Never before has an Australian squad boasted as much depth as in 2018, where a quick glance down the depth chart tosses up names like Aron Baynes [Boston Celtics], Joe Ingles [Utah Jazz], Matthew Dellavedova [Milwaukee Bucks], Dante Exum [Utah Jazz] and Patty Mills [San Antonio] plus the unattached Andrew Bogut to complement the brilliance of Philadelphia 76er Simmons.

Such is the talent on offer, 21-year-old Simmons believes Australian basketball has never been stronger.

"I think so for sure, I think so," Simmons said when asked if this could be the strongest Boomers team in history.

"It's exciting, we've got a lot of talent. Patty, Bogut still, Baynes, Joe, am I forgetting anybody? Dan [Dante Exum], Delly – we got a good team."

The Boomers excelled in Rio at the 2016 Olympics, but stumbled in the semi-final against Serbia.

That was without Simmons' services – he opted not to play the Olympics as he prepared for the NBA draft, where he was selected with pick number one by the downtrodden Philadelphia 76ers, but has since declared he has every intention to play for Australia at the Tokyo Games.

For all the Boomers talent that will mould itself around Simmons, it's the six-foot-10 point guard who looks most capable of helping Australia legitimately compete with the American Dream Team.

But just how good is Simmons?

The phrase once in a generation springs immediately to mind, but once in a lifetime might well be more accurate for the Melbourne-born, Newcastle-raised son of an Australian mother and American father.

He's a six-foot-10 giant who plays point guard for the 76ers. No other point guard in the league comes close to matching Simmons' vertical dimensions.

Point guards of that stature are incredibly rare. The greatest tall point guard in basketball history was probably Magic Johnson – a six-foot-nine giant with all the skills and one of the great NBA legacies.

Simmons is in his second year at the 76ers, but didn't play a single game in his first thanks to a foot injury, and just two thirds of the way through his first season he's already drawing comparisons with some of the all-time greats.

He also boasts the grace of a smaller player with the power of a genuine forward and a brilliant defensive game to boot.

It was all on show during the week against the Miami Heat, where a spectacular Simmons second-half helped the 76ers turn a 24-point deficit into a two-point triumph – their fifth-straight in the league and 11th in a row at home.

All up he earned his sixth triple double of the season, putting up 18 points, 10 assists and 12 rebounds. Should he earn one more this season he'll equal Johnson's record for a rookie.

Never mind he missed out on this weekend's NBA All Star game – injury aside he should be there next year.

His biggest fan is Philadelphia coach Brett Brown, who is running out of superlatives to describe his most prized asset.

"He has tremendous poise, it's the word that always so easily comes out of my mouth when they say what do you think of Ben Simmons," Brown said after the win over Miami.

"As I've said so many times, you take a college form and you make him an NBA point guard and you kind of say 'Good luck, figure it out, lead a team in an unbelievable city'.

"This is our 11th win a row at home tonight and you feel every one of those voices and fans and he's able to navigate that landscape flawlessly. He's not fazed at all.

"He handles himself with a tremendous amount of grace and poise for being so young and especially being responsible for what I think is the most difficult position in the NBA, a point guard.

"I was only reminded of his triple double about three steps before I opened the door to come out here. For Ben to produce those type of numbers in a very deliberate way, and for me not to come in immediately noticing them, it speaks in a crazy way positives about Ben Simmons."

Yet for all of Simmons' offensive weaponry, it's the other side of his game which most impresses Brown.

"At times he can play I call it out of a telephone booth with straight legs and still bait people into making passes where they think they're going to have the ability to deliver a ball and he can just pick it out of the air, at times in a cat-like quickness that is deceptive," Brown said.

"And so I use that word deceptive, he can play not like he's about to go steal it either on ball or off ball yet still do that.

"His six-10 frame, his ability to go from A to B, his reaction time from like a shoulder up above his head with deflection type hands is really impressive. He covers ground and I think there's a really big difference between being fast and quick, he has both and I think that is really the place where he can impact the game the easiest at his early stages, is through his defence."