Olympics ‘Huge’ Confidence Booster for Josh Giddey, Jock Landale

Australia’s 5×5 Men’s Basketball Team have achieved the unexpected – to reach the

Paris 2024 Olympic Games

quarter-finals, where they are set to take on Serbia for a place in the semi-finals, which will bring them one step closer to securing a medal.

Spearheaded by

NBA

duo

Josh Giddey

and

Jock Landale

, the Boomers somehow navigated their way out of a tough Group A stacked with talent from Greece, Spain and group winners Canada, and no matter when and where their run comes to an end, basketball insider Mark Medina believes the pair will each take ‘huge’ confidence going into the 2024-25 regular season campaign.

Marginally Escaped the ‘Group of Death’

Progressed to the knockout rounds along with Canada and Greece, Spain eliminated

Widely named as the ‘Group of Death’ heading into the

Olympics

, Team Australia were not even remotely tipped to be a team that could progress out of Group A, but they defied all the odds by doing so, albeit marginally.

With the way the Olympic Games’ format works, every point scored and conceded could be crucial in determining who progresses out of the group stages.

For Australia, despite winning only one of their three contests, against Spain, and tying with both Greece and Spain in number of games won and lost, they finished with a points differential of minus-four, which was four points greater than both nations, who each finished with a differential of minus-eight.

They by far had the toughest group – which certainly lived up to its Group of Death nickname – with Groups B and C each having outright winners and runners-up, thus not needing to rely on points differential. Group A did see three of its four teams emerge out of the group stages and into the knockout phases, with

Giannis Antetokounmpo

’s Greece also setting up a contest with the 2023 FIBA World Cup Champions, Germany.

Australia may have scraped through to the quarter-finals by the barest of margins, but it does help that they have arguably two of the greatest ever Australian players to have ever suited up for the Boomers in veteran

Patty Mills

, and the up-and-coming Josh Giddey, who are each considered in the top-three.

However, they both sit behind number one Luc Longley in the rankings, who was an integral part of the supporting cast in the

Chicago Bulls

dynasty in the 1990s, winning three championships.

Their win-or-go-home match-up comes against a Serbian side that features the reigning NBA MVP,

Nikola Jokic

, along with other league names including

Bogdan Bogdanovic

and

Nikola Jovic

.

Together, they have been touted to be a potential recipient of the bronze medal, though they face very stiff competition from tournament hosts France, who boast a roster filled with a wealth of NBA talent too, most notably

Rudy Gobert

, and generational star,

Victor Wembanyama

.

Olympics Will Have a ‘Carryover Effect’ for NBA Players

Like most players who play internationally over the NBA off-season, Medina believes that

Houston Rockets

center Jock Landale, and Bulls’ guard Giddey in particular, will benefit from having strong Olympic outings as they prepare to go into the 2024-25 regular season.

However, the journalist does caution that there is the rare occasion that players may enter training camp or the beginning of the campaign a little bit fatigued, though more often than not, they come well-conditioned.

Leading the Charge

Combined for 32.7 PTS in group stage

Put simply, Team Australia wouldn’t have made it to the quarter-finals without the production – on both sides of the ball – of Landale and Giddey, who have contributed a combined 32.7 points per game in their three group games, with the Rockets’ 7-footer leading the way with 17.7 points at a 67.6 percent shooting clip, and Giddey with 15.0 points on 47.1 percent from the field, and 42.9 percent from three-point distance.

Landale, who recorded 4.9 points at a 51.5 percent shooting clip, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists with Houston last season, comes alive whenever he steps onto the international stage, also leading Australia so far in rebounds (9.7), and efficiency (24.7).

Giddey, who will be seeking to arrive to his new team in good form, has also been productive on the biggest stage of them all, and in addition to his scoring form, he has also been averaging 8.7 rebounds and led the team with 6.7 assists per contest too.

Last season, he fell out of favor with his now former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he finished the regular season campaign with 12.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists on 48/34/81 shooting splits.

Could the duo’s so far stellar production alone be enough to lead the team from down under into medal contention? Possibly, but at this stage, Australia won’t be thinking that far ahead yet, with them needing to play the game of their lives if they are to beat a strong, gritty Serbian outfit.

Scanning the rest of the field, though, it appears that the remaining teams will be battling for silver and bronze, with it looking all but inevitable that star-powered Team USA will come out victorious as gold medal winners and Olympic champions.

However, this is tournament basketball and anything can happen.

Nonetheless, Giddey and Landale in particular should take a lot of confidence from their standout performances throughout their time in Paris, and strive to be just as impactful for their respective NBA teams next season.

All statistics courtesy of Statmuse, ESPN, NBA.com and Basketball Reference.

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