NBA rise of Australia's dynamic duo leaves Boomers in great hands

As a former Boomer, I love the fact that in Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels, we have two stars leading our future into Brisbane in 2032 and hopefully beyond — our future is super bright.

I think Josh Giddey's six weeks post All-Star break was probably the best run any Australian has had in NBA history, as far as numbers goes.

He was pretty much averaging a triple-double along with some scoring binges too with some 20 and 30-point games. Although it's a short run, if he can sustain that going forward, the sky's the limit for him.

And then Dyson, he continues to grow before our very eyes. Josh was probably ahead of him starting out their NBA careers but Dyson is just continuously getting better every game.

This season has gone really well for them both and you've got to be super excited having them as your one-two, especially defensively, both are super long, Giddey's not known as a defender, but he's big, he's long and he can actually play multiple positions out there and cross-matching sometimes against the three or four on other teams. Dyson is much of the same.

The key word we here today is multi-positional players and both of our guys are exactly that.

If you look back at the Chicago Bulls trade with OKC, swapping Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey, the Bulls probably won the trade. But let's remember, Giddey would not have that opportunity he now has with the Bulls in OKC. They've got SGA, they've got other guys that demand the ball. His usage would not be anywhere near enough to develop his game.

He's gone to a pretty bare bones Chicago roster as to where it once was, as they moved off Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan and basically said to Josh 'you're our guy'.

I like what Chicago has done. They've said, we're going to see what you got this season and then we're going to act accordingly beyond that. I think now, acting accordingly is probably going to be a max contract, right? So, they did it the right way.

Josh has done a phenomenal job with the opportunity that was presented to him.

They've got some talented guys in that roster, some young guys that can come in and cause some problems over the next four or five years if they keep that young crew together. So, I think Josh is probably a max guy now at this point.

In Chicago, you've probably seen enough and said 'we can build around this, this is a franchise piece'. That's a credit to Josh Giddey, especially with everything he's gone through, the off-court issues, which we don't need to discuss and which was a very hard time for all involved.

As a younger guy, it's never easy feeling like you were quit on, but it felt like OKC just spat him out and said 'we don't value you here, we don't think you can do it'. And then he goes and has a quiet offseason, gets in the gym, works hard and now he's playing at an elite level right now.

You love to see those stories and it's a credit to him and his psyche, a huge credit to him.

Dyson's going to get a big number in free agency once his time comes. He's going to win Defensive Player of the Year, I'm calling it. I think there's no way he loses it, his steals numbers are just insane.

And it's not just statistically, you look at the analytics around deflections and scoring usage of guys that he's guarding, it's not pretty for guys that have to go against him when he's guarding them, their numbers drop off immensely. So, he's going to win that and he's going to be touted as one of the most valuable defenders in the league.

His offense is starting to pick up as well. Generally, in the NBA you see elite defensive players are average, if not below average offensive players or just three and D guys but he's more than that. Now that the offensive side of his game is growing before our very eyes, I think being a multi-dimensional player these days in the NBA is super useful. He's going to get between $20-40 million, somewhere in that range, once he hits free agency. It’s going to be very well-deserved.

However, the big thing for both Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels, is the three ball. They're so good at getting two feet in the paint but at times, teams will, especially in a playoff series, teams will sometimes mess them a little bit and put maybe a five man on them and dare them to shoot the three, just have the five man waiting in the paint.

We saw that with Josh in OKC a couple of seasons ago. Josh finished the season at 37% from three, which is where you want to be. If you're 37%, that's an above average number, you can't disrespect him. They only need to knock down one or two at a decent clip to get that respect, where now you have to come up to the three, at least be close enough to get a contest on their three and that opens their game up immensely. Then they can go off the dribble and they're just so effective at getting in the paint and facilitating for other guys.

Even Dyson, his assist numbers have skyrocketed this season as well. The ball's in his hands more, his played the two sometimes off the ball. I love it.

I think the one thing that we've seen in a small bunch now with Giddey is when he's firing and he's shooting a decent clip, this last six weeks is proof of that, he's going to have triple-double numbers. It's sometimes when the shot goes missing a little bit and the confidence can be up and down. But they're fearless guys and that's what you respect about both of them. Sometimes they're zero from four or five and they'll keep shooting it and let the chips fall where they may.

They both have had outstanding seasons.

I 100% would have loved playing alongside both Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels.

That's the interesting thing with the Boomers, and this is no disrespect to the squads I've had, but generally at times I've had elite bigs and then not quite had the elite guards, or vice versa. This is probably the most balanced we've been with Jock Landale at the five, but then we've still got to find that next big in the pipeline.

Our guards are there, we've got some decent wings and Matisse, hopefully he puts the green and gold on again and a few other guys. I think the big part now, because Jock is there but he's getting older. I'm talking like Brisbane 2032 and beyond everyone's looking at Rocco Zikarsky, we need him to really develop over the next couple of years and see where that all goes.

But we've got to find a few bigs, I mean you've got Alex Condon out in the college system as well, who should be involved in the national team pretty soon.

So, let's hope we find some over the next couple of years to group them up with those elite guards and wings and then we've got a big chance.

NBA Champion Andrew Bogut is a columnist and contributor for Basketball.com.au. He is part owner and assistant coach of the Sydney Kings.

ANDREW BOGUT COLUMNS

• Inside the free agency meeting that made Dellavedova a Sydney King
• NBL Finals: Past demons put all the pressure on United
• Why I became a Sydney Kings assistant coach
• Japan could be calling Bryce Cotton's name
• Brisbane's coach 'Chase' should end with Buford