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Asia cup stuff won't be an issue. I mean it Iran makes it to the Olympics that says a lot. Tbh NZ should join - how many Asia cup spots make it to WCs and Olympics? 2/3? If there’s three we’d always see Oz/NZ/China or Iran or Philippines I guess

Having only 5 spots will make games much more interesting.

Can't wait for the Asia Cup but bummed it isn’t happening this year due to covid in Indonesia.

November would of been a good time to have the Asian tournament since you would think the NBL would be starting in later December or early January. Unless covid numbers disappear in the next 2 months for an October start, very unlikely happening.

If it's in July the Boomers need to consider a similar lineup we have now, but only slight changes to the roster. You would think to replace the older or injury prone players. It will be good for the Boomers preparation for 2024 games in Paris. Also, the Boomers need to make a statement in Asia. It’s not as easy as it use to be.

C Humphries/Reath
F Kay/Magnay
F Broekhoff/Cooks/Creek
G Sobey/Goulding/Vasiljevic
G Cotton/McCarron

They'd win Asia cup easy

Boomers need to make a statement in Asia.

Why?

Aside from NZ who's competitive?

Asia is full of lightweights - the margins we won by at the Asian Cup were a farce.

Indonesia's participation as a Host team was conditional on them getting their shit together, and doing something serious about improving the quality of their basketball, to at least the point it wouldn't be actually dangerous for them to compete.

Then Covid hit.
They're fucked, and the chances of them being allowed to compete would be somewhere between zero and fuck-all.

I have never understood the obsession with BBball in Japan and the Phillipines. It would be like the Tongans going in for Figure-Skating.

Only Japan and the Philippines have guaranteed spots for 2023. Indonesia has to reach the quarterfinals in the Asia Cup to have that automatic spot.

China and Japan are still easy beats for Australia

Japan you can't take lightly. Look at the Japanese woman team. No one thought they would make the gold medal?

Japanese always work hard. Have the Opals ever won the Asian Cup??

" So easy that we lost to them in qualyfying with prime Delly and maker + top nbl guys."

Lost one game in 4+ years, by 1 point where the players didn't give a shit.

Very different to an even stronger nbl contingent for any game that actually matters in 2021.

They smacked Japan by 24pts in the same tournament.

Name calling doesn't cover up the fact you don’t have a clue about international basketball.

Japan is not a risk to Australia. China is not a risk to Australia. Australia will clean them up when necessary, they’ve done that to date and will continue to do so.

It's Asian qualifiers I think we have enough talent to get through within the NBL ranks.

McCarron, Sobey, Goulding, Dellavedova, Norton, Ķing? etc are enough to cover guards.

Humphries, Dech, S Froling, Blanchfield, Travers, Reath, JLA, Creek, Pineau, Magnay, McVeigh, Hunter, Cooks and Broekhoff more than cover wings and bigs.

If you think Japan will trouble Australia, you're taking the piss

^ A full strength Japan against an NBL Only Australia will definitely cause trouble. Japan has already proven themselves from their tune ups to the Olympics that they can be competitive. They were really fucked when their Import was injured in the second quarter against Slovenia. After that they had no chance to be competitive against Slovenia and Argentina. Japan is the only Asian team that has any real threat especially in full strength, the boomers should easily gold next year even with an NBL lineup. New Zealand is probably the only real threat. They should outclass all of their games next year. I expect a dominating route to the Gold.

Last time we had guys like Cadee and Drmic

This time perhaps we'd have:

Tokyo 2020 Team: Reath, Goulding, Sobey (better now than then)

Tokyo extended squad: Cooks (if Ingles doesn’t feature I’d have in in our Paris2024 team), Magnay

Broekhoff and Humphries whom if they didn’t withdraw would I’d have had in Tokyo2020 team

Plus Vasiljevic - IMO will be in Paris2024 as our sharpshooter.

Plus maybe Delly if he plays NBL

That would be 8/9 Olympic level players. If Cotton makes citizenship we’d be talking a 10th player.

This isn’t just a few Olympic level players plus nbl stars anymore.

Potentially have Creek in there too

^ Is there really an "olympic" level players? I am sorry but I don't buy it. You have to remember that teams are developing too not only Australia. Even Iran in fairness made it tough to the Czechs and I thought that they would lose by 30. New Zealand and Japan (full Strength) won't make it easy in 2022. If Japan only has players from the B league against an NBL Australia team then the boomers would easily be 20 plus points favorites. New Zealand will make it tough for them but that is the only team that would make it competitive for me.

Only teams that could make it interesting against NBL Boomers in 2022 are New Zealand and Japan.

China and the Philippines are rebuilding, most of their players are young. China swept Japan in the ACQ without Rui, Baba and Yuta. Philippines swept Korea also. China and Philippines also put up some decent performances in the OQT especially the Philippines against Serbia.

Jordan has some nice players especially Ahmet Düverioğlu who plays for Fenerbache. They could make it tough but still an easy win for Australia.

Korea with their main players will also be tough but it should be a 15 point above victory for the NBL Boomers.

Iran is old as fuck but I think they can still perform in 2022.

Top 3 teams should be NBL Boomers, New Zealand and Japan (with main stars).

" Is there really an "olympic" level players?"

Yes, ofcourse there is.

For Australia even more important in the context of Tokyo and Paris that was and likely to be strong teams.

Can't say “it’s not Tokyo 2020 team” whilst it’s likely to have 5 or 6 minimum from the Tokyo squad and another 3 or so from what would be in the final Paris2024 squad.

^ Yes I get your point but calling players Olympic level or WC level is rubbish in my opinion. There are only great players and New Zealand and Japan has these. Not all Olympic teams are equal obviously especially with Iran. Plenty of teams like Serbia, Greece, Lithuania has great players also but could not make it and they are easily favorites against an NBL Australia lineup. Let's be real the teams that qualified like IRAN and Japan are obviously not any better than Serbia and Greece but it is what it is. Which is why I don't buy in to the Olympic level. Much better to judge players on their respective leagues.

You're missing the obvious point.

Sometimes there’s a real distinction between your Olympic side being full of your top options and something like Asia Cup being a side of "best available" which may be your local league players and no where near the “Olympic standard team”.

In this case, Anon suggests that say, a Japanese side in qualifiers will be essentially their Olympic team whilst Australia’s will be NBL players, therefore Japan wouldn’t be so easy to beat.

The point I’ve made in return is if you considered the players in Tokyo Olympic team now - a strong team, and a few players that would have been in it like Humphries, and if you consider those that we expect to be our next Olympic team due to their talent, there’s potentially 10 Olympic level players.

That’s a very talented team to put on the floor, not a bunch of NBL stars like Jason Cadee like last time.

We are talking Goulding, Sobey, Reath, Delly (Tokyo2020), Creek, Broekhoff (Rio2016), Cooks, Humphries, Vasiljevic, Magnay (Likely Paris2024) - plus maybe Kay (Tokyo2020)

That is a totally different side to what they’ve ever put on the floor for “NBL stars” in the past.

If we struggled against a full Japan team with that side, we’d be in a lot of trouble going into Paris2024.