Boomers assistant coach Will Weaver believes the character of the team headed to China for the FIBA World Cup will be guided by a "high-level intellect" group that will look to bring home a medal for the first time in men's international basketball history.
"I think the thing that stuck out to us this year as a coaching staff was the cumulative experience and corporate knowledge that had been amassed in the group, as well as the high-level intellect in the group that had been amassed among those 18 guys really showed from the first day," Weaver told ESPN following the conclusion of the four-day training camp in Melbourne.
"The first day didn't feel like a normal first day where you're [introducing] concepts, you're not going at half-speed. It was highly competitive, highly physical - as it always is - but it was crisp. That's what stood out as well as the character of the group as well as the individuals you're always excited to see wearing green-and-gold."
The road to qualification for the World Cup in China has been an arduous one for the Australia. The Boomers began their campaign in Chinese Taipei in November 2017, and ended it in Kazakhstan earlier this year. On Friday, the team plays the first of a series of friendly warm-up games against Canada in Perth, before hosting Team USA in Melbourne at the end of the month.
Weaver has served as an assistant to Andrej Lemanis since the 2014 World Cup in Spain, and was a part of the coaching staff at the 2016 Rio Olympics when a controversial call cost the Boomers a bronze medal in their playoff with Spain. Six players from the Olympic squad (Matthew Dellavedova, Andrew Bogut, Joe Ingles, Patty Mills, Aron Baynes and Chris Goulding) will head to the World Cup, and Weaver believes the blending of old and new will play a critical factor in the team's success.
"There's just a relentless passion and desire about being a part of this program that our players deserve credit for maintaining and playing in such a way that makes other players excited to play with them," he says. "That's such a big part of our culture. Especially given that a lot of these young guys have looked up to the old guys that they're playing with and are learning from them. It really is a special mix of personalities."
Australia will need to finish top of their group to avoid a potential quarterfinal clash with the United States, and in light of the absence of many of Team USA's star players, coupled with a number of Canadian players also withdrawing from the World Cup (crucial given that they will share a group with the Boomers) one might be forgiven for thinking that Australia's path to a medal has gotten easier.
Weaver insists that isn't the case, saying the Boomers aren't focusing on who is or isn't suiting up; he also acknowledges that luck plays a factor in major tournaments.
"A bad shooting night or a good shooting night can flip it one way or the other so for us it's about trying to get them to play well together and eventually grow them into a group that can play well enough to beat those best teams; but we don't spend a ton of time fixated on who's in and who's out," he tells ESPN.
"If were being honest, every country that's competing are playing to the fact that some of their opponents are missing guys that they might have feared."
Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles says there will be no easy games in China.
"Every team's good," he said. "I think World Cup is right there with the Olympics with how competitive it is. There's more teams, more European teams, so we'll have to be a ready.
"We've got a veteran team now that's been around a while. Obviously that same group's been together for a while; we had a great experience at the Olympics that we thought we could have done even more at, and hopefully we can carry that over to the [World Cup]."
Before the team leaves for China there is an historic double-header at Marvel Stadium to think about. Over 90,000 fans are expected to attend the two games on Aug. 22 and 24, in what will serve as the team's last games before flying to China.
"We're pumped - it's fun to play on home soil, but we're hoping it'll be the foundation to what will be a special campaign," Weaver told ESPN.
Boomers point guard Matthew Dellavedova agrees with his coach and says, while the games are billed as an exhibition and the team is excited to play in front of home fans, the Australians are looking at the bigger picture.
"The games are gonna be big - there's gonna be a lot of talk about that, but we're excited for the World Cup," Dellavedova said. 'That's our main goal. We wanna win the gold there. Those games are a building block to getting better and getting ready for that. Obviously it's gonna be massive and a pretty cool experience. It is a building block to trying to achieve our ultimate goal."
