Smyth’s ‘genuine Boomers fear’, backs Vickerman for job
Phil Smyth has warned against a Brian Goorjian succession plan, instead endorsing Dean Vickerman to be the next Boomers coach.
A three-time winner of NBL titles as both a player and coach, the four-time Olympic guard also lamented the absence of Matisse Thybulle at the Boomers’ Paris Games charge.
Newly installed Sydney Kings coach Goorjian, who led Australia to a historic bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, stood down as Boomers coach after the Paris campaign.
Goorjian had taken over from Smyth in his first stint as Boomers coach in 2001, the South Australian boasting three titles with the Adelaide 36ers in rapid time soon after retiring as a player.
He’s now working with the Brisbane Lions AFL club as a coaching mentor, but has kept in touch with his basketball roots.
“For mine it’s probably Vickerman, he’s got the record here in Australia,” Smyth told AAP, endorsing the three-time NBL-winning coach.
Vickerman’s resume includes stints in regional Queensland and NSW, as well as New Zealand and as Singapore head coach while Slingers assistant almost 20 years ago.
He won his first NBL title with the Breakers and has won twice with United. He also lost a tight five-game finals series to Tasmania this year.
Goorjian told AAP in March that his Boomers assistants Matt Nielsen and Adam Caporn should both be strongly considered as his replacement.
Smyth thinks Basketball Australia will weigh up the cases of Vickerman and Nielsen, a three-time Olympian who is currently an NBA assistant coach at San Antonio.
“There’s a big difference between being an assistant and a head coach,” Smyth warned.
He also thinks the Boomers, beaten in the Paris quarter-finals by Serbia, should change tack and model themselves more after their European rivals than USA.
Goorjian was keen to play more like an NBA team, given he had more Australians than ever playing in the league at his disposal, and a point guard in Josh Giddey who enjoyed pushing the pace.
Smyth said it was a mistake not to select proven defender Matisse Thybulle for Paris, even suggesting Goorjian could have taken Joe Ingles as an assistant coach and picked the player who had starred in Tokyo three years earlier.
“I haven’t spoken to him (Goorjian) about why he did it, but he was the piece of puzzle we needed … the way the Europeans play you need a defender,” Smyth said of Thybulle’s controversial omission.
And Smyth said the next coach would need to have a discussion with Patty Mills, should the five-time Olympian decide he wants to play on.
“If he could accept a lesser role he still has some value, but to think he’s still going to be the main man is difficult,” Smyth said.
“There’s a time where you have to hand the mantle on and go ‘OK’.
“It’s hard to do and it depends who the coach is and what he’s looking for.”
Smyth was at least buoyed by the attitude of the next Boomers crop, with Giddey, Dyson Daniels, Josh Green, Dante Exum and Jock Landale all dedicated to the national cause.
“Josh is carrying that on,” Smyth said.
“Growing up as kids it was all about playing for Australia; I have a genuine fear over time we’ll become like, ‘the NBA is No.1’ and playing for Australia isn’t going to figure.”
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