Damn auto correct lol

Delly
Mills
Baynes
Landale
Ingles

Exum
Goulding
Motum
Kay
Thybulle

Green
Kay

Broekhoff wasnt in any kind of form. I'd take Thybulle over Cotton. And with Bolden and Simmons, you cant mourn what you never had.

Delly
Mills
Ingles
Landale
Baynes
Exum
Goulding
Thybulle
Motum
Duop
Green
Cooks

Sorry got Kay in twice. Both Kay and Reath

Kay has a knack of making good plays but Motum has really been shooting well.Thats the toughest call for me.

Delly-Exum
Mills-Goulding
Ingles-Thybulle-green
Landale-cooks-Kay
Baynes-reath

This seems pretty close, but yeah Motum vs Kay is tough. Motum got left out last time, but new coach might change that.

I don't think Exum is going to be a 12th man if healthy...

I think green more likely to be 12th man than Exum.

Reath can consider himself lucky we are light on at centre.
In other positions people will miss out,
Kay, Motum and Cooks ( 2 out of 3)
Sobey and Giddey might also miss out although Giddey is the future of the team.
Creek probably the first man cut.

To be fair to Reath, they kept him in the squad and cut Magnay, so the sentiment from the coaching staff must be they see more in Reath than Magnay.

He's a back up Euroleague center with size, decent defender, who can hit the three. Probably the equal of a lot of back up centers that many teams will have out there thta none of us would have heard of before. It's not quite like bringing Pau Gasol off the bench but he will fill a hole for us regardless.

Ben has done Dante and Delly a favour.
They are both out of contract and playing well in the Olympics might help their futures in the NBA.
Over to them now,I hope they nail it.

I think in guards and wings we're going to be fine/pretty good. But the big man area is a concern for me. Duop Reath is no Bogut. Are we going to have to bring in an extra big man to cover for that deficit? Will we need to expect more of Jock Landale and is he up to it? Baynes is a big body but outside of Baynes I see no one with that intimidating frame that keeps guys out of the paint. I am hoping our rotations and team defense can account for that.

Definitely a problem with Serbia and Croatia.
Maybe a faster paced game and use our depth.
Running against Nigeria I'm not so sure,better to frustrate them

I doubt if Jock will be up to the banging of bodies which Baynes and Bogut had to do game after game, and we wouldn't want him to.

We need his all-round strengths, and will need to protect him so that he can give us those throughout the campaign. If he’s battered and bruised (or even injured) should we make the medal rounds, it will make us so much less dangerous.

It's really hard to know what hand we've been dealt with this team until we see them in action. They could end up being very good or they could be quite unbalanced and not really up to the job. I see ring protection as a concern though. We're probably going to be about to shoot the shit out of it, great wing defenders, question marks on ring protection. Suddenly we miss Thon Maker.

Really looking forward to seeing Thybulle on the team. Also would take Giddey for more ball handling on the bench. If not, you need to have Delly and Ingles on the court most of the time.

I can see Giddey going,plug and play 1-3 if you need him with elite passing.
Not an athlete but could make offence special.

I see Giddey being a lock from 2023 onwards.

I've been a bit married to the idea of having Goulding on the team but a mate put a line up to me that I kind of like -

"Baynes
Landale
Motum
Kay
Cooks

Ingles
Thybulle

Mills
Green
Delly
Exum
Giddey"

It's an athletic team, five guys over 6'10 in height. Cooks could easily be replaced by Duop Reath. It doesnt have the grunt inside that Bogut gives you but hopefully we can get it done inside by committee.

Watching a Serbia warm up game, and I admit it's premature, but I am not overawed by what I am seeing. I am sure theyre going to be much better by the time the Olympics come but on talent and size and those raw attributes I dont feel like we'll be outclassed. Certainly I worry less about perceived size differential watching it - outside of Maranjovic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHU_UxMJ27Y

This is why I get annoyed when posters carry on two years out with their "oh what are you some kind of idiot, "Player X" will never make the team when we have "A, B, C..."

When was the last time we had "Everyone" available?
EVERY time it comes around, players get injured, or are recovery, or make themselves unavailable for a variety of reasons.

And the irony is that it's players who have not had substantial international careers and not played NBA that are less likely to pull out. So guys like Martin, Kay, etc, DO get a shot.

What's the argument for Cooks over any of Landale/Kay/Motum/Creek? If he;s up against wings for a spot, can he expect to beat out Thybulle? Cooks can plug holes in case of injury as he is versatile, but I'm more concerned about providing a quality 4, preferably one that can swing to 5 at times. Kay, Creek and Landale are proven recent international performers, while Motum also has experience on the A-team and is in form. Cooks shot the 3-ball at 50% this season, but that's from just 1.3 shots/game. I don't see him as the stretch threat that Motum/Kay/Landale are. Then there is Creek, who is as athletic as Cooks and can offer a mobile small-ball 4 option, while developing his 3-point shot to be up 39% this past NBL season. I only saw a couple Kings games featuring Cooks, soon after his return from injury, but Cooks didn't prove his worth in those games for me.

I see the absence of Bogut and now Humphries to be concerning. The backup 5 either falls to Reath by default, or we need one of the stretch 4s (Landale, Motum, Kay) to backup there. Suddenly we appear weak at the 5.

I'm not a Goulding fan by any means, but he's proven he steps up in international basketball, here he knows he's not the man, but will take those open looks and he's become a better passer over the years along with pretty decent on court IQ. Can't see him not being in this team, all the attention will be on Mills and Ingles which leave Goulding to take wide open shots all day.

I think when it comes to inside depth we need to accept that the back up bigs of most other countries arent all that impressive either. Reath will get the spot by default but he will hold down the fort while Baynes is out. Landale can shift to the 5 at times. Then you have potential small ball line ups. It's not ideal but we could make do.

As for Cooks, I like his athleticism for potentially defending the four spot. We have a reasonably athletic and switchable defensive team and I think that should be our calling card. If we're not going to have the surplus of big men we need to be good at something, and that something should be thta we are long, athletic, defensively sharp and we can shoot.

Goulding's a lock but not sure where this Exum business is coming from though?

"
Please tell me who is bad in the backup big department for the other teams..."

Didnt say "bad" but I think you'll find back up Euroleague center is about the pedigree of most of them outside of the US.

I can see Landale having to shoulder a fair load for this team, next to Baynes and then next to Reath. His mobility and length will be important so even if he isn't a starter I see him getting starter minutes to create as close to a twin towers situation as we can, especially seeing as we havent got much muscle inside. If you cant have much muscle, you'd better have some height.

I've flip flopped a bit on Kay but if he makes the team it wouldn't surprise me. Just seems to put himself in the right place at the right time and there is always a spot on a team for a guy like that.

I expect to see Motum make it. When you're looking for bucket-getters at any big man position he stands clearly as the best we have. He's also one of our best three point shooters as well. I think he can book his ticket.


My team at this point.

Delly
Mills
Ingles
Landale
Baynes

Exum
Goulding
Thybulle
Green
Kay

Cooks/Creek/Giddey/Sobey (not too fussed but lean towards Cooks)
Reath


From 2019 you've replaced Barlow, Gliddon and Sobey with Thybulle, Green and Exum. Pretty substantial upgrade. Bogut for Reath is a fairly significant downgrade though. Cooks for Creek is like-for-like and I might even be swayed to take Creek over Cooks. Either way I think given our core and continuity we should be in the medal mix. But anything can happen. It is hard to know what a team is going to be like until you see them play, and there are enough changes here to make that still a question mark.

To bust the Goulding is proven at FIBA myth,

Check his 2019 world cup stats

He had 1 good game V our worst opponent

Against France, Lithuania, Spain the tough opponents, over 5 games he shot 2/15 from the field.

Also check his NBL playoffs stats this season, he shot below 40 percent in 4 out of 6 games.

So yea not sure why a 32 year old shooter, who doesnt even shoot that well is a must have for the boomers.

I think its crazy to even consider picking him ahead of Giddey, because he is so called proven and ready, when Giddey isnt, Im willing to bet Giddey could get more than 2/15 shots v those teams and brings alot more to the game than Goulding and is more than ready to make the Boomers 12.

Goulding doesnt make the 12 for me, but given he is in our 16 he does make the 15 for me and only comes into the 12 if one of our guards is out injured prior to the Olympics starting, which hopefully doesnt happen.

Hmmmm...that's interesting regarding the Goulding stats, maybe it's the fact he's quite aggressive out there which helps make him pass the eye test? I wouldn't be bothered if Giddey was in instead, I feel we need to bring him into the fold earlier rather than later and it's always good to get a couple of the young future stars around now.

Captain Jack, Goulding is proven check out the couple of big games he had at the last two WC's and just to bust open your 'Goulding isn't proven' myth he also dropped 20 on Team USA in one of those warm up games here. He also just had two very good games in the 3 game NBL grand final series.

Goulding is a big game performer and when a lot of our guys go into their shells in big games he's a great option to have out there as he's cold blooded and can get his shots off over any defenders i.e. proven.

He played too decent/good games at the world cup V our 2 weakest opponents, as i said against the good teams in 5 games he shot 2/15.

In Game 3 of the Grand finals he shot 33%, scored 14 points, with 9 in the first quarter, sure it helped get them going, but he basically did nothing after that and didnt really stop Perth getting right back in it.

He might be flashy and exciting at times, but is that really a great game, when an import like Casper Ware scored 14pts and shot 33% everyone bashes him for it.

He's im my boomers 15, but not my 12, just dont see why hes considered a must have.

"He played too decent/good games at the world cup V our 2 weakest opponents, as i said against the good teams in 5 games he shot 2/15."

Who are the two weakest opponents you refer to?

It's true he didn't offer much with his 3-point shooting in the France games and versus Spain (0/2 in each France game, 1/6 vs Spain). Imagine wthe resuly if Goulding shot the ball a little better versus Spain.

Let's look at Goulding's two highest scoring games:
vs Canada, 16pts (2pt: 4/4, 3pt: 2/3, FT: 2/3)
vs Dominican Rep, 15pts (2pt: 0/2, 3pt: 3/9, FT: 6/6)

Canada game was crucial for the Boomers to start the tournament well, something uncharacteristic for the Boomers in major tournaments. It was a great start to the tournament for Goulding. The team was down versus Dom Rep, struggled to score for parts of the game, which is why someone like Goulding is a valuable addition. He isn't just a spot up shooter, so don't just look at his 3pt performance.

Another strong games was versus Czechia: 14pts (2pt: 1/2, 3pt: 4/11). Vital scoring in this quarter-final.

His value isn't necessarily putting up high efficiency shooting, which I think he remains capable of, but producing scoring options when the team is struggling. We are not exactly loaded with shot-creating offensive threats. The Boomers play well off their system, but when that's not producing offence, someone like Goulding becomes more valuable. He has confidence and he can create his own shot.

Besides, if scoring well against lesser opponents is the criticism, don't you also want one of your bench shooting guards to be able to perform when playing minutes in the lesser games to take some load off your core players?

Further on the criticism of Goulding's shooting in the World Cup, here is a comparison from that tournament.

3-point shooting:

Ingles 26% 10/38
Delly 36% 14/39
Mills 40% 23/57
Kay 17% 1/6
Baynes 52% 11/21
Landale 47% 7/15
Creek 0% 0/2
Goulding 32% 12/37

Notice that Goulding launched nearly as many 3s as Ingles and Delly.


The main concerns with respect to Tokyo here are Baynes and Delly. Both appear to have regressed in terms of shooting. In the NBA, Baynes went from 35% down to 26% last season. Delly has gone 34%, 23%, 16% over the past 3 seasons. That's a very concerning downward slide. Ingles might be able to make up for some of it in Tokyo after his substandard shooting in the World Cup. We once again will need Mills to shoot well for the Boomers.

The thing with a guy like Goulding for the Boomers is, if he's hot you ride it, if he's not then bench him and go with a different option. When he's hot he's worth having out there.

Goulding's weak defence will make him a target for attacking and drawing fouls as soon as he steps on the court.

I can’t see him getting too many minutes unless the others cover for him on 'd’, which top teams will punish us for. If we have enough other good shooters, then we can afford to leave him at home and blood some youth

Goulding has improved his defence significantly under Vickerman. He's no lockdown defender but he keeps his man honest now.

"Other teams...
Focus all ya attention on defending mills and they will struggle."

Yeah they got that memo years ago. What's changed? It's not like we had all these offensive weapons that have suddenly disappeared now. This has always been Patty's team and as of yet, they've not stopped him. What Bryce Cotton is to the NBL, Patty Mills is to FIBA.

"I don't think this team is a medal chance, no one can cover Boguts contribution.
Gliddon, Barlow and Sobey dnp much at all in the WC. Yes we have upgraded on Gliddon and Barlow but not enough offensively."

Bogut's contribution will have to be done by committee. I admit it's hard to gauge our medal prospects but I am not counting them out just yet. The Boomers wont be the only team hampered with injuries and pull outs. We still have the core that has taken us there. We have more athleticism than we've ever had. I think it's a case of just seeing how they play together.

"Goulding has improved his defence significantly under Vickerman. He's no lockdown defender but he keeps his man honest now."

Goulding proved at the world cup that she can defend admirably for short bursts. He's not going to be playing that many minutes so I don't think his 'average' defense will be a big hinderance.

"The thing with a guy like Goulding for the Boomers is, if he's hot you ride it, if he's not then bench him and go with a different option. When he's hot he's worth having out there."

This I agree with.