Dragic’s excessive reward of Australia’s youth brigade, led by Josh Giddey, comes forward of their second spherical conflict with the Boomers on Friday night time – a match the Aussies should win to remain in World Cup rivalry.
The Boomers facet that collected the Rose Gold in Tokyo was largely made up of veterans – with Josh Green the youngest participant at 20.
Flash ahead to this yr’s Cup and Green has been joined by rising weapons Giddey (20), Dyson Daniels (20), Jack White (26) and Xavier Cooks (28).
Daniels hasn’t performed, however the likes of Giddey, Green and Cooks have all excelled because the high-tempo “blueprint” to Australia’s success.
This was on full show within the last pool sport towards Japan when the trio produced dominant shows.
Cooks could also be older, however that is his first World Cup marketing campaign and he has sights set on being concerned within the Boomers program for years to come back.
Dragic – who performed for Slovenia within the third-place loss to Australia in Tokyo – is bracing himself for a stronger, deeper Australian facet when the 2 groups conflict on Friday.
The Slovenians are coming off an unconvincing 92-77 win over Cup newcomers Cape Verde – and know they should be higher to beat Australia.
“We need a lot of improvement for the Boomers, especially now they are a different roster to what they were at the Olympics,” mentioned Dragic.
“In fact, they are even better.
“They have a few young players now and Patty is still playing at a high level.
“They have a good combination of veterans and young players, so it’s going to be a good game.
“We know where their main targets are and we’ll need to play together to win.”
SLOVENIAN SUPERSTAR
The key to beating Slovenia, because it was in Tokyo to say bronze, is shutting down Dallas Mavericks NBA famous person Luka Doncic.
The four-time All-Star and 2019 Rookie of the Year has been stellar because the World Cup’s main scorer.
Doncic is averaging 30 factors in simply 31.2 minutes on the ground whereas he’s main Slovenia in rebounds (8) and assists (7).
Beyond the stat sheet, the 24-year-old is able to taking on video games together with his pure intuition and blessed basketball expertise.
Dragic is anticipating Doncic to guide from the entrance towards Australia.
“He just gives us, you know, what you see,” he mentioned.
“I don’t know what they (Australia) are going to do, I’m sure they have some plans for him and we just need to play together and it will be even harder for the other teams when the players around him (Luka) get going.”
WHO ELSE ARE THREATS?
Doncic is certainly the “head of the snake” for Slovenia, because the facet’s most harmful menace and full participant.
The Europeans nonetheless possess loads of strike energy, most noticeably Tokyo Olympic key items Mike Tobey and Klemen Prepelic.
Tobey is averaging 12.7 factors and 5.7 rebounds whereas Prepelic seems to be the most definitely – with the purpose guard averaging 17 factors and capturing 55.6 per cent from the sphere.
If Australia can comprise Slovenia’s depth outdoors of Doncic, it would go a protracted approach to securing victory.
This will take a dogged give attention to the defensive finish – and the offensive boards – however a participant like Cooks (who had 10 offensive rebounds towards Japan) can cleared the path.
The Boomers face a tricky activity to utterly comprise Doncic, however they possess the defensive items and mindset to restrict him.
Green is anticipated to begin on the Mavs gun, however Australia can throw a number of defensive beasts at Doncic like Cooks, Matisse Thybulle and even Jack White.
Five-time NBL championship-winning coach Trevor Gleeson is anticipating Green to begin on the Dallas megastar.
“Without question – Josh was fantastic at both ends of the floor (against Japan),” Gleeson mentioned on ESPN.
“But Luka, he might be the best player in the competition right now.
“You’re going to have to have different looks. Josh Green, (Matisse) Thybulle will get a bit of a look at him. Even some traps, some blitzes, taking the ball out of his hands in the back court, all those different schemes.
“I think (coach) Brian (Goorjian) and the coaching staff are going to start working on it right now.”
Originally printed as FIBA World Cup 2023: How Boomers ‘young-guns’ are key to slowing Slovenians
Source: www.news.com.au
