1 David Andersen ASVEL (France)
2 Cameron Bairstow Chicago Bulls
3 Aron Baynes Detroit Pistons
4 Andrew Bogut Golden State Warriors
5 Ryan Broekhoff Lokomotiv Kuban (Russia)
6 Matthew Dellavedova Cleveland Cavaliers
7 Dante Exum Utah Jazz
8 Chris Goulding Melbourne United
9 Joe Ingles Utah Jazz
10 Kevin Lisch* Illawarra Hawks
11 Aleks Maric Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro)
12 Damian Martin Perth Wildcats
13 Patrick Mills San Antonio Spurs
14 Brock Motum Zalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania)
15 Brad Newley Gran Canaria (Spain)
16 Ben Simmons LSU

There you go BA :P

1 David Andersen ASVEL (France)
2 Cameron Bairstow Chicago Bulls
3 Aron Baynes Detroit Pistons
5 Andrew Bogut Golden State Warriors
7 Ryan Broekhoff Lokomotiv Kuban (Russia)
9 Matthew Dellavedova Cleveland Cavaliers
10 Dante Exum Utah Jazz
13 Chris Goulding Melbourne United
14 Joe Ingles Utah Jazz
17 Kevin Lisch* Illawarra Hawks
18 Aleks Maric Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro)
19 Damian Martin Perth Wildcats
20 Patrick Mills San Antonio Spurs
21 Brock Motum Zalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania)
22 Brad Newley Gran Canaria (Spain)
24 Ben Simmons LSU

Then from that most likely Exum will not play, Simmons will not play.
Cut Martin and Maric.

player numbers to be cut from Isaac's post,
4,6,8,11,12,16,18,23,25,26.

Agree with above except would have Jawai in for Maric. Nate can impact a game in a few minutes, as he showed against Lithuania at the WC, Aleks doesn't have that.

The 26man squad is clearly picked on what theyve done in Boomers set ups before, both Walker and Brandt had very good camps in 2014. Ogilvy should be in this squad, yes his mental toughness is a concern, but none of our other bigs have his combo of mobility and athleticisk.

No point ruling out Simmons yet, maybe his new team will think that the Olympics will be a better experience then junky NBA SL games.

Plus his shoe company will prefer him to play in the Olympics and they will be paying him more for the next 4 years :)

Hopefully both Simmons and Exum are in. If they both are in I would take out Newley/Goulding and bairstow

Who I'd pick:

1 Dellavedova / Lisch / Exum
2 Mills / Goulding / Newley
3 Ingles / Broekhoff / Simmons
4 Motum / Bairstow / Andersen / Kickert
5 Baynes / Bogut / Jawai

Perhaps Martin in for Kickert.

Other teams would enjoy watching Bogut setting high screens for Simmons too as both defenders had a rest in the paint.

Locks are Mills, Dellavedova, Bogut, Ingles and Lisch (assuming naturalised). That's presuming Exum and Simmons aren't available.

All the rest can fight it out for spots.

You could sense in one of the Hawks games he commented that Lemanis just doesn't like or rate Ogilvy for whatever reason. The other commentator kept trying to make the case and Lemanis was being obviously non-committal to the point where you knew there was more to it. Either doesn't rate his toughness or BIQ or something else.

Bogut shot it really well in Beijing, my memory says around 60%. If he can rediscover that form somehow it would be very good news for the Boomers!

Great for all the NBL guys to get a run with our big dogs, will do great for there confidence and there game. Stoked for Mitch Norton guy played his heart out this season!

Bogut not going to join Boomers and all of a sudden become a 20 point scorer and shoot the lights out.
He will be best used in the same role as he plays with Warriors.

Personally I would like to see Damien Martin get a crack to play some D against the better players out there.

I believe that this is Lemanis' final campaign.

I would have an AJ Ogilvy in. Walker out.

Also, would have been nice to see a couple of others for the future such as Venky Jois, Anthony Drmic (who is coming good at the end of the season and been part of Boomer squads before).

>Bogut shot it really well in Beijing, my memory says around 60%.

Yep. Same as his 3P% and his FT% :p

> If he can rediscover that form somehow it would be very good news for the Boomers!

It would, but if he could rediscover that form I'm pretty sure the Warriors would have found out about it by now.
He hasn't been a scorer since the arm injury, which is a pity as he used to be a very reliable shooter out to international 3 point range.

Not a fan of Lisch in the squad. We have enough Australian talent that we shouldn't have to go down the naturalisation route.

Can't see them letting Dante play, also Bogut seemed like he did not think SImmons would be playing either.

Seriously? Creek and Walker making the squad of 26?

Man....., perhaps its a hallmark of a differential between what is good and what is good to average.

Good to average doesn't make the Olympic squads I know unless you are competing for sport for the first time and then of course.

Good luck with that BA

Planning teams around what the dream team has is futile. There are 11 other teams that are not the dream team and you have infinitely more chance of beating them than you do the Americans.

Speaking of Americans, I'd take Lisch. He is kind of the best of a bad situation when it comes to third string combo guards in the Australian context. We could otherwise choose the magician (in that he disappears for long spells on court) Adam Gibson, or you can pick Damien Martin who is an excellent defender and hustle guy, but wont be putting much pressure on the offensive end at this level.

You could do much worse than have Lisch as 11th or 12th man on the bench, or possibly higher.

As for the training fodder, having Mitch Creek and Walker on the team is a bit of a laugh, but they aren't in the mix for a spot in the 12 and no one with two brain cells should believe they are. They will be used so that the Boomers can get used to the level of athleticism they will face at the Olympics.

My team:

Delly
Mills
Ingles
Baynes
Bogut
Lisch
Broekhoff
Simmons
Motum
Anderson
Bairstow
Goulding

Pretty stacked.

If Ogilvy hasn't ruled himself out, then you have to wonder what is going on behind the scenes for him to miss a squad of 26.

I'm not going to pretend any great expertise on those guys playing in the NBA or Europe. I'll leave that to those who follow that, except to say that I presume they are on average better quality than what we see at home.
I imagine Olympic Basketball is a big step up, and therefore requires different attributes, But AJ has been one of the best big men in the league, both when he played for the Kings and this season at the Hawks.
I really can't comprehend why you would pick Brandt or even Nate ahead of him?

I suppose that Jawai, in a squad of 26, is a reasonable gamble. If he can somehow get healthy, he could add X-factor to that final 16.
But Brandt?

Now, assuming that 10~12 "international" guys pick themselves, so we're looking at 5 or 6 NBL guys to provide depth (for the squad of 16 at least.)

My impression, which may be misguided, is that said depth is needed most in the back court?

So, from the 26 announced, my NBL guys would be:
Martin
Lisch
Creek
Goulding
Steindl
Kickert

And yes, I wouldn't expect most of those (apart from Lisch) to make the final 12.

Mitchell 'Better than Abercrombie' Creek haha

As I said, most of the guys I mentioned are just going to be training fodder before being cut from the final 12.
And "My impression, which may be misguided, is that said depth is needed most in the back court?"
Lisch and I suppose Goulding are almost automatic, and have a chance of making the final cut.
Besides that, even if looking for fodder, there's not a lot of Aussie talent in the NBL back courts.
Creek, for the minutes he plays, does a good job. Good enough to be training fodder.

No, I would certainly have Abercrombie in before Creek...

Unfortunately he was born in New Zealand...

I also meant to add, and will do so now for the sake of completeness, that whether Creek (or similar) makes the 16 as fodder is largely irrelevant, and my views on the matter must be as interesting as mud.
I'll shut up now.

A realistic strategy is to aim to medal. Only the wildest optimist could even think about gold.

So, we need to pick a team which will get to the semis and possibly the final, not a team to compete with the USA. In other words, a team which can win against Euro teams and the other American power-houses.

That suggests to me that we should use a core of 9 players and use the last 3 spots to cover exception cases. In other words, for those 3 spots I'd take a defensive specialist (Martin), or a speedster, or someone huge to match other monsters and intimidate (Maric or Jawai if fit), or a pure shooter (Lisch else Goulding / Steindl).

They may not get much court time, but at least we'll be covered if we meet some situation the regulars can't handle or if we need to do something drastically different to get the win.

Or maybe a 6ft10 pure shooter in Kickert?

Dont like how soft the guy is but you dont need him on the boards,international size and can flat out shoot the ball.

Realistically,he would need to make the team as a stretch 3 in the Simmons spot if he's unavailable....dont like his chances.

Any reason Brandt is in the squad instead of DJ?

When I have seen Brandt play he just seems like a backup player in the NBL!!!!

Johnson is pretty similar to Kickert I guess but could have had both in the camp at least.

I would even have Petrie or Knight in here instead of Brandt.

Only just now getting a chance to look at this squad. Some interesting inclusions ...

Given that a lot of this squad is just training fodder, would it not have been better to give some of those spots to younger college guys? Or did scheduling/availability problems mean Lemanis could only pick locally-based players for the extra spots?

One of the biggest surprises is Walker. I understand that he was in the Boomers system last time and performed well. But I figured he'd at least have to show something this NBL season to stake his claim for a spot. He ended up being really disappointing and regressing from previous seasons. His inclusion sort of sends a message that there isn't a lot of accountability for players who already have their foot in the door ...

I highly doubt Simmons and Exum will be available.

So my 12 for Rio would be:

Delly
Mills
Bogut
Baynes
Ingles

Lisch
Broekhoff
Andersen
Bairstow
Newley

Motum
Goulding

+ Martin, Jawai, Blanchfield, Kickert (to make up the 16 for the July training camp)

No offence to Cam Bairstow but I don't understand why everyone keeps including him. He's an 'end of the bench' NBA player with a great work ethic and solid body but limited skill-set which will end taken advantage of in the Games.

His spot should go to either a specialist shooter or to blood someone younger who's certain to figure in the future such as a Humphries, Drmic, Jois.

Drmic has been very inconsistent for Boise State.

I doubt he is a future Boomer

I don't get the Barstow hype either. Wouldn't make my final squad.
There is a story with AJ. Essentially he has been blacklisted from the Boomers as long as Lemanis is at the helm.
FWIW, my 12 man team:
PG: Delly/Mills/Exum
SG: Broekhoff/Lisch
SF: Ingles/Newley
PF: Motum/Anderson/Kickert
C: Bogut/Baynes