MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy's View from Downunder) - Brad Newley is one of my favourite Boomers heading into Spain 2014.

I think he's probably one of the most underrated too, but that's probably a bit his own fault, having set such a high standard when he started wearing the green and gold.

As a 20-year-old, he scored 22 points against a tough New Zealand team in his second official international. The next year he scored 15 points against both Lithuania and the USA at the 2006 FIBA World Championship.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he established himself as a starter, averaging 12.7 points and at 57 per cent.

Yet, while he hasn't continued to put up the same offensive numbers, what he brings to the national team is still invaluable.

I'm talking about outstanding wing defence, heat on the boards, heat on the rim, complete unselfishness on offence and some serious intangibles when it comes to making the team click.

He is still most capable of scoring too, he just needs to be in the right situation.

Early on, Brett Brown used to have Newley standing in the corner as a catch-and-shoot guy - not his game and never will be.

But as the London Olympics wore on and the Boomers' offence started to get more flow and the players executed more on instinct, Newley scored 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the final two games against Russia and the USA.

This included 2-of-3 from long range after shooting 7-of-47 over the rest of Brown's time as coach.

Of course, it is the Andrej Lemanis era now, and I think Newley will be on the most valuable pieces in the Australian puzzle.

Lemanis loves disrupting on defence. Newley is 1.99m, long, athletic, quick, has good anticipation and finishes with the best in transition.

With Lemanis' offence also features plenty of opportunities for backdoors, curls and instinctive shot-making, I suspect by the end of this year's FIBA Basketball World Cup, Newley won't be undervalued any longer.

But what if Brad isn't available for Spain 2014 for some reason? How would the Boomers fill that hole in their disruptive defence and at-times fast-paced offence?

While the other swingman in the squad - Joe Ingles, Chris Goulding, Ryan Broekhoff and Todd Blanchfield - are all very talented players, none of them has the combination of speed, power and anticipation Newley brings.

In fact, there is probably only one man in Australia who does - Mitch Creek.

Despite being a junior international star - MVP of the Albert Schweitzer Tournament and putting up Sam Mackinnon-like numbers at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship - Creek has rarely been included in Boomers conversations.

That's probably because he has been earning his stripes professionally rather than playing underage basketball in college where he could stand out more, but I think it's time to acknowledge his place.

Creek admits "it's strange saying it" but in recent times he has physically developed "into a man" through his hard work in the gym, a man capable of playing the same physical game he did in underage competitions, and a somewhat similar style to Newley.

The 21-year-old is only playing 16 minutes a game for the second-placed Adelaide 36ers in the NBL, but he is averaging an impressive 8.5 points at 51 per cent and 4.2 rebounds in that time.

He is the 36ers' energiser bunny, cranking up the defence, running the floor at frightening speed, making plays in transition and crashing the boards relentlessly at both ends.

For Creek, it's literally been a matter of time.

"Had I played 25 minutes a game I think I would have developed more, had I played 10 minutes a game it would have taken me longer," he said.

"This year I'm getting better and better and I'm having more games where I'm consistent and doing a lot more things offensively and defensively."

His focus is on becoming an NBL star first, but the international game is always in the back of his mind, keen to once again match up with old sparring partners like Evan Fournier, Sergey Karasev and Dario Saric at a major world tournament.

For a young man who often comes across as cocky, Creek is actually very patient and very aware of his place in the Boomers pecking order.

"I think I can bring certain skill to the Boomers squad and that’s something I hope to get into," he said.

"But it's a long way down the track and there are a lot of things I'm going to change in my game to hopefully incorporate over the years."

Creek is still a number of years off his best, and he will likely step into the team after the Rio Olympics. But if Newley is unavailable for Spain, I think coach Lemanis needs to bring Creek into camp to see whether he can in fact offer those traits that are essential to his system.

The precocious swingman says he is "a different type of player to Brad", but the willingness to use their athleticism to do whatever their team needs is the same.

That's something Creek is desperate to show in the upcoming NBL playoffs, after that he might allow himself to sneak a few thoughts about the Boomers.

"Nothing defines a player more than winning, so if I can do that everything else will take care of itself," he said.

"I'm not thinking it about (the national team) now, I'd rather win a championship than make the Boomers squad this year, but if I get to do both that would be awesome."

Hopefully it will be Newley aweing opponents and his 'home fans' in Gran Canaria later this year, then Creek converting the world all over again in 2019.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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