That's an exciting stacked team.. Takes me back to the Boomers mid-90s teams.

I can see Simmons and Maker going in 2016 and 2017 drafts respectively as they will most likely do 1 yr in college. Definitely exciting times ahead for Australian basketball.

I hope Maker decides to play for aus!

^anon, I truly hope they can stay healthy and not suffer the debilitating illness and injury Bogut has had to endure in his career...

"That's an exciting stacked team.. Takes me back to the Boomers mid-90s teams."

I think they're quite different. Our mid 90s teams had very little depth but they guys we had played with great discipline getting open shots for Gaze and Heal.

Recently we've had excellent depth but no superstar like Gaze. Hopefully the era that's approaching can have the best of both worlds.

I also like that there are unselfish players like Delly, Bogut, and Simmons who appear to be winners, contributing whatever helps their team win. We have a flat-out scorer in Mills (and I'd include Goulding too as another creative flat-out shooter), hard-working types such as Baynes, and Exum is a bit of an x-factor. Not sure what kind of player Maker is. That's a nice mix so far.

I'd like to see us have more elite shooters, though. Exum, Delly and Ingles are still inconsistent shooters, Simmons's jumpshot is still developing, and we need to rely on a new generation of shooting bigs, all of whom have glaring weaknesses at international level (although how good is Maker's outside shot?).

Watch out for Deng Adel - he is definetly one not to forget.

Jonah Bolden and Isaac Humphries are two promising bigs for the future

Simmons mentioned Thon Maker in an article about the next MVP not named KD or LeBron

"But to answer James's question, the Brow is definitely the first pick. I’d also throw Blake Griffin, Steph Curry and Thon Maker in there. Thon Maker? Thon Maker".

Unfortunately it will not quite be over the next three years, rather it will be four. Simmons still has one more year of high school basketball, then assuming he's a 'one-and-done' guy, he will be eligible for the 2016 NBA draft. If Maker follows the same path he will be in the 2017 draft.

rjd - I have been the biggest critic of the Boomers shooting over recent years, but I think both Mills and Dellavedova have improved out of sight. So long as we run good offensive sets, both can hit consistently now from three on spot ups, and Mills has also become super effective with both his three-point and mid-range pull-up.

Thon Maker's future with Boomers will depend on his legal guardian Edward Smith. Olympic and World Basketball tourneys are the biggest stages of all for players development and exposure.

I like how the talent isn't all stacked in 1 or 2 spots, you guys have mad talented versatile players coming through in pretty much every position.
getting them all on the court together always presents the problem.

Vart, agree with massive improvements from Mills, who now is automatic, and Delly. I still think Delly is yet to prove himself as a consistent shooter. He started off the season shooting well (in the 40% range), then dropped off massively (sub 15% in Feb), but then went for above 50% from 3-point range in March. Hopefully he will continue to improve, or we will just have to hope that one of his good shooting periods coincides with the tournaments.

Perimeter shooting from other positions is still questionable.

We need a referendum to make NZ the 7th state of Australia! Then we can add that gun shooter we're missing in Penney and get some awesome depth off our bench with one or two of Vukona, Pledger, Adams, Abers and Te Rangi!

Pharlap then Penney
whats next? the All Blacks

Who names a bloke Thon? Disgaceful...

not on the top 5 picks topic but on the exciting future boomers mentioned i think anatoly bose would be a big part of future boomer teams. i havent really followed his form since he went to europe but i think he will go on to be a very good player for us.

Great depth coming through, We could be about to enter a golden era for Aussie hoops!

Drmic is a shooter coming through the ranks too :). He is a good chance of MWC PoTY honours next season.