Sobey provides some offence and can be third string pg. I think dropping giddey is fair enough, having a guy ride the bench purely for experience isn't considering on court impact.

Motum very unlucky imo.
Also look to be one big man short. Would have left Sobey out.

Stoked for Sobey. Warranted for mine.

I didn't expect 8 guards/swingmen and only 4 bigs. If any of the bigs go down, we are very shallow in the frontcourt.

Of the 5 current/ex-Sixers, I would not have tipped that Sobey would be the only one that made the team. Crazy to me Creek isn't in the team.

So the "absolute shock" and "ludicrous" decision was just an unproven 18 year old being one of the last cuts?
Alrighty then.

It was always going to be a slightly unusual mix given the players available. IMO the unluckiest is probably Motum. Still not anything in the realm of a shock though.

Looking forward to seeing how we go.
I can't say my expectations are particularly high but I'm always willing to be pleasantly surprised.

I'll pass on Instagram.
I'm a big fan of Giddey, but this team needs to be built to win right now.

It would be great if we had a rock solid rotation of 10 that allowed us to bring a guy partly for the experience, but IMO that's not where this team is atm.
Giddey has a lot of years in green & gold ahead of him (assuming he wants to).

Agreed, Giddey being omitted is a total non-issue.

It feels weird having no Wildcats representation in the squad.

Pretty good team IMO. I probably would've left out Green & Exum and included Creek & Giddey but can understand Creek being left out with all the problems around him and Giddey being inexperienced.

As expected Sobey & Goulding are in there not sure how anyone could've made an argument for either of their exclusions but Goorj got a good first hand look at these two this season so he knows.

Maker 7'0 4-5 27**********

Motum should be in there over Kay for me.

Luuuc you think Thon is really 35?

Interesting. Bit of a small ball lineup. Bit surprised Cooks, Creek and Motum all missed out and only 3 talls plus Kay, who's a relatively unathletic 4 man, who from memory didn't set the world alight in his minor minutes at World Cup. And the rest wing players or guards. Any injury to those 4 and we're in a bit of trouble. After all the injuries in recent NBA playoffs and NBL season, makes me a little uneasy to be honest.

I stand corrected. Kay did OK at WC.

Still I'd much rather 5 potential inside players instead of 4.

Small ball madness for mine. Doesn't look like a team designed to beat a Spain or Argentina or France (that we will need to do to medal)
We look short on bigs, one injury will see us struggle, a lot riding on Baynes re-finding his form and Kat stepping up to play more than support minutes. Death unknown internationally but Goorjian must have seen enough to think he can do the job.
I don’t see Sobey playing a lot and not sure what he brings, would’ve preferred some big insurance (Motum) or x-factor (Giddey).
Hoping to be proved wrong.

I don't get the small-ball comments in regards to the frontcourt.
I thought only two of would make it, and it's Kay and Reath, hardly shocking.
Motum wouldn't have added much. With the cattle available it would have to be something exceptional to run a 3-man frontcourt, so 4 players to cover 2 spots is perfect.

My personal opinion is that we're a little thin at the 3 spot, with both Creek and Cooks out. But I'm assuming that, as is the modern way, Goorj wants to run 3-point shooters in the 3 spot.

Pretty simple. 12 spots on the roster and only 4 given to players who regularly play the 4 or 5 spots.

I'm surprised by Motum's omission more than Cooks. I thought Sobey would miss out due to depth at the guard spots.

I don't really see the small-ball potential here. Baynes, Reath and Kay are more plodding bigs. You might be able to play Landale some minutes at the 5, maybe. If Simmons was there, we might've seen some fast-tempo lineups that remained big, but I don't see that for this team. I don't know where Goorj is going with the balance of this team. Maybe it's a reflection of players in form.

Exum is bound to get injured in the preparation (not that I wish that to him), so you'd think one of the 3 reservists will get called. Would you go with Giddey or a big instead?

Apart from the lack of bigs, an area of possible concern for me with the Boomers is that they don't have many guys that are flat out scorers and can create their own shot when we need a basket.

Mills is obviously one guy that can do it and carried a huge part of the offence in 2019 averaging almost 23ppg but became noticeably fatigued as the tournament wore on. But at 32, it's a big ask for him and if he's locked down by the opponent's best defender it will make it tough. Our scoring fell away dramatically after Mills with Baynes the next best at 11.4ppg and then Ingles 10.5ppg. Ingles is excellent at creating for others but relies to an extent on other people creating for him to be able to shoot his highly accurate three.

One positive is Landale is a better player than a few years ago so he should provide some of the offence that Bogut provided in 2019.

I think we're very good defensively particularly with Thybulle in the squad but I do worry about our offence with an older Mills, Ingles and Baynes.

Anyone know if the Boomers Vegas games are being streamed on any platform?

Good question Ben.

Discussion about it can be found here:

https://www.hoops.com.au/forum/48776-pre-olympic-games-boomers-in-las-vegas-2021/

I don't think this was the team anyone picked when they were prognosticating over the team but when I really look at it, I like it.

I think Motum is the most noteable exception but sometimes a guy can be a great player or have great attributes but just not fit what the rest of the team is geared towards doing.

There isn't a lot of injury insurance with the team especially with big men but le'ts face it, if any of main guys go down (knock on wood and pray to god they don't), then we are really going to struggle. We have to place the bet on the guys we have.

On the upside for this team, I can see a harassing defensive style that is going to be extremely frustrating for opposing offenses. Our lack of depth in the big man department may be negated by not allowing teams to get the ball into opposition big men in the first place.

Some people might worry about our scoring but I am not really. Exum will get buckets at this level. Green can probably get buckets at this level. Thybulle will score more than he does in the NBA. Nathan Sobey isn't adverse to getting buckets. It doesn't 'necessarily' all come down to Mills and Ingles. There werent all these amazing scorers in previous campaigns so I am not sure why that should suddenly be a problem now.

I think in the end Goorjian has opted towards exploiting the strengths of the squad he was handed. It wasn't perfectly balanced so he accepted it, and rather than keep any of the dogged defender-style guards out, he kept them all in and added Sobey, who brings his own tenacity. I think you're going to get a team that plays up the floor and is a pain in the ass to bring the ball up against.

As for keeping Giddey out, I support it. Good kid. A load of talent but not ready. You dont use the Olympic games to develop players.

So Me,what do you think Kay brings that kept Motum out.
He's been a real good shooter this year and he's 6'11"

Royba, Kay is stronger on defence and rebounding than Motum and proved himself in the World Championships. I would have liked to see Motum in for his sweet shooting, perhaps for Green. But ME is right, Goorjian has gone for more athleticism and defence and will probably look to pressure opponents up the floor.

Defense, rebounding, nose for the ball, cutting, working off the ball.

I havent seen Motum play much lately, but he strikes me as a player who needs the ball to be successful. Nick Kay doesn't and that might just work better given the other players in the squad who may also demand some of the ball.

Team balance is an important thing and I think Canada's loss today highlights that. Sometimes talent isn't the only thing that gets you over the line. it comes down to chemistry, players accepting roles, having the right mix of players that compliment eachother. And when it comes to the last few places, this is why we've got Sobey's over Giddeys, and Kays over Motums.

Thanks guys.
To me looking at the Boomers offensively I think we will have to play up tempo but if we get in half court battles we need to play 5 out and shoot 3s.Hence I would have thought Motum.
Defensively we won't win the rebounding anyway and we will not be able to stop some of the big centres out there so I would not think Kay s a big factor there anyway.
Maybe he is just that link guy that makes things work and I haven't seen it.

I think we've got plenty of guards and forwards that will be able to rebound. Rebounding isn't just for centers.

RE;
"He will play PF against the smaller team due to his length."

and

"No he won't.... He guards 1-2s in nba with low scoring/rebounding."

It actually makes the point. 1's & 2's in the NBA are the same size as 3's & 4's in small-ball, at internationals and they play/score mainly from the perimeter.

Green a 4? I can understand the claim that Creek can play 4 in major international tournaments, but Green and Thybulle?

The team will have to be a bit creative and unconventional with how it handles interior defense, scoring and rebounding because outside of Baynes (and to a lesser extent, landale) there's not a whole lot of beef in the big positions. I'd hope Goorjian has accounted for that when putting this team together. I trust he must have, because it's no small deal if Baynes gets into foul trouble.

I haven't seen enough of Reath to say I trust him manning the fort, certainly not to the extent Bogut did. If Goorjian has picked him up clearly he rates him though. If it weren't for question marks inside I'd be very confident in a medal for this team. I just hope they have an answer for that.

I'm very curious to see how Reath goes. He basically became the backyp 5 by default when Humphries pulled out.

Firstly massive props to Dante, he could have thrown in the towel on his international career due to his injuries but we will all see him showing off his wares at the Olympics and I'm so excited to see him... was his last game for Australia also Simmons last game?

This team really feels Bogut missing more than anything but he has helped built the culture and
I hope our boys do him proud.

I'm a bit concerned about foul trouble to our bigs and with Delly and Dante missing a lot of game time I hope they stay fit for the whole tournament.

I do wonder about Simmons and who he'd have replaced had he been in this team, I mean surely it would be a guard but he does have length and can play every position and he would solve issues with rebounding too.... oh well

Yeah I'm a little worried about the lack of depth at 4 and 5. I'm really disappointed that Motum missed out again. At least this time we're taking emergencies so we don't end up with another Barlow situation.

Sobey vs Giddey was always going to be a judgment call on development vs win now. I get the feeling Goorj will play a longer bench that Andrej did depending on match ups etc and with our core aging and looking tired at the end of tournaments recently.

Some big surprises have come about in qualification that likely bolster Australia's medal chances, including Serbia, Lithuania and Brazil not making the Olympics, and our group rounding out with Italy, Germany and Nigeria.

Australia actually walks into this group as favourite, on paper.

Of course, each team has to be quality to have made it through a tough qualifying process, but I think there is no doubt that Brazil, Serbia and Lithuania, with their experience, size and pedigree would have eventually warmed into the Olympic tournament. Chances are Italy, Germany and Slovenia have somewhat hit their foes by surprise.

The teams that qualified trend towards being smaller than those who didnt so that might bode well for us in the team we've selected and how they will play.

Either way, if Australia does top the group - and let's take nothing for granted - our crossovers look like highly winnable games between either Argentina, Slovenia, or one of Czech Republic or Greece, likely escaping France, USA and Spain until the semi finals - an ideal situation.

"I disagree me, these teams did not show full squad.

Germany is missing Schroeder, kleber, theis, hartenstein, zipser, Wagner brother.

Italy gallinari and another I can't remember."


Any word that these guys are actually joining them for the Olympics?

and yeah, Nigeria has talent. So does Canada. We saw how that ended up.

Just read Dennis Schroeder is out. Gallinari "may" be in. Hmm

Theis is definitely out injured, Kleber probably too. With Schröder it's an insurance thing, because he's a free agent nobody is paying the (injury) insurance money, which is about $ 20 Mio. (his projected salary next year). Insurance is normally paid for by NBA team.

I am not sure about Italy's situation but will find out.

It looks like Gallinari will probably join italy from what I am reading but Binelli and Datome for Italy will not be joining. Germany look to remain basiclaly as is.

Still our best possible group scenario