Basketball On The Internet.

FANS of the Boomers need to have no illusions about the difficulty of the task ahead at the Paris Olympic Games. Of the eight teams to already qualify, namely host nation France, World Champion Germany, runner-up Serbia, Canada, USA, Australia, Japan and South Sudan, right now most would only pencil in those last two national teams as likely Aussie wins.

The remaining four spots in Paris will come out of the Qualifying Tournaments that will see Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Montenegro, Greece, Georgia and Finland among the European teams battling it out.

Then there’s also Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Egypt, Lebanon, Philippines, Mexico, Angola and Cote d’Ivoire.

If you’ve suddenly concluded a medal of any colour will be anything but a cakewalk or some dream run for our “gold vibes only” boys, welcome to the club.

That’s not to say, by any stretch, they cannot do it. It’s just a courtesy reminder of something written well before the World Cup along the lines of never overlook the fact every country now will be sending its best 12 available.

And while we get caught up on all the “culture” talk, truth is they all have their national cultures too.

We love the fact that a Boomer, or a male kangaroo – how much more Australian can you get? – has a massive tail and therefore, regardless of what it is facing, can only go forward. What a unique and appropriate analogy.

This type of thinking, reinforced to the group by Patty Mills and Joe Ingles, was absolutely invaluable in bringing the team together for its successful Tokyo Olympic campaign.

For players such as Matisse Thybulle, Duop Reath and Josh Green, for example, understanding what it meant to wear the green-and-gold could not have been more relevant. Akubras off to that campaign’s buoyant marriage of basketball and culture.

But that was then. This is now. Frankly, this team has a mission in Paris and it’s time to focus less on culture and far more on actual basketball.

Understanding what Uluru means to all of us should now occupy the heart and soul of these young men. Understanding when to switch on the pick-and-roll may now be more to the point.

It’s not as if that 1964 team of Aussie part-timers at the Tokyo Olympic Games didn’t put us on the international basketball map.

Did Lindsay Gaze not bring a culture? Didn’t Phil Smyth, Larry Sengstock, Danny Morseu and Co batting way above their weight define how Australia would not bow down to any superpower?

Didn’t Eddie Palubinskas and Ian Davies, when they led the Olympics in scoring, not alert the world to who we are?

Didn’t Andrew Gaze, Mark Bradtke and Co set a bar when they drove us to Bronze Medal playoffs in 1988, 1996 and 2000?

Didn’t Luc Longley do as much in the red-and-black of the Chicago Bulls as he did in the green-and-gold of the Boomers to show the world where we had come as a basketball nation? (And wasn’t that Luc picking Filipino madmen off a prostrate Chris Goulding during that melee in Manila a few years back? Again, he did it in the firm and resolute manner that could only evoke pride.)

Andrew Vlahov, and his disciple Mark Worthington bled on that hardwood for Australia. And names such as Anstey, Dellavedova, Baynes and Newley embodied all that is ingrained in the Boomers culture.

The Australian team in Tokyo two years ago, acknowledged the legacy left by those who came before as Mills and Ingles became the self-appointed custodians of the Boomers’ culture.

Again, it worked a treat and was essential but its relevance is less so now. Josh Giddey knows what it means to be an Aussie and so does Dante Exum, Xavier Cooks and Dyson Daniels.

Having been with coach Brian Goorjian since the Beijing Olympic campaign of 2008, Mills and Ingles are “his guys”.  Fair enough. We get that. They came through with flying colours in Tokyo.

Mills was still an important factor at the World Cup. Realistically, Ingles was not. Neither was another reliable performer in Nick Kay. Whether it is age and a lack of athleticism or playing in a weaker competition in Japan, it has caught up with Kay.

I don’t love him or what he has given any the less, and he may still have more good NBL years post-Japan too. But I would not be taking him to Paris.

This is our national team. Representing Australia at the highest level should never be taken for granted. Yet Ingles’ quote “you’re going to have to kill me” to prevent him competing at his fifth Olympics, smacks of the opposite.

Again, I love Joe and the joy he has brought to us over a long period. But even at his best he was known as Slo-Mo-Joe. At the World Cup, it was  more Photo-Joe, his speed about that of a photograph.

He averaged 22.1 minutes per game and shot his 6.6ppg at 33 per cent. He had 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists across the campaign. He is 36 next month.

Unless he has a barn-burning NBA season with Orlando Magic, I am not taking him to Paris. There is no room for sentiment, as the Boomers showed with Matthew Dellavedova, benching him in the Tokyo Bronze Medal game to start Thybulle on Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic.

That in no way diminished Delly’s legacy. It was just time.

But I suspect Goorjian won’t make that tough call because of his rich and deep history with Ingles. And also Kay. He relied on them too heavily at the World Cup.

I’m not taking Bryce Cotton either. For starters, he would be 32 at the Games, and coming in at a most crucial time, while not across anything this squad does.

He is now in any conversation about the best imports to play NBL but he would be a repeat of the Kevin Lisch story from the Rio Olympics. We all knew what Lisch could do but when added to a well-established group, we never saw him fully uncork his all-around potency.

But this debate stems from the whole “we need a knock-down shooter” angle many are spouting.

Frankly, that whole “knock down shooter” thing is bullcrap to me. If you have a “knock down shooter”, you play the guy. Palubinskas was a knock-down shooter. So too Davies and Andrew Gaze, and now Patty Mills. You play those guys. You don’t store them at the end of your bench in a glass cabinet with a “Break in Case of Emergency” sign.

Forget knockdown shooters and start thinking “lockdown defenders”.

The USA philosophy of shooting more than the opposition can be fun to watch. But successful? They scored 104 against Lithuania, and lost by six. They scored 111 against Germany in the semi final, and lost by two. For the Bronze, they scored 118, but conceded 127 to Canada. (OK. If you want to be technical and say that was an overtime game, the Yanks gave up 111 in regulation.)

Defence wins. Australia’s defence at Tokyo was impeccable. In Okinawa and Manila, it was patchy at best.

The 11 men I would most definitely take to Paris are Josh Giddey, Josh Green, Matisse Thybulle, Ben Simmons, Jock Landale, Dante Exum, Patty Mills, Duop Reath, Xavier Cooks, Dyson Daniels and Jack White. I’m happy to see how the next 11 months unfold and who emerges to grab the last spot on the roster.

Yes, I take Simmons. Personal feelings based on his past lack of commitment to the program set aside, he brings a 208cm wild card we haven’t yet seen. He has strongly said he wants to play in Paris and, honestly, we have never heard that as definitively ever before.

The young man changes our look dramatically. And Giddey must be the playmaker who almost had a triple-double against Finland and not necessarily our leading scorer.

I’m making a key coaching change too. At the World Cup, Goorjian did not look the confident, strutting, answer-for-everything coach we’ve come to respect as no other. He looked as if he was feeling the pressure and had a few doubts. It was reflected in his team’s play. HIS team.

Frankly, I’m thrilled he has a chance to focus solely on this Paris campaign now, but I am letting assistant Adam Caporn go. Matt Nielsen and David Patrick should stay on and the new face on the coaching staff should be Joey Wright.

He is a Goorjian disciple and his relationship with players such as Simmons and Exum cannot be underestimated. Plus he knows his stuff, has won an NBL championship and is a three-time league Coach of the Year.

Winning a medal in Paris, let alone gold, is going to be a huge quest. The talent is there but it needs tweaking, clearer role definition and a heavy focus on defence and rebounding. And more than an ounce of good luck.