Australia’s men’s basketball team is changing tack, and the Boomers’ famed fighting spirit is back. The players disappointed at last year’s World Cup, but veteran coach Brian Goorjian wants to revive the strong culture and competitiveness the team was once known for.
“We’re never going to have – when we go to the Olympics – the best team talent, it’s not going to happen,” he said as preparations for final cuts next week culminate in Thursday’s second game against China in Melbourne. “But we can beat any team because we have talent and we have that Aussie spirit: it is a huge, huge, huge factor.”
After the Boomers won their first Olympic medal with bronze at the Tokyo Games, the World Cup result in 2023 – when losses to Germany and Slovenia left Australia short of the quarter-finals – has prompted fears of a lull as the ‘rose gold’ generation led by Patty Mills and Joe Ingles approaches retirement.
Goorjian admitted the transition has been tricky. “The culture of the team built up to its peak [in Tokyo], those guys all had about 12 years together,” he said. “That thing was like a glove, and then we won big, and then you go to the World Cup and it was not at that level.”
Guard Dante Exum, fresh off an appearance in the NBA Finals for the Dallas Mavericks, said some have judged the World Cup result too harshly and the players remain confident in their abilities. “We know that it’s definitely going to come down to the fourth quarter and executing plays, and I think we have the guys, and the years and the connectivity between all the players that, we can stick together through that.”
Yet the 28-year-old said camp this week has been different. “The first thing I saw, it was physical, guys talking, and I think going forward that’s going to have to be our identity.” The most obvious example of the team’s renewed vigour was centre Duop Reath’s apparent headbutt in the second half of Tuesday’s game.
Players on the fringe will have a final chance to impress against China on Thursday before the squad is whittled down to 12 next week. Goorjian said he is looking for a mix with “that culture, that connection, playing hard, grit, that has to be a part.”
He has singled out some of the lesser names, including two Tasmania JackJumpers players Will Magnay and Jack McVeigh, the latter who scored 24 points in 13 minutes against China in their first exhibition on Tuesday.
“The pieces I think that we brought into this [week], like McVeigh, like Magnay, that’s in them.” Goorjian said. “Magnay really brings a [Aron] Baines, [Andrew] Bogut physicality that we did not have.”
Despite the coach’s talk, most observers believe the roster will be similar to the one taken to the World Cup last year, and improvement will be expected from young NBA players Josh Giddey, Dyson Daniels and Josh Green. All three were traded in recent days. That – together with the long play-off run for Exum and Green – has taken its toll.
Exum said he was mentally exhausted by the Mavericks’ post-season, ended by the NBA champion Boston Celtics barely two weeks go. He also revealed Green’s trade to Charlotte – two weeks after the shooting guard played the sixth-most minutes for the Mavs in their five-game NBA Finals defeat – has not been easy on his former teammate.
“It’s kind of a bit of a shock at first,” Exum said. “But no, I think he’s in a good place and just looking forward to [going to] a team that wants him.”
Goorjian described the Mavs players as “fried”, and said the trades have proven a distraction. Giddey had to fly back to the USA to complete a medical with his new team the Chicago Bulls, and Goorjian is hopeful Daniels and Green won’t face similar requests.
With these factors in mind, the 70-year-old said time ahead of the Paris Games is getting tight. He plans to largely run lineups he wants to see in Paris in Thursday night’s clash, meaning heavy minutes for Mills, Giddey and centre Jock Landale.
The Olympic dreams of fringe players therefore will be determined by how well they complement these established players on Thursday.
“We’ve got to start getting that [main] group playing together and then whittle some back, and get a group of eight or nine, really study what took place [on Tuesday] and pull a couple of those [fringe players] in there and give them a real look early, and then if we like that, continue,” Goorjian said. “If we don’t, maybe move onto a couple more.”
The Boomers 12-man squad for Paris will be named on Sunday, then departs for pre-Olympics warm-up matches against the USA and Serbia in Abu Dhabi.