The future of Australian Basketball feat. Thon Maker

[bourbons]

If this tournament has taught us anything its that we can't have Delly as the primary PG, surely. Kinda has to be Simmons assuming he plays.

 

[JT_the_Man]

I think our team will be best suited with Simmons at PG on offense and PF on defense. That allows us to surround him with shooters (Mills/Exum/Ingles/Baynes).

 

[sherrif]

Yep Goulding had opportunities and did nothing much against Spain

Yep I agree. Overall though he still had plenty of good moments in the tournament.

 

[sherrif]

Would very much doubt he has enough of a team first mentality in regards to representing his country to play a role that's different from the one he's gotten used to in the NBA for the past 2 seasons. Funnily enough it was the 76ers that decided to play him as a point guard, so maybe it'll depend on whether Brown play him in the PF spot anytime this season.
Playing in his usual spot would help us a lot with his good passing skills though. Would be close to a complete player if he can fix his shooting.
He also said this once:
“Definitely a one, not four. I don’t want to play a four. I mean, I’ll play the four but I don’t want to be predominantly in the four position because I feel like I can do a lot more from the point guard position, as you’ve seen.”

What position should Ben Simmons play?

Ben Simmons is the Philadelphia 76ers' point guard. Ben Simmons probably isn't a point guard. The season began with questions about whether Ben Simmons wou...

thesixersense.com

His quote has proven to be correct because he can do more from the point position. He's played the four or five for Philly quite a bit when Embid's out. The view that Ben doesnt do the team things is the opposite of true, I cant see why he would be any different playing for the Boomers. For such a young player he has played a key role in a very good team that has won a lot of games at NBA level. He's also sacrificed his game to focus on defence in some big games and the reason why he doesnt shoot more and simply put up bad shots is that he wants to win as much as possible. Anyway I can see him handling the ball to start the offence and then when we go into half court sets play a role a bit like Bogut does and create from the high post. I dont have a problem saying Ben Simmons is one of the MOST team orientated young players ive seen in the nba in the 25+ years ive been watching. Doesnt put up bad shots, plays great defence and doesnt mind changing roles for the sake of the team. The role he will probably play for the Boomers is the role he plays a fair bit when Embid's been out. Defending bigs, bringing the ball up on the fast break with a view to going all the way if no one gets in front of him and then posting up in both the high and low post in half court.His played quite a few minutes last season in the games when Embid's been out where him and Bolden have been the four and five for Philly. They look like they compliment each other really well in those roles.

Early signs in training is that his shot has improved if you follow him on instragram Will have to wait and see though for the regular season. See below link.

 

[sherrif]

I think our team will be best suited with Simmons at PG on offense and PF on defense. That allows us to surround him with shooters (Mills/Exum/Ingles/Baynes).

Unless he becomes a shooter too. Then we surround the opposition with an all shooting, all passing, all defending line-up.

 

[Happy Mastenator]

Simmons was right to skip FIBA. If he played FIBA he wouldn’t have had an offseason to work on his shot/shooting. Now if he comes back to the NBA this year and his shot is still missing/broken we can criticise him all we want.

 

[splendidham]

Ive said this before. But at international level Dante Exum could seriously be that player. His shooting with his feet set has actually come on heaps. Before his injury at training he was consistently one of the best at draining threes according to the Jazz twitter feed anyway. Just needs to gain more confidence in games. Josh Green could also be that type of player in the long run too. Its early days, but our next, next great hope to be a generational type big man (not by the next Olympics unfortunately) could be Makur Maker. I follow him closely. He is in his final year of high school ball and he's already a strongish 107kg's at 6'11 or 7'0 (latest update had him at 7'0) so he puts on weight easily compared to Thon. Early days, but a great passer for a big man and now the second rated high school basketball player in Canada.

Re: maker - 3rd or 4th ranked prospect out of all HS prospects according to Rivals. Pretty meteoric rise but hit 2 a few months back. Won MVP at Steph Curry’s camp too

Also I still if a lot of real estate on Exum island. If he can piece together a full season this year, I feel like he makes the leap. He was making huge strides last year before injury. There wasn’t a guy in the league who could stay in front of him, he might be among the 3 fasted guys in the league and his passing, not to mention his shooting have all improved. If he can stay in the court, it’s gonna happen sooner than later. Who on Spain is defending him? Here’s hoping for a healthy season

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sherrif]

Rubio was MVP of the recent world champs Dante has the potential go be a better nba player than Rubio. People forget when Rubio was Dante's age he was struggling at nba level with his shot.

 

[sherrif]

To add a little bit about Makur Maker. He is definitely starting to get more press in terms of elite prospects around around the worlds. Below is his latest highlight package. I know they are highlights and obviously Thon looked great playing against high school players as well. But the most impressive thing about Makur is that he seems to get significantly bigger every time new highlights are released and to me he also seems to be getting more explosive as well.
Worth a look in my view.

 

[matthew_s]

To add a little bit about Makur Maker. He is definitely starting to get more press in terms of elite prospects around around the worlds. Below is his latest highlight package. I know they are highlights and obviously Thon looked great playing against high school players as well. But the most impressive thing about Makur is that he seems to get significantly bigger every time new highlights are released and to me he also seems to be getting more explosive as well.
Worth a look in my view.

hard to get too excited at high school footage, especially when at his size. If he's still that dominant in college though!!

 

[splendidham]

hard to get too excited at high school footage, especially when at his size. If he's still that dominant in college though!!

Understand what you are saying but I feel the thing is, he’s also been that dominant against top tier prospects in his age group at many of the big camps for the elite kids. Won MVP at a few of them if I recall, Adidas Guantlet and Steph Curry’s UA camo if my memory serves my right. He’s ranked top 10 I think by ESPN and top 4 by Rivals. He also has a younger brother as well who by accounts is also quite good. He definitely passes the eye test. He has a few things over Thon in my opinion, he’s a more high IQ player, more explosive than Thon, puts on weight more easily and doesn’t have Thon’s small hands. Thon could be a good player if he could just catch the damn ball and had some more mass on him


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[Bleedblueandgold]

Mojave King going to meet with 2 colleges in the US. Hope that he gets his Australian citizenship before he goes to college. Looks like he could be a huge talent.

Australian guard Mojave King schedules official visits to Arizona and Baylor

Mojave King has taken the next step in his college recruitment, with the Australian guard telling <i>foxsports.com.au</i> that he’s scheduled a pair of official visits in October.

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

Simmons nailed a 3 in his preseason game!

Sixers' Simmons hits first NBA 3 in preseason

Ben Simmons hit the first 3-pointer of his NBA career in a preseason game on Tuesday night.

www.espn.com.au

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

Lol just noticed Bolden deleted his Instagram post about playing for the Boomers...

 

[matthew_s]

Lol just noticed Bolden deleted his Instagram post about playing for the Boomers...

Would love to know the full story.

 

[Shifty1]

Lol just noticed Bolden deleted his Instagram post about playing for the Boomers...

Amazing to say this about an NBA player but we don't need him and his terrible attitude. Would take all of Kay, Landale, Maker 1, Maker 2 or Motum over him.