Matisse Thybulle will not play for Australia at the 2024 Olympics. Thybulle is healthy and wanted to play for the Boomers at the Paris Games, but, when the coaching staff finalized the roster on Thursday, they cut him, per ESPN Australia’s Olgun Uluc.
The final roster includes:
- eight current NBA players (Dyson Daniels, Dante Exum, Josh Giddey, Josh Green, Joe Ingles, Jock Landale, Patty Mills, Duop Reath)
- two Boomers mainstays (former NBA player Matthew Dellavedova, who is now a member of a member of the NBL’s Melbourne United, and Nick Kay, who plays for Japan’s Shimane Susanoo Magic)
- two newcomers (Jack McVeigh and Will Magnay, who both play for the NBL’s Tasmania JackJumpers)
Mills, Green, Ingles, Dellavedova, Exum, Landale, Reath and Kay were all on the team that won bronze at the Olympic Games in Tokyo three years ago. So was Thybulle, who also suited up for the Boomers at the FIBA World Cup last summer.
Thybulle was not the only notable omission — Chris Goulding, Xavier Cooks and Jack White were all on the World Cup squad — but he was the most surprising one. The 27-year-old Portland Trail Blazers wing is one of the world’s best defenders, and the Boomers are in the same Olympic group as Canada in the Olympics. Had he made the team, he would have surely spent time defending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and/or Jamal Murray.
Between Daniels, Exum and Green, though, Brian Goorjian’s coaching staff decided it had enough defense-first wings at its disposal. As strange as it may seem to cut Thybulle, taking all of them to France would have compromised the Boomers’ floor spacing. In the end, the last spot came down to Thybulle and Daniels, per ESPN Australia, and they chose Daniels.
“It’s the job [Goorjian] chose but it is a f—ing shit job,” Ingles said, via ESPN Australia. “It sucks.”
Before the roster was finalized, Goorjian said, “Whatever comes out of this, there’s gonna be a lot of people that wanna put a bullet in my head. There’s a no-win here. I’ve got a great staff. I feel really good that we’re gonna make the right decisions and put the best on the floor.”
Ingles, who on Wednesday agreed to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, was in danger of being cut, too, before Thursday’s exhibition game against China, per ESPN Australia. In the third quarter of that game, Ingles breathed some life into Australia’s previously stagnant offense, solidifying his spot on the team.
This will be the fifth Olympics for Ingles and Mills; Andrew Gaze is the only other Australian men’s player to ever play in that many. Along with Thybulle’s exclusion, the fact that Ingles’ place on the team was in jeopardy reinforces what should be pretty obvious by now: Australia’s talent pool has never been deeper.
