Patty Mills, Keanu Pinder and Will McDowell-White have been selected in the Boomers extended squad for the upcoming Paris Olympics, after Basketball Australia announced its 22-man squad on Wednesday.
This squad will be narrowed down before the Boomers pre-tournament training camp, which will see the final 12 players chosen to compete in the Olympics from late July to August, 2024.
Ten players from the Tokyo 2020 team that won bronze, including Muralag and Kokatha man Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, and Josh Green, have been included in the squad.
"To represent Australia is the pinnacle for us as Australians in basketball," Mills told GQ.
"World Cup, FIBA basketball, international basketball is a different beast. It isn't the NBA, and that's a known fact.
"To think about holding the World Cup trophy above our heads and come back home with gold medals around our necks. I mean, that's the goal, nothing less."
Notable Indigenous young guns Nyigina man Keanu Pinder and Arrernte man Will McDowell-White have also earned selection.
Pinder averaged 13.6 points and 6.6 rebounds least season for the Perth Wildcats, while McDowell-White averaged 9.2 points, 4.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds with the New Zealand Breakers.
Ben Simmons, expected to make his Olympics debut, is the most significant absence due to a back injury that led to his withdrawal.
Simmons had previously committed to the Paris 2024 before his injury earlier this year.
Brian Goorjian will lead the Boomers as Head Coach for his fourth Olympics, aiming to leverage insights from recent performances to drive the team's evolution.
"The FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023 marked a new beginning for the Boomers," Goorjian said.
"We were able to introduce some new faces and identify areas that we needed to advance and improve.
"We've been actively monitoring the Aussie players across international leagues in USA, Europe and Asia as well as domestically in the NBL and we're confident in the potential chemistry of this list."
In March the path to Olympic success for the Boomers was defined, with Australia placed in Group A of the tournament.
They will compete against international heavyweights Canada and the victors of the Greece Qualifying Tournament (among Greece, Slovenia, New Zealand, Croatia, Egypt, and the Dominican Republic) and the Spain Qualifying Tournament (among Spain, Lebanon, Angola, Finland, Poland, and the Bahamas).
Despite being referenced externally as the 'group of death' the level of opposition adds to the motivation for Goorjian.
"We're really excited at this opportunity. The consensus is that the tournament will be at an unseen level with the talent and international NBA star-power across the teams," Goorjian said.
"I will emphasise and instil with the group that we're not aiming to match or replicate the style of game heading our way from other nations. Our goal is to beat them.
"We're going to play Aussie ball. And we're going to go at them with all we've got."
Boomers Paris 2024 Olympic Squad
Dyson Daniels, Matthew Dellavedova, Xavier Cooks, Dante Exum, Sam Froling, Johnny Furphy, Josh Giddey, Chris Goulding, Josh Green, Joe Ingles, Nick Kay, Jock Landale, Will Magnay, Will McDowell-White, Jack McVeigh, Patty Mills, Keanu Pinder, Duop Reath, Matisse Thybulle, Dejan Vasiljevic, Jack White, Rocco Zikarsky.
