also happened to Bogut. This is also where Bolden, while an NBA player, should have proven his worth by playing good minutes, instead of packing his bags when his opportunities were not to his liking.

Mills was picked young and was a success. So were Gaze, Longley and Vlahov. But there were also a lot of other promising players who couldn't cope on the international stage. From memory, players to have short international careers include Dwight, Jensen,

In other words, just cos they can get onto an NBA roster or do well in G League doesn’t make them budding superstars and ready for the Boomers

"Mathiang, Humphries and Reath"

Can you argue for these selections in more detail? For example, what do you like about Humphries? He went for 6.9 ppg and 3.6 rpg just over a year ago in the same league that you value so low. Project players in the NBA don't necessarily make for good national team players.

You are advocating a lineup of Bogut, Baynes, Mathiang, Humphries and Reath -- you seem to not value mobility nor shooting in your 4/5 rotation.

Dave and Makur Maker same IP, FWIW.

I Don't think players like Durant, Harden and LeBron would get into the boomers team because they don't know the bookmers system. What a joke lemanis is.

The idea of not picking Green due to his age is pretty silly. Look at what Nembhart has been doing for Canada,Theo Maledon just made a stacked French team. I'm sure there are many more examples those are the obvious ones. This is a team lacking youth and high end athleticism and he would be able to provide both.

I understand the philosophy behind these decisions. They are about to go through a gauntlet of teams and one slip up could cost them a medal, they are taking a conservative approach, guys that know the system that won’t make any costly mistakes but they are in danger of becoming dangerously one dimensional in their approach, if you want to win you have to take some risks and look if they chose Green or Adel or Matthiang these would be deep bench players it wouldn’t hurt them too much if it didn’t work out.

Just Another Poster.
Spot on. There is no harm picking Green and Adel as the 11th, 12th men, but they prefer to pick gliddon and Barlow. LOL.

Hoopie, how do you know they would not cope with international basketball ?
You would never find out unless you give them a chance.
I would rather give youths with good upsides a chance than preservering with mediocre players like gliddon and Barlow.

Dave and Makur Maker same IP, FWIW.

Dave, I agree with you in blooding youngsters early, and have pushed that point many times in this forum, but I reckon Green is just too 'green' for the WC (but will be ideal for the Olympics if he keeps improving). Adel would be great as a wildcard, just like Goulding, but if the comments are true then he may cause issues with team chemistry and playing in the system.

You need 8-10 guys you can rely on to play as a team when under pressure, while the others need to earn their places and the respect of their teammates; otherwise, they’ll never get the ball and the whole thing will go toxic.

Isn't Green recovering from an injury or something and wasn't really in consideration, or am I thinking about someone else?

If healthy, would have preferred him over Sobey for sure, bloody future Boomers early as deep bench players and having them able to prove themselves, getting them hungry to want to earn their Green and Gold colours instead of being entitled brats, is what the team should be built on...

I don't watch any nbl
But whatever happened to Cameron Bairstow

I'm intrigued by the Boomers wanting to play big? With most the world going to a more uptempo play. It's weird that the Boomers are still stick in the idea of 2bigs and shooters around them