FIBA 2023 World Cup: Analysing The Australia Roster

With the 19th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup due to begin on August 25th, there follows a look at the rosters for each of the 32 teams taking part. This instalment looks at the team from the bookmaker’s third-favourite for the championship, Australia.

Patty Mills

• PG/SG – 6’1 – Born 11th August 1988
• Atlanta Hawks, NBA

After a summer of being moved around as a salary rather than desired as a player, the now-35-year-old Mills will be looking to rebound from his worst season in a decade. It is true to say that the heavily disjointed nature of last year’s Brooklyn Nets was not a favourable environment for an off-ball role player such as Mills to survive; the quality of his offensive production is largely contingent on the quality of the team around him, as more of a beneficiary of it than a cause. That said, he is also 35 now, a tough age for a speedster. There is likely still a spark in the fire; hopefully, in this tournament, Mills can throw a log on it.

Dante Exum

• PG/SG – 6’5 – Born 13th July 1995
• Dallas Mavericks, NBA

Most players, when they fall out of the NBA, never get back in. But Exum just did. After a disjointed start to his NBA career, one riddled with injury, it took a move to the EuroLeague to springboard back in, but that is exactly what Exum did with his play last season, averaging 13.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for Partizan Belgrade. A large part of Exum’s NBA stagnation beyond the injury was never finding an offensive role, but he has found one; consistently improving as a shooter, Exum is also more confident now as a secondary ball-handler, driver of ball reversals and attacker in general. He was a very good EuroLeague player last year; next, he will be a good FIBA one (feasting on the distinct athletic advantage he will have over almost every opponent), before becoming a good NBA one.

Josh Green

• SG – 6’5 – Born 16th November 2000
• Dallas Mavericks, NBA

Last season was a breakout campaign for Green, who will now share a spot on both the Mavericks’ and Boomers’ depth charts with Exum while offering a similar package. After two inconsistent seasons, he kicked on in year three, playing in 60 games with 21 starts and averaging 9.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 25.7 minutes per game. He shot far better from three, became more of an off-ball threat, did everything a bit more quickly and confidently, and was one of the better defenders on an admittedly bad defensive team. More growth is needed, but the recent growth is reassuring, and Green is a featured part of this Australia roster rather than any token inclusion.

Chris Goulding

• SG – 6’4 – Born 24th October 1988
• Paris Basketball, France

Goulding has been a shooter and scorer of note for nearly two decades, and he is not stopping now. Once on the cusp of the NBA, he has instead stayed almost exclusively with the Melbourne Tigers, leaving only for a couple of post-NBL cameos in Europe, including with Paris last season. In said cameo last season, Goulding averaged 10.6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game, shooting 40.5% from the field, an identical 40.5% from three, with a three-point rate of .881. All of which should give you a fair idea of how he plays.

Always looking for the jumpshot, Goulding is a good and confident shooter, be it on the move or off the catch. He looks only for the jumper and is not a point guard, yet he works off the ball and the pull-up, moving off the ball a lot and shooting in a slither of space. To a degree, Goulding can handle in the pick-and-roll, usually looking for mid-rangers for himself yet executing some dump-off passes to loitering bigs. But for the most part, you will want him taking jumpers. And rest assured that he wants that too.

Matisse Thybulle

• SG/SF – 6’5 – Born 4th March 1997
• Portland Trail Blazers, NBA

Four years into his NBA career now, it does not seem as though much in the way of offensive growth will be forthcoming from Thybulle. He averaged 4.7 points per game on a .539 true shooting percentage in 65 games as a rookie, and yet just put up 4.1 on .556 in 71 last season. Nevertheless, the stocks numbers were as there as ever. Thybulle has a preternatural ability to contest, deflect and win possessions in a way that others just….don’t.

Dyson Daniels

• SG/SF – 6’8 – Born 17th March 2003
• New Orleans Pelicans, NBA

As the Pelicans blustered through an anticlimactic season, Daniels got quite a lot of opportunity, appearing in 59 games with 11 starts. The results were…not bad. Daniels’s shot profile is unclear at this stage, but his defence was good from the start, as he quickly adapted to applying his great frame and mobility to the usually unglamorous end, and demonstrated good instincts from the off. Offensively, Daniels still has quite a way to go, both as a finisher and a creator. Yet as seen above, the same was once true of Dante Exum. There is plenty of time to incubate that growth.

Josh Giddey

• PG/SG/SF – 6’8 – Born 10th October 2002
• Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA

Conversely, Giddey was a key part of the quick ascent of the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2022/23. An elite playmaker with great size, he and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander seemed to have no problems working off each other’s movement and unselfishness, with Giddey also going to the glass more than almost any other guard in the game and making incremental improvements to his own shooting. On the season, Giddey averaged 16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists a contest, and while every aspect of his jump shooting ability and defensive awareness needs more work doing, he makes quality players around him better.

Jack White

• SF/PF – 6’7 – Born 5th August 1997
• Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA

Giddey’s team mate on the national team will join him with the Thunder next season after a year spent as a two-way player with the Denver Nuggets, for whom he recorded 21 points and 17 rebounds in 66 minutes. More importantly, in 14 G-League regular season games with their affiliate Grand Rapids Gold, White averaged 20.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.8 blocks per game, shooting 54.4% from the field and 44.6% from three. Eerily like Lance Thomas before him, the defensive role-playing combo man who never scored more than 4.1 points per game in his four seasons at Duke is now cutting loose as a pro, and showing that in addition to the boxing out, spirited defence and decent athleticism, he can offer high-volume shooting and an expanded driving game. And he will have a lot more pportunity to demonstrate that with the Thunder than with the Nuggets.

Joe Ingles

• SF/PF – 6’8 – Born 2nd October 1987
• Orlando Magic, NBA

Ingles is now the veteran of the piece, but he is not done yet. After his one year with the Milwaukee Bucks averaging 6.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game, he signed a free agency deal with the Magic, for a fully guaranteed two years and $22 million. This seems quite a lot of money for a player who will be 36 by the time the next NBA season begins. Then again, it is not as though ageing is robbing him of his athleticism.

Xavier Cooks

• SF/PF – 6’8 – Born 19th August 1995
• Washington Wizards, NBA

Cooks was profiled in this space during last season, suggested as a candidate for a possible call-up to the NBA. Three months later, in March, he got one, joining the Washington Wizards for the final few games of the season, signing a contract through 2026. In the 12 NBA games he has managed so far, Cooks averaged 3.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, and while he may not have made the Australia roster here were it not for the injury to Jock Landale, he is nevertheless an NBA-calibre player who the Wizards should bring back. And it appears that they will.

Nick Kay

• PF – 6’9 – Born 3rd August 1992
• Shimane Susanoo Magic, Japan

Complimenting the more athletic games of Cooks and White is the veteran Kay, who has spread his wings since the pandemic. He played the 2020/21 season with Real Betis in Spain before spending the last two years with Shimane, for whom he averaged 15.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 29.8 minutes of 63 games last season, shooting 54.1% from the field and 44.6% from three-point range. A very talented and versatile scorer, Kay posts, drives, passes into the lane, passes out of the lane, goes to the offensive glass, spots up, pops and rolls, a very composed and useful player on that end. Defensively, while positionally aware and competitive, he might not be so effective against the more athletic opponents in the later stages. But his skill level is high nonetheless.

Duop Reath

• C – 6’11 – Born 26th June 1996
• Al Riyadi, Lebanon

With the withdrawal due to injury of Landale, the retirement of Andrew Bogut and the near-retirement of Aron Baynes, Reath is now the lone national team centre. But he is a good one. As evidenced by his 18.2 point, 7.8 rebound and 2.0 blocks in 24.5 minutes per game in China last season, plus the pedigree of his gigs to date (Euroleague, Adriatic League, NBA summer league, LSU, plus of course some time in Australia), he is a high-level player with the size and skill to compete with anyone. With size, patience, footwork, touch in the lane, endless rolling to the rim and a bit of shooting away from it, all the while improving his interior defensive positioning as a pro, Reath can handle the pure centre minutes alone if needs be.

Group A: Italy, Angola, Philippines, Dominican Republic

Group B: China, Serbia, Puerto Rico, South Sudan

Group C: USA, Greece, Jordan, New Zealand

Group D: Egypt, Mexico, Lithuania, Montenegro

Group E: Germany, Finland, Australia, Japan

Group F: Slovenia, Cape Verde, Georgia, Venezuela

Group G: Iran, Spain, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire

Group H: Canada, Latvia, France, Lebanon