The Boomers are a top 5 team, and possibly a top 3 team and it's for more than names on a page. The Boomers core now has a decade together, Olympic and world Cup experience, a culture of guys who bust guts and play the right way, and a program that is deep. They are at precisely the right age to make a run at this while some of the other powerhouses are getting on in years. There are certainly a lot of teams that can't be slept on who won't have the same NBA credentials but I think we can medal at the world cup and at the Olympics given we have most of our main guys.

Baynes/Maker/Bogut
Simmons/Bolden
Ingles/Creek
Broekhoff/Exum/Green
Mills/Delly

If Andre woke up and primarily played the lineup above with Simmons defensively at the 4 but offensively running point surrounded by shooting, we'd look terrific and be a tough cover for any team, even the US if 3 or 4 guys really lit it up from the perimeter.

But instead Andre will run his system with 2 bigs and 3 guards, all with equal opportunity and totally not suited to maximize our best players on offense, and with a second big guy unable to defend the perimeter.

His system is great with this current qualification team, and it's a good NBL offense, but time will tell if he shows the flexibility to change systems to suit the team, otherwise our best player will look like a super sized Cedric Jackson who's in a simmilar system with Bevo, his defender never leaving the paint when he doesn't have the ball, remember there's no illegal defense in FIBA.

BTW that team above is for the Olympics 2020 when Ben will play, not the world cup.

All comers are fortunate Goran Dragic retired from international competition. He led Slovenia to the Eurobasket title last year alongside Luka Doncic, both named to All-Tournament Team. They beat Spain and Serbia to get it done. Would've been a real handful for upcoming events if Goran stayed on.

I think at full strength Australia is better than current FIBA ranking of 10th. Top 5? We finished 4th at last Olympics and I have current full strength team as better so yes I think so, need strong results/medals at World Cup and Olympics though.

And Gobert will make France tough to beat.

Why are they Boomers and not just the Australian team? Why are there names like Matildas, Opals and Socceraroos? It is lame. Cheeseball. Yuck.

I feel like its fair to say that there isn't much if any drop off between say a lot of Euroleague players and some of our bench NBA players;

Therefore, there's a lot of teams from Europe especially that are very good teams.

As noted above, a lot will depend on match-ups (could get a real stiff QF matchup you never know) and how well you play on the day(s).

P.s I don't know the formula for how they do the rankings, but they look absolutely ridicolous.

Philippines at 30? versus NZ all the way down at 38? NZ are behind countries that I have never even seen on the international stage (Uruguay, Georgia, Senegal?)

Canada at 23 - should be more top 15? Mexico at 13 seems high too

In addition to the poor points available for winning tournaments in Asia, rankings are also based on eight years of results. We haven't been good across that whole period.

Finally, the world rankings points on offer for 1st to 3rd are huge, but coming 4th in a tournament you basically get no separation from 5th-8th (despite winning an extra game than those teams).

So Australia’s rank is likely to be in the 8-10 range for a while.

France with Gobert should rightly be second favourites.

Canada has a poor international ranking for a reason- they have never put their best team together and their international results have been poor.

"Anonymous
Last week

The teams above or close to us are

USA
Serbia
Canada
Greece
Slovenia
Spain
France
Turkey
Lithuania"

USA = better than us
Serbia = better than us in 2016, not sure you can say that now
Canada = has the talent but has literally NEVER got it together
Greece = great Euroleague talent, but can't go with us at top flight
Slovenia = as above, will cause us some issues though
Spain = great talent, but getting old. 2016 may have been their last hoorah
France = As above
Turkey = Why?
Lithuania = young and up-and-coming but not seeing how they are better than us


Of the teams you listed I'd expect our best team to be better than everyone not named USA. Teams who are around the mark are Spain, France on their night. Everyone else could potentially beat us but I still tip us ahead.

Food for thought, we're obviously assuming each team will be at full strength. If not, then it’s a lucky dip.

Take Simmons out of our squad and I’d drop us to 5-8; take out Baynes and Ingles and I’d drop us to 9-12.

Lemanis can’t be blamed for poor results if we don’t have strength and depth at key positions.

Anon #136, I think you've only been reading half the posts. Going back to 2016, I think more posters applauded him than hung him out to dry.

As was said often, we were only a dubious ref decision away from Silver medal. How is that a coaching fail?

"Food for thought, we're obviously assuming each team will be at full strength. If not, then it's a lucky dip.

Take Simmons out of our squad and I’d drop us to 5-8; take out Baynes and Ingles and I’d drop us to 9-12."

We were a literal bees dick away from a medal in 2016 without Simmons and also without a range of players we now have. We very well could finish between 5-8 without him but I still don't think getting much higher is out of the question.

I do agree with you on losing Baynes or Ingles though. When it comes to Simmons, you kind of can't lose something you never had. But if you take out Baynes and Ingles, those guys have been lynch pins of this team for a decade now. If you lose them you probably aren't going to have much of a tournament.

A lot will depend on form of players coming into the tournament. Names on jerseys doesn't get it done. We are definitely well and truly in the equation, but we could just as easily be toppled by an unheralded Euro team.

"I don't think 'shot creation' is a real issue. I don't see a lineup of Delly, Ingles, Broekhoff and a couple of half-decent bigs struggling to create looks. The three guards are all capable shooters, passers and decision makers, so we don't have to rely on iso breakdown ability."

Yep. The only reason our offense broke down in Rio is because we relied too much on Bogut's passing and Serbia cut that off. I think we will have a few too many options this time around.

on paper the boomers have the 2nd or 3rd best collection of basketball talent in the world

sadly it doesn't translate, especially to fifa ball and the only real way that we could do anything is if a massive emphasis was placed on pace control and defence.

Ben Simmons will not get the open lanes he gets in the NBA .
Patty Mills is not what he was (and in his prime he was not very efficient either)
Nobody else is a shot creator . at the fifa level


Maybe a Delly/Mills/Ingles/Simmons/Baynes rotation?

That's the opposite of the truth.

On paper we're probably the 10th best, but usually we manage to over perform.

"on paper the boomers have the 2nd or 3rd best collection of basketball talent in the world

sadly it doesn't translate, especially to fifa ball and the only real way that we could do anything is if a massive emphasis was placed on pace control and defence."


If by pace control you mean generating pace then I agree with you. The current system is excellent for making oppo teams defend from early in the shot clock and defend a whole heap of exchanges. It's something a lot of European teams aren't overly comfortable with and suits our players, who've grown up in systems where the ball gets shared.

The World Cup is super tough, there are a lot of good teams out there, but we certainly have the talent and system to make the top 8 and from there, if our luck holds up, challenge for a medal.

With the sheer amount of teams it's gonna be a lot easier to medal at the Olympics than World Cup, in my estimation. I think continuity in our system is going to be the thing that pushes us above our weight. I also think people underestimate the talent we do have.

Looking at Euro qualifications and it appears that Slovenia and Croatia are out of the WC. Poland the surprise qualifier in Croatia's group, while one of Montenegro, Latvia or Ukraine will take the 3rd spot in Slovenia's group. That's two bogey teams out of the way, but Europe is Europe so there will be other tough opponents to take their places.