Hoops

Boomers squad announced yet?

Anon, you have to understand WHY Brown 'ripped Jawai out'. As I said above, it was because his lack of mobility was being exploited by NZ defensively. They were scoring at will by running a high pick and roll that forced our big man out to the top of the key to provide help D. Neither Jawai, nor Ogilvy (though he was the better of the two) could show at the top of the key and then recover to defend the rim in time. As a result, NZ were scoring on back cuts, layups for the big men and offensive putbacks. Not surprisingly the Boomers got hammered as a result.

So I don't think you can say Brown doesn't like Jawai. In fact, I'm pretty sure he would understand that Jawai could be a great offensive weapon for us down the track. The issue right now, is how much has Jawai learned over the past year? Can he play good enough defence that he won't be a liability for the Boomers at the Worlds? Also, has he improved his footwork in the post? Is his conditioning up to scratch? Hopefully the answer to all these things is yes, because then we would have a real low post threat to replace Bogut at the Worlds.

Mills, Bruton
Newley, Bose
Barlow, Ingles
Jawai, Ogilvy
Andersen, Maric, Nevill

The final player is either worthington or Gibson, Man has anyone watched Bose play, far out that guy is andrew gaze with more athletisism. The guy can shoot, put the ball on the floor, rebound, assist. 1 good year and he could get drafted.

One thing im pleased with this forum is everyone agrees that the majority of the squad needs to be overseas based players and not nbl players. We need our best players, like the socceroos they bring their best players in from all over the world and we should do the same for the boomers.

ps. Ogilvy should have declared for the 2008 NBA draft he could have been a lottery pick, now i dont think he will get drafted at all.

Bit simplistic anon. Jawai has a lot of potential, but you have to recognise his flaws too. Against NZ it was obvious that he was too slow to guard the pick and roll, or get away from the rim to guard anyone. He also doesn't block shots or play good defence. Hopefully that will change, but last year he was certainly a liability on the defensive end.

Most would have Jawai in the team and a lot rate Ballinger. - Brown might be a little disillusioned.

Anon, you want the team to go young but you also want CJ to start over Patty??? Your not making much sense. I am of firm belief that you put your best side out for international games.

Also, how can you not rate Andersen? The guy has more than proved himself in Europe and he just had a rookie year in the NBA where he actually received minutes...I agree that he is a soft type player but he is certainly a lock for the Boomers squad.

Neilsen just had probably his best year overseas, so there is no way you leave him out to go young.

I'd like to see something like this:

Mills/Bruton/Gibson
Newley/Ingles
Worthington/Barlow
Neilsen/Jawai
Andersen/Maric/Nevill

Aleks Maric is a centre not a forward, and by international standards, David Andersen is a forward.

Luke Nevill does not have an "e" on the end of his surname either.

Totally agree on the fact that we lack a pure shooting guard or two in contention for selection. In past years we had the likes of Gaze, Heal, Maher etc etc. I would argue the closest we have to someone like that is Bruton.

There is a list of invotes to the camp out there somewhere as the players who have been invited know who they are. So for mine, the squad is already decided and known, just not released perhaps? Another missed PR and marketing opportunity by BA?

Mills, Bose and a few others have already come out to publicly state they will be in camp next week.