The four-time Olympian, who was in Bendigo yesterday for an active youth development program involving 300 primary school students, said Dellavedova's break-out performances in last season's playoffs had inspired a lot of trust in him from Cavaliers teammates and coaching staff.

Bradtke said he was confident Dellavedova had an important role still to play, despite the certain return of star point guard Kyrie Irving, who missed all but one game of the NBA finals series against the Golden State Warriors.

"He'll play a complementary role, but they know he will stand-up and be able to perform," he said.

"Trust is a big thing and he has earned that trust from the Cavs.

"He did such a fantastic job - he took on some scoring at times and he had to go and play against arguably the best player in the league in Steph Curry, who won the MVP title."

Bradtke, whose career included 554 NBL games and one NBA season with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996-97, said he was not surprised by the Maryborough-born and bred Dellavedova's impact during the latter half of the 2014-15 season.

"You have to be in the right place at the right time and make the most of your opportunities and that's what he's done," Bradtke said.

Dellavedova will help lead a Boomers team that includes fellow NBA players Andrew Bogut, Cam Bairstow, Joe Ingles, Patty Mills and Dante Exum, to the 2016 Olympic games in Rio.

Bradtke said the Boomers stood a good chance of landing a medal, something that eluded him at Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).

“I went to four Olympics and we finished fourth four times. It was quite disappointing, more so when you look back now and think how close you were,” he said.

“We had a core group during my period of (Andrew) Gaze, (Luc) Longley, (Andrew) Vlahoff, and Shane Heal – even a core group of doctors and coaching staff for a long time.

“We now have some awesome young kids coming through and plenty of broad talent. I can see them challenging for a medal.”

Bradtke, who represented Australia 205 times over 14 years, said he had watched with interest the rise in the number of Australians now playing NBA.

“In my year in the NBA there was probably 10, maybe 12 foreign born players playing in the mid-90s,” he said.

“Now 30 to 40 per cent of teams are foreigners. Teams need their core Americans, but they also need their core Europeans/Australians/Argentinians.

“It’s a world game.”