FIBA World Cup: All the big calls the Boomers must make ahead of Paris Olympics

Josh Giddey’s emergence was a shining light in the Boomers’ shock World Cup implosion. It’s time for Patty Mills and Joe Ingles to pass the torch.

Josh Giddey lays the ball up during the FIBA Basketball World Cup Group K game between Australia and Georgia at Okinawa Arena. Picture: Getty Images

Australian basketball legends Patty Mills and Joe Ingles should complete their passing of the torch by handing over the Boomers’ captaincy to Josh Giddey in Paris.

After his first appearance at a major tournament, it’s clear any potential road to Olympic gold runs through the elite talents of the burgeoning NBA star.

Giddey, the giant point guard who has captured the hearts and minds of a new generation of Australian basketball fan, led the Boomers in scoring (19.4), assists (6.0) and steals (1.6) at the FIBA World Cup and was second in rebounds (5.2).

But, in the minutes after the Boomers were consigned to their worst finish at a major tournament since 2014, the Melbourne-born kid’s off-court leadership was on show.

Rather than Mills or Ingles, it was Giddey — still too young to buy a beer in Oklahoma City, where he’s spent the last two years wowing Thunder fans — who calmly sat in front of the media throng at the FIBA-mandated press conference.

He’d just played his guts out, pouring in a game-high 25 points to go with eight rebounds, four assists and two steals as Luka Doncic and company turned the Boomers’ ‘gold vibes only’ World Cup dream into a nightmare.

He’s fronted the media plenty of times in the NBA but never after the medal hopes of an entire nation had been crushed.

Did he draw the short straw or was it the moment the Boomers truly became his team?

Josh Giddey’s leadership has been on show for Australia at the FIBA World Cup. Picture: Getty Images

The crestfallen kid from suburban Melbourne, flanked by coach Brian Goorjian, began by delivering a frank assessment of the team’s struggles with slow starts throughout the tournament and was thoughtful and considered when he spoke.

Mills and Ingles have been among Australian men’s basketball’s greatest servants. They’ve even poured some of their own riches into the Boomers’ program to ensure it could reach the standards elite international basketball demands.

But, if there’s anything to come out of the Okinawa flop, it’s that the cool, calm and collected Giddey is ready to lead now.

With Mills and Ingles both now 35, they must consider empowering him ahead of next year’s Olympic campaign.

It’s no slight on either player — captaincy, in the end, is just a title — but it would be a significant gesture on their behalf, one of belief and confidence that would feed into the youth movement Goorjian is trumpeting.

With an eye on a slew of young potential Boomers developing in US college, the NBL and Centre of Excellence, it’s understood Giddey, as the leader of the next-gen featuring current Boomers Josh Green (22) and Dyson Daniels (20), would grab the honour with both hands.

Joe Ingles drives to the basket during the FIBA World Cup Group K game between Australia and Georgia at Okinawa Arena. Picture: Getty Images

IS JOE A LOCK FOR PARIS?

Joe Ingles stood in the corner watching the play unfold as Patty Mills penetrated into the lane, and mesmerised the defence.

The gun guard whipped the ball out to Dante Exum and the ball zinged to Ingles, who rose and launched.

Splash.

The Mills-Ingles pairing has been doing this for the past 15 years in a green and gold jersey.

On this occasion, it was a bucket to beat the halftime buzzer in Australia’s 100-84 Sunday night win over Georgia.

Mills stood and watched the ball sail over his head and made a beeline for his mate, dapping him up before an embrace.

Could it have been for the last time?

Not if you ask Joe, who will be 36 when Paris rolls around in July.

“You’ll have to kill me to get me out of here,” Ingles said after the clash with Georgia.

Goorjian overlooked bronze medallists Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova in the lead-up to the World Cup, mindful of staggering the departures of Boomers’ greats.

In all likelihood, Ingles will be there in Paris but this campaign has shown he’s not the player he was — five points in the loss to Germany, 26 scoreless minutes in the Slovenia defeat.

Fair enough, too. The body of work he and Mills have compiled between them is more than deserving of a Paris swan song, provided they’re both healthy and able to contribute.

Ingles, who embraced a new role coming off the bench at the World Cup, appears to have come to terms with this reality, his focus now on fostering the next generation.

“As you get older you realise that ‘I’m at the other end of my career’,” Ingles said.

“It is going to end one day and it’s a lot sooner now than what it was three or four years ago.”

Ingles has long-been an unassuming wizard in the NBA, his shooting and playmaking elite weapons, and eyes will now turn to his new beginning in Orlando.

Patty Mills and Joe Ingles have given their all for the Boomers. Picture: Getty Images

MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

If Giddey is the young star, then fellow 20-year-old Dyson Daniels is the promise.

Heading into the Georgia game, the Boomers’ medal hopes already shot, Goorjian might have opted to expose the New Orleans Pelican to the pressure of FIBA competition for an extended burn.

Instead, the Boomers stuck with a largely familiar rotation, save for an increased dose of Jack White.

Former Boomers assistant Trevor Gleeson felt the Boomers missed an opportunity to blood Daniels, who checked in with 3.28, up 20, and produced a gorgeous drive, spin and feed to Nick Kay, underlining his potential.

A long and strong guard, Daniels enters year two in New Orleans on the back of a monster off-season body of work and a leap could see his role in Paris greatly increased.

A BIG AND A COUPLE MORE SHOOTERS?

Issues from deep have been amplified throughout the tournament and, save for the game against Georgia where they got hot, the Boomers struggled mightily.

So you might be surprised to read that in actuality, by the end of the Georgia game, only three teams (USA, Serbia and Canada) had averaged more than the 93.8 points per game the Boomers put up in the tournament.

The Aussie game plan was built on defence but Germany’s guards picked them apart when switched onto slower bigs. Then, when they changed tact against Slovenia and tried to blitz and double Doncic, Serbia’s coaching staff took countermeasures in a game of chess the Boomers’ lost.

Patty has to go to Paris, no question — his scoring ability and gravity when he’s on the floor make him essential.

But his second half struggles throughout the tournament are a concern. The Boomers must find a way to manage his workload in order to ensure he can produce his best in late-game situations.

Goorj believes the Boomers aren’t far off: “We need another big, and we need a couple more shooters in our group.”

Jock Landale immediately fixes the “another big” issue. It might be too soon for the next group of giants but 215cm Harry Wessels, 21, was part of the Boomers’ Cairns camp and has Josh Giddey’s approval, fellow WA native Alex Condon, 19, looms as an intriguing prospect and 17-year-old 220cm Brisbane Bullets Next Star Rocco Zikarsky could be anything.

Goorj was fired up after the Georgia game but the comment on needing more shooters does pique the interest, given Chris Goulding, one of the best marksmen in the country, played just 10 minutes for the entire tournament.

The 34-year-old’s one elite skill is shooting — if they needed shooting, why didn’t they turn to him? If they weren’t going to use him, why didn’t they take another big when Landale went down?

Theories abound at how the Boomers could address the shooting issues.

Jock Landale’s absence was a big issue for the Boomers. Picture: Getty Images

Dual-Sydney Kings champion DJ Vasiljevic has floated on the fringes of Aussie squads, a great servant when the NBA guys haven’t been available.

He’s not a giant and doesn’t jump out of the gym but what he does do is shoot the ball well — and he’s not afraid to launch.

Take a look at some of the European teams and you’ll see a bunch of DJ-like players running around. Slovenia’s Klemen Prepelic immediately springs to mind.

Trevor Gleeson put Perth superstar Bryce Cotton on the agenda — unsurprising, given he coached the Arizona native to three NBL titles.

Cotton’s not even naturalised and his citizenship saga is well-documented. Basketball Australia has supported his application several times, but the trigger to fast-track it lies with the Australian Olympic Committee — sort of.

In order to get the AOC’s blessing, BA would need to guarantee Cotton will be part of the national team at the Olympics.

Then, it’s up to the Federal Government.

The Boomers can only select one naturalised player on their roster, and, with Giddey and Green, Tokyo hero Matisse Thybulle’s role shrank as the World Cup wore on, leading to calls for Cotton to replace him.

Cotton is a certified bucket-getter but, at 31, he’s a short-term backstop that doesn’t solve a long-term problem.

So it might be a case of internal improvement from Giddey, Green and Daniels, Landale’s return as an adequate floor-spacing big and then hope one of the young guns can emerge as a legitimate sharpshooter — think someone like Sydney’s Alex Toohey or Perth’s Ben Henshall. For anyone interested, hunt up some tape of RJ Greer, whose mum is Australian-born, shooting three balls and dream big.

Originally published as FIBA World Cup: All the big calls the Boomers must make ahead of Paris Olympics