Hoops

BA name Boomers Olympic Squad

Delly/Mills
Lisch/Newley/Goulding
Broekhoff/Ingles
Anderson/Motum/bairstow
Bogut/Baynes

No exum, no Simmons...

I don't get the Barstow hype either. Wouldn't make my final squad.
There is a story with AJ. Essentially he has been blacklisted from the Boomers as long as Lemanis is at the helm.
FWIW, my 12 man team:
PG: Delly/Mills/Exum
SG: Broekhoff/Lisch
SF: Ingles/Newley
PF: Motum/Anderson/Kickert
C: Bogut/Baynes

My 'best case' team:

Mills
Dellavedova
Exum
Goulding

Broekhoff
Ingles
Newley
Simmons

Motum
Andersen
Baynes
Bogut

In the (likely) event Exum and Simmons are unavailable, I'd replace them with Lisch and either Bairstow or Jawai.

Drmic has been very inconsistent for Boise State.

I doubt he is a future Boomer

No offence to Cam Bairstow but I don't understand why everyone keeps including him. He's an 'end of the bench' NBA player with a great work ethic and solid body but limited skill-set which will end taken advantage of in the Games.

His spot should go to either a specialist shooter or to blood someone younger who's certain to figure in the future such as a Humphries, Drmic, Jois.

I highly doubt Simmons and Exum will be available.

So my 12 for Rio would be:

Delly
Mills
Bogut
Baynes
Ingles

Lisch
Broekhoff
Andersen
Bairstow
Newley

Motum
Goulding

+ Martin, Jawai, Blanchfield, Kickert (to make up the 16 for the July training camp)

Only just now getting a chance to look at this squad. Some interesting inclusions ...

Given that a lot of this squad is just training fodder, would it not have been better to give some of those spots to younger college guys? Or did scheduling/availability problems mean Lemanis could only pick locally-based players for the extra spots?

One of the biggest surprises is Walker. I understand that he was in the Boomers system last time and performed well. But I figured he'd at least have to show something this NBL season to stake his claim for a spot. He ended up being really disappointing and regressing from previous seasons. His inclusion sort of sends a message that there isn't a lot of accountability for players who already have their foot in the door ...

Or maybe a 6ft10 pure shooter in Kickert?

Dont like how soft the guy is but you dont need him on the boards,international size and can flat out shoot the ball.

Realistically,he would need to make the team as a stretch 3 in the Simmons spot if he's unavailable....dont like his chances.

A realistic strategy is to aim to medal. Only the wildest optimist could even think about gold.

So, we need to pick a team which will get to the semis and possibly the final, not a team to compete with the USA. In other words, a team which can win against Euro teams and the other American power-houses.

That suggests to me that we should use a core of 9 players and use the last 3 spots to cover exception cases. In other words, for those 3 spots I'd take a defensive specialist (Martin), or a speedster, or someone huge to match other monsters and intimidate (Maric or Jawai if fit), or a pure shooter (Lisch else Goulding / Steindl).

They may not get much court time, but at least we'll be covered if we meet some situation the regulars can't handle or if we need to do something drastically different to get the win.

I also meant to add, and will do so now for the sake of completeness, that whether Creek (or similar) makes the 16 as fodder is largely irrelevant, and my views on the matter must be as interesting as mud.
I'll shut up now.

No, I would certainly have Abercrombie in before Creek...

Unfortunately he was born in New Zealand...

As I said, most of the guys I mentioned are just going to be training fodder before being cut from the final 12.
And "My impression, which may be misguided, is that said depth is needed most in the back court?"
Lisch and I suppose Goulding are almost automatic, and have a chance of making the final cut.
Besides that, even if looking for fodder, there's not a lot of Aussie talent in the NBL back courts.
Creek, for the minutes he plays, does a good job. Good enough to be training fodder.

Now, assuming that 10~12 "international" guys pick themselves, so we're looking at 5 or 6 NBL guys to provide depth (for the squad of 16 at least.)

My impression, which may be misguided, is that said depth is needed most in the back court?

So, from the 26 announced, my NBL guys would be:
Martin
Lisch
Creek
Goulding
Steindl
Kickert

And yes, I wouldn't expect most of those (apart from Lisch) to make the final 12.

If Ogilvy hasn't ruled himself out, then you have to wonder what is going on behind the scenes for him to miss a squad of 26.

I'm not going to pretend any great expertise on those guys playing in the NBA or Europe. I'll leave that to those who follow that, except to say that I presume they are on average better quality than what we see at home.
I imagine Olympic Basketball is a big step up, and therefore requires different attributes, But AJ has been one of the best big men in the league, both when he played for the Kings and this season at the Hawks.
I really can't comprehend why you would pick Brandt or even Nate ahead of him?

I suppose that Jawai, in a squad of 26, is a reasonable gamble. If he can somehow get healthy, he could add X-factor to that final 16.
But Brandt?

Seriously? Creek and Walker making the squad of 26?

Man....., perhaps its a hallmark of a differential between what is good and what is good to average.

Good to average doesn't make the Olympic squads I know unless you are competing for sport for the first time and then of course.

Good luck with that BA

Can't see them letting Dante play, also Bogut seemed like he did not think SImmons would be playing either.

>Bogut shot it really well in Beijing, my memory says around 60%.

Yep. Same as his 3P% and his FT% :p

> If he can rediscover that form somehow it would be very good news for the Boomers!

It would, but if he could rediscover that form I'm pretty sure the Warriors would have found out about it by now.
He hasn't been a scorer since the arm injury, which is a pity as he used to be a very reliable shooter out to international 3 point range.

I believe that this is Lemanis' final campaign.

I would have an AJ Ogilvy in. Walker out.

Also, would have been nice to see a couple of others for the future such as Venky Jois, Anthony Drmic (who is coming good at the end of the season and been part of Boomer squads before).

Locks are Mills, Dellavedova, Bogut, Ingles and Lisch (assuming naturalised). That's presuming Exum and Simmons aren't available.

All the rest can fight it out for spots.

player numbers to be cut from Isaac's post,
4,6,8,11,12,16,18,23,25,26.