MELBOURNE (2015 FIBA Oceania Championship) - The Australian Boomers could be forgiven for thinking they have been on a turnstile ahead of the FIBA Oceania Championship against New Zealand.

Patty Mills out, Dante Exum out, Damian Martin out, Martin back in, Andrew Bogut in doubt, Mills back in, Martin back out, Cameron Gliddon in.

We are a good, talented side and a group who has played a lot of basketball together. - Lemanis

From the outside, the Boomers' preparations have seen one interruption after another, but on the inside coach Andrej Lemanis remains confident his team has the goods to prevail in Saturday night's Game 1 in Melbourne.

"Watching the group come together today you can see them all finding their rhythm and chemistry."

While the Tall Blacks have questioned the impact so many changes might have on chemistry - in particular the late inclusion of a major piece like Mills - Lemanis went for a gold medal in understatement when explaining why the San Antonio Spurs guard was chosen as Exum's replacement.

"Patty is a logical fit given he knows the Boomers and is a very good player," he said.

Mills, who debuted for Australia at the 2007 FIBA Oceania Championship and has missed just two international campaigns since, was in no doubt he would slip back into the team set-up seamlessly.

"If there was any hesitation, it was only about my shoulder and being able to get up and down," Mills said.

"Other than that it was a no-brainer. I always wanted to play for Australia no matter what the circumstances, and I always love playing for Australia and put up my hand whenever I can."

Bogut also quashed any rumours injury would ruin his first home-town outing since 2006, despite being on a heavily-modified training schedule this week.

"It is just a little bit of tightness from the travel in Europe," he said, explaining his decade in the NBA has taught him to monitor his condition closely.

"The coaches understand that and let me listen to my body… some days you just need to put your hand up and get the ice on."

So with a quality line-up locked in, including nine players from last year's FIBA Basketball World Cup, the Boomers' focus turns to overwhelming New Zealand, a world-class outfit who have made the knockout rounds of the past four World Cups.

But despite giving many quality European sides trouble with their changing defenses and Oceania-style player and ball movement, the Tall Blacks have rarely been able to dent the Aussie armour, winning just two of their previous 16 FIBA Oceania Championship contests.

Veteran David Andersen, approaching his fifth qualifying series against the Kiwis, said it is simply about matching New Zealand's impressive team play.

"They are a team who is going to grind you down, they are going to play hard defence, get up on us and be disruptive," he said.

"For me personally there isn't one [New Zealand] player who I'm thinking, 'Oh God I don't want to come up against him', but collectively we expect a battle and that is what we want."

The 2015 FIBA Oceania Championship takes place on Saturday 15 August (20:30 local time/GMT+10) in Melbourne and on Tuesday 18 August in Wellington. Both games are live on LiveBasketball.TV (registration and subscription required; games geo-blocked in Australia and New Zealand).

FIBA