I wouldn't have said BJ Carter struggled at HSH, but he did seem to take a while to get into the swing of it.
Playing on a below average team didn;t really help his chances though IMO.

The Sixers are very weak at the SG spot. c'mon Herbert and NG in the position? They would be average in the Seabl let alone as your 2 SG's in the NBL. And if Aaron Bruce and BJ Carter become the PG's who would lead the team in the backcourt? That would be the worst backcourt in the league bar none. A guy like Corey Williams at the one with a back up like Aaron Bruce would be ok and I would bring Farley in at the 2/3 spot so we have a scorer. Bring in 2 big Aussies (3/4 4/5) and it is ok.

Clarky, no offense but I am glad you are not making the coaching decisions because the team you put up would wooden spoon for sure.

I hope clarkey has a rabbit in the hat otherwise I cant see how we have upgraded on last year

Why would you bring in a soon to be 35 year old Willie Farley who is a natural SG to play as a hybrid SF?
That still leaves you with the problem of a weak SG spot (Ng & Herbert) and an out of position SG trying to play the role of a SF.
I also think that the Farley we saw at HSH was similar to the Farley we had here in Adelaide towards the end of his time. He took alot of ill-advised shots, played poor defense (crouching and waving your arms around doesn't count as defense) and still tends to shoot the team out of the game in tough situations.

As for bringing in Corey Williams to run the point, with the players we already have signed I reall don't see him as a good fit. He spends too much time trying to prove that people can't stop him off the dribble instead of spreading the floor and running a team-oriented offensive structure.

This was mostly evident at the HSH tournament, but we have all seen it in the NBL. Homicide tends to get into the "Homicide Zone" and just continually try to take defenders off the dribble which usually leads to turnovers or poor shots. Do we really need someone like that running the offense in Adelaide?

Not a smart signing! Like anon said, too slow for the 3 spot, too short for the 4 spot. So what does he offer in a new system Marty Clarke is trying to offer? No point signing a guy just because he may be low on the points system or cheaper option.

as i have said before and ill say again, people keep stating that this isnt much of an improvement from last year, and besides dj i do agree.

before anyone starts going on about we are not making any changes from last year and we will wooden spoon again, think about how we were equal 1st with perth and wollongong, and not only that out of all the games we lost how many of them were a blow out? from my memory there were only a couple that were a big blow out like NZ where kirk penney destroyed us with 49 points. but besides that all of our games were really close we only lost in the last 5 minutes of the last quarter. but the first half and generally 3rd quarter we were fine. so from my point of view i think its marty clarke that needs to be the major difference in the team this year, give the team the strength and direction that it needs to not crack under pressure like they did last season. so you can sit there and go on about how bad we looked on paper but if you were a real fan and attended all the games you would know that they were all very close games until the end when we lost our heads and ninnis couldnt get the team to focus and from my point of view it is mainly on the coach. gilchrist also made a few bad choices and but groves was just a waste of money from the get go so no idea why he was there. so with two good imports i definately think this team will be up there again. but each to their own.

Holmes is ok as long as he's played off the bench. Would be a much better player if he could cultivate some kind of offense. Defends the less mobile 3 spot well, struggles to defend the 3 point line. Too small for the 4, but rebounds well. If the 6ers don't sign a PG and a SF import that can put up major numbers, they're stuffed. Hopefully Clarke can develop Ng and Hill beyond their current one dimensional games, otherwise 6ers are weak at the 2 as well. It'll be interesting to see how the season works out

If we can get say a Bruce or Kendall in the PG spot and another half decent big guy ideal would be Schenscher but have heard Helliell as a rumour on here, havnt seen him recently but he may be ok as a tough rebounder with Johnson i think we are looking much better.

I reckon a team of this would be ok,
C Johnson/Helliell
PF Ballinger/Holmes
SF IMPORT (versatile athletic use say Dave Thomas as an example)/Hill
SG IMPORT (combo guard use Mike Helms or Ubaka as an example)/Herbert
PG Bruce or Kendall/Ng (with Ng playing his minutes at SG and the import playing the back up PG minutes)

That would give us a fairly good core of young players along with hopefully 2 good imports.

I look forward to see if Hill can have a bit of a break out year under Clarke like he showed glimpeses of at times 2 seasons ago and he still is only 23 so the equivalent of a college senior or 2nd year out, so he aint bad, and if Clarke can push abit more out of guys like Holmes and Ng consistantly.

We will be better because the coach will be better. The 2 imports will have to be better than Gilchrist/Groves, and Im sure there will be an intensity lift. That being said, we do need a big signing or 2 to lift morale and generate some excitement.

So far, with exception to Johnson, we have the same wooden spooner team. I don't know what difference a new coach is going to make to this group but they are a group that are familiar with each other and just the slightest inclination to replicate what they did last season will spell disaster. The new coach is not only going to have to bring out the best in them but break them away from the rut they got into last season. It sounds like a big ask and I certainly hope he can do it, but in the meantime I feel pretty uncomfortable about the risk taking.

despite finishing bottom last years team beat a grand finalist 3/4 games so shows that that squad should have done a lot better. dont have an issue with the names thus far.need a import that will get it done consistently.

Hill has been on the verge of a break out season for how many years now? fail.

Gee.....last spot 09/10 and signing the same players again. Who we going to get for imports - Charles Thomas and Paul Maley?!

Gee.....last spot 09/10 and signing the same players again. Who we going to get for imports - Charles Thomas and Paul Maley?!

Jake is a natural leader. Would take pressure off Big Red

On the bright side guys, with the same team we will be able to tell if Marty Clarke is a better coach than Ninnis! :D

Please no Ng at backup PG. He will get owned bringing the ball up the floor against good PG's. Need a proper backup and use Ng for what he is good at - catch and shoot!

On the bright side guys, with the same team we will be able to tell if Marty Clarke is a better coach than Ninnis! :D

Please no Ng at backup PG. He will get owned bringing the ball up the floor against good PG's. Need a proper backup and use Ng for what he is good at - catch and shoot!

All the people that keep saying it's ok to keep the same team really need to look closely at the BACK COURT!!!! It really sucks. The Holmes signing isn't the problem. It is the NG, Herbert and Hill issue at hand.

PG: Aaron Bruce/BJ Carter
SG: Darren Ng/Nathan Herbert
SF: Import/Brad Hill
PF: Adam Ballinger/Jacob Holmes
C: Daniel Johnson/Greg Vanderjagt*

Clarky what is this? c'mon who is going to score here? NG? nah, Herbert? nah Hill? nah Ballinger? maybe a few, Holmes? nah Johnson? nah Vanderjagt? nah? Bruce or carter? nope, well this team may as well be the crows as they will suck just as bad on the scoreboard. The import would have to get 40 a game and if he gets injured?

Farley as much as you say he would be a hybrid SF would be a player on the court. You don't have to totally balance the sheet with an even amount of people at each spot within reason. Farley would take the pressure off Ballinger allowing him to score more and a Guy like Homocide would be a great penetrator to score and gets assists to guys like NG (He can't create his own shot). Herbert is another that cannot create his own shot.

Did you say Grizzard? didn't that guy get released? Like I said no offense, but i am glad you don't coach NBL, although the side you put together would make a good run in the ABA.

Marty Clarke has some work to do in order to get this team up and running. On an individual basis the guys signed so far are good role players, but there are too many of them on one team. Leroy Loggins would still avg more ppg than anyone on the squad so far and he's like 60.

Andrew Rice anyone for a cheap 4 point player or Martin Iti as a 4 point player?

Yep!!!! with the team signed at this stage, its not time to be looking for cheap points & $ players. Apart from Ballinger, I would say the 36ers have already achieved all their bargains. Now is the time to add some real strength to the weak team we have. No expenses should be spared at this point and only the best will do.

I've been looking at who we could get for the last 4 spots, using 29 points and it's extremely hard to do without really losing out in an area.
McKee would be great at the PG position. There's 10 points.
We need another import. That's always 9 or 10 points. Maxey at 10 is probably close to the best option for the position we want to fill.
That leaves us with 9 or 10 points for the remaining 2 positions.
We can either go down the same road as last season and forfeit 1 position. (Ie Molitor) Then get a real quality player for the final position (Think Schenscher). The list make-up doesn't really allow that though as we'd be forfeiting either Back-up C or PG, making Ng be ball carrier or Johnson the lone hand C with Ballinger playing out of position again at other times. Last year we could sort of afford to as we went with 2 ball carrier imports.
Or we can get another 2 role players to go with the 5 we already have.
The best I can come up with is something along the lines of Vanderjagt/Mottram and Bruce/Rhys Carter/Luke Martin. Or we could go down the young road with Cadee at back up point (don't know a thing about him other than he made the world team) and get Ben Knight sharing minutes with Johnson at C.
Then there's Martin Iti. Don't know a thing about him, but he's a 4. Or Jeremiah Trueman who's also a 4.
Get one of those 2 then chase hard for Crosswell before he resigns.
Helliwell can only happen if we find a back up PG for 1 or 2 points.

Other option is to go with 1 import and spread the 19 evenly across the 3. This won't happen though.

PG: McKee/Bruce
SG: Herbert/Ng
SF: Maxey/Hill
PF: Ballinger/Holmes
C: Johnson/Vanderjagt

Are new imports always 10? Would Ratzch or Davison be a 9?

With the team we have so far, so much will come down to what we get out of Ballinger and the 2 imports and how much we can stop our defence leaking.

Seems (from Boti) they are checking out jeff Dowdell as a big (maybe Helliwell would be very handy here,but at 8points maybe a little too much.)