Hoops

Ben Simmons 'doubtful' to play in World Cup

I reckon the only reason he’s playing the warm-up games is because of the contractual obligations BA has.

He would have been a major selling-point in getting ANY interest and contracts, and there would probably be penalties or a massive loss of credibility if he didn’t front up (which would affect future contracts).

Basically, BA needed him in order to fill the stadiums and get the money.

Shouldn't even be allowed to suit up. These games are part of our preparation for the World Cup. There are plenty of other players that need to be on the bench during these games because there is a certain chance they will need to be comfortable sitting there and even getting on the floor a few weeks later.

As for the Olympics, make it really easy for him. If you aren't prepared to play in the World Cup, you won't be playing in the Olympics. Cant afford to plan on an Olympic team that then 1 month out decides it doesn't suit their own plans.

TEAM sport champ from a Country which tends to punch well above their weight in team sports. Let the spoiled behaviour continue, you grow more players in the long run trying to do the same thing.

That's a fair point. To add to that, the core of the team have played plenty of high quality ball together with already strong chemistry. It's getting the new players to gel with the core unit that will be so crucial. We need the new players in sync, particularly whoever will command minutes at the 4 to replace Andersen's role.

Will Simmons be taking away minutes from any of the new players? Otherwise will Simmons take away minutes from the core players, leaving less time for the new players to experience playing alongside the core group? What position will he be played at? If at the 1, it is a totally different balance to the lineup than Delly or Mills at the 1. It will become more a showcase than serious preparation for the World Cup. If at the 4, will he be taking away minutes from whoever is acting as our Andersen replacement? Simmons is such a unique talent, but you have to wonder if he can reasonably replace the role of any other player that he might be taking minutes away from.

Perhaps Lemanis is best off using Simmons to experiment how to use him for 2020, presuming we qualify, not so much for this World Cup.

He's young rich and famous, which means he's going to have people around him giving him all kinds of advice about what he should do about everything. Its not surprising that he ends up making decisions that don't please everyone.

We've seen how guys like LeBron have been influenced by people around him to make decisions that are considered by many to be poor. It happens. It doesn't mean he's a dick, it means he's human.

There aren't actually "right" or "wrong" ways to do things, just differences of opinions, largely informed by "whats in it for me". I'm largely annoyed because, whats in it for me is the possibility of celebrating a world cup medal.

His family seem to be strong and grounded (Simmo always seemed to down to earth) so hopefully they're able to be a good influence on him.

"I look forward to working with my Boomers coaches and teammates over the next few weeks to start working towards our ultimate team goal of winning a medal at the Olympics.” - Ben Simmons

We need to qualify first. Making a cameo in meaningless warm-up games doesn't do anything towards that.

This is even worse. WTF is Simmons thinking? The team for the World Cup needs to be the same team for the preparation games. Either play in the warm-up games AND the World Cup, or don't play at all. Otherwise, it is a distraction and pointless.

Rich Paul has a history of making his clients look like dicks to basketball fans if it means it might help them get the trade they want or a bigger contract. This seems like a face-saving decision to appear better in the eyes of fans, but as someone who wants the best result possible in the World Cup, I think it's clearly worse.

Wiggins isn't playing for Canada.

I was kinda hoping the other angle of him playing, it going really well and Simmons being like "Damn, we are pretty good as a team, I SHOULD play!". Hey maybe we suit him, do the warm ups and then "Take a seat champ, you'll be watching from the pine today!". LOL.

Be interesting to see how the crowd reacts. If there’s any booing at all then I could see Ben spit the dummy around playing for the Boomers in the future.

any time he gets with the boomers ahead of the olympics is valuable IMO

All the Canadians have put there hand up.

http://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2019/news/barrett-murray-olynyk-and-thompson-headline-canada-s-preliminary-squad-for-world-cup

I have a ticket and I rather he not be there if he's not going to the World Cup

those people with tickets should be applauding him because they all would have been spewing if he had pulled out

Will be VERY interesting to hear the crowd reaction to Simmmons at the games in Australia.

Canada's squad has 17 guys on NBA rosters. They could field a team that looks like this

G Joseph / Gilgeous-Alexander
G Murray / Stauskas
F Brooks / Barrett
F Powell / Lyles
C Thompson / Olynek

Combined with a team from Lithuania who are always tough ESPECIALLY at the World Cup/Champs which they take far more serious than the Olympics and, we're in very real danger of not progressing.

We're in a much tougher group than NZ. I can easily see a situation in which we don't make it out of the group and NZ do. Then its no Olympics

Preparing for an Olympics we're a very real chance of not qualifying for is a good result?

Yep 100%. This whole "but I'll play at the Olympics next year" talk while hampering our World Cup preparations which could very realistically cause us to not qualify for the Olympics. Really disappointing.

Commit or don't.

Yeah tbh I'd almost rather not see him in the warm up games if he isn't in the world cup. It's a completely different game plan and structure with him out there, not great world cup prep

His shoe deal would do better if he played in china.

He didn’t choose money over country, his 5 year 170 million contract has already been agreed too.
He just doesn’t want to play.


I don’t see giannis deciding to stay home. He gives a toss about playing for Greece.

Adams and Simmons hav3 the opportunity but don’t want even with guaranteed contracts.


Exum, injured. Would play.
Broekhoff, birth of child, possible complications, understandably at home with his wife. Would play,
Maker, trade from bucks to pistons and a poor season, has been requested to stay home and improve his game or his out of the
Simmons, guaranteed contract, no child, not injured, not requested to stay in philly by the 76ers. Who knows why...

Viewing at Marvel will be FAR worse than any indoor arena.


I was second row from the back at the Olympics in Rio and those seats were a million times better than what I expect to see at these games next month.

Its going to be a spectacle, for sure. But make no mistake, the people in the crowd (including myself) won't have a good view on the game.

I've seen a lot of people saying things along the lines of "oh its only the world cup, not the Olympics", which is a bad take.

The World Cup is a much better competition and better indicator world basketball quality. Added to that, if we perform poorly in the WC, we may not qualify for the Olympics, and our lack of respect for this competition may have lasting effects.

Awesome. At this rate we're never going to medal despite having the talent to do so.

In the Basketball Australia statement, released now, it says that Lemanis has "not been advised definitively" that Simmons is out of the squad; that unavailability is "not new" to them and that they would continue dialogue with Ben and his camp.

I kind of get the feeling that a decision is not set in stone, and with two weeks until training camp, it probably should be either way. I think it's possible that Ben has not yet made a decision but has been hit with the expectations of the Boomers, 76ers and his agent and is still deciding. It is also possible, to me, that his agent making the statement that Ben was "doubtful" to play could have been some gamesmanship from his agent. Is there a hoop he wants Basketball Australia to jump through first before declaring his availability, maybe?

Gotta remember, this is the same agent who spread around that Ben would be looking to change teams rather than take up the max contract with Philly. He is not above playing the media to whatever ends he desires. Are the Boomers possibly not playing ball with them in some way?

I wonder when Australia will get a high capacity rectangular closed stadium.
I’m assuming whittaker vs adesanya will be at Etihad too?

Wouldn’t think that they would get anymore than what’s going to fill that stadium anywhere else in the world, it’s ideal with the closing roof.

Not necessarily rectangular, but suitable for basketball.

Genuine question. What’s the biggest rectangular venue they could have played in? Agree a footy ground is stupid.

I don't buy into the whole idea that he's risking his max contract by playing in the world cup. He's one of those guys that will almost definitely get a max offer, especially with the money being thrown around these days.

Only thing that would derail it now is an extremely bad run of career threatening injuries which is just down to luck and could happen at any time, even when training.

If its because he wants to work on his game theres no reason he can't do that with the world cup and get ingame practice. Imagine the hype around him if he helped lead aus to a medal and showed he could be the man on a team and a leader.

We now know how the kiwis feel with adams constantly giving up on the N.T at the last minute.

Yes luuuc, because no one with a large NBA contract has ever played in the world cup. Just look at the USA team they have Harden and Lillard and Davis

Not certain it’ll affect the boomers position that much, no free lanes to the rack in the World Cup and he can’t make a jump shot. Play players that want to be there and make best of what we got.

Wasn’t he asking for a change in coach? Same coach, no he ain’t playing.

Zodiac Joel has always been seen as the future over Ben, by the fans and the team. Unfortunately until Ben can get that jumper to a respectable level he will always be limited in peoples eyes.

The difference being is that there are a lot of questions right now on Simmons and his potential. There's been some leaks from Philly since the season finished that they view Embiid as the future of their team which might be BS to pressure Simmons into signing the contract extension now or could be legit.

Either way with the glaring issues in his game and question marks over how high his ceiling really is, he with a big contract extension sitting in front of him would be mad to risk that by playing in the WC and possibly doing a knee or something. Look at Exum.

I think we will get flogged and finish 3rd in the group, then Bow out in 1 of the following 2 matches.

What else should we expect from Rich Paul? His agency is as manipulative and cancerous as any Kardashian connection.

Simmons seems to have surrounded himself with some dubious characters -- a greedy agent who uses daring manipulative stunts get his clients into big markets that he wants, a megalomaniac NBA superstar, a celebrity girlfriend whose career relies on media attention. They all epitomize an its-all-about-me attitude in their respective fields. Surround yourself with such poor role models and what do you expect? After all, Simmons is still only 22 and easily influenced.

Although it is true that Simmons needs to improve his game. The perception among most NBA commentators is that he has not improved since the start of his rookie season. His jumpshot has become such a hot topic, overshadowing the elite elements of the rest of his game. Value in the NBA among the elite players in the league is as much about reputation and perception than true game changing impact. This matters with All-Star and All-NBA appearances and ultimately future max contracts. Just ask Klay Thompson.

Exactly although I don't like Simmons or care if he ever plays for us again as soon as word got out at the beginning of FA that the 76ers were negotiating a big contract extension with him I knew he wouldn't be playing at the WC.

I'm really shocked that a guy with a US$168M contract sitting in front of him would be so disrespectful towards some exhibition games or a FIBA World Cup,
said nobody.

This is exactly why i didn't buy tickets. Too many big names drop out from world cup events. Feel bad for those that dis buy tickets to watch certain "committed" players

Is it not possible to practice your jump shot while training with a bunch of NBA and other Pro level players? He could take his trainer down under and prep at the same time.

Seems like there is more too it.

Really poor form if he does decide to pull out now. It was a huge moment for Aus basketball when he decided to commit and created a lot of hype. Not going to be a great look for him if he doesn't play after committingsnd then pulling out so close to the tournament. Tberes going to be a lot of unhappy and disappointed fans.

Whilst it's a person's choice to do what they want, this has been handled poorly.

If he had come out months ago with this, while disappointing, completely understandable.

Longley did this many moons ago as he needed rest, but announced it well before. Bogut may have also.

But to say "yeah I'm playing" and then back out this close to the tournament? I didn't realise he wanted to be THAT much like Le Bron. Same agent too? Purely coincidental I'm sure. How disappointing.

It's been rumoured all along that he'll play the next Olympics and not this world cup, BA wanted to use his name to help ticket sales that's all.

Finally Mitch Creek and Ben Simmons have something in common.

I think the best we can hope for is the 1/4 finals.

He can’t play for the U.S.A and he doesn’t want too.

Squad becomes something like...

Dellavedova/Mccarron
Mills/Sobey
Ingles/Creek/Adel
Bolden/Motum
Baynes/Bogut/Landale


Reserves

Goulding
Gliddon
Blanchfield
Cooks
Kay

No Simmons, Broekhoff, Exum or Maker. No chance of medaling....