MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy's View from Downunder) - The first Boomers squad for the Rio Olympics has been named and the draw for the tournament is on in the early hours of Saturday morning Australian time - it's getting real.

I'll write my thoughts on the draw next week, but all the talk about the 26-man squad seemed to centre around the Illawarra Hawks.

While chatter about Boomers squads often starts and ends with how many NBA players are included, the naming of Illawarra's Kevin Lisch - an American married to an Aussie girl, with his application for Australian citizenship pending - grabbed the most attention this time. 

Lisch this year became just the fourth man to win NBL MVP and Best Defensive Player honours in the same season, joining Sam Mackinnon, Chris Anstey and the naturalised Leroy Loggins, who all represented Australia at the Olympics.

He was clearly the best two-way player in the NBL this season, can play both guard positions, executes the pick-and-roll almost flawlessly, and having played in the NCAA, Puerto Rico, France Pro A, Spanish ACB, Eurocup and Euroleague, is vastly experienced. If he is officially an Aussie in time, his selection is a no-brainer.

Most thought the inclusion of Illawarra's standout centre AJ Ogilvy in the 26-man squad would also have been a no-brainer, but it wasn't to be.

Hawks coach Rob Beveridge, a former Boomers assistant, said he didn't think Ogilvy could have done much more this season, and he is right. Ogilvy's combination of size, speed, mobility and athleticism is not matched by any other Australian big man anywhere in the world.

His skill-set and physical attributes are a good fit for the way Andrej Lemanis' Boomers like to play, particularly the bench unit led by Brad Newley, and if Ogilvy re-signs under coach Beveridge I would expect him to go to another level again next season.

So is it a surprise that he's not there? If this squad was picked on current form it would be an absolute travesty, but the reality is current form has almost nothing to do with it. If it did, Adam Gibson would have been banished, but his contribution over many years ensured him a place.

As soon as Lemanis took over he set about maintaining stability from Brett Brown's days and building in his own system upon that base, aiming to mould a true team rather than just a collection of Australia's best players.

So proven Boomers like Gibson, Newley, Dave Andersen, Matthew Dellavedova, Patty Mills, Ryan Broekhoff, Aron Baynes, Andrew Bogut and Joe Ingles will automatically, and rightly, be in the next squad of 16.

Most of the fringe players who have been integrated into the system - like Chris Goulding, Cam Bairstow, Damian Martin, Nathan Jawai and Brock Motum - will likely be there too. So will Lisch if naturalised, while future stars Dante Exum and Ben Simmons will be picked if available.

So as you can see, there isn't really much need for a squad of 26 when the candidates for the reduced squad are so strong. Its announcement is good for some media attention and to put players like Cam Gliddon, Todd Blanchfield, Lucas Walker and Angus Brandt on notice that if injuries occur they could be next in line.

All four of those guys mentioned have been involved in the Boomers program - via camps, Sino-Australia series or World University Games - in recent years and impressed. Ogilvy hasn't.

The last time he played was 2011 in the FIBA Oceania series against New Zealand, a qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics. His numbers were solid enough, he led the Boomers in rebounding at the London Test Event and then averaged 9.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1 block in 14.7 minutes per game against the Tall Blacks.

But for two of the games against New Zealand I was sitting next to the Boomers bench and it seemed pretty clear Ogilvy wasn't delivering what coach Brown wanted, my feeling being his interior toughness wasn’t at the level expected.

Ogilvy hasn't been in a Boomers set-up since, and it has been reported he made some comments about his non-selection that weren’t appreciated, though I haven’t come across those myself.

There is no doubt Ogilvy improved his toughness this season, it was the first time I have seen him consistently use his physical tools to dominate games after years of incredible glimpses.



Against the New Zealand Breakers' world-class frontcourt he averaged 15.3 points and 9.3 boards and, after struggling at times against Perth's wall, he averaged 14.3 points and 9.7 rebounds in the semi-final series against the eventual champs.

There was an Achilles heel, however. It seemed whenever opponents targeted him physically with a bit of niggle, Ogilvy took the bait. Rather than walking away he became emotionally involved, sometimes picking up technicals, sometimes letting his game suffer due to his lack of focus.

If you were Lemanis, would you bring a player into the fold late in the piece who might give away a crucial tech because he couldn't handle a bit of niggle? I wouldn't. However, whether that makes his non-selection in the extended squad a good one is a separate question.

Consider this. After Rio it's very unlikely we'll see Bogut and Andersen in green and gold again, leaving Baynes, Jawai and Bairstow as our frontline bigs. Of those, only Baynes stands clear of Ogilvy, and there are a number of strengths AJ possesses that Aron does not.

It's not inconceivable that Ogilvy could be a starter for the national team in meaningful games in the near future. He has some weaknesses, but those are best worked on from inside the tent than on the outer.



I think Lemanis' decision is a short-sighted one. History tells us national team selection should never take place without an eye to the future, and at 27 Ogilvy is about to come into his prime.

If you were ranking our big men simply on talent - ignoring important factors like knowledge of the Boomers’ systems - only Bogut and Baynes would clearly be ahead of Ogilvy.

Someone that good, and still relatively young, should be a part of the national team set up, even if just in the symbolic form of being named in the extended squad.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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