If they are the best facts you can come up with I'm even more concerned....

I didn't expect wins in NZ or Melbourne, so I'm not going to worry yet. Unsettled opener, but a home win - not unexpected. Took care of the Spirit, expected that too. Losing on the road to Sydney is a slight concern, but it was close and the Spirit have surprised a few teams now. We were never favourites in NZ and injuries to our two top starters killed that game. A win in Melbourne was always unlikely too, but I think we all would've hoped for a closer result, 12-15 points maybe. Nothing to be excited about, but not quite hammering the panic button yet.

Since that Canberra loss, I've considered the upcoming Hawks (road), Wildcats (home), Spirit (home) games to be the ones that tell us more about this team. To be a contender, we need to go through that 3-0. If they aren't all wins (or at worst close losses through injuries, crappy refereeing decisions, etc) maybe they need a change or a miracle improvement?

yeah nothing to worry about when your team loses by 38 and 28 in the last 2 games.

No one's said that it's nothing to worry about, far from good, just not horrible. Both on the road, both against strong teams, etc. If those numbers were against the Wildcats, Crocs, Taipans, that's a slightly different story.

I won't mind if we drop some games on the road.

I'll be happy if we can actually string some home wins together. It's something we've lacked too much the last 1-3 seasons.

If we can win some homes games, excellent.

A healthy Winitana will be brilliant too. We really need him back.

Some big concerns for sure at the Sixers, but with all the disruption from injuries so far and tough road assignments against the Tigers and Breakers, I think it is too early to make a call on this season just yet.

Really, the team just has to stop the injuries, because they clearly haven't got the depth to cope with key starters being out, and they badly need to play together consistently so they can get themselves in synch.

IMO this season will live and die on three guys - Bruce, Schenscher and Tyndale - who are all quite young and have no experience of the NBL. I'm pretty sure they have the talent, but they have to work out how they are going to translate that into a winning brand of ball in this league.

Lets pray the Sixers put the injury bug to bed soon and can start heading in the right direction before its too late - unlike last season!

I just read the thread below this one, and everyone bagging Tyndale... sure he shot like a dog, but his stat line was still a nice complete all round game IMO.
9 points 7 Boards(3 off) 7 assists and 3 steals with only TWO turnovers!
I understand the added pressure of being an import in this league, but a young kid who is putting up nice stat lines shouldn't have to put up with such crap! give the kid a chance
*end rant*

Understand what you are saying Hooked, but "nice" stats is not going to be sufficient from any import. I am sure that the club would be expecting far more than what he has produced so far.
In fairness, let's all give him a little longer, but we cannot afford to carry an import for an extended period of time. We have made that mistake before.

Always a danger recruting straight out of college, as they are very naive when it comes to the rest of the world and life as an import. Upside is they are cheap, so I guess it is a case of you get what you pay for. If we got a more expensive import I suggest we may not have Bruce. Reality is the coach only has so much he can spend and dare I say he has done the best he could with what he was given.

Fair enough 1233 but this year is just so important for basketball in this state. Let's hope he can start delivering sooner rather than later,

Don't see how this NBL season is important for Basketall in this state at all. If we didn't have the 36ers, we wouldn't notice it outside of the NBL.

In fact would probably put a greater emphasis on State League, without the cost of supporting the 36ers.

The 36ers do nothing to get people involved in basketball nor give anything back to basketball.

Tend to disagree William. Just think of the number of kids who have wanted to play basketball after watching the Sixers.

The only kids goin to watch the 36ers are those that already play.

If you don't already play basketball, you wouldn't know about the 36ers.

Go to any U10 basketball game and ask them to name a 36res player. 90% wouldn't even know Brett Maher.

Apparently Cost of Hodge = Cost of Tyndale + cost of Bruce.
Given what our other guards showed preseason has in my mind already justified the decision.

Interesting that Ninnis has already come out and said that Luke will be starting the next game. He was likely waiting for Luke to get his match fitness up anyways as he has not played full games in quite a while. Hopefully then Ballinger will no longer be the designated defender/fouler of the oppositions starting centre.

An import is expected to score around 20 each game. There is much dependence on an import to score well for the team. I am still confused over what position Tyndale plays. The official 36ers website lists him as a forward but I doubt he is. As a forward he should be concentrating on scoring rather than assists.

The knives are out and getting sharpened.
The biggest problem with the Sixers is that we can't shoot 3 pointers.
Season 2008: Average 10.0/27.7 (36%), our opponents, 11.1/30.4 (37%)
Season 2009: We are shooting 6.8/22.8 (30%). The best in the league (Breakers) are shooting 16.3/33.3 (49%)

Let's start going for a few more 3's. Luke appears not to have confidence getting the pop shots, so let him get the ORs.