My thoughts are less related to any particular player not playing for their country in the Olympics but more about the reason or will to want to play.

The Olympics is the pinnacle an athlete can reach in their sport, given that the sport is one which fits this criteria (such as swimming, gymnastics or track & field for example).

Basketball and many team sports in particular which are played at an elite level to the extent that the NBA is, provide athletes with a pinnacle every season.

Many of these sports also have world championships or a world cup periodically, where once again the pinnacle or close to it can be achieved.

The Olympics, in the case of Australia and where basketball is concerned is of course highly rated by us, because we love the Olympics and hold dear the privilage of representing our country.

That said though, it isn't the pinnacle for players at NBA level, so one might ask the question, what is his incentive to play if he makes the NBA?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out...

While that isn't untrue anon^, it is fact that the Olympics is not the pinnacle for some sports, whether an individual considers this to be the case or not...

I think for Simmons that playing against quality opposition would be a positive , and a team drafting him would likely think so to.

Only if he has injury concerns or if the dates line up with any important team camps I think he may be pulled.

I definitely think we should include him in the last spot as he is quite physically advanced and should be able to compete well as one of the bench players. It will depend on the balance of bigs and our core players whether we need to stack the back end with shooters.

Previously, players representing their countries has depended on their NBA team who own their contracts and the issue of insuring the player against injury (which can be too expensive). I seem to recall that this has previously happened to Australian player/s.

Wouldnt the Olympics be a much better preparation than Summer League?

An additional point of emphasis from Ben will be suiting up will Dante again, these two guys are seriously close.

Don't imagine Simmons would play. Got snubbed for the world champs and typical of Aussie Hoops we can't see past the nose on our face when it comes to projecting young talent and putting teams together for the future. Also look at what happened to Dante Exum....NBA Draft #5 pick and played behind NBL players and got garbage minutes on a team that struggled to finish in top 8 hardly a good endorsement for the olympics and how the Boomers opperate.
Simmons would be better off sitting out playing the next 3 Olympics for sure maybe 4....possibly lead us to a medal under a fresh coaching staff possibly.

Billy hoyle, I hope that was a joke? If he sat out the next 3 or 4 Olympics, he would be mid- late 30s before suiting up. Also, if Dante started for the boomers last year, we wouldn't have even come top 16. We needed guys who were experienced to lead the team, only now does Dante look like he is becoming a genuine player

If Exum was better than the alternatives at that point in time, he would've got more minutes. He was drafted on potential, not just on ability at the time. Why am I responding to such a troll?!

billy hoyle, the boomers aren't meant to be a development team, we have plenty of teams for that. If we kept worrying about tomorrow, we would never capitalise on today. I think you will find that our pathway from youth teams to the Boomers is very strong. We have upwards of 30 players that can fill in for Boomers spots on any given night due to the development done in the past few years. What do you think the Sino series and the emerging boomers and Under 19 teams are about? Last year, the NBL guards were more ready than Exum, but next year it will be a different story.

Firstly I said Ben Simmons could sit out of Rio and still play in 3-4 more olympics.
Secondly if our development programs are so amazing why are so many kids going over to the US for high school and how did our U19 team just get smoked at the worlds?
Thirdly the NBL and Boomers are in the state they are in because they only think of today and not tomorrow. You never ever ever play an NBL guy over and NBA young draft pick unless that NBL guy is starting and better be helping you win....Gibson was neither....Aussie basketball needs to start to learn how to manage the young talent coming through or there will be a bunch of good players turning down the boomers in the future to concentrate on their own careers.