One of the things I have long despised about the American basketball scene is the way a team is so often defined by a single player.

Think LA Lakers and Le Bron James comes to mind, think Dallas Mavericks and Luka Donkic is the person most likely to personify the team. Games are often advertised as a contest between two superstars rather than as a team contest

To be fair basketball is a sport where one star player can make a significant difference and Luka has often been a picture of that.

But it seems to speak of a posture that is more about the talent and performance of the individual, rather than about the combined effort of the team.

In recent days the Australian Boomers Olympic squad was selected and there were a couple of notable omissions – the most significant being the absence of Matisse Thybulle. It seems Brian Goorjian has been seeking to get the right ‘blend’ of talent, rather choosing talent and then looking for a way to draw the team together. Thybulle was an unfortunate casualty of this approach, so it will be interesting to see if the Goorjian method actually bears fruit.

While I will miss watching the defensive moves of Thybulle, I will say that I admire Goorjian’s courage in seeking to build a star team rather than a team of stars. So far the warm up games seem to have proved his philosophy a winner, but the acid test will be the 3 group games where there simply are no ‘gimmes’. Spain, Greece and Canada will all be very hard games and it will take everything we have got just to make it out of the group, let alone enter medal contention.

It seems Patty Mills has found his shooting touch again which is awesome, Giddey appears very competent in running the point and Jock Landale can hold his own in the centre. With Dyson Daniels, Josh Green and Dante Exum in the squad there is also plenty of depth. So far Duop Reath has seen very little court time, but he’s another who can play a number of positions and be a real threat from both inside and outside

I get the sense that Joe Ingles and Matt Delly may be there for their court leadership and team spirit as much as their actual capacity – not that either are poor players – they are probably just at their last Olympics.

So will we do it? Will we get thru the group – to the quarters – to the semi’s – to a gold medal game?…

I hate to get my hopes up – but I think it’s possible if ‘luck’ runs our way. I reckon it all hangs on getting a good start against Spain – drop that game and it’s all uphill from there…

But I will hope…