Good litmus test for where the Boomers sit for sure. You'd think the rotation will be closer to what Goorj wants to start the WC with, will be interesting.

Time for payback Yabusele! ;D

Should get booed every time he touches the ball!

i wonder how many boomers fan in the crowd

Starters: Giddey, Mills, Green, Kay, Reath

Fournier is killing us.

Small ball looking very ineffective thus far

This is like watching men against boys, they're so much bigger and longer than us.

Ridiculous flop from De Colo

Fournier with 12 already half way through the 1st quarter.

Goorj could be moved to the bench for the WC

Fast ball is great but when the other side is as fast as you and taller and longer you not winning. Kay out depth in speed against these guys.

SOS Aaron Baynes

Holy crap we look like shite

Is it too late to add an emergency big man? Need more size there. Surely Humphries would be worth considering?

Giddey + Mills just doesn't work.

Goorj already said there won't be any changes to the team but I would love to see Baynes or even Humphries called in before the cut off date.

27-19 at Qtr time.

They're not adding anyone, no point pondering which people we want to add.

Our bench outplayed their bench at least. But our starters got absolutely cooked.

Why does every player look like they are being held hostage at gun point?

Exum been excellent, between euro league players and nba players this French side is excellent.
Why hasn't White played? His defence is required

Can BA or *someone* over-rule Goorj's decision?
We can all see how deficient we are in bigs.
Humpheries, Baynes, Maker.....someone

It's that deer in headlights look the Boomers used to always get when we would run into a good team at a major tournament. I'm just hoping we're still holding a lot back but can't see how we could possibly beat this French team at the WC if we run into them.

Is this another meaningless match?
This makes sense.
If you can't fix your weaknesses in a practice game, you won't win in the real thing.

Jack White is a difference maker

France look lost without Fournier tbh

White been fantastic, he should have been in the side since day one, he can defend, much better.

With Landale, no white according to goorj.

Patty you're killing us right now

I kept worrying about Patty's shot.
He hasn't made one in four games in a row.

Patty looked like he was shot lol

Cooks is a hard watch at this level. Brings almost nothing to the table...

My goodness, proctor in for mills isnt a stretch atm.

You play small you gotta hit the 3. Bottom line. Those shots drop and this game looks very different.

Proctor is 2 years away from being effective at this level but at this point who cares, he can't be worse than Patty right now

Patty's shot will come good. Maybe not today, but he'll fire up.

Our free throw shooting has been horrid.

Jack White - very solid.

Would people keep goorj for Olympics if we fail?

S5?
Giddey
Green
Thybulle
White
Reath

Reath, Cooks, not quite at this level imo, White, Exum, Giddey, been very good, balance ok, Kay not big enough but still does the small things in D, boxes out.

Proctor lol, you must be a relative.

It's not just today - Patty's shot hasn't gone in in four games - he's also a problem on defense.

I do like your starting five though weedy.

Yes, I've been talking about the need for a new lineup ever since Landale missed the World Cup due to injury.

Giddey
Green
Thybulle
White
Reath

White was the guy who was gonna be cut before Landale went down, don't think Goorj will start him.

Yes, he will continue to use Patty and Kay as starters

Have we heard any news on Green's injury yet?

Green not starting the second half, they've probably put him on ice for rest of the game

We will be down early again, start your best or you might not be the coach for long.

Reality is despite his faults Goorjian is the coach that took us to our first ever medal so no matter what happens at this WC he'll be there next year at the Olympics.

If Patty plays like this in the tournament, Goorjian can't play him the minutes he is now. Needs to earn his minutes from now on, not rely on history.

And as he should be.

Matisse is an animal defensively.

Have to worry about Goorj's judgment. Having Thybulle the 8th or 9th player in the rotation was laughable. Must be starting by the first proper game.

Thank goodness Fournier has 4 fouls. He's just too good for us.

Boomers never use to flop..

Jack White is the real deal!

Look at all the smart people who said cut Jack White lol

Where can we reliably find boxscores/stats for these games? Can't find anything at the BA or FIBA sites.

Have a look at the work White and Cooks are putting into Gobert off the ball. LOVE it.

Green in the huddle

So ya tellin us goorj is a fool?

Free throws! OMG

I've found this boxscore in Japanese.

That Fall guy is a big lump of a lad, listed as 7'2" looks taller than that.

BA had the box scores up of the Melb games on their site but probably too much for them on a Sunday.

13/21 free throws is frustrating.

I think in that 3rd quarter we've seen a bit of the idea behind small ball though. We are good enough at our best.

White, Thyabule and Exum. Defence wins games.

Thybulle!

I do like Reath's work rate for a big.

Patty forcing terrible shots.
Not the way to remedy a shooting slump.
C'mon mate.

What is Patty doing??

Also Yabusele is an absolute grub

Quite the attempted eye gouge.

Mills takes highly contested shots early in the play. Gazey - that's what you want from patty.

Patty

FG 2/13

Patty's cooked.

Please put Matisse back on to guard Fournier

DUOP!!!

is FIBA Patty no more?

Reath!

OH MY

Patty's time is over.

Did patty lose a family member or get dumped or something. Bloody hell, missing shots is one thing but the stupidity...

Patty should be fine, he's hardly been on court for the season, it takes time to find your game legs. Keep shooting.

What a way to take the lead. Incredible pass!

Giddey is just spectacular

Like I said last week Patty's 35 now and little 6'0" guys can fall off a cliff when age & mileage catches up with them. The Nets weren't playing him much last season, for a reason and he's been traded three times this off-season already.

After four warm up games it's clear Patty isn't what he once was but no doubt we'll still pick him for a send off at the Olympics next year.

Dunk it Kay lol, why would you do that...

Could someone update score as game ends pls, only have access to this thread, keen to know what happens.

God dammit

Dirty fuckin play by Gobert.

France 72-71 with 1:08 left in the 4th

So it seems like the plan is to barely use Goulding or Daniels, even with Green hurt, yet we've decided to go in without a backup centre.

It's times like these you remember that Goorj once took Luke Kendall to a WC.

Good call Gobert should be tossed for that

Never. Doubt. Patty.

Horrible decision, what is Gobert going to do there, his head was there, Gobert could do nothing.

Not the type of game we want in a friendly.

Aus 74-72 with 13.1 to go.

Dunkman, I agree - he was coming down and his arm had to come down as well. Not intentional and natural movement. Just very unfortunate.

I liked the view of Kay with his head wrapped up, commentators talking about delayed concussion, and Caporn or whoever is trying to show him a whiteboard play.

Agree twenty four.
Our shooting has been off, and our specialist shooter sits all game.....

Big plays from Giddey and Mills

Gobert could do nothing.

Thanks Zodiac.

Fournier missed a wide open 3 with 9 seconds left. Patty Mills now shooting free throws.

76-72. Time out. 7.7 seconds to play.

Boomers defend the French possession with Ingles, Kay, Thybulle, Exum, Giddey. French score.

76-74. 4.9 seconds.

Very good practice game, both sides would be happy, australia more I'd say, France let it slip a bit. No one is beating Australia in our group.

Boomers win 78-74

Contract extension for Goorj!

Onya Boomers

We outscored France 47-35 in the second half.

All that with a couple of NBA players warming our bench. Good mental win even though it was a friendly. Just gives them a bit more confidence.

Hopefully Kay is okay with no concussion, and Green is okay.

Both teams playing at 80%. Will go up a gear at the WC.

Wow did we just beat France who have a BIG centre in Gobert and we don't! Well bugger me.

To be fair Gobert's nothing much to worry about inside.

Very encouraging game. When you consider how poorly we started to pull of the win is a very good sign, and we didn't look completely outmatched or outplayed inside. Obviously the situation may look different in the actual game but you cant fault the way these guys turned it around. This game gives me a lot of optimism moving forward.

We'll just have to wait for official news on Green's injury.
I'm glad he looks fine live, but I'm nervous that the player might feel differently.

Patty shoots normally and that is a blowout

Thybulle with 6 steals and a block

Watching from a ship somewhere off Vietnam. First practice game I have been able to watch.

Was great to watch some Boomers ball. Hopefully I get to see all the games as I head to China in a few days.

Defensive adjustments after the first quarter kept us in the game despite shooting at a poor clip.

Hopefully Green is good to go and our shooting woes disappear for the real games.

Kay 12p, 5r, 4-6 fg

Giddey 12p, 6r, 5a, 3s, 4-14 fg (0-3 3p)

Exum 11p, 3s, 4-7 fg (1-1 3p)

Mills 11p, 2a, 3-16 fg (1-9 3p)

Reath 11p, 5r, 4a, 3-8 fg (1-4 3p)

Is was more laughing at the continual "BIG CENTRE" rhetoric that keeps getting shoved down people's throats.

Patty vs Venezuela
fg 3-9 / 2p 2-3 / 3p 1-6

Patty vs Brazil
fg 2-13 / 2p 0-1 / 3p 2-12

Patty vs South Sudan
fg 4-13 / 2p 2-6 / 3p 2-7

Patty vs France
fg 3-16 / 2p 2-7 / 3p 1-9

His shooting is a must. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for FIBA Patty's return.

I'm sure people would want to add another big when Embiid and wenbanyama join.

Olgun reports that the Green injury is minor ankle, should be fine. Still... can we stop with the injuries please?

Not enough love for White, he major contributor in turning the game.

Agree Dunkman. White was very good.

I agree. White has been consistently good so far.

Exum, White, Thybulle, Kay and Reath have been solid throughout the friendlies. A few years ago I don't think I would have pictured myself saying that. Giddey is the glue guy and is going to be one of our most valuable.

I think Green is going to be an X factor who will unleash at some stage. He could be one of our greatest prospects.

Patty will come good. It’s a certainty. Don’t ever doubt him. Ingles will come good too and be a good leader. Yet to see his best.

Would’ve liked to have seen Goulding get a run. Dyson is a big part of the future of the boomers so I think it’s good to have him there. it’s a luxury to have someone so solid at the end of our bench who can play a number of roles. Cooks has the deer in the headlights look at times. The experience will be great for him and hopefully he can play like he’s supposed to be there and with the confidence of an NBA player.

In short, our side is in about 2nd gear. We are stacked and should be feared. We need to play like it and understand this is not Spain, Argentina or France’s turf anymore. The tides have changed.

Should be fun.

Until victor and Embiid show up!

Good review pattymilsMVP.

Embiid hasn't decided between France, USA, or Cameroon. (Cameroon is unlikely)

Clearly the gold favourite after winning a practice match by 4 points

You're watching a match between Brazil and Italy.
Brazil is underrated by a lot of people.
They don't have a star player, but they have a solid team and a good balance of players.

I'm watching Brazil vs Italy and at the same time I'm watching Latvia vs Puerto Rico.

Latvia doesn't have Porzingis, but they're playing well in their own way. However, it is unlikely that they will beat Canada and France.

I forgot this game was on and just read this thread from start to finish without knowing the scores. Hilarious! At one stage I thought we must have been down 30 such was the depression. Turns out we won!

I've erased the first quarter from my memory. Okay, our tip off is the second quarter.

I want to watch the match between Germany and USA, but it starts too late. Watching them play will really help us.

To be fair they looked like they were going to be blown out until Fournier got himself into foul trouble and gave Boomers a chance to get some momentum.

I gather France was missing a player or two out there?

For Boomers there are definitely things to tweak and fix.

I think Giddey holds onto the ball for too long, this isn't the NBA with infinite space and very little defensive attention. There needs to be constant movement of the ball to help find space.

Cooks looks like chaos on offence, better with hustle plays.

White looks competitive in defence - that’s very important, if he keeps that up he’s our player if he tournament.

Thybulle is X Factor.

Exum looks good and aggressive.

Mills is as cold as ice. Could it be his legs are slowed which affects his shot?

Ingles continues to be a great agitator.

Team wise: Too much dribbling into traffic, stopping and throwing a risky pass out. It’s awkward and prone to turnovers. Also need to do better with defensive rebounds, it’s just too punishing to play so much switching defence onto have to do it all over again when you miss the rebound.

Agreed on that Giddey comment. He tends to hold onto it drive into traffic on baseline and then kick back out in risky play. By that point the defence is typically set. Used to be more free flowing when Patty was running the point. Just some tweaks to iron out.

Chances that Duop will be in the NBA by next year?

I've been a bit hesitant to rag on Chris Goulding but it bears mentioning now - what is he doing there? If we can't trust to put him on in a practice match, in a game when we cannot hit three pointers, why is he even on the team? I am a Goulding fan as a player as far as the NBL goes. I think his contribution to the Boomers should be respected. But he was suited up for the game, we couldn't hit the side of a barn, and yet they didn't play him. If you can't trust to play him now, when can you?

I like the idea of having a perceived sharp shooter off the bench, but as far as I can tell it's just an idea. When push comes to shove, it's a button that will never be pressed. Maybe we can let Chris go, and send in someone like Keanu Pinder who has some of those physical attributes that the team could use some more of, rather than a non-shooting unplayable shooter?

We still have three days before a team has to be announced. I have Goorjian looks long and hard at the situation and considers that option. If Keanu has got the plays down by the time you reach the second round, you have an important piece that can give Duop Reath a bit of help.

Outside of that, it's a very encouraging win. There will be more to refine but it seems like we can battle it out inside. That doesn't mean the interior isn';t a concern - there's work to do. But we were able to repair some damage there. Jack White is going to be very important to this team.

As for Patty Mills, I am startng to get a bit worried. It's a 4 game shooting slump now. I've never seen anything like it from here before. We all like to think FIBA Patty will turnn up, but what if he doesn't? What if he's just a bit cooked at this level now? It's lucky that we shouldn't need to entirely rely on him for offensive production but I think we need something comsistent from him to go deep into the tournament - even if it's just 12-15 ppg at a decent clip.

I think it bares mentioning that France was undefeated in their warm ups until today, so while yes, it is "just a warm up", the context is important.

August 16, 2023.
In his postgame press conference, Brian Goorjian mentioned Jock Landale, Josh Green, and Chris Goulding as players who are in "our 8... in the rotation", going into the World Cup. A reminder for those at home gauging the locks to make the final 12-man team.

"our 8... in the rotation"

Goulding did play, albeit very briefly, which is the concerning thing.

Again Patty is old now and doesn't play much in the NBA anymore. He's always needed a big leap on his jump shots and once the legs start to go the shot goes off-kilter. We saw that with Brett Maher in his last year or two his jump shot went out the window due to hamstring and calf issues affecting his leap.

I would prefer to see Patty play more as a facilitator now, his shot isn't there anymore and he's forcing it too much to try and get it back. Hopefully Goorj has a quiet word to him.

ME, I think Goulding's DNP was more a reflection of the coach, than of Goulding's ability to score at this level.

Regarding Mills, the slump is concerning, but what worries me just as much is his insistence on repeatedly jacking up contested rubbish when his shot wasnt dropping instead of working for a good look or making the extra pass.
It wreaks of lack of lack of discipline.
That's not the way to get out of a funk, and woukd not be tollerated in any other context.
It was the perfect time to bring on CG.

Agree regarding White - great D and hussle.

Reath is invaluable.

I agree with Ket regarding Giddey: over dribbles in this format.

I dud like the look of early shuffle/motiin offense despite the shots not dropping, its a nice improvement to an otherwise at times stagnant offense.

Thybulles' defense and energy is magnificent, as is Exums'.

If Green's injury is nothing major, then his addition will give us a big lift overall.

bogut wrote:

Catching up on the @BasketballAus Boomers v France game:

After a horrid start, mainly defensively, the Boomers steadied and turned on their Defense.

Matisse is a game changer at that end.

Really good sign to see the Boomers win with Patty ice cold.

Scoring could still be a concern if Patty continues to shoot this way.

Goulding will play an important role in a game or two this tournament off the bench.

Giddeys Bball IQ is upper echelon.

Cooks at the 5 is an insanely mobile defensive group.
Id assume we will see this group pickup teams further up the court once the real games start.

Considering even the Boomers will tell you they weren't their best today, to still beat a potential top 4 team is a good sign.

Finally, the Boomers need to get healthy.

I just checked that box score it was Daniels that played very briefly not Goulding. I saw Goulding out on the floor at one point in uniform with his warm ups off high fiving guys out on the court when a time out was called and assumed he was already on the floor but he didn't play.

Do you think Patty is better coming off the bench?

My heart is telling me that I want FIBA Patty back, but my head is telling me that he's not coming back.

Does anyone know where or how to watch the replay of the game? Cheers.

NineNow

Boomers D is what will take them deep.

Who could Goulding have guarded? If you wanted to replace Patty with Goulding, wouldn't you have sacrificed some defense? At this level, Goulding would give away more than he could score.

Of course FIBA Patty is coming back. He's just turned 35 which is 25 in FIBA years. He’s not going to fall off a cliff. Only two years ago he led the whole Olympics in scoring. He’s just finding his role in this Giddey led system and shaking off the rust. His usage will be down but only because our list is ridiculously talented and there’s a couple of top 50 3pt% in the world in his company and one of the best passers in the league. There’s less need for him to drop 20 pts particularly in friendlies. But let it be known this dude should never been doubted.

>>Who could Goulding have guarded? If you wanted to replace Patty with Goulding, wouldn't you have sacrificed some defense? At this level, Goulding would give away more than he could score.<<

If it was anyone else, I'd agree, but I think Mills is the only person who Goulding could replace without sacrificing the defense.
Mills offers little defensively.
Goulding is slower, but he's 7cm taller and has improved his D in recent years.

Goulding has played a fair bit of high level basketball now. He's not the defensive liability he once was. Knows his way around a team system very well.

^agree

I don't know where you get "35 is the new 25 in FIBA" from. There are a range of guys playing onto about 40 in FIBA basketball but there are certainly guys that fall off before then. I don't want to believe that is Patty but the team needs to definitely prepare for a scenario where he continues on this slump because he very well could.

FIBA Fournier - elite scorer/ foul prone

Many of the greats in international ball have continued to play on post NBA careers and have great impact. Patty is one of the greatest international basketballers of all time - FIBA and Olympics.

He'll be right. It’s 4 exhibition games in restricted minutes in new rotations, trialling new systems and new plays.

Funny to see that "duop reath dunk on rudy gobert" is trending on google. Nice.

Updated rotation

Giddey/Exum
Patty/Exum/Goulding
Green/Ingles
Kay/Thybulle/white
Duop/Kay

Thybulle plays starter minutes

Daniels and Cooks squeezed out of main rotation, but Cooks might get some spot minutes if the bigs rack up fouls.

Minutes leaders ?

In this order

Giddey
Kay
Thybulle
Mills
Duop
Green
Ingles
Exum
White
Goulding
Cooks
Daniels

Mathias Lessort will join the France national team on August 22. They've added a player in the Big.
This is absolutely bad news for the Boomers.

Cooks will not be getting spot minutes, he will be our best big off the bench. Jack White will just get spot minutes, he was meant to be cut.

Regardless of how good he was today, he's still below Cooks in the pecking order

Duop's dunk on Gobert prolly gets him an NBA contract

Duop has an interesting skill set and it’s finally come to me who he reminds me of...

Dave Andersen!

Boomers have today slipped back in the odds. Market must not have liked what they saw today.

The game changed second half when Thybulle started and they pressed full court defensively, generated offence out of the defence, this is the key moving forward with this flawed roster...

Reath looked good in summer league too, he looked comfortable, patient and in control could definitely see him getting a nba gig.

I forgot this game was on and just read this thread from start to finish without knowing the scores. Hilarious! At one stage I thought we must have been down 30 such was the depression. Turns out we won!

Again somehow the Boomers win while struggling at the offensive end with terrible 3-point shooting. There are several players who need to find some of their usual shooting form.

"Do you think Patty is better coming off the bench?"

Mills is looking a lot like Tokyo Delly at this stage: struggling and, in this form, should have minutes cut. Mills has lots of experience coming off the bench, so it's not like it's an unfamiliar role for him. If Green is as advertised, there's some scoring punch there, and it seems he might work better with Giddey anyway. Unless Mills returns to FIBA Patty form, scoring will continue to be a big concern.

Patty Mills

4 Game Average - 26.8 MIN / 10.2PTS (FG 23.5% , 2PTS 35.2% , 3PTS 17.6% , FT 78.5%) / 3AST / 1.5REB / 0.5STL / 0.25BLK / 1.5TOV / 2.5PF

FGM 3/12.75 , 2PM 1.5/4.25 , 3PM 1.5/8.5 , FTM 2.75/3.5

(I wrote this in a hurry, so the record may not be accurate).

There's only one reason Patty is the current starter: he's been the best player.
If these records were written for Green, Exum, or Goulding, they would have been cut from the roster.
We also have to consider that Patty is the worst defender on the team.
It's okay for him to be in the closing lineup, but as a starter, he makes it difficult for us.

Are we playing another warm-up game before the world cup? I've heard we're playing Georgia but not 100% sure.

If so - where to watch?

I am scared of Germany now. They gave USA all they could handle in this game. Teams weren't playing at 80 percent either. This thing looked like a medal game, and it scares me that it very well could be...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeCtSV5UBG0


"Are we playing another warm-up game before the world cup? I've heard we're playing Georgia but not 100% sure.
"

Yes, Georgia. But not televised.


"There's only one reason Patty is the current starter: he's been the best player.
If these records were written for Green, Exum, or Goulding, they would have been cut from the roster.
We also have to consider that Patty is the worst defender on the team.
It's okay for him to be in the closing lineup, but as a starter, he makes it difficult for us."

I am not sure that Patty is the worst defender in the team, he gets his share of steals and deflections and can be quite an irritant still. I don't think anyone would debate that his shooting so far has been atrocious and we're winning despite him instead of because of him. But when you talk about who should be a starter or not, I think that's built on an outdated view that starters should be your best 5, and your bench should be, for lack of better word, your worst. If Patty merely shoots "okay" at the cup it will be a huge boost to the team and justify his starting spot. His ability to create his own shot is still unique to this team and he will draw defences to him even if he goes 0 for 50. I think some of his struggles could be trying to find his new role, and probably between the ears, a bit of aging. But I also think it's quite possible we don't see FIBA patty again and if this form continues he may be playing his last major tournament right now. Crazy thought I know.

Yeah Germany look tough.

I think our team is fairly solid on paper but lacking cohesion like they normally would. We still haven't got the structure worked out and it’s getting late.

If we lose to Germany then we likely have Slovenia second round. Not a bad case. But it’s the following round that is the risk. As we currently stand we would very likely lose to Canada or USA. We would somewhat likely lose to France and I think we are fairly even matched for Germany. As we currently stand. We are lacking identity and cohesion and still haven’t worked it out. If we can work it out then we can get to third and even possibly second favourites but we are probably more fourth in our current state which burdens risk in third round.

Tom Hersz

Some Boomers updates via a @BasketballAus spokesperson following yesterday's game vs France:

- Josh Green has a minor left ankle sprain.
He will be available for the opening game on Friday vs Finland.
- Nick Kay had his cut opened up and had it re-stitched postgame. No concussion concern. Good to go.
- Chris Goulding held out as a precaution. May play tomorrow vs Georgia but is available vs Finland.

The offensive identity in Tokyo still had a Lemanis feel about it. It looks different so far this year, not the same ball movement.

[But when you talk about who should be a starter or not, I think that's built on an outdated view that starters should be your best 5, and your bench should be, for lack of better word, your worst.]

----------------------------------

I don't mind Patty as a starter if he returns to being at least a 40% FG shooter. However, if that doesn't happen, I'm of the opinion that we should try to find an answer in the lineup.


This is a comment I left a few days ago.


Giddey / Exum / Daniels
Green / Mills / Goulding
Thybulle / Ingles
White / Kay
Reath / Cooks

I chose this lineup based solely on balance and synergy, ignoring all of the players' contributions and accomplishments to the Boomers.

Bogut said that Giddey and Mills shouldn't play together, and I agree. (Sure, they can play together in the fourth quarter.)

Giddey lineup
Giddey has a lot of ball possession, so we set him up with players who are athletic, off-the-ball movement and can catch and shoot.

Mills lineup
Exum doesn't have long possessions and can play defense. Ingles, Kay, and Cooks can all make good passes to Mills. This lineup also compensates for Cooks poor shooting ability.

We lost by more than 10 points in the first quarter alone against Brazil and France. We're playing Germany and Finland in the first round, and the same thing could happen. This is a gap that can be closed if we change the lineup or if Patty's shots go in.

"
If we lose to Germany then we likely have Slovenia second round. Not a bad case.v"

No you misunderstand - we will get Slovenia anyway. The top 2 teams of each pool play against both the top 2 teams of the opposing pool with the 2 best performing teams of that situation moving forward. So we would play Slovenia and whoever comes second and would be hoping other results fall our way to make the quarterfinals.

" If we can work it out then we can get to third and even possibly second favourites but we are probably more fourth in our current state which burdens risk in third round."

The problem with this assessment is we don't actually know where the Boomers are in their trajectory. Only the team knows. I've been watching warm up games since forever and have been paying close attention since at least the pre-Olympics of 2016. The Boomers have always looked a mess in warm ups. In every campaign I've always thought.... gee... this could be a bit ugly for us. And we've consistently been a top 4 team ever since. The question is what are we trying to get out of these games and how are we approaching them? France was our first game against a legitimate team and I'd say we largely passed the test. I think what makes Australia exciting is we have a lot we don't know yet, we have a lot of room to get better. If Patty Mills does start hitting shots the whole complexion of this team changes.

USA v Germany was a cracking game, Germany had them for a while until the three point shooting and USA ability to defend the basket shon through.
I think Australia will still have too much pace for Germany on the counter attack though. Who is the match up in the next round if you win ? If Slovenia is who you play running second it might be better.

"If Slovenia is who you play running second it might be better."

I answered that. Maybe you didnt see. We will play the top 2 teams of Slovenias pool and the results of our first and second rounds are collated and the top 2 teams of the four that have been combined will move onto the quarter finals.

Germany finished 3rd in Eurobasket and they've got the same team at the World Cup, they should be one of the favourites

Shows the difference between World Cup and Olympics- 32 teams instead of 12. We'll be facing:

- An absolute top-tier Euro team who finished 3rd in Eurobasket (Germany)

- Another top-tier Euro team with maybe the best FIBA player in the world, and top 10 NBA player (Slovenia, Doncic)

- A good Euro team (7th in Eurobasket) with an absolute FIBA gun and NBA all star (Finland, Markannen)

We'll have to finish higher than two of those teams, just to make the quarters.

It's a tough ask, but I think the Boomers are up to it. Promising signs yesterday.

There are 32 teams, and honestly, compared to groups A-D, groups E-H have a lot of strong teams.

Yep! A poorly-done draw.

Swap us with Italy and we're playing Angola, Dominican Rep & the Philippines. Swap us with Serbia and we're playing Puerto Rico, Southern Sudan & China. Swap us with Lithuania and we're playing Mexico, Montenegro & Egypt. Swap us with Slovenia and we're playing Cape Verde, Georgia and Venezuela.

That's the thing with the WC, 32 teams means a lot more weak and medium-level teams in it.

There are some other shocking draws though. France, Canada and the USA will be in the same second round group, and only 2 of them will go through.

So that knocks off one of the top 3 favorites.

@Perthworld

The hot/cold hysteria is real. I could only follow and understand proceedings yesterday through this thread alone. Apparently we were so awful in the first quarter that multiple people were calling for Issac Humphries to be called in to the squad - lol.

Ok hopefully I've made sense of it.

If we make it through top of second round we could likely play France in the qtrs. If we beat France we likely play Serbia.

If we make it through second in second round we likely play Canada. If we beat Canada we likely play USA.

Is that right?

I understand the hysteria to be honest, even though we beat France it was ugly. The amount of offensive rebounds France were getting was painful to watch.

If you understand the hysteria during a practice match, it probably suggests you are one of the hysterical ;-)

Australia had 20 offensive rebounds (more than our 19 defensive) and France had 11 offensive?

1st place in round 2

Quarter Finals
Aus vs Spain or Canada or France

Semi Finals
Aus vs Serbia or Dominican-Republic or Italy or Lithuania

Finals
Aus vs USA or Canada or France

------------------------------------

2nd place in round 2

Quarter Finals
Aus vs Spain or Canada or France

Semi Finals
Aus vs USA

Finals
Aus vs Spain or Canada or France

Whilst it was a practice match, being unable to grab a rebound doesnt strike me as 'Its ok its just practice". Also that game felt much more high intensity than our previous games... And whilst I dont think we should change the line-up or anything like that I do think its going to hurt us not being able to rebound.

"MaxM
Within the hour

Australia had 20 offensive rebounds (more than our 19 defensive) and France had 11 offensive?"

Where did you find the stats? I was looking last night, felt like they were having so many second chance shots compared to us? Happy to be wrong if you have the actual numbers.

John Casey posted the Australian box score on his twitter, and someone earlier (Zodiac I believe) posted a link to a Japanese box score earlier with both teams. It was a while back in the thread but I will try find it.

Fairly sure they were accurate stats.

I more noticed how many second chances Cooks and White got us compared to France's. Cooks especially has 6 offensive rebounds out of his 7 total.

Yeah just found the Japanese one and can translate it, my eyes must need checking obviously as I felt like there was so many second chances by France.

Again, happy to be wrong... and yeah surely it would be accurate.

It's a very fair concern and good point though, how our rebounding will hold up. Especially against big teams like Germany.

"Giddey / Exum / Daniels
Green / Mills / Goulding
Thybulle / Ingles
White / Kay
Reath / Cooks"

Interesting idea, although it's possible for the 2nd unit to be the 1st unit. Shows the depth of this team. The Mills unit has lots of experience, including playing together (except Cooks), some traditionally strong perimeter shooters, bbIQ. The Giddey unit is strong defensively, has our current best form perimeter shooters, although not confident in maintaining this.

I'd consider swapping White for Reath, putting Cooks and White together (really surprised this looked good to me in the warm-ups), to form a fully switchable lineup. Then the Giddey lineup is a modern switchable lineup full of young and long players who can cause havoc defensively, and the Mills lineup is more traditional. Two very different looks.

France 2PTS 61.5%

Boomers 2PTS 47.6%

The stats show that Boomers grabbed more offensive rebounds than France.
However, when watching the game live with our eyes, it feels like France grabbed more rebounds.
That's because France had a higher 2-point percentage.

Our defensive rebounding is what's critical though right?

That’s where we can avoid running ourselves ragged if our strategy is to switch and double

I think this is a good time to take a step back and consider where we are at as a basketball nation. We're at a point where beating a silver medallist in a warm up - a previously undefeated silver medalist in this campaign - gives us cause for concern. I think if we're looking at a game like that and we're finding a lot of criticism, we're in a healthy place and the team is pretty legitimate.

As for rebounds, I think while watching a game we can be a bit emotional about we;re seeing. It 'feels' like we're missing a lot of rebounds. The stats say otherwise. I think after the first quarter we actually had a rebounding edge.

Australia's offensive rebounding percentage was 41%. France's was 37%. Both high.

@Perthworld

The hot/cold hysteria is real. I could only follow and understand proceedings yesterday through this thread alone. Apparently we were so awful in the first quarter that multiple people were calling for Issac Humphries to be called in to the squad - lol.

PW, agree we shouldn't lose sight of warm up games being exactly that. A chance to experiment and not show your hand.

I think we have matured a lot as a basketball nation and now realise this as I remember us playing one of the teams who were in our group in a warm up game about 10 years ago. They were experimenting and we played main rotation long minutes using all of actual plays which was very naive. We won the practice game which everyone thought was great, but got thrashed in the tournament.

I was hoping we learnt from that, which we did as it hasn't happened since. In particular offence looks disjointed in practice games but has clicked as soon as tournament starts. They then keep as many plays up their sleeve as possible for the later games.

Goorj himself said the offence will come. I assume practice looks much more coherent than what we have seen so far, which I expect is by design.

This to me shows we have matured and I will hold my judgements until the real games begin

I remember us playing one of the teams who were in our group in a warm up game about 10 years ago. They were experimenting and we played main rotation long minutes using all of actual plays which was very naive. We won the practice game which everyone thought was great, but got thrashed in the tournament.

I am glad Peter is saying what I have been saying for a while now. There are a lot of basketball heads that don't understand why you wou;dn't try to win every single game, practice or not. Firstly, it can be a matter of priorities and trying things out, and secondly, a bit of gamesmanship. I've been around long enough to know the difference between how our team looks in warm ups and how they look in the real thing, and I am comfortable enough with what I've seen to say we've seen nothing out of step with expectations. The Boomers hve developed a level of sophistication that they did not have before Lemanis in the early 00s. I believe that really came with the tanking against Angola if I am being honest. Cry about it. Call it "UnAustralian" and beneath the spirit of the game. What we did (and having watched live, very sure we did do this) is no different to what every European team had done before us. We just shook up the status quo a little by trying it ourselves. That for me was a moment of maturity, if you like, for the program. Playing the tournament and not 'just' the team in front of you. Sadly we ended up losing the crossover against Turkey by a couple of points but we put ourselves in a position to progress in the tournament regardless. That's how I think of the smoke and mirrors of our current warm up games. Even in 2000 Gaze was talking about how he beat (I believe it was Italy?) by something like 30 points in a warm up, and then Italy came back and smashed them in the real thing. We have a consistent history of that, and I am glad its over. The fans that go "blah blah blah should win every game" obviously haven't watched long enough.

"I was hoping we learnt from that, which we did as it hasn't happened since. In particular offence looks disjointed in practice games but has clicked as soon as tournament starts. They then keep as many plays up their sleeve as possible for the later games."

Yes, Australia in 2016 were planning to keep plays in the back pocket against USA in their pool game as they thought they may see them again. Turns out the Boomers ended up doing so well in that game that they used some of them because they realized they were a real shot of winning. It's good to know we have levels and layers we can go to in our program. This is why we've been consistent over the past decade.

What's the irrationality though?

We know that Australia don’t have size and three point shooting, in a competition that’s harder than the Olympics stacked with squads that are bigger and have better three point shooting.

We know that France sent a undermanned side compared to what they will have and had their best producer in foul trouble most of the game.

We know that Australia has to deal with the likes of Lauri, Germany, Canada etc and that’s a different ball game to level of South Sudan, Venezuela and Brazil.

The feedback is logical - they’re going to have to find ways to not get exploited down low and avoid that collapsing their perimeter defence, whilst finding enough rebounding to avoid having to spend too much time defending because we know their current defensive strategy is inherently tiring. That will give a fatigue factor as they progress.

They’ll also need to find ways to create space and knock down jumpshots - they don’t really have an inside or outside presence.

They kinda give off 36ers pre-season vibes if I’m being totally honest. There’s nothing there that makes me *confident* and *trusting*. Usually Mills and Ingles would help with giving us confidence.

Would absolutely love love love to be wrong. First step is just getting that win over Finland - it’s such a critical game to start.

Way I see it is those concerns come into play in the following games - Aus v Germany - Aus in their quarterfinal match up. That is where these size discrepencies will be of a concern. So how tiring a play style may be may not have this longterm effect on the team. If you cant play Slovenia or Finland pretty honest you probably have no right talking about medals.

The shooting will improve. We're scoring at a good amount. We've got enough young bodies to rotate if we should try that route. To say they dont have an inside or outside presence would be to pretend we havent got guys who can go to the ring or guys that can shoot. We DO have both. They've not quite turned up yet but we do have both. Once again, there are things we're not seeing, and we'll see those things against Finland.

We don't have an inside presence and we don’t have enough shooters

The key is generating offence thru defence, scoring off turnovers and fast breaks, turning the game into a track meet...

How many shooters does a team need before they 'have enough shooting'?

Ingles, Mills, Goulding, Green, Exum, Kay, Reath, White, even Thybulle.

All shoot at good percentages in their respective leagues. A few of them are flat out elite. We have plenty of shooting. It's really only Giddey, Daniels and Cooks who aren't at least solid.

" The key is generating offence thru defence, scoring off turnovers and fast breaks, turning the game into a track meet..."

Agreed - but tougher to do in grit and grind FIBA ball than NBA

“How many shooters does a team need before they 'have enough shooting'?

I don't think anyone outside of Ingles, Mills and Goulding are “shooters”. Green maybeeeee.

The threshold here for international purposes is who are absolute snipers that can change the game on their shot.

Not who can shoot at a decent click if open.

Most euros can shoot at a decent click anyway. The medal teams tend to have guys that are such sharp shooters that you have to stretch your defence to prevent them having space AND they can still fill it up to crack the grit and grind.

That’s what International Patty does, that’s what the French have, that’s what the Spanish have. It’s not what Exum, Thybulle do.

KET nicely prosecuting the pessimistic Argument

This could go in many directions. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Must defeat Finland. Otherwise we're playing the 3rd place from Eurobasket to stay in the tournament.

That's it. That's the only focus right now. Stopping Markannen and beating Finland.

Main* focus. Not only.

Well we don't need to stop him just shut down his teammates. We ended up doing that against France let Fournier go and shut down the rest.

Who do you think goes to Markannen?

He's a 7 footer so Reath would match him in size, but I would think a Xavier Cooks or Jack White assignment would be more effective due to the extra foot speed.

Maybe Thybulle even gets him time on him to try disrupt him off the dribble.

If Australia go with the same starting five as they have with Kay and Reath, which one of those will start on him?

"I recall this happening but can't for the life of me remember who the opponent was."

I can't remember either, but thought it was Lemanis' first tournament? Just had a look at old WC results, was it Slovenia or Angola in 2014?

No, because we didn't play either of those countries in any of the warmups beforehand.

I went all the way back to mid-2009 and came up empty.

Just to clarify: I went through all of the results yesterday to that point in time and couldn't find an instance where we thrashed a country before a major tournament only to be trounced by them when it mattered.

I can remember it happening though so perhaps my source is missing some games?

From the same post:

"What's the irrationality though?"

"They kinda give off 36ers pre-season vibes if I'm being totally honest."

You have made my day!

I know thr opposite has happened, Lithuania in 20q6 is one example.

We are a different team now

Half court offence is all about Giddey now...

This is now Giddey's team !