Mills
Bruton
Harvey or Gibson/Dellavedova
Newley
Ingles
Worthington
Barlow
Neilsen
Jawai
Ogilvy
Anderson
Bogut

Bruton will get a guernsey IMO, and the last guard spot will be between Harvey, Gibson or Dellavedova.

Those also in the running to push someone out are Baynes, Schenscher, Nevill & Rush.

I too like AJ and think he should go.

Obviously this all depends on everyone being healthy and available for selection.

I'd pick Baynes over wortho. If wortho was a true PF i'd pick him, or a true SF, but he's neither at international level. Baynes' rebounding & defence cancel out wortho's offence - i.e. his mid-long range shot at international level - too slow to get past a good defender and too small to crash the boards.

I'd also pick delladova over gibson so far, with CJ able to fill in at PG too.

Bogut
Andersen
Nielsen
Newley
Mills
Jawai
Ingles
Barlow
CJ
Delladova
Ogilvy
Baynes


Harvey didn't do enough in NZ games to warrant a spot and i'm not sure how many times in his career he has played as the 3rd or 4th string shooting guard.

Bogut, Nielsen, Barlow, Newley, Bruton
Jawai, Ballinger, Worthington, Ingles, Mills, Schenscher,Gibson

Reserves: Andersen, Harvey, Black?

With guys like Nevill, Baynes, Ogilvy, Motum, Ellis, Wagstaff, Weigh, Dellavedova etc at camps for development.

Good looking teams guys. There's clearly a consensus about quite a few players.

Other than the 6'6 SF defender I have been harping on about, the other glaring problem these Boomers have is very poor 3 point shooting. Does anyone think this problem could warrant putting Harvey into the starting lineup at the expense of Newley? Or perhaps playing Newley at SF (he is 6'7) if we think he is too good to start on the bench?

Doing this would weaken our rebounding and good teams might expose Newley defensively if they have a big, strong SF, but it would help us to spread the floor a bit better than running Newley/ Ingles or Newley/ Barlow, because both Ingles and Barlow seem inconsistent from that range and don't exactly have rapid fire releases.

Tough call really, because I think Newley is our best slasher by a long way, but his inconsistent three is a glaring hole in his game.

Adam Ballinger must play for australia

@ Anon
Dave Andersen 2004: 4.7ppg @ 41%, 4.7rpg, 1.5to - 2008: 6.5ppg @ 44%, 3.5rpg, 2to plus poor defence
= had his chance, possibly time for someone else with a bit more toughness to have a chance.

Beantown, Newley shot 9/20 in Beijing, and Australia shot 43%, second in the tournament behind Croatia at 43.4%.

How many of Newley's shots were threes? I really like the guy, but he seems to blow hot and cold from the 3 point line and appears to be more comfortable slashing to the basket.

Nice that Australia had the second best shooting % for the tournament, but I wonder if that number was artificially inflated by the big wins against Iran, Lithuania and Russia?

We really seemed to struggle for good shots against teams like the US and Argentina.

On Andersen, he was a bit up and down in Beijing, with really good games against Argentina, Iran and Russia (11-21, 3-5 3pts, 16 rebs, 3 stls) and poor games against Lithuania, Croatia and the US.

He has his problems getting moved out of position because of his lack of strength and weight, but he was still a decent rebounder and is a deadly shooter with the height to get his jumpshot off nearly anytime he wants to. I thought he was much more useful than Nielsen, who is supposedly about as tall, but seems to play small internationally.

Ballinger is an excellent shooter and it would be a good idea to give him another go before the Worlds, but he isn't very tall by intl standards and might struggle to find room to get his shot off against other PFs. So I think Andersen's height gives him a big advantage over Balls there.

Thanks Anon, I think you meant 9/20 from 3pt? Looks like I may have unfairly maligned Newley based on his recent form! So I think we can safely put the Harvey to start for the Boomers option to bed.

I think it's tough for Harvey, because he is a volume player. He is very effective when he is one of the major options in the offence, and he makes his teammates better because of the attention he draws.

But he probably isnt good enough at international level to have that prominent a role (mind you he hasnt had a lot of opportunities bu there could be a reason for that).

A very good player but perhaps not cut out for the international game.

Beantown, if you look at international rosters, 6'9 is a reasonable height for a 4-man, and Ballinger is pretty good on up fakes, pull ups and turnoarounds so I think he should be given every chance to prove himself in the lead up next year.

As much as people protested again Goorj's perimeter-focused offense, it created good looks from range and resulted in high percentages. We had plenty of good perimeters shooters, but few that were money shooters (only Bruton IMO). The rest of those who shoot the three reasonably well (Barlow, Wortho, Ingles, Newley, Mills, Andersen) didn't exceed 40% last season in their respective leagues. Worth noting that Ballinger (49%), Gibson (43%) and Harvey (43%) are the only likely Boomers who shot in the 40s last season.

How will the extended 3-point line affect things? Does this change warrant a less perimeter focused offense?

All good and valid points.

Personally I think Ballinger could be a great option for the Boomers too. Just not sure if it will work out that way under Brown. Time will tell I guess!

With Bruton fairly injury prone and doubtful to play in 2012, surely we need to select three PGs in 2010.

Yeh Andersen probably shouldn't get picked on merit alone anymore.

No he shouldn't - even though he just inked a deal with Houston to be their starting centre in place of Yao Ming this season!

He is good enough, don't worry about that!

Anon, I agree re Worthington. Has to be in serious consideration. Basically anchored the Dragons to a championship last season.

Anon, regarding Wortho, what I was saying earlier was that I don't think he is agile enough to use as a SF very often. I think if you use him, it is predominantly as a mobile PF who will stretch defences.

I think this is the way Brown wants to use him - once he went down, it looks like Brown stuck to his game plan and inserted Oscar Forman to perform the same role.

So yes, if he can keep improving his rebounding, he could be a serious consideration for big mins at PF, but I don't think he is versatile enough to solve our defensive problem at SF.

And LC, right with you on Andersen. He's good enough and can be a real weapon for us if used correctly. Still rate him above every big man we have other than Bogut, though I hope Jawai and Ogilvy will both surpass him in a couple of years.

Paul, you're right, the volume shooter thing does seem to have been an issue with Harvey in the past. I know first hand how this has affected a great shooter like Ray Allen in recent times!

So if we think he is realistically only going to be a change-up option off the bench and will not be able to have an impact with spot minutes, maybe you have to consider dropping him altogether?

That would create a slot for Dellavedova, who would provide insurance if there is concern about Bruton's fragility going into the Worlds, and could perhaps see spot mins at the two when teams press us.

Am in two minds about this, because would love to get Delly in to the team, but was also impressed by Harvey in Boomers colours for the first time in the Stankovic Cup.

Also, although Newley shot very well from the 3pt line at the Olympics, I just did a bit more research and it seems he shoots barely above 30% from that range in Europe! So he does seem to blow a bit hot and cold from long range (I recall he also broke a record with 8/8 threes in Greece).

In the end, I think you still have to give the nod to Newley purely on age, because he has the time to build experience for the Boomers, whereas Harvey is at the other end of his career. But it does take me back to my original thought about whether we have have enough 3 point firepower out there with a Newley and Barlow/ Ingles combo on the floor.

Newley was also our second leading scorer in Beijing - the 2-spot is his to lose. In both the 06 WCs and 08 Olympics Wortho played the three and did so pretty well, so I have no concerns about him there.

I think what Andersen has done in Europe is fantastic, but at international level he has not hit the open shot consistently, hasn't been able to post up or set decent picks, hasn’t passed the ball well, has been turnover prone and has been suspect defensively.

No question he should be in the squad and given a chance to make the team, but no way a guy with his poor international record should be an automatic selection

My belief is it is time for Australian basketball to get over its inferiority complex and stop assuming that just because someone plays overseas they are better than guys who play here. In Andersen’s case he is an excellent Euro club player, but time and time again has shown he has not been capable of making the significant step up to international hoops.

Paul, not in anyway saying Newley is not our #1 option at SG, just that he doesn't appear to give us a top drawer 3 point shot. Therefore, my question is, what, if anything, do we need to do about that? Maybe its nothing - we just accept we aren't a great 3 point team with Newley and Ingles/ Barlow at the wings.

Don't know who was saying Andersen should be an automatic selection. IMO its just that there isn't anyone who really has a shot at beating him out just yet. As I said earlier, I think Andersen is better than Nielsen, because while neither are good post-up players at the intl level, Andersen can shoot much better and therefore has much greater ability to score. Nielsen may be a slightly better defender, but their rebounding is about the same.

Andersen is also better than Jawai right now because of his defence issues. I think Ogilvy is not far behind, but Andersen's experience puts him ahead of AJ for now too. All the other guys like Schensch, Baynes, Maric, Nevill, etc still seem a notch below.

You are right Beantown, Newley isnt a Maher/Black type shooter, but he is still very good. From what I understand he received a lot of defensive attention in Greece, which might explain the 3pt %. From recollection he also didn't take a lot there.

We had an interesting mix in Beijing, our two best three point shooters were Bogut and Anstey. Then we had Newley and Mills going to the hole with the oppo bigs having to giuard the perimeter. I think this is where Ballinger could be very effective with Anstey gone. But almost everyone on the team was a good perimeter shooter, meaning there was no one the defence could leave wide open.

The bigs going forward is quite a mix, as you said, particularly with Anstey gone.

Ogilvy is a similar player to Andersen, in that he is not physical but has a nice touch. His jumper isnt as good as Dave’s and he is a long way short on experience too. Jawai cant really be compared to those two because he is a completely different type of player, a real inside presence.

At the moment Jawai isnt a shadow of the player he was at Cairns, having missed so much basketball. If he can get some consistent minutes this year, wherever he plays, and get his touch back he is a must-pick Boomer, as he gives us something we don’t have.

Look how efective Schortsinidis (sp!) was for Greece in 2006 in limited minutes. They certainly missed that in Beijing.

Once again I think you are far too harsh on Nielsen. His best basketball was prob between 2004-2006, but he is still a very good player who provides a more mobile option than the other guys. His 13ppg @ 48%, 5rpg in Athens was a great debut. While his 7.5ppg @ 40%, 3.5rpg in Beijing was not far ahead of Andersen, I think Ballinger can provide the strengths that Ando has, whereas we don’t have another Nielsen ready to step in yet (maybe Motum or Khazzouh in a few years?).

Whilst Nielsen isn't a quality passer like Anstey or Bogut, his slashing tends to create many opportunities for others. There a few PFs as mobile as Nielsen. IMO he's an automatic selection -- probably should start.

As for Wortho, I think he's shown that he is capable of defending bigger opponents in the NBL. He's also managed well enough at the 3 on previous Boomers teams. Makes him a very useful 3/4 option.

remember when j.rillie was sitting on the end of the bench for the boomers ?
he hated it, and it sent ripples of unrest through the team.
him and j.harvey are very similar players,in they need to be the 'go to guy'and have plenty of shots and court time.

i like what harvey does in the nbl, but it is a long way from what the next boomers team needs.

so for me, harvey is out and gibson is out.

i dont know if gibson knows it or not, but young delly has just taken his spot behind mills and bruton.

i like wortho in the boomers team,he may be under sized but shit he has a crack defensivley.

hopefully if we have to blaze away from the 3 point line it will be mills,bruton and ingles shooting it.

James Harvey is no where near it at international level .
Poor defender , streaky high volume shooter , questionable attitude , nough said.

Also agree that Andersen has never really produced the goods for us at the highest level . Ogilvy is too soft .

MILLS / GIBSON
NEWLEY / BRUTON
INGLES / BARLOW
WORTHINGTON / NEILSON / BALLINGER
BOGUT / SCHENSCHER / JAWAI

Flexible starting line-up dependant on matchups .

Can we have 2 naturalised players or is CJ born and bred aussie .

CJ is a born and bred Aussie.

Andersen will make the Boomers team if fit and healthy. He offers a pick and pop option on offence, as does AJ Ogilvy. Ogilvy may or may not make the team, ut I reckon Ando will. I also reckon Neilson will make it too.

Harvey will be a borderline selection, and even if he makes it he will find himself at the end of the bench ala Rillie.

my 10 man roster is:

Mills, Gibson
Newley, Ingles
Barlow, Worthington
Andersen, Nielsen,
Bogut, Jawai

guys who could be in or out are gibson, harvey, worthington, nielsen (how old is he??), ballinger, jawai, schenscher, ogilvy. note: bruton isnt in due to building for 2012 olympics.

Our depth is looking very stong now though isnt it.

id love to have schencher there but tough with others. also i feel ballinger could go ok. much better than redhage.

......................................................
just for a bit of fun, here is my 2nd tier boomers team (best 10 outside above team):

Dellevadova, D.Martin
Harvey, Kendall
Ballinger, Black
Baynes, Petrie
Schenscher, Ogilvy

Thoughts? i know im forgetting a few but it shows we have solid depth anyway. remember guys like redhage, rhycart are ineligble due to the 1 naturalised player rule.

In your second 11, I'd have Luke Nevill in for Petrie and move AJ into the PF spot although he can also play centre.

PG-Pat Mills
SG-Brad Newley
SF/PF-Mark Worthington
PF-Matt Neilson
C-Andrew Bogut

Bench
PG-CJ Burton We need some leadership at the guard positon who can score also

SG/SF- Joe Ingles
SG/SF-David Barlow He and Worthington can trade places in lineup.
PF/C-Nathan Jawai
C-Andrew Ogilvy

Thats top 10 meaningful minute players

last 2 are
PG-Adam Gibson
SG-James Harvey- he is a scorer who can score in a hurry!

thomas.schmidt is on the right track! thats the best and most talented team u can get!

i feel you would have to go with cj over gibson,purely from the experience side of it.
sure he is ageing but we must have the best available players in their positions.

selected 12
starters
mills
newley
ingles/barlow
anderson
bogut

bench
bruton
dellevadova
worthington
neilson
jawai
ogilvy

a good blend of youth and exp,mills speed,good long slashers in newley and neilson,7 footer with great range in anderson and a worid class banger in bogut.
this team also gives you good long defensive players