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Tale of the Tape: Tall Blacks vs Boomers
It’s time to rumble! The famous line rattled out just before any big boxing match. For the Tall Blacks Olympic qualifying series vs the Boomers that starts in Melbourne this Saturday , it doesn’t get much bigger than this. (this could be the last direct Olympic qualifier series as FIBA moves to new format after Rio)
Let’s breakdown the big game (a Tale of the tape of the big match so to speak) .
But first a look at the preparation: The Tall Blacks are back in Auckland before they fly out to Melbourne this Wednesday, after a grueling 3 week Europe and China build up. The team played a total of 8 games (1 practice game vs Great Britain), game days included morning practice while off days had 2 practice sessions a day, that’s a lot of basketball and Travel ! ) . The tour was a balancing act of having to give playing time on court to develop as a cohesive unit and ensuring players remain healthy. Aside from Leon Henry being unavailable for a few games and Corey Webster having minor health issues the team has been generally healthy. A late development however is backup forward Duane Bailey was hospitalised with suspected appendicitis. Dion Prewster, who was in Auckland, came in as training cover, Caoch Henare has a decision to make on a permanent replacement presumably between Henry and Prewster, as soon as more is known about Bailey's condition
Aside from Corey Webster being a scoring machine, a revelation in the tour was how offensive versatile and proficient big man Isaac Fotu is, despite the Tall Blacks and Isaac being undersize in the games vs Croatia, Slovenia and Mexico (had 2 quality bigs) the games demonstrated Isaac can more than hold his own inside the paint. . A revelation was his ability to create his own shots down low against bigger defenders. His constant motor to get rebounds was also impressive. How he matches up against Boomers Bogut and Baynes will really be key and intriguing. It would just be mind boggling if Isaac can hold his own against legitimate NBA starting centers. While Tai Wynyard got limited playing time in the tour he is virtually our only legitimate size center , don’t be surprised if we see Tai get some court time against Australia,. As they say you need all the bodies you can get.
The Tall Blacks while obviously undersize., will use speed , smarts and good old Kiwi hustle to combat the disadvantage in size. While our team will be relying significantly on key players Fotu, Webster, Abercombrie and captain Vukona, Paul Henare has been able to develop a well balanced team with players knowing specifically their roles. Loe another stretch 4 type of big will be backing up Issac and Mika inside, Bartlet and Te- Rangi have proven to be able quality back-up wings to Thomas and Corey. While Tait and Kenny are likely to split duties at the point. Surprising though is Henare’s use of Reuben Te- Rangi for stretches as a point guard. That looks to be our main rotation with Ili, Bailey’s replacement and Tai rounding up the final line-up.
The return of San Antonio Spurs star Patty Mills to replace the injured Dante Exum kind of throws a wrench into the whole approach that the Tall Blacks were basing their preparations on.
While the Tall Blacks were neither surprised with Mills inclusion , they’re not particularly concerned by the late addition of the Australian sharpshooter. Obviously Patty is dynamic scorer with NBA experience but he also changes their team’s planned approach a bit. Whether positively or negatively remains to be seen. While Mills has such an impact on how the Boomers play. They've only got a week to incorporate that into what they've been doing the last couple of weeks in Europe. From a tactical point of view a Patty Mills oriented team is a different dimension to what a more methodical Dante Exum game would present. It will be interesting to see how this pans out and it if it changes the approach the Tall Blacks execute in the game. Note the Tall Black preparations was geared to combat a Patty Mills less Australia team
Aside from Mills and Bogut , NBA players Dellavedova, Ingles and Newley are expected to be the Boomers key contributors.
After all the preparation it has come down to this : Saturday: Tall Blacks vs Boomers : It’s time to rumble !
It’s time to rumble! The famous line rattled out just before any big boxing match. For the Tall Blacks Olympic qualifying series vs the Boomers that starts in Melbourne this Saturday , it doesn’t get much bigger than this. (this could be the last direct Olympic qualifier series as FIBA moves to new format after Rio)
Let’s breakdown the big game (a Tale of the tape of the big match so to speak) .
But first a look at the preparation: The Tall Blacks are back in Auckland before they fly out to Melbourne this Wednesday, after a grueling 3 week Europe and China build up. The team played a total of 8 games (1 practice game vs Great Britain), game days included morning practice while off days had 2 practice sessions a day, that’s a lot of basketball and Travel ! ) . The tour was a balancing act of having to give playing time on court to develop as a cohesive unit and ensuring players remain healthy. Aside from Leon Henry being unavailable for a few games and Corey Webster having minor health issues the team has been generally healthy. A late development however is backup forward Duane Bailey was hospitalised with suspected appendicitis. Dion Prewster, who was in Auckland, came in as training cover, Caoch Henare has a decision to make on a permanent replacement presumably between Henry and Prewster, as soon as more is known about Bailey's condition
Aside from Corey Webster being a scoring machine, a revelation in the tour was how offensive versatile and proficient big man Isaac Fotu is, despite the Tall Blacks and Isaac being undersize in the games vs Croatia, Slovenia and Mexico (had 2 quality bigs) the games demonstrated Isaac can more than hold his own inside the paint. . A revelation was his ability to create his own shots down low against bigger defenders. His constant motor to get rebounds was also impressive. How he matches up against Boomers Bogut and Baynes will really be key and intriguing. It would just be mind boggling if Isaac can hold his own against legitimate NBA starting centers. While Tai Wynyard got limited playing time in the tour he is virtually our only legitimate size center , don’t be surprised if we see Tai get some court time against Australia,. As they say you need all the bodies you can get.
The Tall Blacks while obviously undersize., will use speed , smarts and good old Kiwi hustle to combat the disadvantage in size. While our team will be relying significantly on key players Fotu, Webster, Abercombrie and captain Vukona, Paul Henare has been able to develop a well balanced team with players knowing specifically their roles. Loe another stretch 4 type of big will be backing up Issac and Mika inside, Bartlet and Te- Rangi have proven to be able quality back-up wings to Thomas and Corey. While Tait and Kenny are likely to split duties at the point. Surprising though is Henare’s use of Reuben Te- Rangi for stretches as a point guard. That looks to be our main rotation with Ili, Bailey’s replacement and Tai rounding up the final line-up.
The return of San Antonio Spurs star Patty Mills to replace the injured Dante Exum kind of throws a wrench into the whole approach that the Tall Blacks were basing their preparations on.
While the Tall Blacks were neither surprised with Mills inclusion , they’re not particularly concerned by the late addition of the Australian sharpshooter. Obviously Patty is dynamic scorer with NBA experience but he also changes their team’s planned approach a bit. Whether positively or negatively remains to be seen. While Mills has such an impact on how the Boomers play. They've only got a week to incorporate that into what they've been doing the last couple of weeks in Europe. From a tactical point of view a Patty Mills oriented team is a different dimension to what a more methodical Dante Exum game would present. It will be interesting to see how this pans out and it if it changes the approach the Tall Blacks execute in the game. Note the Tall Black preparations was geared to combat a Patty Mills less Australia team
Aside from Mills and Bogut , NBA players Dellavedova, Ingles and Newley are expected to be the Boomers key contributors.
After all the preparation it has come down to this : Saturday: Tall Blacks vs Boomers : It’s time to rumble !
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