What happened to the NIKE gear that the Boomers were wearing during the Pre-Olympic Matches??

Don't underestimate China

China shooting like they been on the turps all day. Australian starters doing good.

Zhou qi missing lay ups, thinks he back at SEM.

Australia by 9 at the half. Average game.

Did Case just ignore Joe Ingles for Goulding?

Yep, Inglis wiped.

Much better second half, Australia by seven after leading by sixteen. Delly and Mccaron best for Australia. Maker hasn't played much over last few seasons but looks so overrated by so many, goorg went to Froling when game got close.

A bit of an ugly and disjointed game of basketball - to be expected a) when a team is new and b) any time facing China. The Boomers did a good job eeking out a win, considering the team has no scorers. A lot of guys took a nap on this series - Chris Goulding, Nathan Sobey, Xavier Cooks, Duop Reath, JLA, Mitch Creek, DJ Vaseljivic - I am looking at you guys. The Boomers are pretty lucky we qualify in Asia and not against the Europeans or what we put together today - while being enough for the job at hand - would not have cut it. The game between Slovenia and Italy earlier today was at level that this current batch of Boomers would likely struggle to match (But then again, maybe more guys would have put their hand up if that was the obstacle).

Anyway if we look at the report card for each player, Matthew Dellavedova can take a bow. It's games like this where Delly shows his continued worth, and despite probably having an uphill battle to retain his spot, you'd have a hard time calling him in to cut him from a World Cup or Olympic team when he can get it going like he did today. Mitch McCarron is also going to get a rare piece of praise from me. He showed that when he isn't being asked to be the main ballhandler he can be an excellent second option. The guy has the ability to put the ball in the hole and the 36ers need to let him concentrate on that and bring in another combo guard or point guard to let him do that. Jack McVeigh showed the guts to make some shots, as we'd all expect.

On the other side of things, Thon Maker looking pretty rusty. It's early days in the series but he needs to show a lot more or his asking price for NBL teams is going to have to adjust. Would have got more out of Pinder on court today I am fairly confident in saying.

Moving forward, this team will only improve. They will need to find new ways of scoring but I back them to do that. I expect today's game will be as much trouble as we get into in this window of qualifications. It's a testament to the depth of Australaian basketball that we were able to go relatively deep into our reserves and field a team that lacks most of our top NBL players and still beat a team that fields 5 Olympians and is probably the second best team in Asia right now (Am I being unfair to New Zealand?) - and a team that has already won and played two games together.

Great performance by Delly. His poise, shooting, playmaking and passing won us the game.

Why why why do our bigs not have a post game for a fade-away and/or pass?
Bigs these days need to watch video of Rasheed Wallace & hakeem olajuwon. That type of post play is virtually non existent these days.

Regardless of the size miss-match, we must box out on both ends much more.

Offensive structure was way too stagnant. Very few back cuts, no motion, no high low....

Maker will do better next game, but needs to be more aggressive.
I think he'd do better with some sets being run for home specifically, if nothing else for his confidence.

The poor inside play echoes part of my concern for the Boomers A team when a world cup rolls around. If (heaven forbid) we have injuries, then some of these guys are the next batter up. China is a big team and not representative of most of what we will face at the world cup, but we need our big men to play big and at least in this particular game they failed to do that.

Agree ME.

The thing is, to a large degree, playing big these days is mainly confined to running a pick n pop, or a down screen for a back cut.
Actual low post offense, is seemingly not being taught to bigs much anymore (hope I'm wrong, but I'm not seeing much of it)
So when we face teams of legitimate size, we struggle down low as we did tonight.

If I can give China credit I'd say they're well structured, well coached, big and disruptive. Individually the talent isnt quite there but they keep coming at you. Probably a good comparison to the 1970s-80s Boomers who could annoy more talented teams but inevitably fell short. The Boomers are no longer underdogs in world basketball and as such have a big target on their backs any time they play basketball. I see these games as important. We should think ourselves the Team USA of the Asia region and teams like China shouldnt beat us. I look forward to seeing what adjustments we make over the week. Defensive is good, offense is a long way from where I'd like to see it. But we've seen this before in the early stages of Boomers preparations and invariably it corrects itself. I'd like to see the big men assert themselves more and a game against a small Japan is a great opportunity to do that.

Thinking on the game, the takeaway for me really is Delly. Not too many guys on the team likely to make the world cup or Olympics any time soon. But Delly has done enough to suggest he cant be counted out. If Delly wasn't there tonight, we would have lost. It is as simple as that. And he did it through all the classic Delly attributes of defensive intensity, leadership, running a team, and chipped in a lot of points. After a fairly poor, borderline unusable Olympics where he was out of shape, I think most of us were ready to cosign him to the Boomers scrap heap. But what he showed tonight leads me to believe there could be another go-around in the tank. Delly could be a safe pair of hands that we can plug in when maybe a Giddey or Exum is feeling overawed by a situation. If that is the only thing this series shows us in the larger scheme of things then it is a big win for the Boomers.

Any of the NBL teams that have made an offer to Maker rethinking that tonight...

China vs Chinese Taipei tomorrow... pure hatred.

Great game by Zhou Qi. Exploited our lack of size at the 5. Delly looked really good and Jack White and McVeigh played well.

Qi came good in second half, first half missed so many lay ups.

Echo a lot of what was said above. Amazes me that some genuine fringe Boomers didn't put their hands up for this series. Guys should be taking every opportunity to play your way into the team the way Kay did. This isn't even a Boomers second team and barely an NBL boomers second team.

Love Delly. Absolutely got it done for us tonight. Hopefully Thon comes back stronger for the rest of the games.

Yeah it is barely an NBL second team. I was thinking over the names that didnt put their hand up:

Mitch Norton
Luke Travers (could he not display his talent to Cleveland this way?)
Nathan Sobey
Anthony Drmic
Ryan Broekhoff
Majok Deng
Xavier Cooks
Dj Vaseljivic
JLA
Chris Goulding
Isaac Humphries (well hes apparently fit and healthy doing back flips?)
Mitch Creek
Duop Reath

There are a few of these guys who may not have been chosen but I've quite easily made a team that is better, on paper, than the one that we have out of names that didnt put their hand up. I think playing this series has already done wonders for Delly's Boomers prospects. Fringe guys like Goulding, Broekhoff, Cooks, JLA should take some pause.

Of course if there are genuine things they need to be doing then fair enough. But for Goulding, he's turned up watching the games. I am not aware of any injuries. Does he want to be a Boomer moving forward or not? I dont think NBL players have the luxury of picking and choosing their allegiance the way NBA players do. Today did prove that these wins are not guaranteed and even if we go through the qualifications undefeated there will come a time when we wont qualify because players aren't showing up for it, assuming someone else will pick up the slack for them.

thon maker 2 pts 17 mins

Yeah he wasnt very good. Either of his cousins would have brought more. But first game back in a long time.

Completely agree with your sentiment ME, just wanted to let you know that Majok Deng has just been named in the final squad for the republic of South Sudan so he won't be playing for a boomers spot anytime soon.

"Yeah it is barely an NBL second team. I was thinking over the names that didnt put their hand up:

Mitch Norton
Luke Travers (could he not display his talent to Cleveland this way?)"


Are you serious? Travers is with the Cavs preparing for summer league.

ME, appreciate the analysis. Didn't have the opportunity to watch the game, good to read about it here.

The team bevo had in Japan with a few good players and kids would beat that team last night. They were only together for a couple days before playing.

I heard a few guys pulled out due to injuries as well.

McCarron very good at 2. Not much at 1.
(Delly a class above, as mentioned)

I was at the game. First time I saw a protest during a game. Something about Hong Kong and Tibet.

Refereeing was questionable with that unsportsmanlike foul on McVeigh and a couple of missed out of bounds calls and travelling.

It was a good fightback by the Boomers in the 4th. Stuck their heads in and came through.

Lastly, the lines for food was so long. Longest I've seen at John Cain for some time.

Thon Maker looked rusty, but to his credit, he did alot of his work on the Defensive end and although his rebounding numbers weren't great he was fighting their bigs inside when he was on the court. IMO alot of his work on their bigs made it easy for the bench guys to come in and rebound and play their roles well. Was decent in transition, ran his lanes etc. But Was too passive though. Needs to be more aggressive, and maybe should look to get involved earlier in the game. Did not score until after half time, if I can remember correctly.

Sobey, DJ, Creek, Cooks, Reath would have been a very solid line up.

A lot of people online have said that these games don't matter, and why wouldn't NBL players take the tournament off? We're in a privileged situation to be able to say that. Luka Doncic and the Dragic brothers are over in Europe getting the job done against nearly A grade international teams to qualify. We are very lucky that we are leaps and bounds better than our competition or would we still be hearing these kinds of excuses? Meaningless qualifiers is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. We need to win these games. The team we've put together will do the job. But it's definitely interesting to see the disparity between our situation and Slovenia's and one must ask who will do better in the long run from having their (almost) full team playing tough, meaningful qualifiers more often. Also, just because Asia is behind now doesn't mean it will stay that way. In 5-10 years time we could be looking at a very different qualifying situation. So for right now, it doesn't matter. But I don't think we want a Boomers culture where players are seeing qualifying as a given.

Germany, France also got the nba guys playing, most euro nations have got them back.

The main positive to take from tonight's blowout is that we have some momentum and continuity to take into Sunday's game against China.
Despite the easy win, it did appear kind of scrappy and without wanting to sound critical, our offense again didn't look overly convincing.
Sure we made shots, but there was very little off the ball movement, back cuts, post action etc.

McDowell-whites shooting and penetration was impressive albeit against a permeable Japanese defense.

Of the players on this current team, who is a chance of making the WC team should a spot open up due to injury or contract obligations?
I'd say Maker, White, Delly.

It was a horrible game, Japanese third, fourth string team. They have used 25 players as they qualify by hosting and just checking who can play. Most nbl1 sides could have beat that team, there defence was woeful. I shake my head and think why when games like this are played.

It's a team that lacks scorers and thats the problem. It will probably be enough to get it done but its definitely one of the uglier Boomers teams in recent memory.

Who has a chance to make the WC? Delly's chance is improving. White has a chance but his role is very similar to Nick Kay. Maker.... errr.... if I were judging on these past two games I'd say no but I think things can change from there. If we really need a guy who can hit a spot up three Blanchfield could end up picked up as a Gliddon role. But all in all most of the guys on this team just arent that good.

Think from what goorj is saying, Delly is locked in.
Cooks/Kay over white atm
Baynes/Reath over maker atm


Too 15 atm
Giddey-Dellavedova-Exum
Mills-Goulding-Green
Ingles-Thybulle-Daniels
Simmons-Kay-Cooks
Landale-Baynes-Reath

Cotton-possibly

I agree on Baynes & Reath. But if neither are available, then it's either Maker or Humphries?

Agree with Weedy Slugs team above.

Yeah you have to wonder why Japan bothered tonight, they were disappointing at both ends from a team standpoint.
The pressed full court with less than 1 minute remaining......wouldn't have hurt to do that in the 1st quarter.

Yes, this boomers team lacks scorers, but that's where coaching, even with limited time, creates basic but effective offensive sets to run. Barely saw that tonight.
And the thing that bothers me about that is that if you can establish some structure, then you can carry that over to every lineup to some degree as Lemanis did during his tenure.

Maker and Humphries, lol, neither have played much in two seasons, yes both tall but showed very little, always seem to get great media coverage though. I'd take Brandt over both of them, even the young Maker from the kings showed more, cousin I think. What about JLA as well.

Good point I'd forgotten about Brandt and JLA

When healthy, Humphries is very good, and Thon Maker can be much better than these 2 recent games - so no need to lol at the suggestions.
Again, I'm throwing possibilities out there which will be dependent on both form and availability.
Maker has shown a willingness to play this tournament which is more than some others.

"And the thing that bothers me about that is that if you can establish some structure, then you can carry that over to every lineup to some degree as Lemanis did during his tenure."

Thats an interesting point. Goorj said himself that the 'rose gold' Boomers basically ran themselves. He turned up to camp and watched and took a lot in. So how much of the Boomers success is due to him? Thats a genuine question I dont have the answer to. But it looks to me like Lemanis fingerprints remain over the Boomers culture in ways that people dont want to admit. Goorjians role - perhaps - may have been little more than a passenger in the scheme of things. And when asked to fit out a Boomers team on his own without the Boomers leadership group there, what we're getting is discombobulated. I am not saying this is my set belief, just questions I am asking.

"Maker and Humphries, lol, neither have played much in two seasons, yes both tall but showed very little, always seem to get great media coverage though. I'd take Brandt over both of them, even the young Maker from the kings showed more, cousin I think. What about JLA as well."

Bare in mind the world cup is a year/two NBL seasons away from now. Isaac Humphries definitely showed the potential to be a good back up big man before injury and if he regains that form will be in the conversation. Its not fair to just say "both tall" as if they have shown no other attributes in their careers. Brandt doesnt have the size or versatility that either Humphries or Maker have. Not a bad option if we have nothing else but not the best either. JLA is in the conversation for a spot.

South Sudan win, they are now 4-0

Sunday Dech got fiba clearance to play for Sudan and kuol also now with them.

Junior Madut
Bul Kuol
Kuany Kuany
Mathiang Muo
Deng Acuoth
Majok Deng
Sunday Dech

7/12 playing down under


Players they could potentially add
Jackson Makoi
Lual Diing
Deng Deng
Joshua Duach
Deng Adel
Majok Majok
Jo Lual Acuil
Mangok Mathiang
Kouat Noi
Akoldah Gak
Gorjok Gak
Deng Gak
Several others..

I thought JLA and Mathiang had played for Australia before?

They can switch with approval.

"But it looks to me like Lemanis fingerprints remain over the Boomers culture in ways that people dont want to admit. Goorjians role - perhaps - may have been little more than a passenger in the scheme of things. And when asked to fit out a Boomers team on his own without the Boomers leadership group there, what we're getting is discombobulated. I am not saying this is my set belief, just questions I am asking."

Very valid question IMO.

Our offense in both Rio and 2019 WC in China was far better than what we saw in Tokyo.
Granted we meddled in Tokyo, but there were games where we looked hopelessly lost at times, and luckily managed to maneuver a win.

Our structure was very sound and highly effective in the 2019 WC and it was only when things got tight in the Spain game, that we went iso ball with Patty taking the entire offense upon himself....and it was not as effective as everything we did prior to that.
The thing about Tokyo is that the same strategy worked in the bronze medal game, but it's not a formula you'd want to rely on, which makes me wonder how we'll look at next year's WC?

Will Goorj again give the players general free reign? Given that we've never had legit one on one scorers, I don't think it's a sensible approach, and personally I'd prefer to see a 2014 Spurs or 2016 Lithuania style where we move the ball and reate openings, of course along with some pick n roll as per the Delly/Baynes approach (if we have a big who can roll and finish)

On that point, the 5 spot is still our biggest unknown at this stage (ok, back up 5, behind Jock)
Given the uncertain status of Baynes post Tokyo, who can we put in a shortlist of genuinely potential centres given that international tournament require an experienced big especially against European teams?

JLA
Thon Maker
Makur Maker
Baynes (fitness)
Humphries (fitness)
Reath

Who else?

"Our offense in both Rio and 2019 WC in China was far better than what we saw in Tokyo.
Granted we meddled in Tokyo, but there were games where we looked hopelessly lost at times, and luckily managed to maneuver a win."

The beautiful ball movement was mostly lost. Defensively we were good, offensively it was much of what we've seen in the world cup qualifiers, just with better players. And yes we medalled in Tokyo, but who were we up against?
Nigeria - crap. Italy - good. Germany - crap. Argentina - aging and 'okay'. Slovenia - injured Doncic.

Who were we up against at the world cup? Lithuania - good. France twice - very good. Spain - very good. Senegal - tough given length. Czechs - okay but scrappy. I think the World Cup was tougher competition and we were generally better but the history books wont say that.

"JLA
Thon Maker
Makur Maker
Baynes (fitness)
Humphries (fitness)
Reath"

Thats pretty much it but I dont agree with the order. I think Baynes and Humphries leapfrog the rest if theyre healthy, and Humphries at least appears to be at the minute. Before we write of Humphries, lets remember that before 2016, Bogut missed basically everything due to injury. Its not fair to assume that Humphries is done and dusted and will be an injury liability in a year's time just yet.

Baynes and Humphries are in the mould of player we really need - a genuinely big guy who can wrestle with the Valiuncunus and Bobans of the world.

Agree regarding defense, and I think we'll be ok defensively, because we have to be.

It's at the 5 against those bigs you mentioned and players like them that we will potentially struggle because we have no idea at this stage who will be available.

The list wasn't meant to be in any order and in some way, it's too early to even prioritise with the exception of Baynes - ranted relative fitness, he'd be valuable for his size alone on the boards, setting screens and passing out of the post

Lemanis copped a lot of criticism at the time, but I think many have undervalued his contribution to the Boomers, both at the time and since then.

Well I've stayed on the right side of history on that and said he deserved more praise than blame since the start

Ditto

"Who were we up against at the world cup? Lithuania - good. France twice - very good. Spain - very good. Senegal - tough given length. Czechs - okay but scrappy. I think the World Cup was tougher competition and we were generally better but the history books wont say that."

I totally agree. As much as the bronze felt satisfying and deserved, the World Cup 4th place was actually the greater achievement. It's all the more absurd that it was that result that pushed Lemanis out to attract a player that didn't even commit for Tokyo, resulting in a coach who had not nearly enough time with the group to create a system.

The downside of the Lemanis system was that it disadvantaged players who were not familiar with it (Bolden, etc) in favour of less talented or lower future potential players who knew the system well (Sobey, Gliddon, Barlow). But it also allows players like Kay who excel in that structure. This is also why these qualification tournaments and Asia Cup tournaments should be valuable and should require players to buy in for at least some Boomers campaigns.

This "I'm an NBA All-Star, roll out the red carpet for me" attitude shouldn't be rewarded. Other NBA stars like Doncic commit when they can, not just for the Olympics/WC.

We've seen how important a system and chemistry is in international ball: low talent teams like Czechia overachieve, while medaling teams typically need either very high talent or years with the same coach/system. The Boomers were a bit of an anomaly as a non-USA team with a new coach without a system and medalling. But then we needed an anomalous performance by Mills to get there.

I've always backed Lemanis, did a great job, a couple of calls and they were in gold medal games. Even at Brisbane his sides were respectable for his average line ups.

On Doncic, currently he is playing for Slovenia in the WC Qualifiers. Along with 9 players from their Tokyo team.

Aren't the Boomers putting themselves at a disadvantage when these other A teams have so much more time playing together and become battle hardened?

We don't need our A team to qualify, sure. But we need our A team to be playing together to develop chemistry and learn the new Goorjian system, which we haven't really seen yet.

It wasnt that long ago when we had our A Teams play against New Zealand in qualifiers. It just seems like as soon as the thing went through Asia we got a little more complacent with it. Id argue that qualifying through Asia has almost made it too easy for us.

It does look like there's complacency from us when you compare our preparation to the European teams.

I agree that it's potentially going to backfire on us come WC when by then, other teams will have established a deep chemistry from playing with their core group(including NBA players) through the qualifiers.

This again goes to the Lemanis point earlier.
If we had a more structured system, players who are only available for the big tournaments (for whatever reason) would at least reintegrate while maintaining a flow that got us there.
By contrast, to goback to Tokyo, there were numerous times, e.g. against Germany, where we actually looked completely lost and again had to rely on Mills late in the shotclock.
That's not going to be a reliable approach against teams that will simply double him in those scenarios.

Obviously Daniels and Giddey are with their NBA teams ATM
Is JLA playing summer league? If not, why us he not in this qualifying series?

It's understandable that anyone would want time off during the off season, but this series is being playing in Melbourne and it's not long.
Who's not injured that could've played?
Exum? Kay? Reath? Landale? Green?
Assuming all the above are in Aust at the moment.

I think there's probably a lot of reluctance to risk injury in a 'nothing’ game. I’m thinking particularly of Exum and JLA.

There may also be some contractual or insurance issues.

Glover was selected I'm told, pulled out due to knee soreness. Most players who play long season in Japan or Europe probably want rest. I’m told Moller also is injured, was good in last series under bevo who is also injured.

"I think there's probably a lot of reluctance to risk injury in a 'nothing' game. I’m thinking particularly of Exum and JLA.
There may also be some contractual or insurance issues"

Completely understandable and makes sense, but it begs the question why so many NBA dudes in Europe are repping theircountry in the qualifiers at the moment?
If anyone needs rest, it's Doncic.


"
Glover was selected I'm told, pulled out due to knee soreness."
He's be great in this series but definitely a
wise move by him to rest that knee

I think we can put the qualifiers to one side and say 'fair enough' but another issue we've had consistently over past few tournaments is lack of lead up games. It's fine if we want to sick our D team on Asia. But if we're going to do that we shouldnt be going into major tournaments with just 3 or 4 lead up games as we have before Tokyo and the last world cup. We did look very shaky through much of the Tokyo Olympics and I've seen social teams have better preparation for a season than we have.

Just as BA overreacted to the disappointment of the 4th place finish in the World Cup, I expect them to overreact with complacency from the bronze with little preparation time for the World Cup.

At this stage it's lucky that Delly is getting back into form, because imagine if Delly's international trajectory followed the trend from Tokyo. We'd have a 20 year old major tournament rookie as our only true point guard.

I think the social team analogy is fitting. The Boomers used to seem like a unit in the 90s and until very recently. They played at least yearly in a team that was mostly full strength. Now every couple of years they get the band back together for a month and then try to do one of the hardest jobs in basketball - win a medal. It may have worked once but we need to be realistic about whether it is going to happen again especially with the core aging out. I dont think we can have a team that turns up once every 2-3 years and have sustainable success.

"Now every couple of years they get the band back together for a month and then try to do one of the hardest jobs in basketball - win a medal."

The main difference between those eras, without wanting to state the obvious is that in the 90's the core was here in Aust so getting them together was relatively easy.
Today with the NBA and European based players, it's harder, but not impossible as we see with the European national teams.

This is the reason again, why I don't understand why we dont maintain a core of available Australian based players in these tournaments. It might be because of the complacency that rj mentioned. Great point.

Whether this game actually has a bearing on our place in the WC, it's an excellent opportunity to work on team structure, fortify the culture and maintain continuity with some of the core guys - if they were there (hats off to Delly for repping as hard as ever)

This is also why I asked if Maker is a chance to make the WC s ii we, because the fact he's available for these quals says to me he's willing to work for it which is admirable.

Was Creek invited to this tournament? Or is he out of favour?

"It may have worked once but we need to be realistic about whether it is going to happen again especially with the core aging out"

Exactly.

I really hope that we don't roll out a red carpet for *anyone* when we determine the final WC team and that players like White, Maker, WMW, Delly etc are given every opportunity to play their way into the side at training camp.

If the NBA guys like Doncic are playing in qualifiers, it may be because those ones actually matter.

In any event, the flying time from the US to Europe isn't nearly as much as from there or Europe to here.

It's NBA off-season now. If there was ever an NBA-friendly window, surely this is it. How many Boomers NBA players are playing in this window? None. How many from the Tokyo team? One.

The Euro qualifiers are clearly more challenging, but that challenge only highlights how much of an advantage the qualifying Euro teams will have in the 2023 World Cup. They will have all those extra games playing together, under the same system, battle hardened against quality opponents. Can the Boomers A-team not treat these games as friendlies for World Cup preparation?

The talk a few months ago was that this was going to be a homecoming to celebrate the Boomers bronze medal. Who turned up for it? Well Ingles has been in and around the place. Delly has been playing. Who else? No one. A little underwhelming on that front. They were to call it "the festival of Boom". And there was a coaching clinic, which is cool. But everything else has ended in a resounding fizzle. I find any notion of "rest" and "needing time off" to be a bit laughable for NBL players at least, who play, at most 30 games in a season and get half the year off almost. A bit of a privileged environment to be in if in your 4-5 month break you dont have 2 weeks to represent your country on home soil. I do worry a bit that the much vaunted Boomers Culture is starting to erode. I am sure everyone will put their hands up when the big games are on though but there's some groundwork that few want to do anymore


A side topic - it's interesting what is happening with South Sudan. Sunday Dech, Kouat Noi and a bunch of guys on Boomers radars at varying levels have jumped ship. This could be detrimental to the Boomers longterm as many of our best up and coming talents are from South Sudanese backgrounds.

To add to this, will our core, who have a lot of experience playing together, be the same in 2023? Baynes looks like a highly likely out at this stage. Ingles has a question mark. Delly is returning to form, but will he play such a large role? Bogut is now long gone. Then there is Mills, who we *need* to be available. It's conceivable we will have just one of the 2010s core playing. One injury away from none.

Then we are left with some of our role players: Kay, Goulding. Landale might need to take a big step up in his scoring on the national team. Some of the next generation talent with only one campaign under their belt: Thybulle, Green. Add in Exum also from Tokyo, who had a long time off the national team. And we will likely introduce two major tournament international rookies in Giddey and Daniels.

Does this really look like a team that will be able to pull it all together with maybe a couple of weeks preparation for the World Cup?

This makes me feel like we are one injury away from being in a re-building phase. If Mills isn't available, who is going to put up points for us?

Scorers: Landale, Goulding
Distributors: Giddey, (Delly)
Role players: Kay, Thybulle, Green, Exum,
Outsiders: Creek
Potential debutants: Cooks, Humphries, Daniels, Thon, JLA, Travers

Even if we add Simmons...

Show is over without Patty Mills. I think Ingles will play the WC and Olympics before calling it a day. The Boomers desperately need more scorers to come through

100% rjd which is why, given that we're clearly in a transition phase, it would be preferable to have as many potential personnel playing in this series as possible- or at least wanting to.

The only legitimate exceptions seems to be Ingles (injury)
Daniels (nba rookie)
Giddey (2nd year obligations)
Baynes (injury?)

Where's everyone else?

Ideally, you want *this* current team tonight to be a battle to get into.
We need every bit if competion we can get both to get in the team and opposition.

As ME mentioned, South Sudan looked very good in their wins, and it's only a matter of a year or 2 max when African teams become a genuine force - and they will have a very willing bunch of players to represent their respective countries.
BTW, whats the fiba deal with qualifying to play for ones country? Do you have to at least be born there citizen, or naturalized?
Weren't there some Nigerians at Tokyo who'd never been bern to Nigeria?

I know it's early, but I see Daniels as being a scorer for us going forward.

BTW, whats the fiba deal with qualifying to play for ones country? Do you have to at least be born there citizen, or naturalized?
Weren't there some Nigerians at Tokyo who'd never been bern to Nigeria?

I find any notion of "rest" and "needing time off" to be a bit laughable for NBL players at least, who play, at most 30 games in a season and get half the year off almost. A bit of a privileged environment to be in if in your 4-5 month break you dont have 2 weeks to represent your country on home soil.