Inside Boomers’ World Cup prep, key lessons for Dyson Daniels and Xavier Cooks’ ‘surreal’ journey to the NBA
Boomers coaching camp is now only a week away, as an 18-man prolonged squad heads to Cairns earlier than that group is ultimately lower down to fifteen forward of the FIBA World Cup.
But earlier than head coach Brian Goorjian makes these powerful roster calls, there are a number of different priorities that have to be sorted first — like who’s answerable for the camp playlist.
Music requests aren’t the one purpose the Boomers’ WhatsApp chat has been lighting up because it was arrange a number of months in the past both, with quite a lot of members additionally moved within the NBA’s free company interval.
That, mixed with all of the pure discuss you’ll anticipate about recreation plans and the same old crew banter, made for fairly the for 20-year-old rising Australian NBA expertise Dyson Daniels.
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“Patty and Joe are the leaders of that and they’re always asking questions, always having fun, cracking jokes, just building chemistry that way and telling us the plan of what’s going to happen,” Daniels informed foxsports.com.au.
“It’s fun as well because people will be putting pretty funny stuff in there. Even like a song playlist for camp.
“With the Aussies in the NBA, there was a lot of movement happening with Patty, Jock and I think there were a few other movements as well. It was good just congratulating those guys.
“Having a group chat we chat some s*** in there about each other. But a lot of guys got big contracts, got moved around to new teams, new environments. So that’s pretty cool.”
“I think out of all us basketball players, this is probably our favourite time of year,” added Boomers ahead Xavier Cooks, who signed with the Washington Wizards on a four-year deal again in March.
“So we started to get our playlist together and everyone is starting to bond.”
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Daniels and Cooks have been in Sydney as a part of their Australian tour with the NBA, taking part in a pleasant recreation of pickleball with boxing star Tim Tszyu and NRL participant Cooper Johns earlier than jetting off to Melbourne for a meet-and-greet with followers on the metropolis’s NBA retailer.
While neither shall be making the swap to the quickest rising sport in America anytime quickly, it was simply yet one more alternative for the pair to spend time collectively away from the courtroom forward of the upcoming World Cup.
Dallas Mavericks guard Josh Green and Duop Reath, who was a standout for the Portland Trail Blazers at this 12 months’s Summer League, have been additionally on the town.
“I actually saw them last night for dinner,” Cooks stated.
“Everyone’s starting to get their connections tight and getting ready for camp.”
Daniels, in the meantime, was simply certainly one of a number of members of the Boomers’ prolonged squad to descend upon Melbourne United’s Hoop City coaching venue for scrimmages stacked with Australian expertise.
The second-year guard featured alongside fellow NBA gamers Josh Giddey, Jock Landale and Jack White whereas returning NBL star and Boomers veteran Matthew Dellavedova additionally took half.
“To be playing in Australia and having a run like that with the type of people that were in that run… it’s kind of rare,” Daniels stated.
“You go to America all the time to have those kinds of runs but to have it in Australia is rare. It was good, it was competitive and it was good to play with the Boomers guys, learn from each other, build a little bit of chemistry. It was just good fun to be able to go down there and compete.”
DANIELS ON ROOKIE SEASON LESSONS AND TALENTED BROTHER DASH
For Daniels, it was simply one other alternative to get in additional work after a end to his rookie season that even the 20-year-old himself admits left so much to be desired.
While the Bendigo product’s abilities on defence have been at all times going to see him get minutes in his rookie season, an absence of constant offensive manufacturing noticed Daniels’ taking part in time lower.
It meant that when the Pelicans confronted Josh Giddey’s Thunder within the play-in event, Daniels was made to look at from the bench as New Orleans’ season got here to a untimely finish.
There was nothing he might do about both. That is, till the summer time got here round and the Australian was fast to get to engaged on the deficiencies in his recreation.
“Heading into my second year I wasn’t happy with how I finished the first year and I felt like I needed to come into Summer League and have a really good run and be more aggressive,” Daniels stated.
“I feel like when I’m aggressive things start to open up for me and it was good to play a lot of minutes, play with the ball in my hands. I’ve been working out all summer, trying to work on my game, work on my handle.”
All that work confirmed within the latest Summer League too as Daniels averaged a team-high 7.2 rebounds and 6.4 assists together with 14.6 factors, 1.2 steals and 1.2 blocks per recreation.
Shooting nonetheless stays a piece in progress although for Daniels, who went 25-for-72 (34.72 per cent) from the sector and simply 2-for-20 from past the arc (10 per cent).
But with capturing guru Fred Vinson nonetheless at New Orleans, Daniels can take confidence from fellow Australian Giddey’s progress in his second 12 months with the Thunder below the tutelage of Chip Engelland.
More than something, the boldness Daniels needed to proceed capturing even when the pictures weren’t falling needed to be a promising signal for the Pelicans.
It is a lesson Giddey mirrored on on the finish of his second season with Oklahoma City, telling reporters one of many greatest classes he realized was persevering with to think about the method.
“Even earlier in the season, I really struggled to shoot the ball,” Giddey stated.
“Chip and Mike [Daigneault] kept reinforcing that these things take time and I think that once I learned that and stopped worrying about the immediate result and thinking more long-term in the outcomes from the process, that’s when a switch really flipped and things headed in a better direction for me.”
It hasn’t simply been capturing although, with Daniels additionally doing “a lot of weightlifting” in the summertime to construct up his physique, one thing which once more will assist him play with extra aggression.
Daniels has been forwards and backwards between New Orleans and Los Angeles, the place he works with Jordan Lawley — one of many NBA’s premier abilities trainers.
But Daniels has additionally made time to return to the place it began, again in Bendigo the place his dad Ricky is an area legend and now the 20-year-old is making a reputation for himself.
And for all fanfare that comes with taking part in towards childhood hero Russell Westbrook or Lakers famous person LeBron James, it’s main junior clinics just like the one at Red Energy Arena final weekend that basically crystallise how far this younger child from Bendigo has come.
“It’s pretty cool,” Daniels stated of seeing youngsters along with his identify plastered on their backs.
And now youthful brother Dash is following in Dyson’s footsteps, having joined the NBA Global Academy earlier this month.
Although as a lot as Dyson is at all times prepared to supply a serving to hand, he additionally desires to verify Dash follows his personal path.
“I want him to take his own journey and do his own thing,” Daniels stated.
“But he’s excited for the Academy, he’s just moved there. That’s going to be a good learning experience for him. He’s gone there very young, so he’s going to learn a lot, he’s going to be there for a while but he’s got all the tools that he needs to be a great basketball player.
“He’s got the right mindset, he’s going to continue to put in the work.
“I always tell Dash he’s going to get a lot of pressure because of me and a lot of people talk about me to him but I just tell him to do his own thing because he’s running his own race and he’s going to be a special player.
“But now I tell him follow whatever he wants to do. If he wants to go to college, if he wants to go NBL, if he wants to go G League, I’m sure those options are going to be available so I’ll tell him to run his own race.
“I’ll try give him tips and help him out… I just want to make sure he’s doing what he wants and not what he’s being told to do.”
COOKS’ ‘SURREAL’ JOURNEY TO NBA … AND THE MOMENT IT ALL SUNK IN
Speaking of forging your individual path, Cooks did precisely that on his method to securing a four-year deal that’s set to maintain him at Washington and within the NBA till the top of the 2025-26 season.
Although ask Cooks himself and the 27-year-old nonetheless is attempting to course of a whirlwind previous couple of months, which noticed the Sydney Kings star lastly realise his lifelong dream of taking part in within the NBA.
“The whole journey has been pretty cool and pretty surreal,” Cooks stated.
“Everyone’s journey is not getting drafted and all that kind of stuff. It took me five years after college to get there and to be honest with you I think I needed that journey.
“It helped me learn different aspects of the game and develop my game throughout the time.”
Cooks was given restricted taking part in time in his first few video games for the Wizards earlier than ultimately seeing vital minutes because the season drew to a detailed and he grew extra snug taking part in along with his new teammates.
It led to Cooks taking part in 38 minutes in a 114-109 loss to Houston on the ultimate day of the season, scoring 10 factors to go along with 14 rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
“I think to be honest after the season finished,” Cooks stated when requested if there was a second when it lastly sunk in that he had made it to the NBA.
“I kind of finally had a relatively good game and I really just sat back and was like, ‘Man, I really had a double-double in an NBA game’, and then I thought, ‘Wait, I’m actually in the NBA’, like it still kind of feels surreal, just because of the turn of events. It happened so quickly it was hard to take in.”
Washington coach Wes Unseld Jr. had been lowering centre Daniel Gafford’s minutes within the latter levels of the season to see what Cooks had and was impressed with what he noticed.
“He looked more comfortable,” Unseld Jr. stated after Cooks’ 10-point, nine-rebound and three-steal recreation towards Miami in April.
“I thought it’s unfortunate, he didn’t get the payoff but he had three or four potential assists where he found [someone] in the pocket, had two no-looks in the corner, obviously missed those shots.
“But that’s what we expect from him, to be a secondary facilitator playing off the roll, playing in the dunker, those kick-out passes, the rebounding piece — it’s one thing to go get it, the tip rebounds and 50-50 balls, he’s helped us in those areas.”
Cooks didn’t get a lot time working with Unseld Jr. throughout these previous couple of weeks of the common season however he’s already seeing the advantages of working along with his new mentor this summer time.
“During the season you don’t get to practice that much. You only get to practice three or four times,” Cooks stated.
“But during this offseason I’ve had a lot of time to work with him and he’s been doing a great job with instilling confidence into these young guys and myself. It’s a whole new game over there.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I do get a bit nervous over there. So it’s great to have a coach that’s supportive and has your back.”
Cooks, a former participant at Winthrop who went undrafted in 2018, signed with the Kings after two stints within the Summer League and one skilled season in Germany.
The Boomers ahead averaged 16.2 factors, 7.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per recreation for Sydney in the course of the 2022-23 common season earlier than taking house MVP honours as he led the Kings to a second-straight championship.
The NBL, and its Next Stars program particularly, is rising in reputation as a real pathway for aspiring NBA gamers with the New Zealand Breakers’ Rayan Rupert the newest to make it to the large stage.
“Even when you go over to America, there’s a buzz around the NBL,” Cooks stated.
“Even just coming back to Summer League, there’s other teams asking, ‘Are you playing for Sydney in the NBL’ and all that kind of stuff.
“A lot of players asking, ‘How do I get in the league?’ I see the opportunities created from the NBL’… so the buzz around the NBL is real and it’s awesome.”
