Not being funny, but why is Cotton in there? Cant play for Boomers and hasn't played for Boomers. Id take him out for the sake of the exercise.

Mathew Neilson at the four spot, easily.

If you're trying to invite obvious debate with some of these selections, you won't struggle! ;)

If you can count Simmons for his brief appearance as a kid (was that an official Boomers team?), and then claim him at his window of best play in the NBA, I think he has a theoretical sniff but not many would like writing him in given his Boomers-avoidance.

Bogut, Longley. Giddey too much competition at his position. Can't see how Pinder, Cooks, Cotton get anywhere close. Pinder would be up against Nielsen, Andersen, Baynes, Vlahov, Ronaldson, etc.

Cotton ?

I'm really unsure of your criteria here. What have Cooks or Pinder done at the highest level?

Do you mean 'peak while wearing a boomers top', or peak basketball ability.

Bogut's pre-elbow injury, 3rd All-NBA is the highest peak of any Australian player.

No Longley? His game vs Italy in 2000 is the stuff of legends. Not a carve up, but an outstanding individual game which saved a tournament.

How these 2 aren't 2 of your Centre's is boggling.

Hard to leave Eddie Palubinskas off any all-time squad, Vlahov...

Heal/Smyth
Gaze/Mills/Palubinskas
Ingles/Vlahov
Bradtke/Andersen/Nielsen
Bogut/Longley

Ian Davies, Eddie Palubinskas hare worthy entrants. Davies led all scorers at the Moscow Olympics (29.9pts per game) and Eddie Packetofbiscuits led all scorers at the Montreal Olympics. He also held the record for most points in an Olympic game - 48pts. Fair effort.

For mine if you're going to put together an all time Boomers list, you need to make the distinction that its based on their Boomers performances. Cotton, Simmons etc being in consideration is laughable. Otherwise at best you're looking at purely "most talented" which is a completely different argument.

Mills, Gaze, Delly, Bradtke, Andersen, Ingles, Baynes, Vlahov, Ronaldson, Heal, Nielsen, Bogut, Longley probably among the favourites. I'm sure I'm missing a few

How did Cotton, Cooks, Pinder and Simmons perform for the Boomers?
The most important thing when talking about the Boomers is not their name value, nor their performance in the league.
There may be a shortage of samples before 2017, but since 2017, opportunities for international competitions have increased.
You have to judge it by what you showed in Boomers.

Of course, my story is about the All-time Boomers team.

In OP's defence, he made it clear that he meant the best Aussies at their peak, not best Boomers.

But then he also included Cotton and left out maybe our 5 best ever frontcourt players, so I have no idea what to think...

https://www.hoops.com.au/forum/40472-best-random-boomers-side-1984-2016/

Bogut/ Longley
Bradtke / Baynes / Andersen
Gaze / Ingles / Vlahov
Mills / Heal
Smyth / Delly

Most people here wouldn't know who Palubinskas was. Easily the best of our shooting guards, he carried
Australia in two olympics, winning the scoring title in 76 and runner up by 1 point in 72. A record 48 points
in a single game, all without a 3 pt line.

No mention of Anstey?

Well an Ainstey did get a mention so...

If you want go way back then include George Dancis who averaged more points and rebounds per game than Bill Russell in the 1956 Olympics

Would love to see Roanldson somewhere thanks to hitting possibly the most important shot in Boomers history against Yugoslavia. And he played in that bridging era where we did so well.

Too hard to assemble but what came to mind immediately was imagining a Mills-Gaze back court just to witness their shooting.

For my best Boomers team, I am going to pick the guys I am backing to give us the best shot, in a random tournament, to win a gold medal. This team is not picked on past performances, just the players I trust to give us a shot.


Josh Giddey/Dante Exum
Patty Mills/Shane Heal
Andrew Gaze/ Joe Ingles
Ben Simmons/ Andrew Vlahov
Jock Landale/ David Anderson
Andrew Bogut/Aron Baynes

Could have easily thrown either Bradtke or Longley in tere but both seem to be lesser versions of Bogut or Baynes to me. David Anderson or Chris Anstey could have gone either way. Dante Exum may be a shock inclusion for some but I've not really seen Phil Smythe play and our history with point guards is pretty average outside of that (until now). Maybe CJ Bruton was a steady hand but I am not sure I put him on my Boomers team to get it done. Dante offers more versatility and athleticism. Arguments could be made for Josh Green or Thybulle to give the team mopre athleticism which may be the defining weakness. You could drop Vlahov for Green. But overall I like this team.

Longley over Baynes - more agile and with more moves, and critical part of the Bulls dynasty

"Bradtke or Longley in there but both seem to be lesser versions of ... Baynes to me"

I never thought I'd ever see those words uttered.

If this is a "best BOOMERS team" then select the guys who did most wearing the Boomers uniform

If it's "best Aussie basketballers ever", different discussion

Bogut, Baynes, Andersen the first selected in the frontcourt

Gaze, Mills, Delly, Heal in the backcourt

Ingles at small forward

Palubinskas who's before my time, but he's got some huge scoring numbers

That leaves a few spots remaining.

If it's those who did the most wearing the Boomers uniform then Bradtke has to be selected.

Smyth and Bradtke are others deserving strong consideration

We had two core groups essentially- the 90's team- Gaze, Heal, Vlahov, Bradtke, Longley, Ronaldson- who played together through the 90's (and some continued into the 00's) much like the core of Bogut, Baynes, Ingles, Mills and Delly, Andersen, taking the team through the 2010's

So basically those two groups would make up the majority of the roster, with some older guys like Smyth and Palubinskas also in the mix.

Bogut
Longley
Bradtke
Baynes
Landale
Kay
Ronaldson
Ingles
Gaze
Mills
Delly
Heal

Baynes and Bradtke would be pretty much even for mine. Both turned up again and again and held down the middle against much more well regarded international bigs. Baynes sometimes had Bogut, Bradtke sometimes had Luc.

"We had two core groups essentially- the 90's team- Gaze, Heal, Vlahov, Bradtke, Longley, Ronaldson- who played together through the 90's (and some continued into the 00's) much like the core of Bogut, Baynes, Ingles, Mills and Delly, Andersen, taking the team through the 2010's

So basically those two groups would make up the majority of the roster, with some older guys like Smyth and Palubinskas also in the mix."

Basically this.

Yep, agree with that.

If this is based on sheer finishing position it has be our 2017 and 2022 Asia Cup gold medal winning sides.

Sorry, I had to.