mojo13 wrote:You are smoking the good stuff now. They crushed their way through the Olympics and got screwed vs Spain for the bronze. Plus they add Simmons plus a few other better players. You don’t even have Baynes on your list above who is likely their starting center.
Starting five is much more likely:
Simmons
Dellavedova
Ingles
Bolden
Baynes
I thought I read somewhere that Baynes wasn't playing. If he is, OK, so the team should look something like this:
PG Mills / Sobey
SG Dellavedova / Goulding
SF Ingles / Creek
PF Simmons / Motum / Bolden
C Bogut / Baynes/ Landale
It's still no way in hell a top 2 to 5 team in the world. Australia's team got super overrated off that last Olympics.... People in this same thread are talking like Lithuania isn't even that good, and I can imagine them with a more athletic and talented roster than that Australian one.
Seriously....
Simmons can't shoot and will be another Giannis / Nick Calathes brick master under FIBA rules....
Dellavedova is about as good Vangelis Mantzaris, Olympiacos' third string point guard....
Motum is very athletic, but he's soft as hell
Bogut is a very good on defense and rebounding, but he can only play like 15 minutes with any effectiveness
Bolden is basically a EuroCup level player - he's very below average for either NBA or EuroLeague standards
Landale is good on offense, but he's horrific on defense
Goulding is a EuroCup level player
Creek is a EuroCup level player
Baynes is a great physical force, but that's pretty much it.
Ingles is a very good player, probably their best player under FIBA rules, but he's not nearly as good as the best players in Europe
Mills is very good on offense and awful on defense, but on offense he's also a huge chucker and very streaky
Sobey is an absolute freak of nature athlete and them some - he's an incredible athlete, and he's quite skilled also. Maybe he will take minutes from Dellavedova, which could help them, but Australia's coaches seem to greatly favor any player that plays in the NBA, whether they are the best player at their spot or not.
All in all.............if Canada needs to be worried about that Australian team, then they have some problems. That Australian team isn't any better than Croatia, which didn't qualify having to go through Europe, instead of the Americas.
