well so far so good, lead is a lead.

Sixers up 40-39. At half time and shooting 50%. much better than last night. Keep it up in the second half and things are looking good. Might need to keep Khazzouh in tighter check though.

Any more info on what the rule was Anon?

It has to do with him playing so many games a season

(as a development player)

Yes, he missed the layup but the 2 non calls on Dickel are why the hers are playing catch up.

weeelllll great umpiring tonight they always do a great job.

not all doom and gloom in a way we can (not really) win maybe 2 of 3 playing melb home, gold coast away and NZ away ( guess this is a disadvantage as i always look at it glass half full or quarter full)

I only saw some of the last quarter, so will be interested in what others thought of the total game. But the hers seemed to play well but suffered from poor 3 point shooting and giving up 15 more fouls and 17 more points from foul shots than the Kings did. The lack of a reliable 3 point shooter really hurt in the last 5 minutes I saw.

At least they kept the margin below 8, so Sydney are still bottom.

bad loss, but what is with the no call on the shannon hip check and the kings backcourt dribble.

Yes - I had to explain the term "home court non call" to my 11 year old after that one, joshuapending. I called it when it happened - and I could see the ref's back at the bottom of the screen, with the same, clear side-on view. I thought it was pretty clear that Shannon grabbed the ball befre Dickel hit him and knocked it loose. But those close ones are the ones that refs often fail to call because of the home crowd effect. Especially late in the game. I have no doubt it's subconscious but good refs tune the crowd out and call those close ones rather than hesitating and then realizing it's too late.

we should have tried our luck with Farley once the first 2 imports flopped.

yeah i think anon has theat keep and go list pretty close.

keep ng as a impact player off bench, should be 6-7th player.

step daly up next year, why not?? cant be worse than bruce/ shannon for what we will be paying daly.

pg- daly/ carter

sg- ? / ng/ herbert

sf- creek, i think start creek here next year.

pf- balls / ??

c- scensh or import/ dj

spend big money on a centre and a shooting guard that is a reliable scorer. add one developing young pf back-up. keep hill for sf cut minutes or let go.

release bruce, dowdell, holmes, shannon.

The sooner this season is over, the better!

Carter - Keep
Ng - Keep
Ballinger - Keep
Hill - Keep (been impressed with Hill this season compared to previous, but start on the bench)
Daly - Keep
Creek - Keep
Herbert - Keep (a must have on any team)
Bruce - GONE!!!!! (should never have been picked up)
Johnson - ?
Dowdell - gone

Okay - I'm officially cnfused. NBL site has been updated and shows Adelaide below Sydney on the ladder. But Adelaide went 2-2 with Sydney and has a +4 points differential in the head to head. Are the NBL splitting ties differently this season?

Question? If 2 teams are locked on 2 series wins out of 4 and the points are in favour of us, why are we technically bottom? They had to score a win of 8 to take the points advantage? They didnt do that!

As for the game, well my fiancee predicted it at 3/4 time. With 3 mins to go, it was Kings 16 and 6ers just 8 points. Low is low!

Thoughts on who to keep after this
Daly- Keep
Ng- Ciao, Goodbye
Holmes- Goodbye
Hill- Bye
Herbert- Keep
Dowdell- Au revoir
Shannon- Gone and thank the lord!
Carter- Keep for sure
Johnson- Retain
Creek- Good first year player, gotta keep
Ballinger- Dunno. Doesnt offer much when things r down
Bruce- Keep. Gotta remember he was to replace Carter and wasnt ready for a half season and 'didnt wanna return but was persuaded'

Darren Ng is good but he lets the team down on many occassions with poor form, and then when he gets going, injures himself. Too much a liability.
Herbert, first major injury ever and has been great at Geelong Supercats in SEABL and very nuggetty.
Holmes: rebounds ok, shoots horrific with prayers and doesnt screen well.
But Daly, gee keep him for sure. First year awesome considering people shot him down as 'raw'. To force your way in and remain a 2nd unit player says major!

Why Daly didnt get a run yesterday is beyond me! No game time at all. Bad coaching me thinks!!!!!!!

Um....(The Special One) how do we build a team if you keep predominantly all the players. If we are near the bottom, and have too many smalls this year, what do we expect? Jack and the beanstalk is a myth and fairytale! :/

Carter - Keep
Ng - Keep
Ballinger - Keep
Holmes- Go
Hill - Go
Daly - Keep
Creek - Keep
Johnson - Keep
Bruce - Go
Dowdell - go
Herbert - Keep

Need to look at
Madgen ( love the way he plays, replace hill, he can drive, shoot, competitive, gets angry)
Centre (either import or a already established centre in the league)

@ dave-blocknorth i was looking at the ladder but i believe its due to percentage which the kings have like a .4 better than the 6ers but not sure with all the weird NBL rules

the most amazing thing about tonights game was that moose actually out coached someone !!!

that zone totally threw the 36ers out of sync.

Should have won when we 5 points in front.

Daly -retain
Bruce-Goodbye
Shannon-Goodbye
Carter-retain
Hill-Goodbye
Creek-retain
Johnson-Goodbye
Ballinger-retain
Holmes-Goodbye
Dowdell-Goodbye
NG-Retain
Herbert-Retain

What we need -a proven aussie centre/or/import
like Schenscher/Nevill

-a shooting Guard
-like Sanders or Dorsey

We have enough guards of Carter/Herbert/Ng/Daly
Height need-couple big men to assist Ballinger,a tall centre so ballinger can play his 4man spot.another tall to rebound/block and score 6-8 pointspg

Contracted players are Ballinger/DJ/Creek and Dowdell so based on that here is my line up.

Schenscher or Burston/ DJ
Ballinger / Dowdell
Import Stud /Creek
Herbert / Ng
Bruce / Carter

ball park of 63 points depending on Schenscher or Burston

The import stud i see as the go to game changer. a 6'7 type 2/3/4 in the true mold of Rob Rose or Darnell Mee - key is that they can handle the ball if needed and guard multiple positions.

This guy must be a known player of high calibre. if the dollar stays high then they could well be getting 50k per month which would buy some serious talent. Why not try for an Adam Morrison, Stackhouse free agent that has been kyboshed from the NBA but still wants to hoop. Maybe that sought of dosh is enough to get Newley or Ingles back too, i dont know.

If Damo or Gibo become available then i would think about cutting a 2 spot and shifting Bruce to the 2. Having said that it was Bruce who was chosen ahead of them for Worlds. Maybe a solid off season and we have the coveted Aussie PG with Rhys a solid back up already.

I like where Marty is taking the team mentally, just need the tools to carry it out and make shots when open and crash boards on every play.

If Madgen does want to come home then it may be time for the doc to move on from the NBL. Madge has the "shit in him" style that i think Marty would like to have.

The more talent you have the more a recruited player expects to play. every team needs a towel waiver or two. Dowdell fills this spot as he doesn't embarrass himself in his minutes and knows his role. i would expect he is at the cheaper end too meaning more to spend elsewhere

I would also not put it past Marty to land Dellevadova or Greenwood after their flirting with college life.

NBA agent - the 2010-11 NBL media guide states the rule as being that teams tied on win-loss record and on head-to-head results, then the teams will be separated by points differential in games only between those teams. So, unless they've changed the rule mid season - which Chuck says they don't do - the 6ers should be above Sydney. I expect someone screwed up and it will be fixed in due course.

Might have to email them tomorrow though, to be sure.

@peter they dont do the head to head thing until the end of the season to settle the final ladder. I think for now the for and against is what decides ladder position on tied win loss.

ok cheers for that

Heads are going to roll in Adelaide after this seasons debacle. I bet Ninnis is having a full hearty chuckle this weekend.

" A lot of these 36ers' NBL careers are on the line."
Gaze told us. " Guys like Holmes n Hill showed a lotta promise, but haven't really gone on with it
and if you're not playing well, in the bottom team,
then you're in trouble." He mentioned , tonite.

I like KB3's line up, and agree with him re Bruce i think he is worth a 2nd year, as either the 5th starter or back up combo guard, if we can speed up the tempo of our team a bit i think he will do quite well. How many Aussie PGs get 20pts 10 assists on their first couple of games? not many, so give him a full pre-season and hope/expect him to improve. I actually liked Bruce in the first half tonight when the team was playing up tempo, which suits most of our players best IMO.

My first 2 targets would be Schenscher and Gibson, maybe im dreaming but i beleive you have to aim high, if we miss out on either of those 2 get the next best Aussie C we can, im not a huge fan of import C's in general not that many are all that successful, the ones that work are often like Wilkinson who is probably too similar to Ballinger to have both. If we miss out on Gibson get a import combo guard.

The only real difference to KB3's team i guess is id let Ng go and slide Bruce to that spot and recruit Gibson or a 2nd import. If Magden wants to come back, id also probably grab him for Dowdell or Herbert.

Stephen Weigh is another player id target for the sg/sf rotation, id even go with no imports if we could get him, Schensch and Gibson.

My ideal team would be

Schenscher/ DJ
Ballinger / Creek
Import (or Weigh) /Herbert
Madgen (or Hill if we cant get Madgen)/ Bruce
Gibson or IMPORT / Carter

Like so many others, I called this last night - Sixers are bad as a NBL side - they may be ok as an ABL team, but that is about it.

Here are the keepers:-

Import/Carter
Herbert/XXXXX
Hill/Creek
Ballinger/XXXXX
Import/Johnson
Daly - development

Clark gone as head coach - please!

peter, the rule you are talking about is normally only applied at the conclusion of the season.

Lets reward Clarke by promoting him to a Boomers coach! Strange behaviour...

jonno are you serious about bruce and uptempo??

is a make or break style, i understand he is run and gun and can make stuff happen which looks good but cant stop and keep control when he needs to. is the exact opposite of maher, has a very poor brain when it comes to the game. but i agree he can make things happen and looks good sometimes, but just makes poor decisions, turnovers always at the worst times, takes poor shots sometimes, cant change the game. we need this from a good pg.

i think it was hoped that he could become a regular boomer because they hoped college and experience would breed that out of him. lack of smarts wouldnt really stand out as much in lower or under-age competitions either.

and i know people say he hasnt played alot and give him a 2nd year but he was the same the last season he was here, and i dont think there has been substantial improvement since then.

im certainly not saying he is terrible he is decent but its always 3 steps forward 1 step back with him and i think we can do better. i advocate carter over him because he isnt as costly (gamewise) and is fairly controlled and efficient. i think both are back-up pg's. ild choose carter as our back-up pg.

also if bruce is so good why are adelaide the only team that will give him a game?? why not sydney? townsville?? why did he have to wait for adel to give him a call to suit up??

You need to have a development player in the NBL side. But if this development player exceeds expectations, he can't play.

Where is the work hard, get rewards incentives here?

I do agree that in Timeouts Clarke does take a lot of time drawing up a play and only gets one thing communicated.

Ideally he should be able go say, ok next time here on the O end lets run play abc, on the D end address this and that. It seems he spends all his time looking at his board and drawing a diagram. For the most part they should have that stuff drilled in there heads with the exception of special plays or situations.

Personally I think that timeouts really should be about address guys attitudes and getting them on the same page and challenging them. No so much about diagramming a singular play.

Anyway I just hope next year is moving year as we hit mid point in that 3 year plan.

Yea the rules re Daly only allowed to play 7 away games sucks, i think they need to get rid of all these stupid rules restricting rosters, to me the only rules should be:
- that your 10 you are suiting up for the game must be under the points and salary cap,
3-must play 7 games to play playoffs,
-and i guess the u/24 rule (which i am not a huge fan of).

What is the point of rules restricting injury replacements and development players which in the end force the Hawks to suit up a 40+ year old assistant coach and the 36ers to sit out Daly and play 9 guys, what benefit is that to the NBL or anyone?

Surely we want each team to have 10 guys and let the young aussie development players play and having the points and salary cap prevents teams from totally stacking rosters and brings parity, and i for one think the nbl is a fairly even comp, most teams can beat anyone if they are having a good night at home, look at the kings and 36ers for proof as both have beat some fairly good teams.

Please nbl simplify all the rules re rosters and just have the points cap and salary cap and basically no other restrictions.

Why Daly didnt get a run yesterday is beyond me! No game time at all. Bad coaching me thinks!!!!!!!

Good to see ONE HD telecasting SEABL!

I'll laugh if the Sixers cut Brad Hill, he'll get picked up by another team and kill Adelaide every time he plays them. Then I'll have to read thousands of posts saying bring back Brad Hill and how the Management are idiots for letting him go in the first place lol

I was at the game last night at the Syd Ent Cent. Great crowd of over 6000 on hand.

Sixers came out strong and played well, however the Kings put the clamps on them late. I have to say Adelaide play a very physical type of game. Ballinger and Holmes love belting people as they run off screens.

Brad Hill had a chance to tie it but blew a dunk. If he got that Adelaide probably would have got up as they had the momentum.

Who has said that the owners are unhappy with Clarke, my mail says that they all love him.

Boys CLub?

Of the four (4) PGs playing , I'd take Aaron Bruce.
Some nice feeds to Creek and Johnson.
3/4 shooting.
Although he didn't do much with Shannon on the court at the same time, other than pass it to Shannon.

Nothing to love about Marty Clarke, 6ers are so embarrassing to watch. They run these long winded aus that go no where and one of the little fellas just eventually goes one on one. SOS are clueless if they are happy with Marty Clarke. Results speak louder than reputation.

As bad as it is for 36ers fans, it's a positive for the NBL that the Kings had their 2nd biggest turnout all year in a battle for the wooden spoon.

Would love to see the +/- on the game.

I can not believe how you guys bitch and moan and say that Clarke should be gone. Apart from a couple of bad shot selections they played ok. Haven't the Kings won 7 of the last 10 since a change of coach and listening to their coach in the time outs he really doesn't say anything special. I do agree with comments on here saying that Clarke should talk more specifics than running through plays. He will be better next year for the run as head coach and I think overall the sixers will be better but seriously need to work on theei away record.

In the know - kings havent changed coach!

Jack, I will update +/- stuff tomorrow for all the games to date.

If only Clarke had of listened and got CJ Massingale. At least he is a proven scorer in the clutch (Marty should know that). Instead of the 3 shooting guards they got, none of them could shoot. Devries can, but he was playing PG for a bit.

Apologies I swear i heard that they had through the game. Not living up to my name am I? I still think time needs to be given to Clarke.

Isaac, I wait with a n t i c a pation

It's great to say cut this person and cut that person, but you need a plan before that. Who is a free agent next season that could be signed who would improve the squad?

What is the status of Schensher?? Does he even want to come back to Adelaide?? Townsville is a pretty nice place to live and work and has a much better squad.

Are there any players that can make the 36ers instant play-off contenders?? Wortho re-signed, Khazzouh is locked-up long term and even if Penney was a free agent he would never consider Adelaide. These are really the only 3 guys I can see changing the future of any squad in the NBL.

The roster needs a shuffle, for sure. I'd move Hill on, he hasn't developed and maybe a new place is what he needs. I'd expect Creek to step up and fill his roll. New imports as well. Dowdell has done enough as a back-up for another season if the price is right, and by right, I mean cheap.

I'm at a loss at what to do with Balls. He's the best player on the roster, but the 36ers have won zero with him. Maybe a change in direction is needed.

Maybe it's time to put some pressure on Newley and see if he's homesick. DJ needs to grow a set and play like a 7 footer. Holmes is done as a NBL player.

Start the import search now, decisions don't have to be made, but start putting out feelers now. 4 imports in a season is either unlucky or poor scouting.

I'd also be looking at some young SEABL players and trying to find the next Anthony Petrie. Maybe that's an issue for Adelaide in relation to recruiting and bringing talent into the state as there is no second tier league team in the state besides Mt Gambier. Is there even a relationship between the 36ers and Mt Gambier???

In the Know, the away record was bad but given where we are now, most of us would have been happy if they atleast won most of their home games.

Thanks HO. I also saw that in today's write up of the game in the Advertiser. I can understand why they do it but won't it be weird if the Sixers and the Kings have the same W-L record for the last 3 games and the Kings suddenly switch to bottom? I imagine some Kings followers will be surprised.

Anyway, after last night's showing, I'm optimistic that teh Sixers can make it a moot point by nailing Melbourne this week. The Sixers defend okay. Certainly well enough to keep Melbourne to a losing score. The porblem is being able to deliver a winning score.

I'm convinced that it will boil down to one of the guards having a good outside shooting night. If that happens, it will make the difference between winning and losing. Someone has to rise to the occasion and I think it has a lot to do with confidence. My money's on Carter having a good game and making the difference.

Might be a little restricted with Shannon playing his 30 minutes and getting his 10 points.
Wouldn't mind a bit more of Carter and Bruce on the court.

Although the Sixers are a horrendous 8 and 17, they are 0-10 in games decided by 2 shots or less. NZ Breakers are 9-1 on the same slate. If the Sixers had that NZ record they would been sitting pretty in 2nd place on the ladder and Marty Clarke would be given the key to the city. People are talking about giving Marty the key to the portaloo, locking him in and then tipping it over.
At the end of the day, the Sixers need to play like they know they will win no matter what the situation is. That's the swagger of a winning team, the swagger of the team I know.

We can't keep the majority of these players and expect to be better next year. As well as having a disgraceful season, I agree with the comment that we are such a boring team. There is nobody in that side that would encourage an outsider to cross the road to watch sadly. Other than Ballinger, subject to him playing PF and playing some legitmate defence, I am having trouble forming a case for anyone else. Even Creek, who whilst shows a great deal of promise, has a jump shot like my 86 year old neighbour. He currently has a range of about 2 feet. I know we can't get rid of all our players, but I for one will not be renewing my membership tickets until I know what the team will look like next season. I will be there on Friday night, but not looking forward to it at all, as I know we will be a boring as bat sh.t.

Jack Toft, how can you say the sixers are 0-10 in games under 2 baskets, well you beat the wildcats twice by 1 point, and also have a 5 point win over the wildcats, so get your stats right before making excuses for your team.

Thank you Alan, just looking for a 200 pound nibble to see who's switched on. Want people to rush to the stats to check.

The Sixers are in fact 4 and 8 on game +/- 5. What is terrible is on the +20/-20 games, the Sixers are a horrible 0 and 3.

Good teams know they can win those tight ones.

8 and 17 is terrible, and even an 8 to 4 run on those games means 12 and 13, which although not top 4 is not bottom 2.

The road performances have been the killer. A loss in offensive effort of 10 ppg on the road tells me the Sixer's need to change what's happening on the road.

Ah, the Majok poster again.

Ater Majok may have helped as there is no shot blocking on the squad at all.

Sydney

Ben Madgen (13)
Mark Dickel (9)
Ben Knight (7)
Julian Khazzouh (6)
Blagoj Janev (0)
Trey Gilder (-1)
Luke Martin (-3)
Jarrod Scoines (-5)
Patrick Sanders (-6)

Adelaide

Jeff Dowdell (10)
Tom Daly (6)
Aaron Bruce (5)
Brad Hill (4)
Daniel Johnson (1)
Jacob Holmes (-7)
Rhys Carter (-9)
Mitchell Creek (-9)
Eddie Shannon (-10)
Adam Ballinger (-11)

Sorry to post for a third straight time, but I found it interesting that the Kings fans seemed quite positive despite also being at the bottom of the ladder. Rodney O would call Khazzouh "MVP" every time, say "Arise, Sir Dickel" when Mark Dickel hit the floor, etc and the fans always responded enthusiastically. Big crowd (6k+) in a huge venue.

I know they've had a better run recently (understatement), but Robilliard hasn't been convincing, they've also sent home two imports, often start players who'd be on a bench elsewhere, etc.

Can't imagine their fans aren't also thinking about changes/improvements for next season, but no sign of the vitriol a few 36ers fans run off here.

Yeah, it's been a shakey first season from Marty and the team mix hasn't been right, but I was at both road games this weekend and the team was trying hard both times. Can't remember any point where they slacked off. I can understand extreme whinging if the team were just phoning it in, but they weren't.

The most damning thing of the year is the Sixers poor three point shooting at less than 30% on the season. Less than 30%!!! How is that possible for a professional basketball team? The Bulleen Boomers were shooting at 39% on the season from the same mark.

The loss of Ng, De Vries (a 3pt specialist who never got in form) and Herbert has really thrown this team out of balance. Then we got Howard, who said he was a 3 pt shooter, but was anything but.

Every team in the league can play off the Sixers, or more importantly drop into a zone, and because we don't have a zone buster who can knock down the 3 regularly can completely shut down our offence.

Disagree. The most damning stat is Marty being given three years when untried at this level.

I'd guess that we'd retain those 4 players that are signed and that Ng may retire to be a doctor.
Maybe - Schenscher/Johnson... Ballinger/Dowdell..
Creek/Hill.. Farley/Herbert.. Carter/Bruce.

Ho hum, Tim, yet another unsupported rant about Marty as coach. That's right, don't even try to respond to my email, just try to derail the discussion with an unsupported snipe.

Let me guess, Marty plays Balls out of position, he has bad substitution patterns, DJ plays too little/too much, Bruce plays too little/too much, Daly never gets on court, Marty plays development players (read Daly) too much... Did I cover what you are apparently thinking well enough?

Marty doesn't shoot the three pointers for the players, and he can only work with what he has got. If I should take it from your constructive post that it is Marty's coaching that is responsible for their woeful shooting percentages, please educate me.

As far as I can see, the Sixers' attempt as many open uncontested three pointers as the other teams, they just can't put them in the hoop.

36ers hit 2 more threes in 10 games this season they would have a 17-8 record.

XY Nice to see some positive comments and sticking up, rather than bagging Marty. Look forward to those replies to your questions.

XY, it has been one of the main issues IMO. Ng was about 42.4%. Rest of the 36ers, under 35%. Of the active players:

Bruce 34.6%
Holmes 31.3%
Ballinger 30.2%
Dowdell 27.3%
Carter 26.9%

Contrast to the Hawks top five, who took advantage on Saturday night:

Davidson 42.0%
Forman 40.9%
Coenraad 38.5%
Martin 38.1%
Campbell 37.9%

The Hawks actually have six players hitting at a higher percentage than our best, active player (ranked by 3P%).

Herbert was 37% or so last year. DeVries shot at 44% in his previous NBL season. Worth keeping in mind that the arc is further out now though.

I agree with anon with the Fleet team, i was thinking from the start if only we meshed the bulk of that Fleet team less Goulding who i think was under contract with GC, with a few of our guys we would have been pretty good, they seemed to play well together and score plenty which would have most likely improved our season result and been fun to watch.

Farley could have had his worse season and averaged 13pts and 2-4 assists, i doubt he would do worse than that and he would have been better than our imports and he would have won us a few more close games too.

A team of

Schenscher/Trueman or Dowdell (Johnson if enough $$$)
Ballinger/Holmes or Hill
Forman/Herbert (injury waivered replaced by Creek)
Farley/Ng or Magden
Jackson/Carter or Bruce/Daly(DP)

Would have been better, even if we missed out on Forman because he wanted to play and start pf at wollongong, and kept Hill and Holmes we would have improved

i reckon if we made Schenscer our fisrt signing we could have got him, i think out of the rest of the guys Ballinger would have been the only one too many other clubs would have fought us too hard for and given Farley said he would play cheap i would have thought there would have been enough money to sign Scehnscher, Ballinger, Farley, Jackson (who id expect also to be cheapish).

I have almost no doubbt Farley and Jackson could have done atleast what our imports this year have done, and Farley would have given us a 'go to', dynamic scorer, even if he does take some suspect shots at times.

The other guys get whats left devided between them and i dont think would have been too difficult/expensive to retain, if push comes to shove replace them with cheaper guys like Daly in the 10 (Magden would have come cheap given he went to Sydney as 11th man) as we need to spend our money on our starting 5 first and formost and the bench players get the rest, as our starting 5 simply isnt strong enough at the moment to make the playoffs or win titles.

Isaac, the arc is further out now, but that is true also for Davidson, Forman, Coenraad, Martin and Campbell, who seem to have compensated well enough.

The distance shouldn't really affect the pure shooters of the league. Ng took some time to find his range early this season, but was shooting great before his injury. In contrast, Hill started the season shooting 3s at > 40%, but has dropped well off. But he has always been a streaky shooter.

I would have expected De Vries and Herbert to be in the group of guys who would have been able to compensate. We will not know with Herbert until next year, but De Vries because of injury or whatever was well off his best.

As I have previously noted, Ballinger is well below his career average of 39%, which suggests the extended line has perhaps moved him beyond his comfort zone.

Aside from all of that I think you would find that Bruce is a pass first pg (he was in College anyway)

XY, I only mentioned the arc because I was comparing Herbert and DeVries numbers from past seasons with the Hawks during this season.

Anon, had forgotten about that - DeVries dropped a bit from 2008, but should've still risen during the season to play a useful role. I don't think even with Ng and DeVries that we were going to be a top 3-4 team, but should've been more competitive.

Gotta be able to stretch teams out to the 3-point line and shoot over zones. That was the Melbourne Tiger's problem early in the season as well.

I'm don't defending them in any way because their last quarters over the past month or two have been horrendous but I will also remind people that we have been without a second import for the past 5 games so it's not surprising we have lost all 5, the way we went about it though was what was surprising.
I still think this group can be good. For the second year in a row we brought in the wrong imports. Why we would bring in two guards for the second time is beyond me! When was the last time this ever worked for a team???
Keep Bruce and Carter at the point guard spot. Both players are solid at this position and can do what's asked. Bring in a 2/3 Import who is a pure scorer, unfortunately this hurts to say but someone like Hodge or an Ebi Ere type player. You have Hill, Herbert and Creek all of which can play the 2/3 spot as well, Ballinger at the 4 with Dowdell and Holmes backing him up and then go out and get a decent 5 man, preferably someone like Andre Brown or Ira Clark and have DJ backing him up.
If we get Schenscher it will slow us down a bit too much, especially considering we should be running every opportunity with this group. The reason we don't get out and run as much is because we don't get the defensive boards!
In the half we really struggle without a good outside shooter especially against the zone. It was no surprise that when Sydney went in it they started winning. After the Cairns game I was surprised Sydney didn't play zone the whole game!
We are also way to stagnant on offense where we just stand and watch and we really don't have that go to guy. Ballinger can be but really it's only on pick and pops that he ges his shots.
I really hope that Marty learnt his lesson on imports this season and doesn't make the same mistake again as it may cut his career short...

Brad, where are the threes and leadership coming from with that roster though? Might be too much risk of rinse and repeat. If you take a new centre, I don't think there is room for both Dowdell and Holmes. I'm thinking Gibson/Carter as the guard combo (no Bruce) and go from there.

XY, the Tigers' sacked imports were statistically their best three-point shooters!

billo, was he also the oldest freshman in the league? Either way his scoring these days is not very good and at a low percentage.

I agree Isaac, which is why the sackings made absolutely no sense at the time! That said, I really haven't seen many Tigers games since then to work out what the basis of their 'resurgence' has been (if one win off of the wooden spoon placings can be considered a resurgence).

Well both Carter and Bruce can shoot the ball from beyond the arc but playing the pg spot they tend to be setting someone else up. Picking up a legitimate 2/3 man that can score like Ere should be a player that can shoot the 3. If you keep Darren he is that impact shooter from beyond the arc off of the bench.
Having these shooters is going to mak it easier for players like Balls and a decent centre.

I agree with getting Gibson as our starting PG, make him and Schenscher our priority signings,

My first 2 recruiting moves would be to through the cheque book at Schenscher and Gibson, if we get them we have just fixed our 2 biggest problems IMO, then id address 3 pt shooting and i would enquire into Weigh or Harvey and Madgen,

but if we dont get Gibson id accept Bruce as the next best Aussie pg available and aslong as we get a Ebi Ere type import a guard rotation of Bruce/Carter, Ere/Ng or Herbert would be fine with me, i think Bruce could easily be a 10-15ppg 3-5 assist level pg, his rookie season stats were not far off and he has shown glimpses despite having a 18 months off, and other than Gibson i dont think too many Aussie nbl pgs can do much better

Thank you XY. I read your comment about the arc being further out for the Wollongong Players 2 seconds before I was going to post exactly the same thing. Excuses. Its not as though the arc has been moved only for the 36ers. That in itself is another reason why the quality of our players are not up there when they are not adjusting to changes as well as other teams.

No problem EC. But at least part of my point was that none of those Sixers, except Ballinger and maybe Dowdell, have a track history of being great three point shooters to start with. Ng, De Vries, Herbert and Ballinger would have been those guys for us in the planning stages of the season.