Hoops

What chance of Bryce Cotton becoming a Boomer

CJ Bruton was the pilot program.

"Don't worry so much about getting the imports naturalised....get them breeding with our locals."

The Betoota Advocate ran a story on an initiative called GrassROOTS along the lines of what you're describing... the article is here:

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/sports/nbl-grassroots-program-mostly-based-around-encouraging-american-players-to-have-kids-here/

One of Andre Moore's kids is doing pretty well at AFL & don't forget Jonah Bolden :)

Can't remember Nielsen on that team. Melmeth was. Pretty sure that Saville & Mackinnon were both out for that series.

Not sure if it still does but if the old 4 year rule still applies this being Cotton's third season he would be eligible to naturalise after next season.

History will repeat and Cadee will get minutes over Bryce just like Heal over Grace.

"Nielsen, Melmeth,... Saville too I think?"

Can't remember Nielsen on that team. Melmeth was. Pretty sure that Saville & Mackinnon were both out for that series.

Just to clear something up... Nash didn't get picked to play in the Oceania series. He played for that squad, but in the Goodwill Games, & has some good stories about playing against a young Shawn Marion & Baron Davis :)

IMHO Grace would have distributed the ball way better than Heal & played better D. Longley & the bigs often had to cover for Gaze & Heal's defensive deficiencies. Barnes was a joke as coach... running the shuffle with Luc out in the feeder position was a waste of his natural ability.

From memory, naturalised Aussies don't do well with the Boomers... previous poster may be right... they're just too old by the time they qualify.

I get the sense that our immigration rules have tightened significantly since the good old days.

Alright you wildcat fans someone offer up a sister for Bryce to marry

Dmac / Maher
Nash / Egan
McGregor
Derek Moore
Axel Dench

Anyone else remember who was on that team?

Between Exum, Mills and Delly, would there really be the opportunity for him?

I love Cotton and would welcome him in a Boomers jersey, but I feel like it's at a pretty deep position for us, and skill-set wise also a bit redundant given how Mills has been our go-to shooter/scorer for years now. You can't really play Cotton with another PG.. he'd basically be a last resort microwave on the full strength Aus team imo. It's funny, because usually a on-ball shot creator is a sort of premium most international teams would jump at the chance of acquiring, but I think our needs are different.

He'd make a massive difference to our B-grade Boomer lineups we throw around when the NBA guys aren't available, though. We're weak at PG as it is running guys like Cadee out there, but Cotton would instantly become the #1 option on those squads and help carry the offense and get other guys in more ideal roles.

But back to the main Aus team. This is our squad (how I see it) -

Exum / Delly
Mills / Green
Ingles / Broekoff
Simmons / Bolden
Bogut / Baynes / Maker

(I treat Exum/Mills as a combo where Mills defends the 1 and Exum the 2 but offensively play the inverse positions)

The way I see it, the potential holes here are the 2/3/4. Mills isn't a true SG, Green is totally dependent on his development on whether he's ready to contribute, Broekoff can play 2 but would leave SF weak, and Bolden's relatively unproven backing up PF, where we don't have another option really.

So personally, while I think Cotton's the better player, I think we'd be best adding in one of Deng Adel or Mitch Creek for wing depth, or a Brock Motum type PF insurance.

Brian goorjian is now aussie

Cheers Cram. Coach list below.

Australia Lindsay Gaze – 1972–1984, 1994
Australia Dr. Adrian Hurley – 1985–1993
Australia Barry Barnes – 1995–2000
Australia Phil Smyth – 2001
United States Brian Goorjian – 2001–2008
United States Brett Brown – 2009–2012
Australia Andrej Lemanis – 2013–present

Didn't Grace play under Smyth? Could be wrong too, I just remember Smyth being a coach who made our naturalised import redundant.

Redhage looked out of his depth internationally but I distinctly remember Grace getting robbed of minutes big time and it was to the detriment of the Boomers. I think that was in the Barry Barnes era but could be remembering wrong.

I think that's because our naturalised players never got the chance. I remember when games where Grace and Redhage played bugger all minutes, but their stats were fantastic. Fisher could have been another one too, but I can't remember.

Andray Blatche basically became a Filipino resident who qualified for their national team before even playing there because the Phillipine senate made it happen. Couldn't Dutton do an au pair special and rush Donovan Mitchell's paper's through?

Definitely possible.

In a recent June article he said "I feel at home" when asked about signing a 3 year deal with Perth.

Lisch is on his way out so the naturalised spot is certainly going to be open;

Went to watch Big V all-star game on the weekend at MSAC while the Juniors were playing and was pretty surprised at the standard.VERY GOOD. Did see one Cory Williams there chatting to some of the players and was told he thinks 2 or 3 of them would play NBL no problems as an import.