Been wondering which Aussies have been killing it in basketball recently? With several of them playing in the NBA play-offs as we speak and the Rio Olympics just around the corner there is certainly a lot to be excited about for Boomers basketball at the moment!
From centre of the reigning NBA champions to one of the fastest guys in the game to likely top pick and big enigma in this years NBA draft. We’ve searched around the globe for the best in Australian basketball at the moment and here are our top 10.
10. Cameron Bairstow
A 6’9 bigman from Brisbane, Cameron Bairstow opens our top 10 list. Cam comes from a very big family: he has 6 siblings (4 brothers, 2 sisters), two of whom played college basketball in the United States. After graduating Australian Institute of Sport, Cameron entered the University of New Mexico and played for the Lobos for four years. His senior year he simply exploded, producing 20 points and 7 rebounds in over 30 minutes per game. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the second round of 2014 NBA draft, made the roster, but unfortunately hasn’t seen consistent playing time. The future looks bright for Cameron though, with the looming frontcourt rebuild for Chicago and taking into consideration Bairstow’s valuable set of skills and talent.
9. Aron Baynes
The Big Banger or Bane, as he is called by NBA commentators, Aron Baynes was born in New Zeland, but attended high school in Queensland and also played for AIS in Canberra. Undrafted in 2009 NBA Draft out of Washington State, he went on to play in Lithuania, Germany, Greece and Slovenia, before being discovered by the San Antonio Spurs. Baynes is setting some of the meanest, though legal, screens in the Association, cleans the glass and competes defensively, but he’s also very skilled player with great mid-range touch, passing instincts and high basketball IQ. All that combined with Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan’s tutelage allowed Aron to develop into a solid back-up bigman on the NBA level and land a good contract with the Detroit Pistons last summer.
8. Joe Ingles
Although mostly seen as a mentor and attendant to another Aussie at the time Utah signed him, JIngles has become a great rotational player and a true glue-guy for the Jazz. Happy Valley native isn’t going to wow you with his stats, but he’s often the most experienced and level-headed player on the floor for the young Jazz team, can play as your primary ball handler for stretches (oh, some of the passes he makes, I wish Utah made Joe their full-time point forward!) and is a reliable sniper with 38% three-point clip. Ingles also had an extremely successful international career, with 3 year stint as a major contributor for Barcelona and Euroleague championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2014 under coach David Blatt.
7-6. Matur and Thon Maker.
Originally Thon and Matur Maker were born in what is now South Sudan, but moved to escape the civil war and were accepted by Australia as refugees. The Maker brothers are descendants of the Dinka people, and when you look at them, they really remind you of another great Dinka – Manute Bol. Both are ridiculously tall, Matur is 6’10 at the age of 17 and Thon is 7’1 at 19 years old, skinny, and all arms and legs. Seriously, I can’t imagine how they manage to find pants that are long enough.
Matur Maker is a power forward with a promising faceup game, mobility and ball-handling of a wing and almost unlimited defensive potential. He currently plays for Athlete Institute in Orangeville, Canada and is the top ranked recruit in the class of 2017 already with offers from Indiana and Arizona State University. Although it remains to be seen whether he attends college in the US or decides to follow his brother and jump straight to the NBA.
The older Maker was cleared as eligible by the Association and declared for this year’s draft. Everything that’s been said about Matur applies to his brother as well, plus he’s 2-3 inches taller and more of a scorer with a better refined inside and out skills. Thon, by his own admission, tried to model his game after Kevin Garnett and Kevin Durant and blows some NBA executives and scouts away with what he potentially could do at the next level, but is he physically and mentally ready? Will his versatility translate to the NBA level? How’d he fare against grown men? Those questions make Thon Maker the biggest enigma of the 2016 NBA Draft.
5. Matthew Dellavedova
Let me tell you this: if you’re a point guard, you don’t want to see Delly taking the court against you (unless you’re Steph Curry and you don’t really care). The guy is the pest. He’s in constant motion defensively, slams through every screen and defends so close to his assignment that he literally gets into opponent’s jersey, under his skin and into his head. His competitiveness and motor also translate to the offensive end: he’s cutting, screening, shooting the ball efficiently, and his floater game, be it scoring or lobbing passes, is probably the most remarkable in the NBA. Matthew is also an Australian Institute of Sport product and Saint Mary’s College alum. While in St. Mary’s, Delly became an Academic All-American and set school’s records for games played, points, assists and threes made. Saint Mary’s College retired his jersey in 2014.
4. Patty Mills
Who is the player that the USA men’s national basketball team struggled to shut down for two consecutive Olympic Games? The second ever indigenous Australian to play in the NBA? Player that leads his team in average speed in this year’s NBA playoffs? That’s right, Patty Mills is all of the above. A Canberra native, Patty outran the whole USA team in 2008 in Beijing, pouring in 20 points on that edition of the Dream Team from all over the floor. Literally no one could catch him. Just when team USA thought they’ve already seen everything, Patty loaded up a 26 point performance in London Games, playing against the likes of Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams, and led the whole Olympic basketball tournament in scoring with over 21 points per game. Aside from his Olympic heroics, Mills is the key player in San-Antonio Spurs’ bench mob, arguably the best bench unit in the whole NBA. His infinite energy, electric style of play and gunner’s mentality truly fuels the team when he’s on the floor.
3. Dante Exum
The third spot on the list belongs to a 6’6 point guard Dante Exum. It’s not a secret that many NBA teams crave size and length at the point, and this is exactly why the Utah Jazz drafted Dante, Melbourne native, with the 5th pick in 2014 despite the fact they had already spent a high pick on a point guard a year earlier. Exum was a big unknown coming into the draft, because of a very limited exposure and small sample size of game film that was available to NBA evaluators.
But even with that, Dante was considered one of the top players in his class and projected by some experts to go as high as third just on what he theoretically can do with proper coaching and development. This year was supposed to be a real litmus test for him, but his season ended before it even began with Dante suffering a torn ACL. Let’s hope Exum can fulfill his potential and become next in line of great Jazz point guards.
2. Ben Simmons
Speaking of Draft unknowns and 2016 NBA Draftees: another Melbourne kid and Australia national team’s member Ben Simmons is pronounced by many writers and experts as a special player and the next generational talent. But there’s a hard question to answer: just how special is he? Is he a crazy Blake Griffin/Magic Johnson combination? An ultra-versatile do-it-all power forward with court vision and skills of a point guard? A tweener that’s unable/unwilling to shoot?
Before the season began, Ben was a consensus number one pick. Then he started playing in LSU. I bet your pickup team in a local park is more organized than what was considered to be offense there. Simmons just got stuck on a bad team and wasn’t used in the right way to display his best game. Then people started noticing his reluctance to shoot the ball, then started questioning his leadership and assertiveness and these are exactly the things that kill player’s draft stock.
Now his status as a top talent is in question, but that was the case in many drafts: executives think, analyze and criticize, sometimes too much. All things aside, Ben Simmons is the most talented player with the highest ceiling in this class. But even if he goes first overall, he wouldn’t be the first Aussie to do so, because…
1. Andrew Bogut
Because 7’0 center from Melbourne, AIS, and the University of Utah was picked first by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2005. Andrew Bogut, dabbed as “Awesome Aussie” by the Bucks fans, deserves every bit of the nickname. Before he got to the NBA, Andrew was named FIBA’s U-19 World Championship MVP with Australian national team in 2003, ESPN’s national player of the year, AP first team All-American, Naismith College Player of the Year and Wooden Award Winner with the Utah Utes in 2005.
In his early years in Wisconsin, Bogut was one of the top well-rounded centers in the NBA, being a nightly double-double threat and a stifling defender. Unfortunately, injuries slowed him down, the Bucks decided to change directions and traded Bogut to Golden State, where Andrew redefined himself as a defensive specialist and one of the finest bigmen passers there is in the NBA, not to mention the impact Bogut made on his team’s championship run last year and a record breaking 73-win season this year.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)
Ryan Broekhoff
The 6’7 sweet-shooting wing was born in Melbourne, and like many players on the list attended Australian Institute of Sport. He also played for Valparaiso University, Division I basketball school in the US. During his time with the Valpo Ryan became the MVP of the Horizon League, led the league in three-point accuracy and rebounding, and also made arguably the most memorable shot in Valpo’s history to get his team into the league’s tournament final game.
Goulding was born in Launceston, Tasmania and started his basketball career with the Brisbane Bullets in the NBL in 2006/07 season and had his fair share of success in the league. MVP of the 2012 NBL All-Star game, Goulding went off for 50 points against the Sydney Kings in 2014 (first 50 point performance in the NBL since getting back to 40 minute games, Chris played the entire 40 minutes) and won that year’s scoring title. He currently plays for Auxilium Pallacanestro Torino in Italy’s Serie A.
Brad Newly
Another Institute of Sport alum, the 6’6 shooting guard/small forward Brad Newly has quite an impressive international resume: rookie of the year, 6th man of the year and All-Star game MVP in the NBL in 2005, All-NBL second team member in 2007, Greek Basket League All-Star in 2008 with Panionios and 2011 Lithuanian League All-star with Lietuvos Rytas. Brad is currently a member of Gran Canaria in Spain’s ACB
Nathan is 6’10 and 315 pounds of pure power punch. Seriously, you don’t get a nickname like “Aussie Shaq” for nothing. Jawai had a cup of coffee in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors and Dallas Mavericks. He’s also the first indigenous Australian to play in the NBA game. NBA aside, Nathan also played in the NBL, where he earned All-Star game MVP and Rookie of the Year honors in 2008, Adriatic League Championship and Final Four MVP honors in 2011 and NBL championship with the Perth Wildcats in 2016.
David Andersen
David Andersen’s name in the honorable mention is really a testament to how strong basketball is in the land Down Under. Just his titles and awards alone could have granted him a spot on most of the top-10 lists: 3-time Italy’s Lega Basket Serie A champion, Serie A Finals MVP in 2004, Italian Cup MVP in 2012, three-time Euroleague champion, All-Euroleague First Team in 2005, three-time Russian League champion, Spanish ACB champion, Turkish Cup MVP in 2013, and French League All-Star in 2016. Not too shabby, considering that David had some quality NBA time too.
And Finally the Question of the Day: is Kyrie Irving Australian?
Yes, Kyrie Irving was born in Melbourne and lived in Kew, because his father was a professional basketball player in Australia. There even was a speculation that he could be eligible to play for the Boomers before the London Olympics…
But the Irvings moved back to the United States when Kyrie was two years old. He then played for Duke University, the Cavaliers and USA men’s national team, so technically he’s not an Aussie. But hey, he drank Australian water and breathed the air in Melbourne, so maybe that’s where his talent is coming from =)
Stats curtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and realGM.com
