no bogut, the team is:

maric nielsen
andersen jawai ballinger
ingles worthington
newley harvey
mills gibson bruton

with bogut, take out nielsen or maric, my preference is take out nielsen.

I don't necessarily agree with the team listed above (for mine, Neilsen and Maric both make the team whether Bogut plays or not), but without Bogut, we still have plenty of good centre's to pick from.

Centres or centre/forwards in line to play for the Boomers apart from Bogut include:

- David Andersen
- Aleks Maric
- Nathan Jawai
- Luke Nevill
- AJ Ogilvy
- Aron Baynes
- Luke Schenscher

All of the above are quaslity players, and apart from Andersen, all are young and promising talents. So the future at this position is assured.

However Bogut is our best player, and provides a genuine inside presence that will hopefully allow the Aussies to play an inside-outside game. Other teams will also focus on stopping Bogut, and this attention should also help free up others.

Take Pau Gasol out of Spain (he is not playing in the WC's), and I would argue they are not as good either.

A top 8 finish is within reach with Bogut in the side, and there is an outside shot at the medal round. I feel that without Bogut's presence, the Boomers may find it tough to finish in the top 8.

Depends on what chances means. Are we talking about medalling, or making the 1/4 finals i.e. finishing top 8?

Let's address top 8 first:

Boomers must avoid finishing fourth in their pool as this will give them a 1/8 round clash with the highest ranked team in Pool B, likely USA.
Finishing 1, 2 or 3 will give a potentially winnable match to progress to the 1/4 finals.

In terms of medalling:

ironically, it may be better to finish 3rd in the pool rather than 2nd as a 1st or 3rd finish will avoid the USA until the final wheras finishing 2nd will mean encountering the Team USA in the semis.

Obviously the goal must be to finish as high in theri pool as possible. 3 and 2 should be good enough to finish third in the pool but its possible to finish fourth (very bad) with a 3 and 2 record.

So the Boomers need to target 4 and 1 or better. What do they need to do to achieve this?

Defeat Angola and Lebanon.
At least split Argentina and Serbia.
Defeat Germany.

I listed Germany last as for me this match is key. They are supposedly a relatively weak team but how can you completely discount a team with Dirk Nowitzki and 'German' Chris Kaman? The Boomers will have to match these giants of the front court to allow our backcourt to dominate their weaker opponents. This would obviously be easier with Bogut than without. Similarly, victory against Argentina and Serbia would be more likely achieved with the former No. 1 draft pick. Victory against Angola and Lebanon should be acieved regardless.

So what does this all mean? For mine, without Bogut we still have a strong team but top eight will be an excellent result. With Bogut I'd love to dream that top four would not be out of the question. And of course three teams out of the top four get a medal:)

Brett Brown is smooth & if he cant get Milwaukee to let Bogut play we should find another coach. He's in the NBA system & should be able to pull strings but if he cant - not good! The guy is a very ordinary coach!

Bit harsh Orbit all he can do is ask, realistically I still say that no club should be able to prevent a player from playing for their country in ANY sport.

Anderson at Centre will do fine if Bogut cant play, he's got more internation experience than Bogut anyway.

Without Bogut Brett Brown will get exposed as the ordinary coach he is.

What are you talking about no Neilson??? He's flippin awesome! hahahaha hilarious Ballinger over Neilson, yeah because playing for Adelaide is way better than Euroleague!!!! Hilarious!!!!

Rumors that jawai might not be playing until he signs another contract somewhere. If not insurence BA will have to get. Doubt it cause what happened to neilsen a few yrs ago. We don't really need him.