Certainly a winnable game, but we'll need to play our best on both ends. Have to limit our turnovers, attack the Canadian bigs, and hope we can contain SGA.

Looking forward to Daniels v SGA!!!

I hope Daniels gets lots of help from his teammates, because there are going to be a lot of picks set for SGA.

Dante Exum is a chance to play after progressing "better than expected" according to Goorj. Participated in a contact practice today and will do so again tomorrow.

"Shot the ball, bounced it, no problems."

Will "definitely" be playing against Greece and "possibly" this game against Canada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inQJFCxrFQ4

Some fantastic insight from Goorj on our improved defence, and also a bit of why Duop isn't playing much.

Well I'm definitely having a bit on Aus to win by less 10 ($4)

Hopefully it wasn't the case on Saturday of a weak Spain making us look good.

Spain are certainly on the decline. No great playmakers in the current side. We weren't exposed to having Kay left on an island trying to defend a guard after a switch and Giddey wasn't really exploited either.

Whether that was due to Spain's inability to create those situations or our defense solving the issue remains to be seen.

Hopefully it was the latter because SGA and his midrange game could be a huge problem. We will find out a lot more tomorrow.

Dante Exum is almost certain to return against Canada, per Kane Pittman and Olgun Uluc

"We weren't exposed to having Kay left on an island trying to defend a guard after a switch"

And if the defensive schemes are well-organised that should rarely happen. They weren't at the start of Q4 v Germany last year and this myth that Kay can't defend exploded, where in reality he is one of the most important players in our defensive system.

I cant help but think this game is going to be a wake up game and that the Spain win was purely us beating a team on the decline. I really hope I'm wrong, I just think Canada are going to be too tough for us to contain.

If Patty can fire, Landale continues his good form and we limit turnovers we can keep it close.

The real question is will Patty Mills refuse to play if Joe Ingles doesn't get more minutes?

Why would Patty refuse to play??

See ME's post Re: Darren Lucas in Spain thread.

It tells you enough.

Lobby - it also tells you its a hypothetical and do you really believe it yourself? Pretty sure a medal for the country ranks higher than your friend getting minutes on the court.

@Big Fudge

Where there is smoke there is fire.

And yet I see no smoke, do you?

Interesting rumour. However, it was Ingles who steadied Australia in the second China game in the third term and I think I recall selectors saying that it was Ingles performance in that game that changed their thinking. We are never likely to know for sure but we do know which one came from the selectors.

Canada are 6.5 point favourites atm.

I agree that Spain were ordinary so it would be fool's gold to place too much weight on that win, but we're capable of better as well.
McVeigh & Magnay in particular will be better for having game 1 out of their system.
Plus we haven't yet given our opponents even a glimpse of our secret weapon off the bench :p

@Big Fudge - I see plenty of smoke.

That Mills influenced Ingles selection rumour must be true.

That venerable source of all things basketball Clintdog agrees that it's true.

Very very strong rumour about that Matisse was selected over Ingles. Patty cracked it and the powers that be appeased Patty with the selections. Remember how much rope Cambage was given , the same is being extended to Patty.

I actually dont care if the rumour is true or not, its time to move past the Thybulle/Duop shit. Thybulle cant shoot the three and therefore is a liability, and Duop cant defend to the degree needed so can only be used sparingly. Done.

I'll back that up with Patty apparently leaked his final 12 to the media as well to put more pressure on the situation. Patty runs the show, he doesn't like you , you don't stand a chance of being selected.

Mr Culture has turned toxic it seems

@me i dont see it as an Thybulle / Duop issue its a culture issue within BA. Bow down to LJ and pay her a million a year to play in the WNBL, bow down to Cambage and her nonsense , Simmons nonsense, the Baynes situation and now Patty being allowed to ride over the top of everyone when it's his last Olympics getting his mate on the team who is somewhat passed it

That isnt looking to the future or to the now.

Plenty of guys who have been in the team and excommunicated based on their thoughts and experience with the leadership

That's a wild, wild rumour. Sheesh.

If this is true, you'd understand why Thybulle hopped the next plane. Imagine being told you're in and know you're rightfully a part of the team and then some point after you find out players have essentially conspired against you, guys you've won a bronze medal with and bled with. Yeah that's not cool. But I don't think it takes away from the fact that he'd have limited effect on the current team and was definitely looking at being 12th man hence being the man dropped. Either way, the constant Thybulle reminders have become a bit toxic and it's a bit of a scapegoat for everything. The team is selected now and that's where I'd prefer to focus my energy.

Who cares, even if patty did crack the shits, it's probably for the better. Him and Ingles probably in there last tournament anyway. As for Thybulle, plenty of players to fill his shoes if he doesn’t like it. I’m still P off that Cotton never got a gig and imo he deserved it more than Thybulle.

"@me i dont see it as an Thybulle / Duop issue its a culture issue within BA. Bow down to LJ and pay her a million a year to play in the WNBL, bow down to Cambage and her nonsense , Simmons nonsense, the Baynes situation and now Patty being allowed to ride over the top of everyone when it's his last Olympics getting his mate on the team who is somewhat passed it"


Well I'd agree there. I had no idea about the LJ situation. Cambage is a moron. And we got rid of a perfectly good coach to appease Simmons whose STILL not shown up for the team and posted a cryptic Thybulle Insta post, as though there's even more to the story and he knows about it. There does seem to be an air of legitimacy in the claim, in the sense that the team is playing fast and uptempo, and that's the absolute opposite to what Joe Ingles is, and they got rid of a defensive hound (albeit without a 3 point shot) to apparently keep him. But I think its lucky that Ingles still does figure to provide stability to the team so as far as outcome on court I don't expect an issue. It seems like poor form from Patty to threaten to pull out and bend BA over a barrel but from the sense that Ingles has been a cornerstone of this team since 2007 I can see some sort of argument for rewarding him, as it's not as though the guy is unplayable (he's still getting NBA minutes).

Either way, no culture or group of people is without this. It shouldn't surprise us that things aren't all fairy dust and unicorns in the Boomers camp. But these things do effect team comraderie.

Maybe

If Matisse was 7 foot it would have been someone else cut

Matisse was bumped to accomodate Joe being a similar position. I dont see it as Matisse being the 13th guy , we have a log jam on the wing and he was the one shot .

LJ and Cambage is like comparing apples and oranges, LJ is a true legend and probably the best basketballer to come from Australia and top five in women's all time, possibly number one, rules for her can be adjusted to suit at times, again probably her last tournament.

Comparing length of rope for Patty Mills to Liz Cambage is one of the wildest things I've read in a while! lol

Patty Mills has never striked me as the type to do something like this, so I will treat it as nothing more than a rumour. There's no smoke, there's no fire, tonight Patty will play regardless to Ingles getting 2 minutes or 10 minutes.

What I am suggesting is there is a issue within BA to bow down to the hero players , which in turn , creates these situations. It took way too long for BA to stand up to Cambage and the same thing is playing out here from what I am told. Cambage did it where we all could see it being the difference.

If these rumours had legs Matisse must have tremendous character and/or be passionately invested in the current and future Boomers to not have uttered a word to socials or the press about it.

Where there is smoke, there is definitely fire...

Matisse can't say anything or else BA will make sure he never plays for the Boomers again.

As for the other issues, I’d say it’s BA aping US basketball which is built around heroes. BA thinks it needs superstars to drive its marketing campaigns for brand recognition and income, no matter how sweet or otherwise they smell.

If the rumors are true, I will be extremely disappointed in Patty.

Yeah Patty gives 2 F's if you're disappointed

And you're an asshole

There probably is some truth to it and at the end of the day, it's not really going to affect this Olympics campaign because we're talking about squad members outside of the main rotation.

That being said, its not great to succumb to pressure and select a 37 yr old ahead of a 27yr old who's shown commitment to the boomers program and still has time and potential to improve their game.

Maybe because Goorj is tapping out after this olympics he thought it wasn't a battle worth fighting, knowing he wasn't going to give either a real run during the tournament.

Rumour is that Matisse refused to wear a non-sanctioned LSKD jacket whilst sitting on the bench during the China games, so Patty wanted him turfed :S

Goorj has spoken about how selecting a national team is identifying your squad of 9 - which are the players who will receive meaningful court time. Selecting the 10th-12th members of the squad is like another whole selection process. Do you prioritise youth so they can learn, or go with veterans who are past their prime are glad to assume that role, or go with the players who just missed the 9 and may feel upset/disappointed that they don't see any meaningful game time.

End of the day if you aren't in the squad of 9, you are vulnerable and at the mercy of brutal selection calls. If Patty, who some might say has earned the right to have a level of influence, mounted a strong argument for Joe's inclusion as a 10-12th squad member, fair enough. Obviously if it got to the level 'you must select him or else', then that's f****d. I think Thybulle should have made it but i accept that the coaching staff had decided that he was on the bench with Duop which is hard to watch in itself.

That Mills influenced Ingles selection rumour must be true.

That venerable source of all things basketball Clintdog agrees that it's true.

Haha.

Probably an ounce of truth about it, it's common for senior players to be involved in team selection, I'm sure Patty vouched for Joe.

But stuff like Patty "won't play" if Joe doesn't get enough minutes is just dogshit. This man pretty much single handedly has pushed the "gold vibes only" mindset for the last two cycles, there is no more passionate Australian sportsman out there, and to say he just would throw the towel in 10+ years of work, because Ingles doesn't get game time is ludicrous. One of stupidest things I've ever read on this platform.

Anyway let's either flush it or start a new thread for it, because the lads are playing a game tonight and this thread is for that.

Greece by two at the 1/4, they should be much further in front. Luull has kept them in it. You earn your buckets under the ring in fiba basketball, no wonder so many bigs imports Struve when they get to nbl. GA playing very well.

Spain turned it around second quarter. Giannis ineffective while the rest of the Greek team couldn't take up the slack.

Spain shooting the three ball well.

Does a Spain win make things easier or tougher for the Boomers to advance.

Yup Spain up 49-35 at the half,
Greece dominating until Spain switched to a zone,
and Greece must have a team rule that they cannot pass the ball to Giannis if its zone....

but he is getting back into the play at the start of this second half.

NBL refs should take a look at how these international games are officiated. Great balance between tough contact and game involvement.

@ JMS, you are so right, x 1000%.

Not sure which outcome is better for Boomers.

Assuming all teams lose one to Canada. Then either way the Greece game is a must win to sure up second place. I guess if Spain win there's still a chance if we lose to Greece?

Win this game and it won't matter. Lose and we'll have to do the math on how we'll progress.

Any scoop on Dante's availability yet?

Kingston - nothing official but all reports say Dante is a near certainty to play, just had to get through final training today.

Would be shocked if he doesn't play

Go boomers, it's going to be tough.

Need Dys to have the game of the life against SGA

Out of curiousity I checked and the linear channels are airing swimming and skateboarding.

The moron programming post-medalling continues.

Exum in, and scores instantly

2 early fouls for Shai is big

Nine NBA players (or have played in it) plus McVeigh on the court currently.

Magnay sticking out like a saw thumb out there. Doesn't belong.

Loving the 7:30pm tipoff.

That magney airball was shaqting the fool worthy

DD Dfence. 2 fakes he doesn't bite on, then the casual swat. Lovin it.

Cracking game, don't agree re Magnay, his screening and toughness is required for when Landale isn’t there.

Daniels has so much more to his game than he showed in the NBA.

Daniels has so much more to his game than he showed in the NBA.

Landale is such a rock.

Kay

3p 0-2

1 tov

Magnay and Kay again, not so good.
Reath time surely.

+ set 2 screens that gave Giddey space to get to the rack

1 dunk.

Secret weapon unleashed

Fkn finally.

Exum

6PTS (FG 3-3)

2 air balls from Kay....

How much more does kay have to bugger up to get benched?

DYSON fucking hell the kid is good at defence...

Dyson hoovers everything up.

Dyson is the real deal

Thybulle/Cooks/Furphy > Kay
Magnay too raw.

Dyson is the real deal

HT AUS 49-45 CAN

What a game of hoops this is. Wow.

What is Point of playing nick Kay? Can't defend, can't shoot, can't pass

Damn fine first half by the Boomers

We've had FIBA Patty

I hope this is the beginning of FIBA Dyson

Weedy Slug it's the middle of the game, and you're looking at the next Olympic team, give me a spell.

Nice first half. Overall decent on Shai. Kay having a shocker but hopefully only up.
Patty getting worn like a glove, need to use him as a decoy. Landale and Giddey been our best.

Looking at kay's performance, Thybulle
Would be really passed.

* would be really pissed

Agree Max

McVeigh been good at both ends too

Max, I'm looking at who could have been there...

Dyson is a weapon. His D is text book, so solid. Never looks out of place on closeouts.

Giddey killing it as well. If your a Bulls fan you would be pretty happy with his last 2 games.

Daniels, Giddey and Mills killing it. I want to like Kay but he makes it hard.

Huge 2nd half!!!

Why is Patty going as the trigger man for out of bounds plays?
surely Giddy as an NBA SLOB King needs to be doing it.

Giddy is one from one in this first half,
I dont think it has worked once for Patty.

Boomers been great, Canada as well, magnificent game. All those bagging players got no idea. What Kay does in structure and D is why he gets big minutes. You can't have everyone score 20.
I’m hoping the nbl hierarchy are watching, this is how refs, ref the game and communicate with players. Basketball is a physical game and the whistle should not been blown every time someone farts in the key. Coaches also do talk to refs but there Is no yelling and screaming at them, learn nbl learn.

Why did the coverage cut away from the guy juggling and soing trickss?! GTFO!

McVeigh deserves his spot, the same can't be said about magnay and Kay. Both are reliability in this team.

Reffing has been good.

Would've been handy to get a 3rd foul on SGA

I want to see Landale with some more seals in the low post.

Why did the coverage cut away from the guy juggling and soing trickss?! GTFO!

Great first half. Highlight was the two pump fakes to Daniels and then his block( which he happily repeated later for those who missed the first one.)

Hope Exum's finger is OK.

Wish we could get a little bit of offense out of Green.

Giddey doing a decent defensive job.

Afree re reffing etc Dunkman

I love Olympic/World Cup basketball

Giddey + mills partnership has been very good, guess they can play together.
Landale excellent, Daniels has been awesome.

Mate you have overdosed on coffee, opinions are fine but bagging quality players for your imagination seeing what's not happening isn’t.

He's been drinking that shitty Blend 43.

Random thought.

Does Germany win the 2023 World Cup if Landale wasn't injured?

Mill's shot selection is straight up terrible

Bad Giddey.

Good Giddey is great.

Bad Giddey is a liability.

magnay and Kay. Both are reliability in this team.

You cannot score if you throw the ball away. Boomers need to settle. As many turnovers in 4 minutes as the frst half

The lack of outside fire power becoming evident against a team that defends so well. C'mon Boomers!

To break the tension slightly, when's the last time a national teams name font on the front was half the size of the names on the back of a jersey?

We're unravelling.

We look totally discombobulated.

It's all gone pear shaped

Usually this would be time out time

Shocking lazy turnovers for Boomers

Goorj loves not calling timeouts during opponents' runs in international games.

Not sure where this run has come from but we'll take it.

Gah whoops Landale

Dammit. That was in. Count it.

Exum > Patty

Phew!

If we took another time out now, we would only have 1 left.

We've steadied without burning a TO

How'd landale get away w that??

WTF was that?

Jock trying to get his 4th

Sloppy two plays, stop pissing it away.

Patty has had a bad game. Stupid pass by daniels

We need FIBA Exum :p

McVeigh repping the NBL. Huge.

Gotta love McVeigh

McVeigh you beauty

McVeigh x 2. Dayummmm.

Nice McVeigh.

McVeigh

McVeigh papering over this sloppy as fuck third quarter though.

Jack McVeigh saving our asses, fuck yeah. We're in this lads.

Just gotta settle and get it done.

Giddey with a horrid quarter.

Exum been useful.

Just hanging in there.

I want more Reath, less Kay.

The one NBL player amongst a sea of NBA talent. Amazing.

To much iso, Barrett has been an absolute menace.

LOL okay McVeigh settle down.

Too many passengers in this team, Ingles, Kay, magnay. Should have picked Thybulle, Furphy, Thon.

Landale you beauty.

If we took another time out now, we would only have 1 left.

Is Mills actively trying to lose the game?

Patty turnover
Patty worst defense

Third quarter cost us.

We've scored 2 points in 5 minutes of the 4th.

Patty second half

0 PTS
2 TOV

Patty's gambling defense at key moments is just plain dumb!

Some incredibly poor decision making in this quarter. Probably Kays fault.

Not sure why Kay is out there right now

Yep the sloppy turnovers is killing us now

This match is over

Mills needs to be playing the same minutes as Ingles if this is all he is gonna give us.

FIBA Exum time please.

Keep it close fellas.

This was the game where Reath would have really helped. No mins after a quick first half appearance. Meanwhile Kay just much too slow against this squad yet still racking up mins. Would rather McVeigh be out there.

Reath > Kay

Time to make souvlaki out of Greece.

Patty is killing us.

keep the lose less than 12

Mills throws up trash and cheats on D again.

FFS someone reign him in.

Margin matters. Play smart

Cotton would have been handy in this game, shame basketball Australia didn't support his citizenship

McVeigh is so naive, second time he's run straight into opponents. This isn't the NBL.

Reath > Kay

Everyone knows that except dunkman, Perthworld and Brian Goorgian

Kay can't make a single 3P, then why are you using him?

Kay should never have been on this team, a plodder at best, air balling 3's, exposed defensively

Realistically it's where we are at. And we showed some excellent signs.

Can’t forget this Canada team is stacked. It was always about limiting the damage in this one.

We didn’t give it away we were just out worked by talent.Any team would get sloppy against SGA and co for 4 qtrs.

Onto Greece for what will be our most important one.

Kay is the only player that is not in the minus, you don't win games with out blue collar workers. Giddey after a very good first half went iso and got tired, Green can’t score is a problem as well.

keep the lose less than 12

Kay is the only player that is not in the minus,

Plus and minus are meaningless records.

Moral victory for Australia there.

Not a bad result looking at it impartially, but one we could have won.

Insane amount of backcourt depth for Canada, but we didn't punish them inside nearly enough.

Would have been nice if Brooks didn't hit that 3 at the end. 10 point loss feels a lot worse than 7 when it might come down to points differential in the end.

Good effort, Canada just had more gas in the tank.

Hey instant coffee dude I'm not a fan of Kay. Quote a post where I've been in support of him. Go on.

Now if we advance the old problem of having to gave the US early rears its ugly head. Yay.

to face the US*

Canada 28 points off turnovers.

It's such a small margin of error against teams that good. Those t/o's killed us.

Thank goodness for Jock Landale.

Still have not learnt their lesson since the last world cup.
You picked shit players, you have no chance against a quality team like Canada. Players like Kay, magnay are just not good enough.

We ran out of gas due to pegging back the ten point deficit during that ugly as third quarter.

Josh Green
0 PTS (FG 0/2)
1 AST
4 PF

If Green doesn't score, I'll use Thybulle.

Nick Kay
4 PTS (FG 2/5) (3P 0/2)
3 REB
1 STL
1 PF
1 TOV

If Kay doesn't score, I'll use Cooks.

Will Magnay
0 PTS (FG 0/1)
1 PF

I will not use Magnay, I will use Reath.

Two nights in a row the points off turnovers column is painful to look at for Australian supporters.

Bloody Brooks

Canada beats Spain and...

Boomers Beat Greece or lose by 9 or less, for potentially 2nd spot

Lose by 10 to 17 points for 3rd place.

If Spain beats Canada and Boomers lose to Greece, Australia would be 4th and eliminated.

Australia plays Greece first before Canada v Spain.

It's a bit concerning how easy that was in the end. It was a very poor second half. Disappointing 4th quarter in particular. We went down with barely a whimper.

Mills had a shocker. Kay and Green were poor as well. Landale was good, but made a few too many frustrating mistakes. Giddey faded. Disappointing all round, but it wasn’t without positives. First half was very good. Surely be too strong for Greece.

Plus minus might be worthless in your mind but every coach checks and use it as a good guide, if you are on the floor and your team isn't going backwards it’s a great asset.
In the end not good enough, that last three was annoying, such is life at times. Daniel’s, Landale and Kay our best. We went away from trying to open it up for our bigs, to much iso from the guards. By the way if you look at my history of posting I’ve never been a big fan of Kay but it doesn’t affect my judgment on game day.

Can someone confirm if we do beat Greece and USA go 3-0 will we the face them in the elimination round?

Patty took a backseat after a strong start from Dyson and Giddey. Not his game but we will get one from him.

Green missed them tonight but I still like his hustle and confidence out there. They will drop eventually.

McVeigh played a good sniper. Needs to understand that you can't run into traffic without that extra step.

Kay played scared and was shakey, I get he is important to the 1% but he seemed to lack confidence and perhaps wasn’t the right match up against Canada.

Dyson, Giddey and Landale were amazing. Yes Giddey slowed up but he was a huge in the first half. Dyson did so much that wouldn’t show on the stat sheet.

Landale was MVP. I didn’t see how many boards he got but he was tough in there.

I’d like to see more of Duop. Magnay might be a bit green for the bright lights.

A good loss overall. Let’s beat Greece and hope we don’t see Canada again (the one perk of a death pool).

MVP
Landale
Exum

Good player
Daniels
Giddey
McVeigh

disappointing player
Kay
Magnay

The reason for today's defeat
Mills
Green

"Can someone confirm if we do beat Greece and USA go 3-0 will we the face them in the elimination round?"

No I imagine USA would be lined up with a 3rd place team. Beat greece we are on track for 2nd

We wouldn't necessarily face USA as two 3rd place teams get through. The top two teams would face two bottom pot teams I believe

@ Fudge, no not guarenteed likely a 1 in 3 chance, drawn out of a pot to stop teams from throwing games, 1/4 final teams was previously one of the 3rd teams gets a top seed. The other 2nd seed would get a top seed, and the other 2 second seeds play each other.

Kay might be better coming off the bench with Reath.
Maybe go smaller vs Greece.

Giddey + mills + Exum
Daniels on giannis
Landale

I think this is the situation:

If we beat Greece we will almost certainty avoid USA in the quarters.
If we lose to Greece by less than 8 points*, we will almost certainly play USA in the quarters.

*Assuming Canada beat Spain

Too many variables to know the path at this stage but not placing first means we can't fade US until the final, i.e. bye bye medal chance.

Don't think you can say we lost because of individual players, we lost because of our turnovers in the second half. That's a team issue.

Overall I feel not a terrible result. We lost to a great team, but showed our best can match it with anyone.

Shooting percentages were fairly even. Turnovers and points scored from turnovers were the difference in the end. Canada cranked up the D and we couldn't match their transition game and athleticism. Giddy had a great first half but went rogue in the second and his immaturity running the point showed. We really needed Patty to steady the ship and he was disappointing. Still they can take away a lot of positives from that game.

If we lose to Greece by 9 points (or less), and then Canada beats Spain, then we still make quarters

AUS/SPA/GRE would all be on 1-2 and it would be

AUS +3
GRE +2
SPA -5

Kay might be better coming off the bench with Reath.
Maybe go smaller vs Greece.

Giddey + mills + Exum
Daniels on giannis
Landale


‐------

I would not play Kay and magnay at all. Just Give all their minutes to Reath. They should not have been picked in the first place. Boomers basically have a 10 men rotation with these 2. It's too late now.

The qualified teams shall be divided into four pots. The cumulative ranking between the three groups, established according to the FIBA Official Basketball Rules, Chapter D - Classification of Teams, will assign positions from 1st to 8th place to the eight teams qualified for the Quarter-Finals.

Pot D shall consist of the two-best-ranked teams, Pot E of the 3rd and 4th ranked teams, Pot F of the 5th and 6th ranked teams and Pot G of the 7th and 8th ranked teams.

The teams from Pot D will be drawn against the teams from Pot G and the teams from Pot E will be drawn against the teams from Pot F.

Teams from the same group in the Group Phase cannot be drawn against each other in the Quarter-Finals.

I thought Reath would be a good option but the minutes he had tonight he looked slower than Kay. But gotta try him imo

Patty Mills second half
0 PTS (FG 0-4 / 2PT 0-2 / 3PT 0-2)
2 REB
1 STL
2 PF
3 TOV

Okay. If someone else had made this record, that player would have been heavily criticized.

Smash Greece; watch Spain beat Canada by 20
...
Profit

If Boomers beat Greece then likely to play France in quarter finals, the other option is potentially Serbia.

No easy games.

If they squeek into a 3rd pool place then it is likely USA or Germany.

There is a huge over-rating for Kay here.
Everything he can do, other players can do. What made him a Boomers? It's his 3PTS. But he didn't make a single 3PTS in the Olympics.

Kay v Spain
3PT 0-2
Kay v Canada
3PT 0-2

I'm just glad some of the punters on here don’t select the team. It’s the group of death, even some of the lesser sides turn up to play in these tournaments. We should get through to next round but nothing is guaranteed.

Patty, what other players are you suggesting we should replace him with out of interest?

I'm with you Nescafé, I would not have chosen Kay either.
Unfortunately we are gonna have to use him... off the bench with a shooter like Reath hopefully.

Thybulle, Cooks, White, Furphy, Pinder and Simmons if healthy I think would have all made more of a difference.

It’s 50/50 it seems, some love him and some loathe him.

Pinder did poorly in the Asia Cup.

Weedy Slug, Simmons? Haha

Who is Ben Simmons?

"What made him a Boomers? It's his 3PTS."

Completely incorrect. What has made Kay a Boomers mainstay for a long period now is his ability to execute the system and make outstanding reads at both ends of the floor.

As for tonight's game, the issue was the Boomers lacking composure and gifting Canada points from poor decision-making and skill execution. Giddey, Mills and Daniels 11 turnovers between them. That's the ball game there.

In the first half we executed through Canada's physicality, in the second half we tried to force our way through it and got caught in their tempo and style of game. Nothing to fear if we face them again, but need to get our pressure releases and counters consistent the whole game.

If we beat Greece we're guaranteed a quarter final appearance.

So we need to

- Beat Greece, guarantees we play QF

OR

- Lose by 9 or less and rely on Canada beating Spain to get us into 2nd place and guaranteed QF

We could still finish 3rd and make it too though?

Thybulle, Cooks, White, Furphy, Pinder and Simmons if healthy I think would have all made more of a difference

‐---------


Agreed. It's unbelievable how Goorgian can't see this. Kay was exposed defensively in the last WC , yet Brian still pick him. It's insane.

^^^ Spot on Anonymightymouse ^^^

Australia women rugby 7's avenge us against Canada, please and thank you.

Also worried about potential Jock Landale burnout.

Think it's now or never for the 2-bigs lineup against Greece. They have Giannis/Papagiannis, we need Duop/Landale, or Magnay to go on Giannis. Did I seriously read someone say put Dyson on Giannis...

Australia women rugby 7's avenge us against Canada, please and thank you.

Canada has won the rugby, like boomers, second half collapse.

Half time 4 turnovers each. At the end of the game it was boomers 18 to Canada 11, points by Canada from Australian turnovers 28. Watching the game, Canada always looked like they would win if they hit the front and got a few points ahead - they did, game over.

Mills certainly was a passenger but not alone.

First half
Mills 1 TOV
Exum 1 TOV
Kay 1 TOV
Reath 1 TOV
Landale 1 TOV

Second half
Daniels 4 TOV
Mills 3 TOV
Giddey 3 TOV
McVeigh 2 TOV
Exum 1 TOV

Total
Mills 4 TOV
Daniels 4 TOV
Giddey 3 TOV
McVeigh 2 TOV
Exum 2 TOV
Kay 1 TOV
Reath 1 TOV
Landale 1 TOV

4th quarter

Kay
0 PTS

Mills
0 PTS (2P 0-1) / 2 REB / 1 TOV / 1 PF

Green
0 PTS (2P 0-1 , 3P 0-1) / 2 PF

McVeigh
0 PTS (2P 0-1 , 3P 0-1) / 1 TOV

Giddey
1 PTS (2P 0-1 , 3P 0-2 , FT 1-2) / 1 AST / 2 REB

Daniels
2 PTS (3P 0-2 , FT 2-2) / 1 AST / 2 REB / 1 TOV

Exum
3 PTS (2P 0-1 , 3P 1-1) / 1 REB / 1 TOV / 1 PF

Landale
6 PTS (2P 3-5 , FT 1-1) / 1 AST / 3 REB

Total
12 PTS (2P 3-10 , 3P 1-7 , FT 4-5) / 3 AST / 10 REB / 4 TOV / 4 PF

I think the outlook for this team is still pretty good provided it learns from this game. We obviously got a bit flustered and tried to force the issue way too much in the second half with a lot of cross court passes that were ill advised. Tidy up the turnovers and we've won that game. Im surprised we didnt see minutes from Ingles who may have slowed it down at times or even Delly with Giddey who may have been a steady hand. Canada is a team that can out talent you and if youre throwing the ball to them 18 times in a game youre giving them every chance to do so. Outside of that there are some good indications moving forward. Id expect to beat Greece and then move into the quarters to get a reasonably favourable crossover.

Boomers can never beat the USA and Canada.
Because the USA and Canada have many great defenders who can defend Mills.
Mills has shown high efficiency scoring in this warm-up game and the Olympics, except for the USA and Canada.
In order for Boomers to win this Olympics, Mills and Giddey's high efficiency scoring is absolutely necessary.
We have a good chance, except for the USA and Canada.

France escape with a win in overtime vs Japan.
4 point play from strazel at the end of the 4th to save them.

Possible pathway of many many pathways:

Beat Greece go through to Qtr Finals

Beat France or Serbia in Qtr Finals

Lose to USA in Semi Finals

Beat Germany in 3rd place game to collect coveted Rose Gold

Short of our original high-hopes but that result will do me fine. Go Boomers!

Me: Re Delly playing more... when Exum was playing how he was in that second half you dont choose Delly over Exum.

What a suprise, having a team with almost no guys who can just get you a bucket lost to a good balanced team. These guys don't seem to be taught anything regarding shot mechanics and shot creation as juniors. Australia seems to be under the impression you can just rely on transition to win, far out, that only works against terrible teams.

It's the nba influence @ bazza99, Lemanis had much more structured plays. These young Australian players dominate as juniors and basically go straight to the nba.

"These guys don't seem to be taught anything regarding shot mechanics and shot creation as juniors."

Bazza, as you know, in the juniors, offsense is entirely system based to the extent that barely no one can even shoot off the dribble.
We have tall guards who generally don't have a pull-up jumper which is just strange.

"Me: Re Delly playing more... when Exum was playing how he was in that second half you dont choose Delly over Exum."

Play both.

Yeah Australian players can be unselfish to a fault, to the point where there are very few who can just go and make a bucket for themselves.

First of all, watching the 2nd half of the game over, it seemed that Dort defensively and SGA played "big brother" basketball against Giddey. It was like “we know you” and you're not that guy. The play where Dort basically just ripped the ball out of Giddey’s hand was just bully defensively. As big as factor Giddey was in the 1st half he was that big of a non- factor in the 2nd half especially with key Doncic defensive type efforts.
I don’t know how anybody with any type of basketball sense at this stage can justify playing Kay. He is a liability on both sides of the ball. Reath plays a better supporting role for Landale and Giddey as a floor spacer offensively. He was impactful defensively with hard physical hedging and quick recovery to his man.
Your best balanced line up at this stage is:
Giddey
Mills
Daniels
Reath
Landale
or go smaller with
Exum
Mills
Daniels
Giddey
Landale

Would be very helpful to get some scoring from Green. Looks to be down on confidence.

fstos how did you end up watching the game?

Yeah not sure why Green has been such a non-factor offensively but if he could provide something there we'd be all that much better for it. Luckily we 'should' have at least 2 more games to show this stuff. I dont think greece are very good at all but it still took a 3 point shooting barrage for Spain to beat them so i think we need to consider some different tactics with them if are shots arent dropping ie, twin tower experiment.

Thybulle = closer game. Doesn't matter if he’s not a scorer as most of squad couldn’t score against good defence when the only play is iso.

Crazy how much time there is in between games.

Canada has a clear scout on Green that he loves to catch and shoot and is much worse off the bounce.

First half Dort on Mills and Brooks on Giddy was great for us but the half time move by Jordi Fernandez to flip this killed us. Dort a far better POA (Point of Attack) defender was the perfect anti Giddy device while Brooks face guarding Mills threw off Mills a lot more than I would have expected.

I didn't really understand why Australia tried to push it so much with Canada in that 3rd quarter, when it just lead to many careless turnovers. I thought that more balanced gameplan from the first half was working ok.

For me, Australia are a little bit unbalanced in that they have lots of these all round type players like Green and Daniels that are great at most things, but lack a reliable outside shot. And on top of that, I feel like Australia are caught in an awkward position of youth and experience together. Giddey and Daniels are still only in their early 20s, and then you have Ingles on the bench not playing.

Ultimately, Canada are probably too strong for Australia when they want to flex their muscle.

Daniels can seriously play!

Not a disaster yet at all. Australia are good enough to medal again, but there really won't be any shame in not. These teams are all strong and someone has to miss out.

If the pots go as projected

Pot 1
USA and Canada or Germany

Pot 2
Germany
Australia, Serbia or france (aka the higest ranked second team)

Pot 3
Brazil, Puerto Rico, Spain or Greece

Pot 4
Whoever falls out from that Pot 3 plus the potential of one of Japan or SSD



If we are one of the best performing second ranked teams we will likely face one of Brazil or Puerto Rico
If we are one of the lesser peforming second placed teams we will likely face Serbia or France

PW. With a VPN on Canada CBA. Works well.

Concerns:

-Nick Kay playing 27 minutes, really? Also, what is the point of Duop and Magnay if Kay is playing minutes at the 5? I don't want to pick on him but i just don't get it. The Kay situation completely baffles me.
-Why did Goorj take Exum out late in the last quarter when he was our most likely scorer?
-Mills 2-10 FG and 1-5 3PT.
-Green lacking confidence on offence. Not so much a concern, he's been strong on offence and i believe it will come.

Positives:

-Jock is our most important player.
-Daniels is an absolute jet.
-Exum is still underrated. Should be starting or at least getting 25+ minutes vs Greece.
-Giddey phenomenal in first half, not as great in the 2nd half.
-Mcveigh hitting huge shots when we needed them.

IMO at least we should have had Giddey-Exum-Daniels-McVeigh-Landale for pretty much the last 8 minutes of the game.

I have no problems with Kay as a player, but it's criminal that he played so many mins last night. 26 mins, 4 points, 3 rebounds, it's just not good enough. He deserves a lot of credit for making himself available for qualification games, but even taking my Kings-tinted glasses off, I find it hard to imagine that Xavier Cooks wouldn't have made a bigger impact on this squad on both ends. Magnay unfortunately also looked really out of his depth against the Canada bigs on both ends in his mins. Reath on the other hand had one fumbled pass and a bucket but is the only other big outside of Landale (who also struggled finishing over guys like Lyle at times) capable of mixing it up with Canada and remained glued to the bench.

Still, Canada are a very talented and deep squad. It's disappointing but also not at all unexpected, made only more disappointing by the fact that we could have won it. The Olympics was always going to be tough and we are still in it with a remote shot at a medal, which is basically where we were pre-tournament when people thought we'd go 0-3 in the group stage.

Where has this myth come from about Kay being rewarded for qualification games?! He played a significant role in 2019, 2021 and 2023. He's picked on his ability to play an important role in major tournaments against the best teams. It's not about his stats, it's about executing the system to allow the defence to work and the stars to get opportunities on offence.

The challenge Goorj had last night was he made a clever adjustment when Canada were blowing the game out in the third, going with three high IQ, shooting bigs in the 3-5 spots alongside penetrators in Exum and Daniels.

That change opened up the D behind their aggressive perimeter and got the Aussies back into the game. Problem was, Jock, Kay and Jack were the only three bigs he was trusting yesterday and they got a long burn on the floor together mucking up the big rotation.

That meant later when those guys needed rest we went small and that just didn't work. The bigger lesson was playing with composure under pressure. It's something the Lemanis Boomers were excellent at, executing counters to expose overly-aggressive D.

Boomers did it well last night early on, but got sucked into playing way too fast as the game went on, as the turnovers mounted as a result the Canadians got easy buckets and the game slipped away.

AngusH, my only gripe is why do you spill a paragraph about how it was criminal that Kay got 26 minutes, but you didnt follow it up with one saying how criminal it was that Mills got 28 minutes?

Mills shot 20% from the field to Kay shooting 40%
Mills had 4 turnovers and Kay had just 1

Kay plays within the system, doesn't demand the ball to be effective and plays his role fine. He isn't out there gambling on the defensive end resulting in easy baskets for the opposition like Mills was last night. If you had to pick wich player hurt the Boomers more last night, it wasnt Kay.

No disagreement from me re: Mills - he was more egregious in that he was actively hurting us. Kay doesn't actively hurt us, but he was passively not moving the needle.

With Kay

In 2021- it was a depleted field due to covid and kay played above expectation and so did Thybulle, we finished 3rd.
11pts, 6.3rbds playing 28 minutes per game.

In 2023- he was terrible, Thybulle also. The field was larger, the rosters were deeper, we finished 10th.
6.4pts, 4.6rbds playing 24 minutes per game.

In 2024- so far, he hasn't been good, hoping we would get Tokyo olympic Kay but instead we are getting WC Kay against a much more talented field.
6pts, 4rbds playing 23 minutes per game.

Nick Kay was not the reason we lost, people see 2 air-balls and think he's the worst player in the world.

Mills significantly worse, Green as well.

Turnovers were our issue.

MaxM you are spot on, and this is why I dont understand the bashing of Kay, he wasnt the issue with our game against Canada.

Exactly and Giddey second half was very average, to much dribbling iso rubbish. On Goorj, he's always been an excellent coach in preparation, every one knows there role, not as good on game day, Vickerman very similar. Gleeson is very good at both, can adjust on the run.

The question is if you take Kay out and put someone else in, whether it be from this roster or future rosters, do the boomers become a better team?
Most people would say yes, Kay is the weak link...

Exum or Delly over Giddey. Nope.
Green or Exum over Mills. After the Spain game, no. A few after the Canada game.
Green, Exum, Ingles or Mcveigh over Daniels. Nope.
Reath or Magnay over Landale. Nope.

In this tournament, I think it's time to try someone else at pf.
In the future, Kay is no chance, even if the same staff who vouch for him remain.

I actually could see a role for Ingles and Delly last night in bringing some composure to this thing when the wheels were really falling off. If they could find no use for Ingles controlling the tempo and bringing some of that interior passing and potential 3 point threat out there then I really cant see why he was brought over Thybulle at this point. But for the weaknesses highlighted I don't think they'll be issues against European teams. I think we still are a scary proposition for them. It's just not so great against the Americanized team that can play your pace and then have size and athleticism on top of you. The upside of this game is Canada showed us very clearly what our weaknesses are and its still early enough in the tournament to address them without losing a chance to progress. You'd expect the Boomers to take care of business against Greece on friday and for us to advance in second place and likely face a lesser ranked 2nd place option from another group if my understanding of the pots is correct.

If we look at the other groups, these two teams for each will almost definitely progress:

Germany
France

USA
Serbia

Third place figures to be between Spain, Puerto Rico and Brazil and it's unlikely we face any of them. So our match up in a quarter final will likely be a European team with Canada inelligble to meet us and USA likely to come through as the top team. My bet is we're on track for France or Serbia, both present, to me, as winnable.

GA could cause boomers a lot trouble, he was very good last night, Spain three point shooting got them back in it and kept them in front. Agree boomers should win but it won't be easy, got play team in offence and defence otherwise GA will kill us.

With the refereeing controversy in the France vs Japan game, should we be worried that meeting France in an elimination game would make them the new Spain?

"got play team in offence and defence otherwise GA will kill us."

When we're either up, or not playing catch-up, we generally see sound, team centered execution.
It's often when we're playing catch up or losing momentum that we go into some type of stagnant iso ball which almost invariably ends in a forced and heavily contested desperation heave.

I agree with ME's point regarding the benefit that Delly or Ingles would bring in such scenarios, and because of the make up of this particular roster, it makes sense to make pragmatic subs based on the context of the game.
On that point, there was good reason last night to take Mills out for all the reasons mentioned in this thread.
I think the reason why he wasn't is because of the potential and in some ways, needed x factor.
It's just a tough balancing act, because the likelihood of of another bronze medal game performance, while not impossible, is not highly likely.

I wanted Landale getting more post feeds in the 2nd half.
From memory he got two. (One a nice pocket pass from Exum, the other I forget)
Yes, he was being aggressively fronted, but there was so little apparent intent to even try and get him the ball down low.
FWIW, bith Bogut and Newley agreed - you need to feed your bigs down low.

Giannis will need a lot of our defensive focus, but we also can't neglect to perimeter guys by over helping on doubles too much, because they could kill us from 3.
It might not hurt to try a few match ups on Giannis with Magnay, Kay and Reath - if for no other reason than to share the foul load, because we can't afford Landale to rack up fouls defending him.

France looked so average against Japan, their guard play is atrocious. Fournier and Batum look slow, Strazel not an Olympic starting level PG at all.

I would prefer them - except for the crowd/refs advantage

The biggest issue is we had no closer, no one to get buckets towards the end of the game, the last 8 to 12 minutes offense really started to stagnate and that was that was what created the turnovers.

In the past it has been Patty, Fournier WAS the closerfor France, and Durants been doing it forever for the USA. Bryce Cotton does the same thing for the Wildcats.

The positive of the game is that we have nice core group that can compete and keep a game close with the best. We just need to find a closer and I don't think we’re gonna find it this tournament, the only way I can think of it working, is to reduce Patty’s minutes and trying to get the same output in less minutes, if we can get 8 points in 12-15 instead of 28 minutes, keeping his legs fresh to close the game. I think that’s as close as we can get with this years group.

Outside of that I think Goorj coached well, sure maybe they could’ve played Delly or Ingles but whose minutes are they taking? Reduce Daniel's minutes? Exums? Reduce Josh Green who we should be getting more into trying to get him going!!! Where are those minutes coming from?

Goorj played Magnay, couldn’t cut it, benched. Duop didn’t do anything special. benched, ended up going small, Green played some four man and Kay played some five as well. If I was coaching I would’ve made similar moves. It was kinda like the NBA finals where the rotation just kept getting shorter and shorter.

For me moving forward I’m reducing Patty’s minutes to 15 to 20 minutes a game, and less if he’s sticking it up. He can close the game but Exum’s gonna eat most of those 2 guard minutes, Green can eat some more, Patties can play but if he hasn’t got it he can go and sit next to Joe, the days of running Patty into the ground are behind us, our best bet is reincarnating Spurs Patty.

There's a version of this where France is the same team that stunk it up at the last WC + Wemby

PW. With a VPN on Canada CBA. Works well.

Josh Green - 2 GP / 19.8 MIN / 0 PTS (FG 0%) / 1 REB / 2.5 AST / 2 PF

Matthew Dellavedova - 1 GP / 9 MIN / 0 PTS (FG 0%) / 2 AST / 2 TOV

Will Magnay - 2 GP / 7.4 MIN / 1 PTS (FG 0% - FT 50%) / 1.5 REB / 1 STL / 0.5 BLK / 0.5 TOV / 3 PF

Duop Reath - 1 GP / 4 MIN / 2 PTS (FG 100%) / 1 TOV

Joe Ingles - 1 GP / 2.5 MIN / 0 PTS

So Nick Kay got the nod ahead of thybulle because he knows the playing system better than Thybulle. What a stupid selection criteria this is! You always pick your best players regardless whether they know the playing system or not.
You don't pick a Nick Kay ahead of a Durant or Lebron just because they don't know Boomers playing system.
Goorgian has shot himself on the foot by picking substandard players like magnay and Kay who are both useless against quality teams. These two did not contribute anything against canada last night.

WC 2023
9 guys getting roughly 15-30 mins per game.
3 guys 2-7 mins per game.

Josh Green

2023 Worldcup - 5 GP / 19.5 MIN / 8.2 PTS (FG 52% - 2PT 57.1% - 3PT 45.5% - FT 76.9%) / 2 REB / 1.4 AST / 1.6 STL / 0.4 TOV / 1.8 PF

2024 Olympics - 2 GP / 19.8 MIN / 0 PTS (FG 0%) / 1 REB / 2.5 AST / 2 PF

Matisse Thybulle

2021 Olympics - 6 GP / 23.3 MIN / 7.8 PTS (FG 62.1% - 2PT 76.5% - 3PT 41.7% - FT 60%) / 3.3 REB / 2.5 AST / 3 STL / 0.5 BLK / 1.2 TOV / 2 PF

2023 Worldcup - 5 GP / 14.5 MIN / 2.8 PTS (FG 41.7% - 2PT 75% - 3PT 25% - FT 100%) / 0.6 REB / 0.2 AST / 0.6 STL / 0.4 BLK / 0.2 TOV / 2 PF

What happened to them? Was it the coaching staff's fault? Was it the players' fault?

Good chance Kay is on Giannis according to aus coaches, hopefully not but a chance to prove his worth.

God help us

Nescafe, Thybulle is a SG/SF and Kay is a PF/C, why are you comparing the 2?

"You don't pick a Nick Kay ahead of a Durant or Lebron just because they don't know Boomers playing system."

But you play a White or Holiday ahead of a Tatum because of fit.

Kay is more mobile than Reath and bigger than Thybulle, he plays his role and helps the system. That's why he gets time.

But you play a White or Holiday ahead of a Tatum because of fit.
‐--------------------

Fit means nothing the player is crap, and kay is crap.
Play a bunch of 17 year old who are better fit to the boomers and see what happens.

Kay is more mobile than Reath and bigger than Thybulle, he plays his role and helps the system. That's why he gets time.

--------

Reath, Thybulle > Kay
You pick your best players.
This should be the only criteria for selection

Shows how little you know Nescafe, you cant just choose the best players, if Australia had 10 amazing point guards do you suggest we take all 10 an then are outsized at the 3,4,5 positions?

Again, why are you comparing Kay to Thybulle?

Give me a break, such a childish criteria to just pick the best players, no team in international basketball does that. You select a team. Why is Derrick White playing instead of Kyrie Irving?

Kay is the most obvious starting matchup for Giannis. Dyson needs to be on Calathes and doesn't have the size for Giannis, and we can't have Jock defending GA and getting in foul trouble. Kay would be too small for Papagiannis anyway. So put him on GA, then Magnay gets second crack.

We didn't lose because of Kay.

Now his air all immediately after his pick and roll dunk is embarrassing, but he didn't have a bad game, and we most definitely don't turn it around by having a "better player" substitute him in his role

We lost it when Canadian changes in the 3Q forced turnovers which the boomers didn't adapt to.

Also, we got very little production out of Mills/Green

You taking a role which bombed us, it was the 2-guard


By the end of 1st half, we were in front 4, with Canada having to make highlight reel plays to stay in it. Our points looked like lay up drills

If you're forcing them into difficult shots, you'd take that as a coach

The 1st sux minutes if the second half, with the turnovers, and to me what liked like loss of concentration, this where Australia lost it.

The run was 12-2 with Canada again making difficult shots, this may have disguised the problem

But we didn't lose it because of Kay, and Thybulle playing that role wouldn't have changed things

All this anti Nick Kay theme shows is the difference in how little the average punter understands basketball in comparison to the players & coaches at the National/International level.
Do we really think he'd be playing (let alone starting) if he was that bad? It's almost although we think the coaches for the Boomers don't actually want to win. They're going to play the players that are getting the job done and give them the best chance of winning. If Reath was really as good as people make out and would help them win, they'd play him. It's the same with Thybulle, if he was really that good, he wouldn't have been the 12th pick/last cut and caught up in the whole Mills/Ingles smoke story that's going around.

In reality, Nick Kay starts because there is nobody else that ticks all the boxes they need ticked in his position.

I think when you start comparing Nick Kay with Durant & LeBron to make your case, you might want to reassess the foundations of your case.

As I said straight after the game, I've never been a great fan of Kay but he had the best plus-minus like he does in many games and he certainly wasn’t the reason for losing. ISO ball in the 2nd half killed us. A lot punters around here and in the media and generally only see points and exciting plays, you don’t win with out the glue guys, the box outs, passing to players in better positions, play D and scramble for everything and help in points but rarely top score.

We lost because we had no one who could get buckets down the stretch...

We lost because we were loose with the ball. We would have had an easier time making shots if we could keep the ball in hand. For the life of me I don't know why time outs aren't being called more often, or why someone like an Ingles or Delly weren't brought in to bring a settling presence to the offense. If you cant play either of them maybe they shouldn't be on the team. That was my issue with it. Smacks of when we needed a shooter at the Cup and didn't use Chris Goulding whose very purpose was to shoot.


In other news I want to flag a weird thought bubble - what if South Sudan beat Serbia tomorrow? I know it doesn't strike as the world's most likely scenario but they beat Peurto Rico and got much closer to the US than Serbia did. It is an interesting thought to me that maybe SSD could have such an athletic upside that they stifle Serbia.

plus-minus are meaningless. Exum was one of the best players, but he is -10.

Mills needs to stop ball-handling. Butter Finger

Perhaps the most reliable ball handler in the current Boomers is Delly.

I trust Exum more with ball in hand than Giddey a lo of the time. If we're starting to get a little 'too loose' we need to go to Exum or Delly/Ingles.

Every quality coach values the plus-minus very highly and quite often it's the first stat they look at. If you are on the court and your team is going forward it’s a lot better than going backwards. It’s a stat that came out the nba, just because it doesn’t suit some punters argument means nothing, as most those punters have no idea.

In reality, Nick Kay starts because there is nobody else that ticks all the boxes they need ticked in his position.

--------

Don't agree at all. Thon maker, Pinder, Cooks are all better players / choices than kay.
They are better defenders with better athleticism and offer better rim protection.
Kay is a liability in defence and should be no where near the boomers team. He was exposed again and again by germany in the last WC and one of the main reason Australia had a poor WC.
In the last match against Canada kay basically could not pass, shoot and defend. He was terrible.

Pinder, Cooks one dimensional, Cooks hasn't got a jump shot, can’t make a free throw, Pinder is a five, to small for fiba. Maker career got him playing in that top league out of Lebanon, lol, which league has Maker stared in or been even a top player. Both Cooks and Pinder went to the camp and were cut, maybe next you should be there to impart your great knowledge.

Spot on BigD, it's only people who really don't know much about basketball who don't value Kay.

Yes we can acknowledge he didn't have his best game against Canada, and probably should have got a few less minutes but such a lack of ball knowledge to suggest he was the reason we lost.

Spot on BigD and MaxM. I'd go further though, while he had a couple of bad moments against Canada, if you rewatch the game and note everything he does off the ball he was rock solid throughout, hence why Goorj (and Lemanis before him) want him on the floor.

Pinder, Cooks one dimensional, Cooks hasn't got a jump shot, can't make a free throw.

----------

If pinder and cook are one dimensional, Kay is non-dimensional. He Can't shoot, can't pass, can't defend.
Kay is 1 from 13 for 3 points attempts in the last 5 matches. That is disgusting.

Cooks and Pinder are not one-dimensional. Do they have gaps in their game? Absolutely. But they both provide a number of things on the basketball court - Cooks significantly more so with his hustle, defense, and ability to generate points around and going to the basket. Kay is an all-rounder, does a little bit of everything. Very good player, no question, but probably not good enough at any one area to stand out, while also good enough all-round to not actively hurt us. There's a spot for a guy like that, but we have too many role players as it is (especially when factoring in the Magnay selection), and are probably short a couple of more dynamic players in general.

All 3 of the last cuts were players that offer something at this level, and who at an individual level I would have been happy to have in Paris. What we lack is players who don't have a big deficiency in their game for every strength they bring. Makes it impossible to select a 12 that can handle every situation.
Once it was trimmed down to 15, the last cuts weren't about who has international-level attributes, they were just judgement calls about which guys were going to mesh best together.

Canada was not the game for Kay.

I don't think the issues we have have much to do with Kay. He's a bit of an odd basketball player to look at on this stage though. Not particularly athletic. Just 'decent' at most things. He feels like a great bench player that has for whatever reason been elevated to starter minutes. A few airballs and a bit of a hard time defending the 3 isnt why we lost the game, its because of our guards playing way too loose in the second half.

Ideally he would be coming off the bench, I agree.
All that requires is someone else playing better than him at the 4 spot. That is yet to occur. He's not getting any younger so hopefully it happens real soon.