I'm thinking Giddey will be more Alien like this year. But France are pumping out stars. 6 in the latest draft alone!

Who would you all roster for 26/27?

I think we've had our medal window. It was after Spain’s downfall and before Serbia/France’s rise and Canada caring to play.

I think 4th to 7th is more likely/possible as USA, Canada, France and Serbia are almost a lock for top 4. But as we know anything can happen.

We had depth but now many countries do.

Some people still seem to think Rocco could be our alien, I'd be surprised but you never know

A friend of mine said something interesting, he thinks because France is getting so many African players with athleticism through thats fast tracking them, whereas our Sudanese-Australians dont quite have the physical strength or athleticism of the other African nations so we arent getting these Wemby types.

Ben Simmons was meant to be our alien, now we barely want to acknowledge his citizenship.

I feel like we've got a lot of good - solid players and some guys with some standout attributes. I think we will have a better shooting team than we've had in recent memory and a very good team defense but I am not seeing much for us inside as far as scoring and shot blocking. We also dont yet have a go-to scorer or an alien who is going to draw enough attention or make big plays for us consistently.

But what we do have:

Josh Giddey is an excellent international point guard and that will only continue to improve
Dyson Daniels is one of the best defenders in the world
Thybulle as above
Furphy-McVeigh very good three point prospects
Landale-Condon will be a very active and agile centre rotation with the ability to pick-pop-roll to the rim
Tyrese Proctor (given time and some gym work) 'could' be a go-to scorer for this team.

Question mark: Can Zikarsky develop into an anchor inside?
Is Dash Daniels a top level NBA prospect?

I think at the next tournament the Boomers will be a top 8 team - they'll be competitive and probably win a game or two they're not favoured to win. But for them to win a medal I think we need the following:

* a favourable draw and first crossover
* Giddey to continue his trajectory
* Something new or unexpected inside
* Great coaching or team ethos to overcome the lack of an alien

- there IS the Ben Simmons question. No he can no longer carry a team but can he provide an upgrade to a Nick Kay inside and be useful enough to give the team another element?

And it wouldn't hurt if some of the big teams show up undermanned.

With two years to go, these provisos are possible.

+

A friend of mine said something interesting, he thinks because France is getting so many African players with athleticism through thats fast tracking them, whereas our Sudanese-Australians dont quite have the physical strength or athleticism of the other African nations so we arent getting these Wemby types.

Ben Simmons was meant to be our alien, now we barely want to acknowledge his citizenship.

I feel like we've got a lot of good - solid players and some guys with some standout attributes. I think we will have a better shooting team than we've had in recent memory and a very good team defense but I am not seeing much for us inside as far as scoring and shot blocking. We also dont yet have a go-to scorer or an alien who is going to draw enough attention or make big plays for us consistently.

But what we do have:

Josh Giddey is an excellent international point guard and that will only continue to improve
Dyson Daniels is one of the best defenders in the world
Thybulle as above
Furphy-McVeigh very good three point prospects
Landale-Condon will be a very active and agile centre rotation with the ability to pick-pop-roll to the rim
Tyrese Proctor (given time and some gym work) 'could' be a go-to scorer for this team.

Question mark: Can Zikarsky develop into an anchor inside?
Is Dash Daniels a top level NBA prospect?

I think at the next tournament the Boomers will be a top 8 team - they'll be competitive and probably win a game or two they're not favoured to win. But for them to win a medal I think we need the following:

* a favourable draw and first crossover
* Giddey to continue his trajectory
* Something new or unexpected inside
* Great coaching or team ethos to overcome the lack of an alien

- there IS the Ben Simmons question. No he can no longer carry a team but can he provide an upgrade to a Nick Kay inside and be useful enough to give the team another element?

And it wouldn't hurt if some of the big teams show up undermanned.

With two years to go, these provisos are possible.

+

Yeah Simmons was really the one who had the raw ability to be a star, but unfortunately we all know how that turned out.

I've heard people say that our system produces role players because kids are taught winning the their team above all from a young age more so here where as in the US specifically stars are allowed to shine. Basically our players are too unselfish. I dont know whether I buy that but its interesting.

IF we want to compete, we have to learn into what we have, and while Giddey has his critics, he is a guy who can run a team and his perfect situation is a team that just puts the ball in his hands and says go for it. So we basically need to put athletes and shooters around him and just hope for the best.

Dyson Daniels I think still has another level offensively where he can become a genuine star if he keeps putting in the work at that end.

This is what I liked about Chris Goulding. NO.. he's not an alien or even close. But he was a guy with some arrogance who would take shots outside of the offense and have the confidence to make them. I cant think of too many other Aussies who fit that mould and that's why I never minded having him somewhere on a Boomers bench.

And yet somehow in Paris against Serbia in the first half we were 25 points up....

Now well documented what Pesic did and how Serbia turned around that deciding game
Sure better players bigs etc would help
But if your coaches have not prepared themselves and the team to negate Euro ball..
We will always suffer in those pressure do or die situations.

I think our teams have been good at playing at super high intensity and throwing some of the European teams off guard (and shit, even the USA at different points), and then they just hit us with composure, experience, chipping away, and we dont have the composure, experience or singular talents to close them out.

Thats something I love about the Australian playstyle, when we get up the court and disruptive and play full court defense and just suffocate teams. That was the blueprint to the first 3 quarters against Serbia. But the question is sustaining that while also putting enough points on the board yourself to pull away. I dont think we can play the low scoring Euro game. Our style will be original and our own.

Good points, ME. I'd add that we need to have a number of options when we do press and disrupt. It’s great when it works, but if the opposition can work out how to counter it after a quarter or two then we’re still probably screwed. We need to have enough options that we can decide when and where and how we’re going to control the whole game, not just blitz them for a quarter or half and go on the back foot for the rest of the game.

I STILL reckon we’re too NBA-centric, which isn’t an advantage against Euro teams, and only gives us a slight chance of success against teams like the USA or Canada who play that way. If most of our games are against teams playing a non-NBA style, then isn’t it smarter to select a squad and playing style to win the majority games rather than for a hopeful win against the USA (if we even get that far)?

We definitely have a new age wave. Ages in 2026:

Giddey (23)
Exum (30)
Proctor (22)
Daniels (23)
Furphy (21)
Green (25)
Thybulle (29)
Landale (30)
Zikarsky (20)
Reath (30)

+ Patty

Who am i missing?

Who am i missing?

+ Patty

Patty? pls.

I disagree with the feeling that we teach too much team ball. It is that very teamwork and fundamentals that get so many of our players into top leagues and (when you have a coach with a system to use those skills)continued success on the international stage.

Like every nation except the USA we have our up and down times. We just currently haven't lucked into a big or 2 with the physical tools and skill in many years. Servicable sure but I don't see a star on the horizon. I also don't see anyone in recent times bar BS and possibly Exum due to injuries who could have turned out much better than they currently are with a more USA style upbringing.


Which leaves as to continue on the path of using our systems/fundamentals at each end to take us as far as possible until that rare diamond or two comes along again. Those aliens rely more on nature than nurture.

Hopefully Caporn can develop a system that uses our strengths unlike his predecessor who mostly relied on individuals to create.

I disagree with the feeling that we teach too much team ball. It is that very teamwork and fundamentals that get so many of our players into top leagues and (when you have a coach with a system to use those skills)continued success on the international stage.

Like every nation except the USA we have our up and down times. We just currently haven't lucked into a big or 2 with the physical tools and skill in many years. Servicable sure but I don't see a star on the horizon. I also don't see anyone in recent times bar BS and possibly Exum due to injuries who could have turned out much better than they currently are with a more USA style upbringing.


Which leaves as to continue on the path of using our systems/fundamentals at each end to take us as far as possible until that rare diamond or two comes along again. Those aliens rely more on nature than nurture.

Hopefully Caporn can develop a system that uses our strengths unlike his predecessor who mostly relied on individuals to create.

I agree, team work is essential but an alpha dog is also a top requirement to get medals or sometimes a lucky draw. Did Caporn work under Lemanis ?even though they never meddled imo it was our best team ever. Bogut was a beast and Pati and Ingles were in there prime, fing fiba head quarters. Hopefully Caporn can get us back to that standard instead of the iso offence.

No doubt about the need for an alpha but what I guess I'm trying to say it that they can't be manufactured. The last genetic shot we had at one was BS.

You also need quality around that player. Look at Greece despite Giannis. Slovenia and Doncic etc.

Dunkman. Do you see anyone on the horizon who may be that top 10 international player.

At present it is Giddey's team and he is still young so I'm happy enough that with good coaching (Lemanis like)that we can maximise our strengths and with an ounce of luck get some reasonable results.

I'll be honest, I don’t know who is around that can step up at present but imo, if you have a gun point guard and five man you are on your way, balance the other pieces around them, ( Bogut-Mills of days gone). If Olbrich keeps going ahead in leaps and bounds, he’ll be a chance, he’s still very young. Giddey is probably best point at present but I’m not sold on him yet, fiba tournaments are hard to achieve medals.

There's always a lot of talk about players in these threads, but as a Kiwi where Australia was let down in the last two tournaments wasn't playing capability it was the coaching staff.

Boils down to basketball Australia showing no initiative and keep hiring the same old faces to develop talent, then wonder why we don't have much.
Interesting that South Sudan had a decent percentage of players that played here in their youth, but doubt any of them would make a boomers squad yet were one of the more exciting teams at the Olympics.
Yet the Boomer's go with the normal 6 7 role players and keep someone like Goulding, who is a world standard streaky shooter on the bench.
Led by Brian who's a joke and now replaced by Caporn who's done sweet F all.
At least with Mills there was always a chance of him going off for a random 30 piece, Giddey is a facilitator but teams are hardly scared of him.
And Rocco can't even get minutes in the summer league, let alone a main international tournament.
But just like the Sixers, the same old faces will do a review after a disappointing result and conclude nothing really needs to change.
Probably will wheel out the corpse of Joe Ingles and say he's great for team culture again.

I dont understand the Caporn signing for head coach. There are a lot of people who seem to think we need to hire Australian coaches, and that's great if you're the NBL. Not so great if you're the national team and you're hiring a guy whose never run a fully fledged professional team before. You dont just take a punt on the national team just because the guy is Australian. And if its going to be a continuation of the Goorjian philosophies then I have no interest in that. Goorjian has turned into the Joe Biden of Australian basketball, treating us to long, confusing rants before meandering to a point, and then having all his assistants do the actual coaching. As far as Caporn goes we picked literally the least credentialed candidate for head coach and I dont like the idea he's going to be using major tournaments to cut his teeth. We literally had the coach of the world champion German team as an option and we went with Adam Caporn.

They went with Caporn because our NBA players like him. Groan.

Liking him and him being able to coach you to success arent the same thing. Keep his as an assistant maybe but anything beyond that is a stretch. I get it takes time to adjust to the international game and every coach needs a first shot, Id just prefer it wasnt with our national team, especially when we had other options. A major tournament only comes about every few years. You dont get a second chance next season and every player in the program is not guaranteed another chance to wear the jersey.

I'm not sure why you had to explain that when it goes without saying. BA took the easy way out, even after prolonging Brian for too long, with Caporn. It sucks - they are jeopardising our shot at medalling again big time.

"NBA players like him" - the problem with that is that they won't improve much by staying in their comfort zone.

“BA took the easy way out” - what a surprise!? It’s cheap, they can control him (& what he might say about BA), and they probably hoped to gain a lot of PR (and government money?) by promoting an Australian as part of their 'coaching pathway’. No doubt many KPIs were ticked off by this appointment.

“Goorjian turned into the Joe Biden ...” - great comparison!!

“The same old faces will do a review ...” - and always find a scapegoat instead of looking in the mirror to find the main reason we f**ked up AGAIN.

Phantom summed it up so well.

I think it’s a woeful appointment compared with the true quality one we might have had who could REALLY have made an improvement. Soccer is a great comparison - taking a punt on a few international coaches made a big difference to our attitudes and skill levels.

Good luck to all - no doubt we hope for the best for the group - but it’s not looking encouraging so far.

Watched the recent Summer League interview with Goorg and he could only name three out of a possible fifteen Aussies playing in Summer League.
Are Caporn or Cotter there? Could we hear from some other Aussie coaches there or don't we have any?
How many Aussie head coaches are there in the NBL, three?

I actually think Caporn might have been the best candidate available who knew anything about our players. And I am not blaming the players preferring Caporn who for some may be the only Aussie coach or applicant they have ever known.

Unlike soccer, Euro basketball coaches could be less aware or knowledgeable of our players let alone have any relationships with them. What candidates do we have in the pipeline for the future, Bogut?
My feeling is we need to do more to develop our own, and it should start with our media who show no interest in coaching until they need a story after an NBL game has finished. I have been out of it a little while myself but mentoring would help pathways also and just a greater awareness in Australian basketball culture that coaching matters and is in fact interesting.
For mine everything around coaching in the Boomers program needs to improve for us to medal. By the time we look at the next candidates to interview it’s just too late

The Brian/Biden comparison is absolute gold!!!
Still have no idea why he's over at summer league except feeding his ego.
I would compare Caporn to Jordan Belfort from Wolf of Wall Street. Talks like he knows what he's doing and sounds good, but ultimately will cripple the program.
There's a reason why European players are dominating the NBA despite not being the physical freaks like the Americans have, exception would be Giannis, but Luka summed it up that it's easier to score in the NBA than Europe or fiba.
Australia needs to copy more of their style of play than the American style because we simply don't have the athletes like the US. Even they had to recruit Embiid because that was a massive weakness for them.
One of the other choices was Snyder who despite being American has embraced a lot of European concepts, yet we go with Caporn that's going to run stuff that won't suit the personnel. Of course the players will like him because they know they won't be challenged and get out of their comfort zone and just jack up 3s.
Yet Australia seems to think America is still the pinnacle of basketball. Sure they've won the Olympics lately, but are hardly a certainty anymore. But a camp in Adelaide is spruiking how they're bringing an NBA skills coach from Golden State that will show skills that Curry and Draymond use and charging ridiculous prices and trying to attract 10 year olds who would just get as much benefit simply playing at the playground with their mates and actually competing, rather than doing drills you can get off YouTube. But the guy running it is another Wolf of Wall Street, just lands jobs by having a smooth tongue than actually doing anything. Wonder how many of the clubs that paid ten grand each for his curriculum are running it, zero.
Needs to have a few European coaches come into the system and change the ideas we have. Was ok in the 90s when guys like Brian was able to improve defences, but nothing has really been innovative in a long time. And that's where the boomers are.

Yeah not many guys to carry the shooting load. Most Aussies outside of Goulding and Mills have very little ability to create their own shot, we have a bunch of guys that can make plays mostly in transition which only gets you so far. Sure you'll do fine in the Asian cup but in the half court against good teams it will be a slog, particularly without Mills and the criminally underused Goulding.

I don't see much on the horizon in the sense of who can drop 30 here and there. Proctor can create his own shot, he is quite skillful and shifty, but also lacks speed to get past most guards so he's an easier player to clamp. Johnny Furphy good form with below average % from outside and no shot creation, yet. Fennell and Jacob Furphy, will be interesting to see them in a couple of years, both have showed promising signs.

We're not lacking in guys that can defend, pass and do well in transition but most are offensively limited on the outside to wide open catch and shoot 3's.

The caporn appointment I mean he got the job because Giddey and Dyson like him, that is not why you hire a national coach. I really though they would have gone with an international to shake things up a bit.