I dont think there is too much to worry about honestly. Players just working into their roles and a lot of the shots were good shots just missing. Sobey looks very overwhelmed however and I honestly cannot stand Mills shot selection on the national team. Just needs to calm down on a few of those triple attempts. Ball was very stagnant at times with him running point too.

I actually liked goulding in his few minutes. If he can come on for 5-10 and hit 2 or 3 triples then I think he is very worth.

Wouldn't surprise you? They have literally announced that that's what they are doing.

I actually liked goulding in his few minutes. If he can come on for 5-10 and hit 2 or 3 triples then I think he is very worth.

Is it on the telly?

7:30pm EST SBS Viceland HD + SBS on Demand

Anyone else concerned about the Boomers having only 4 warm-up games? Half against a team that we are guaranteed to play in the World Cup, which is limiting. I thought I read somewhere that they might play one more game in China before the World Cup, but not sure how seriously they can take that if it's just before their first game.


This is a continuing trend with Basketball Australia, not offering enough opportunities to practice against international opposition. It seems all other nations are having more practice games than us.

Well said #431.

Boomers by 10-15, I think we set a tone early on and it carries all the way through

"This is a continuing trend with Basketball Australia, not offering enough opportunities to practice against international opposition."

This is always going to be a problem for us because of our distance from decent competition (ie. Europe). Its why IMHO we struggle early in tournaments, because our players do not get to play together as often against strong competition.

#431 I'd add penny-pinching.

BA letting the Boomers down again.

If we have to spend extra to have a camp and games in Europe then ffs PAY FOR IT so that we can prepare properly! (Or spend mega-bucks to get a decent foreign coach.)

Canada employ a NBA head coach. Sure, he lives Toronto.

Why do we do the same?

No Bogut or Mills.

Bolden again injected as a 5. Even with either Bogut or Baynes resting, he still isn't being given so much court time.

Carey carey carey

hey coach, flow isn't a set offense.

Is Basketball Australia getting any of the money from the Canada and USA games? Surely that would add a sizable amount to their budget.

Sobey at the one, what a joke.

Bolden seems a bit uncertain about what to do. And, with all the NBA players in the squad, why aren't we seeing iso plays with movement off the ball to keep the other defenders from collapsing back to help?

Think i might go watch the cricket this is terrible atm

Canada don't need Pangos in order to win.

No bench players looking good right now.

Russia, Brazil and Italy were in the same pot as Australia for the draw because they have similar world rankings.

Australia were drawn into a pool with Canada, Lithuania and Senegal.

Landale needs to be providing something because so far our other 4-men have looked lost/ineffective out there. Our 4-spot looks much weaker than Rio right now, which says something considered neither Baistow nor Motum looked particularly impressive in Rio.

Perhaps we should've played more practice games and gone with a 14-man lineup to start off with.

the nbl guys suck.
lansdale is excellent
bolden should play more minutes

1 assist from the bench in the first half.

Gliddon, Kay and Sobey playing themselves out of the rotation at the moment.

@rjd

No financial windfall for BA from these games.

Bolden is excellent in this match
it sucks that lemanis gives him litter
court time

Better hustle now - perhaps the guys have got the message that they'll need to win ugly through hard work when the shots aren’t dropping

Good to see them playing with more confidence in the 2nd half.

I spoke too soon about Bolden. When given the opportunity, he proved his worth. But you have to wonder how much court time he will get if he is always played as a 5 behind Bogut and Baynes.

"That won't be our lineup
Our rotation at worlds needs to be strictly

Mills
Delly
Ingles
Bogut
Baynes
Landale
Goulding
Bolden"

Agree, but our coach will play all 12.

1/2 Mills/Delly/Goulding - old Pistons three guard rotation

Ingles 3
Bolden 3/4
Baynes 4/5

Landsdale 5
Bogut 5

Even then I would play Mills, Ingles and Baynes big minutes.

Bolden gets less minutes than Kay, what a joke.

How much time has Bolden played at the 4? He seems to be primarily playing at the 5. If that's the case, with either Bogut or Baynes resting, there are not many other reasonable options at the 4 when Landale is resting other than Kay.

Canada ranked 23 in the world.

Sack the coach now.

Selecting Sobey over Adel.

Playing Kay over Bolden.

Canada's world ranking is meaningless.

Even fringe players can make big differences.
Australia won because of Bolden. Some nuts here who said Bolden and Adel are cheap because they are NBA bench warmers and should not be selected
ahead of the likes of kay, gliddon, goulding, cooks, sobey just dont have any clue. Would any nbl player make an impact like what Bolden did tonight ? I highly doubt it. Without Bolden Australia would have lost.
It is a joke that Bolden got so little court time, another reason why lemanis should be sacked.

Even fringe nba players can make big differences. 
Australia won because of Bolden. Some nuts here who said Bolden and Adel are cheap because they are NBA bench warmers and should not be selected
ahead of the likes of kay, gliddon, goulding, cooks, sobey just dont have any clue. Would any nbl player make an impact like what Bolden did tonight ? I highly doubt it. Without Bolden Australia would have lost. 
It is a joke that Bolden got so little court time, another reason why lemanis should be sacked.

Once again, people have very high expectations of a first, or second, game together. If you compare tonight's game from the night before you'd see that the team has improved massively in many key areas in merely a day. People are watching these games and wondering why it doesn't look like Rio. Well it won't... yet. Warm up games tend to be hideous garbage.

This is an illuminating article about the nature of friendlies and why they should be taken with a grain of salt

http://www.fiba.basketball/news/Don-t-trust-the-friendlies?fb_comment_id=547473928713595_548434468617541

The constant calls for Bolden over Kay are a bit surprising. I do agree that Bolden wins over Kay but apparantly Kay was a standout at the camp. If I'm already on Bolden's side, maybe I want Kay to have the opportunity, to prove me wrong.

I am not a Lemanis fan but in his place, on this issue, his problem is that Bolden was in and Kay was there to train against. Kay trains so well that he might just push Bolden out. How do you decide? Play the doubted one (Kay) against opposition, before it's too late.

Isn't that what pre-competiton games are all about, what works and what doesn't?

It seems that most of us have deided that it should be Bolden over Kay. Can we all hope that Lemanis makes the same choice on game-days?

PS. Thought that Goulding filled the exact role he should. I don't think that he will be instruemental overall, but as an impact off the bench for some outlandish 3's or some shut-down on an opponenet, whatever, if it works, good, if not, won't matter cos you can go back to (a solid) plan A. (Not well explained but you can work out what I mean.)

"Bolden gets less minutes than Kay, what a joke."

I wonder if the coaches are trying to get Kay and other NBL players to get the feel of playing against elite international teams? It would make sense.

As many posters have pointed out, Kay, Creek, Gliddon etc haven't had much opportunity to play international games outside of pretty meagre teams in the qualifying games. As other posters have said, World Cup standard opponents will provide far tougher opposition. So maybe the coaches are giving some players the change to prepare for the tournament that matters by playing them more in games that don't.