When unexpected things happen, it’s easy to look past logic for emotion and the decision which led to Mitch Creek’s omission from the Australia Boomers FIBA World Cup team was certainly unexpected. As a result, it led to many emotional social media post abusing Boomers head coach Anrej Lemanis for this “terrible decision” amidst claims of being biased towards players contracted to his own NBL team.
What makes a clear and logical decision to leave Creek off the team hard to fathom, is the fact that Mitch Creek is an amazing basketball talent. Having just delivered his best year as a pro, reaching the pinnacle of the basketball world, the NBA and out performing expectations in the G-League.
Creek averaged 15 points 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal and the fact he finished ninth in offensive ranking (an estimate of how many points a player scores or assists on per 100 possessions) only adds further weight to Creek’s all round impact to team success.
Creek, who will play for the South East Melbourne Phoenix this season, will also be unarguably one of the best players in the NBL next season and a hot chance for league MVP.
Building a successful team however, is not something which occurs from merely selecting the best players available. Something the United States realised in 2002 that simply sending “All-Star” teams into FIBA events wasn’t enough to win a medal after finishing sixth in a FIBA World Championship.
Since then they have sent well rounded teams which feature a core group of the countries best available players then complemented with a group of role players who possess a unique skill that supports the weaknesses of the team.
This is something which has been not only taken into consideration when selecting this Boomers squad but mentioned frequently by the coaching staff.
“We had lots of really good players and the reality is this is not an All-Star team, it’s a group of skill sets we are trying to fit together for the best outcome.” Lemanis said when announcing the Boomers selections.
If it came down to selecting the 12 best available Australian players, Mitch Creek would easily be a part this Boomers squad, but this is not an “All-Star” team, this is a team built to win a medal.
Many irate fans have abused Lemanis decision to overlook Creek but this is a narrow minded view to take based on the fact that it is very clear Creek’s omission was a no doubt once made by committee.
“There is unfinished business from Rio, we haven’t medalled at an international event and there is certainly a mission to get that done.” Lemanis said.
Prior to Rio and ever since the Boomers have achieved success through a core group of NBA players who have made numerous sacrifices to ensure Australia wins it’s first medal in men’s competition.
Since 2016 Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova have been a part of Lemanis team and have taken it upon themselves to build a culture capable of delivering the countries for medal.
In 2016 Australia’s NBA players, on their own dime, flew to San Diego in order to build a plan and develop a culture which would deliver the team’s first FIBA medal. the wheels in motion for what has so far been an incredible Olympic campaign
“It was a great way to kick-start this whole campaign and find the meaning of why we want to achieve what we’ve set out to do.” Bogut noted about that weekend.
“They are all the type of things that brought us closer together as a group and as players. It was a great way to kick-start this whole campaign and find the meaning of why we want to achieve what we’ve set out to do.”
Andrej Lemanis noted the efforts of this collection of NBA superstars to invest their own time and money, into developing what is now the core of the Australian mens basketball team.
“They made a commitment that during the All Star break, rather than going on and spending time individually with their families, that they would all spend time together and continue that connection and commitment to the Boomers program,” coach Andrej Lemanis said.
Six months later Patty Mills then took the entire Boomers team on a motivational trip to Uluru, a scared place to help develop a unique bond between those that wear the green and gold.
“The stuff we do,” Mills said in 2016, “those little things gave us a deeper meaning of why we play for Australia. For each other. It just gives everyone a bit more meaning behind what we’re actually trying to achieve here.”
This team is as much a product of Bogut, Mills, Ingles, Baynes and Dellavedova as it is Lemanis and it would take a fool to believe this team was selected without their input.
Lemanis has also built a strong team of assistant coaches he trusts he have been a part of the Boomers program over the past four years also and don’t think that NBA legend Luc Longley, Will Weaver and Adam Caporn weren’t a part of that decision also.
While Lemanis must be the face of the program to announce who makes the team and who doesn’t, this is clearly a team selected by committee. Now that emotions have settled, it’s easier to see what the Boomers core group saw and others did not.
Firstly, it begins with the growth of Xavier Cooks who plays the same position as Creek and like Creek, spent time in the NBA summer league last month. Despite this few people know his name and even less have had the chance to see him play in Australia. After a great career at small US College Winthrop, Cooks played his first professional season in Germany, competing in the Eurocup, the second best competition in the world outside of the NBA.
Cooks was able to play 25 minutes a game, average 12 points, 5 rebounds and develop a very reliable three-point shot (40%) so that when he arrived at Boomers selection camp, he blew the coaches away with his development.
“Xav was just a beautiful, surprise success story,” Lemanis said.
“People often ask what are your great moments and expect you to say winning championships or going to the Olympics, for me it’s moments like this. He puts the work in, chips away everyday, goes to college and then to Europe and just flourishes.
He got into camp and it was like, Mate you have really, really improved.” Lemanis said during team selections.
Cooks ability to hit the open three and facilitate the ball is sharper than what Creek can deliver in those areas, and having done that for the past 9 months against European talent, the same talent the Boomers will face at the World Cup clearly gave him an edge over Creek.
Without Simmons and Exum the next best guard then came down to Nathan Sobey. The only Australian guard to be named to an All-NBL squad this year, but also instrumental during the Boomers qualifying games and recent Boomers camp.
A balanced team will have two players at every position in the first ten and then spots eleven and twelve are generally used as insurance to compensate one of their core group getting injured. Sobey’s selection results in the following players filling out our first ten.
Point Guards: Matthew Dellavedova, Nathan Sobey
Shooting Guards: Patty Mills, Chris Goulding
Small Forwards: Joe Ingles, Xavier Cooks
Power Forwards: Jonah Bolden, Jock Landale
Centres: Aron Baynes, Andrew Bogut
Another factor which changed the path for Mitch Creek was Ben Simmons decision to withdraw from the Boomers and an injury to Utah Jazz star Dante Exum. In this alternate line-up, where the guard rotation is loaded with four NBA level players it’s almost certain Creek would have been included, with our weakest position clearly becoming the small forward spot.
But while they are not available this is not the reality and instead we field a team with a gaping hole at point guard.
An injury to Mills or Dellavedova in the early rounds would see our talented NBA back-court reduced to only local NBL talent. We would be left with only Nathan Sobey able to play the point guard spot, a huge risk, considering that even in the NBL Sobey struggled to deliver at point guard.
The point guard spot is a major issue when you combine the fact the Boomers recent proven success has come through a line-up featuring an extra guard, allowing the team to play a speedy, aggressive press.
This style of play aimed at tiring European teams bringing the ball up full court before pushing them into a defensive wall built around Bogut and Baynes and supporting NBA big men like Cam Bairstow or Jonah Bolden delivered victories over international superpowers France, Serbia and Lithuania during the 2016 Olympics.
With a successful structure in place it’s important to fill in the pieces but NBA omissions like Simmons, Exum and fellow NBA stars Ryan Broekhoff and Thon Maker, both exceptional perimeter shooters have forced those selecting the team to make some hard decisions.
Reviewing the team’s needs from here, it’s easy to see we need perimeter shooting, point guard skills and another big man.
Foul trouble or injury to our front court would see use face the unenviable task of playing without a backup at either the power forward or centre position.
The choices came down to either Brock Motum, an offensive minded 6’10 shooter or Nick Kay a 6’9″ defensive minded rising star who like Sobey was vital in the Boomers qualifying games and was outstanding during selection camp.
Luc Longley noted the efforts of Nick Kay during day one of the selection camp.
“Nick Kay is someone who was dominant at practice. He was getting on the offensive glass, playing D, diving on the floor, he’s Nick Kay that you see every week in the NBL but this is a different lot of cattle out here, and Nick did really well.”
That spot was given to Brisbane Bullets guard Cam Gliddon, who along with Sobey became the brunt of angry hoops fans due to their connection the Brisbane Bullets and Lemanis.
The current plan to start both NBA point guards and play them 30+ minutes in crucial games, moving Mills to the point when Dellavedova heads to the bench showcases the teams lack of back up options at point guard.
If one them suffers an injury what then? Say Mills gets injured, who would be able to provide relief at the point guard spot? Who would play either guard spot when Dellavedova is on the bench?
Do we want to risk heading into the medal rounds having only one back-up guard and face having to play with an all NBL backcourt at times? Sobey can play point guard but generally excels in the two guard spot and Chris Goulding is clearly a shooting guard.
The needs Australia have due to omissions and injury when considering the 11th and 12th roster spots are the ability to play defence against international power forwards and centres as well as point guard play and perimeter shooting.
Although Mitch Creek would be a well deserved 12 man, can he play point guard?
Not as good as Cam Gliddon can.
Mitch Creek can shoot the three ball really well. But not as good as Cam Gliddon.
Mitch Creek is a leader, super athletic and a terrific defender at the small forward position.
Talents which make him great… good enough even to play in the NBA, but it’s not what Australia needs from it’s 11th and 12th roster spot.
Many social media comments also pointed out the loss of the leadership Creek delivered in Australia’s qualifying games as a huge loss but surely one realises within a team forged by the leadership of NBA veterans like Bogut, Mills, Ingles, Baynes and Dellavedova over a four year period, any leadership Creek could add would be unwarranted.
And to the people who think it fair to attack Lemanis on twitter for selecting Brisbane Bullets players Sobey and Gliddon over an NBA level talent like Creek, those same people no doubt understand an all-star team is better than a team of all-stars.
Yes, Mitch Creek is a better player than Cam Gliddon and Nathan Sobey. But he’s not a better perimeter shooter or point guard than Cam Gliddon and Nathan Sobey.
There is no Brisbane Bullets bias here. Simply a weakness due to the omission of our NBA talent.
The Boomers decision to omit Creek and fellow NBA player Deng Adel can be simplified to a group decision based on selecting a well balanced team that replicates the heavy guard play which has proven success with this core group in recent years.
Additionally, a team which has been built to defeat European powers like Lithuania, France and Serbia and prioritised the play of it’s European developed players (in the case of Cooks and Landale) which translates better against FIBA competition in favour of players with G-League experience (in the case of Creek and Deng Adel).
Lemanis has been open about the fact that cutting certain players was a tremendously difficult decision, one which reduced him to tears in the press conference where he named the team to the media.
“Creeky was … as heart breaking as any of them,” Lemanis said at his press conference.
“For the journey we’ve been through with Creeky, and his commitment through the World Cup qualification process, it was a really tough decision.
“But at the end of the day, for the skill sets we were looking for … we made the decision other guys might help us a little bit more.”
Listen to our recent podcast on the Boomers World Cup selections, Mitch Creek’s omission and the claims of Brisbane Bias here.