QUICK WRAP: Australia vs. Canada
Endless frustration
Well I’m not going to say I told you so, because that would be unbecoming, but as soon as it was announced that Canada would be in the same Olympic pool as the Boomers, the outlines of a potential matchup became clear.
In a way, Canada’s strengths and weaknesses closely align with what the Boomers are carrying into this tournament, with an elite ball handling playmaker surrounded by a rich bevy of available athletic wings, and a cast of serviceable if not uninspiring bigs (although that is underselling Jock Landale, who has been one of Australia’s best, mroeso the depth behind him).
The Boomers key in this game was always going to be how they defended the other guys around Canadian megastar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, guys like RJ Barrett, Luguentz Dort, Dillon Brooks and Jamal Murray (I only include Murray in this list rather than his own star category due to his role right now being that of a backup point guard as he increases his involvement after coming off an injury late in the NBA season).
Turns out, not great!
Shai got his, as we all knew he would, even despite picking up two early fouls in the first quarter that would limit his eventual minutes total to 26, but his 16 points on 8-10 shooting was a display of ultimate effortlessness, even when draped by Australia’s elite perimeter defender in Dyson Daniels, his mastery in the midrange really shining through.
No, RJ Barrett was the Boomers assassin in this one, and it’s something that we probably all should’ve seen coming.
We often talk about NBA level role players turning superhuman when adorned with the colours of their country. FIBA Patty Mills is a well known phenomenon on these shores, while further afield you have guys like Evan Fournier in France, Willy Hernangomez for Spain, or Puerto Rico’s Jose Alvarado.
In that respect, Barrett is probably above that level in the NBA hierarchy. A once decorated prospect coming out of high school basketball powerhouse Montverde Academy before spending a season at Duke, the Toronto native was drafted third overall back in 2019 by the New York Knicks, spending 4.5 seasons in the bright lights of Manhattan before being traded to his hometown Raptors this past December.
*Trivia note, Barrett was the first Knicks-drafted rookie to sign a contract extension with the team since Charlie Ward in 1999
With career NBA averages of 18.4 points and over 5 rebounds per game, he’s probably too accomplished to fall into the “lovable over-extended cult hero” the aforementioned trio occupy, but good lord it did not stop him from absolutely eviscerating the Boomers to the tune of 24 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
When he wasn’t torching the Boomers from beyond the arc with his three three-pointers from six attempts, he was attacking the rim with regularity and reckless abandon, and his dominance over the game leads nicely into my main discussion point from a Boomers point of view.
Why the [redacted] did Nick Kay play 26 minutes against the smallest and most athletic team in the group?
Let me preface this by saying I am a fan of Nick Kay and everything he’s done in a Boomers uniform over the years. I’ve also made it clear that I would not have picked him on this roster given the group the Boomers were going to face, but his selection was one I could reconcile more than some others.
It became clear once the squad shook out that Kay was going to see bulk minutes at the power forward spot, and while I think he was a perfectly acceptable matchup against Spain and their size, Canada are about as opposite stylistically from Spain as it’s possible to be.
Kay played the majority of the fourth quarter alongside Jock Landale against a Canada lineup featuring Shai, Lu Dort, Jamal Murray and RJ Barrett along with one of their milquetoast bigs (mainly Dwight Powell, some Khem Birch). That’s four athletic, small guards/wings, three of whom are extremely adept ball handlers. Kay’s primary matchup? RJ Barrett, who, as mentioned above, completely shitmixed the Boomers all night.
I could’ve understood sticking Kay on Lu Dort given Dort’s main offensive role is as a spot up shooter, although I also wouldn’t have loved that, but leaving him on an island against a dynamic offensive player like Barrett was completely unconscionable to me, and the results reflected the process.
To that end, while Kay played bulk minutes, three Boomers I felt were underplayed were Josh Green, Dante Exum and Jack McVeigh, all for different reasons.
The Boomers have this tendency, especially in second halves, to enter periods of complete offensive ineptitude, where even getting the ball over halfcourt can feel like a massive accomplishment (although not to the extent the Opals made it look against Nigeria). Part of this was in the third quarter, when Canada took their four point halftime deficit and turned it into a lead of as much as ten points, before Jack McVeigh came on and immediately hit a couple of really important triples.
McVeigh is a confidence player, and someone you have to give rope to in order to realise his full effectiveness, as evidenced by his closing stretch in the third quarter. But after a couple of misses in the early fourth, he was benched and not sighted again until it was too late.
Josh Green has struggled offensively so far these Olympics, that is true, but he’s also not an offensive suckhole anyway. Green is very much a stand in the corner and hit open threes type of player on offense, but his true value is in his ability to guard multiple positions on the defensive end. In a game where Canada went small, he should’ve played more than 17 minutes, especially in the fourth quarter over Kay.
As for Exum, this one is a little harsher because I recognise he is coming off a pretty gnarly finger injury, but you wouldn’t have known with the way he cut up Canada to the tune of 15 points in 17 minutes, on 6-9 shooting. Exum has carried his form from the World Cup last year straight into his Olympic opener, providing a calming offensive presence in the second unit, with enough scoring threat to provide space for others.
On a night where Mills struggled mightily, I felt like Exum could’ve been given more minutes alongside Josh Giddey late to try and spark something. I understand Patty has earned the licence to shoot his way out of slumps, but this team doesn’t live and die by him anymore like it did in years past, and the lack of flexibility in the rotations was bitterly frustrating.
And that’s the overall theme of this one. Frustration. The Boomers found themselves in an extremely winnable game against the team many think will be the USA’s most likely challenger to the gold medal, and it was a couple of key two minute stretches that ultimately sunk the team. Maybe they don’t win regardless, but as much as Canada made the big plays down the stretch it also felt like the Boomers played with one hand tied behind their back at times.
BOOMER HIGHLIGHT
This publication is fast becoming an uninhibited Dante Exum fanpage but I cannot say enough good things about his role in this team.
My main complaint from the win against Spain was how the team often looked rudderless in the non-Giddey minutes, but replacing Dellavedova’s chaos with the refined offensive versatility of Exum could be exactly what the team needed.
Well, Exum delivered and then some, with his 15 points in 17 minutes. Like the rest of the guards he wasn’t immune to turnovers, but he constantly abused the Canadian second unit by getting two feet in the paint with absolute ease.
DISLIKE
Jock Landale played 31 minutes, was 7-10 from the field for his 16 points and 12 rebounds, also chipped in with 4 assists, and was a constant bullying presence inside.
Sometimes, having a center you can just throw the ball to in the post can be the best offense, and with Landale’s patented right handed baby hook, he can use that against most FIBA level big men, especially Canada’s.
The dislike though, is the nine minutes he wasn’t on the court.
Australia’s backup center play has been, to be polite, ROUGH over the first two games. Will Magnay had some nice moments against Spain while Duop Reath didn’t play at all, but was still lost a lot of the time on both ends.
Against Canada, both men got a handful of minutes and both managed to look equally bad.
Magnay is a net zero on offense outside of offensive rebounding, and his energy inside on the defensive end isn’t really enough to break even, while Reath is a sophisticated offensive player, but cannot secure a defensive rebound to save his life.
It’s a real problem going forward for the Boomers how they attack the Jock-less minutes. Nick Kay could also conceivably slide down to the five slot but he doesn’t really solve any of the issues Reath or Magnay create anyway.
BOX SCORE
NEXT GAME
Australia vs. Greece, Friday August 2nd, 9:30PM AEST
KEY MATCHUP: Giannis Antetokounmpo vs. the Boomers “box and one”
Giannis Antetokounmpo, as I’m sure you’re aware if you’re reading this newsletter because you are so clearly a very sharp basketball mind, is a physical force of nature the likes of which haven’t been seen in basketball since the days of Wilt Chamberlain playing against pharmacy workers.
Ok a small degree of creativity went into that analogy, but the point remains that Giannis plays with a degree of physicality that not only is hard to stop given his size at 6-foot-11 and 243 pounds, but his passing ability means that even if you magically stonewall him (good luck), he’s adept at finding one of Greece’s shooters, whether that be Walkup, Larentzakis, or Toliopoulos.
Spain exhibited a defensive strategy not too uncommon in modern basketball when there is one dominant offensive force on the opposition team, a variant of the zone defence called the “box and one.”
In simple terms, a standard (or 2-3) zone is where the center defends under the basket, then you have your two forwards defending the blocks, and your two guards at the elbows, and the defence moves on a string and adjusts accordingly.
The “box and one” variation takes out the middle man defender (or places them at the split line, the imaginary line running down the centre of the court, when the ball swings side to side), and plays a box zone with defenders on each block and elbow, while the fifth defender plays man to man defence on the opposition star and has no zone defence responsibilities.
The benefit of this defensive strategy is it can allow quick double teams to get the ball out of the hands of the star while the other three defenders can cover space on the weak side and recover if necessary.
The failures of this strategy often stem from a great passer able to find the weak side shooters before the defence can recover (LeBron faces a lot of looks at this defence, for instance), or a physical specimen able to attack before the double team chances can present (see, Giannis).
The Boomers don’t have anyone capable of guarding Giannis straight up. Barely anyone in the NBA does, let alone a nation that produces a handful of NBA players. Sticking any one player on Giannis is asking them to get fouled out. The box is, in my mind, the best chance to mitigate. Who becomes the “one” that is Giannis’ primary remains to be seen. I’d assume it’s Nick Kay by virtue of being the only true power forward on the roster, unless Goorjian goes with size and sticks Jock Landale on him.
Either way, the four help defenders will have an important role in helping shut down the secondary actions.