Spur
Years ago

36ers and The Law of Too Many Guys

While reading Bill Simmons NBA Article, i thought about the 36ers in relation to The Law of Too Many Guys.

Adelaide all year, has had the one star player, and the other 9 players are around the same talent. We play 10 deep, but overall, the talent isn't that great. They all demand 10-30mins but nobody really stands out, and players don't get the time they need to really take over the game.

Ballinger - Star

Same-Sames

Johnson
Shannon
Bruce
Carter
Creek
Hill
Holmes
Howard
Dowdell


You only need eight and a half guys to win in the NBA: five starters, three bench guys, then an 8½th man who doesn't mind playing 0-10 minutes a night and being on call if a rotation guy gets into foul trouble, gets hurt or whatever.


More time for the players, better flow to the game, less momentum kills and better chemistry. Now that says "to win in the NBA", however that is for an 82 game marathon season playing multiple games a week with 48min games.

NBL is 28 games, 40min games and no more than 2 games in a week, majority 1 per week. It stands to reason that you can use the "eight and a half guys" law effectively.


Of those eight and half guys, ideally, you need two scorers, one ball handler, one perimeter defender and one rebounder.

This year, who was our two scorers? Who was our rebounder? Perimeter defender?

We didn't really have two scorers or a rebounder. Explains the two areas we were most horrible at, apart from defending...

Ballinger could be one scorer, SG Import another, C Import the rebounder, Gibson ball handler, Herbert perimeter defender.


You need to be able to play defense.

Our defense was horrible this year, both inside and out.

Big C Import provides a presence down low, Herbert/Gibson/Carter help form a strong D team.

You need everyone to know their roles.

We had too many players playing, interchanging roles and so on, offensive movement was crap and defensive switches sucked.

You want your key guy inside, key scorer (Import SG), key 3pt shooter.



You need to know who's playing crunch time and who gets the ball in those last few minutes.


We got killed in crunch time. Our offensive movement was between stagnant and non-existent at times.

We need a player that we count on to lead the ship before it wrecks.



What would i do for 8 and a 1/2 players?


C Import/Johnson (6th)
F Ballinger/Dowdell (8 1/2 - 0-10mins)
F Herbert/Creek (8th)
G Import/Carter (7th)
G Gibson/Daly



It's a common-sense thing. Ask any NBA starter how many minutes would make them happy and they'd say 36 to 38 (one rest per half). There are 240 minutes available in a basketball game. That means you need to allot 180-190 minutes for your five starters to be happy. Now, ask any bench player how many minutes they need to play well and you know what they'd say? Two stretches per half for 8-10 minutes. They need time to run around, break a sweat, get a feel for the game and get comfortable. That means you need to allot 50-60 minutes for your three bench guys and your 8½th man.

So let's split the difference: 185 minutes for five happy starters, 55 minutes for the three and a half bench guys. That adds up to ... wait for it … 240 minutes! What a coincidence.


Subtract about 6 mins from the starting 5 and 2 mins from the benchies, and that's a good amount of time for each player.


Starting 5:
Ballinger 32
Gibson or SG Import 32
Other 3 = 30

= 154/200

Benchies 3 = 16 mins

8 and 1/2 man, Dowdell = 6 mins

= 200 mins

Topic #25322 | Report this topic


Spur  
Years ago

Correction:

Starting 5:
Ballinger 31
Gibson or SG Import 31
Other 3 = 30

= 152/200

Benchies 3 = 14 mins

8 and 1/2 man, Dowdell = 6 mins

= 48/200

= 200 mins

Reply #314041 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

if it's the way to go why are other nbl teams not doing it?

Reply #314050 | Report this post


A  
Years ago

Great post Spur, I think Ron Dorsey would be the perfect G/SF(the most underrated player in the comp).

And you would need a athletic and tall PF/C, or maybe go:

C Schenscher/Johnson
F Ballinger/Holmes or Dowdell (with johnson playing some PF)
F Trey Glider/Creek
G Ron Dorsey/carter/or Herbert
G Gibson/Bruce (forget Daly not NBL standard)

I have not looked into players ratings/total points.

Reply #314057 | Report this post


paul  
Years ago

I think 9 players and a youngster is the way to go, but with your best players playing 25-30 mins and the bench providing punch. You also need to have multiple guy who fit the important categories.

Ballinger, import 3-4 (athletic role player), Barlow, import 1-2, Bruce
Johnson, Creek, Herbert, Ng, rookie

Categories:
Centre - Ballinger, Johnson
PF - import, Ballinger, Barlow
SF - Barlow, Creek, Herbert, import 3-4
SG - import, Ng, Barlow, Carter
PG - Bruce, Carter, import

shooters - Ballinger, Barlow, import, Bruce, Herbert, Ng

rebounders - Ballinger, Johnson, Barlow, import 3-4, Herbert, Creek

defenders - import 3-4, Barlow, Herbert, Creek, import 1-2

scorers - Johnson, Ballinger, Barlow, import 1-2

creators - import 1-2, Bruce, Barlow

Reply #314069 | Report this post


paul  
Years ago

Apols, in my PG list I had Carter instead of the rookie, who could well be Daly. Bruce starts and the import 1-2 plays the rest of the minutes in that line-up with the rookie getting occasional opportunities.

Reply #314072 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Ummmmm your entire theory is blown away by NZ, who's team is 10 deep, and have been destroying everyone all year.

Reply #314077 | Report this post


Spur  
Years ago

It's not a "you must do this to have any chance to ever succeed"

What it is however, in my view, a good foundation and method of building a team to be successful.

NZ has an almost NBA quality star in Penney, 2 great imports and players who have played together for the National Team. They have the advantage of 4-5 of them having played together at a higher level than NBL and really developed chemistry in doing so, and being together for years.

Penney, Abercrombie, Vukona, Boucher, Henare, Pledger all on the NZ National Team together.

The other players?
CJ Bruton - an Australian Boomer + 2 solid imports.


It doesn't blow the theory entirely away at all. Just because NZ has a 10 deep strong team, doesn't disprove this theory as being a legit foundation/method of building a team.

Reply #314081 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

and of course the game style in the NBA is SO similar to the NBL.

Reply #314084 | Report this post


Spur  
Years ago

I think this would be even more useful in the NBL than NBA

Reply #314086 | Report this post


paul  
Years ago

The Breakers dont really play Webster any sort of consistent minutes. Perth dont play Trueman consistent minutes. I think a 9-man rotation with a young 10th player who can contribute when needed is a good option.

Not because playing 10 deep is necesarily a bad thing, but because you only have $1mill to spend and shouldnt spread it too thin, as I think Adelaide have done this year. Too many medium level players.

Reply #314089 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

NZ usually have all 10 players into the game within the first 6 mins of the game. And they are by miles the best team in the NBL.

Reply #314137 | Report this post


MACDUB  
Years ago

If your not going to be a good defensive team, then you better have enough firepower to outscore your opponents ala the Breakers.

The 36ers this year had neither -- No real offensive firepower (lack of production from imports) and some lacklustre defence.

IMO, the choice of imports for next season becomes unbelievably significant.
Mainly because you can't rely on Holmes, Creek, Ng, Carter/Bruce, or even Johnson to go out and score CONSISTENTLY. Offensive production from all these players is hit or miss, unfortunately.
36ers need two stud imports that can score consistently--two imports that Clarke can have faith in and say pre-game "X and Y will give us their 45 points combined tonight".

Reply #314149 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Webster barely plays for NZ, and isnt in the regular rotation. A few minutes here and there. They have a 9 man rotation with Webster as a potential spark plug.

Reply #314155 | Report this post


Mystro  
Years ago

Breakers have the luxury of TallBlacks chemistry and NZ NBL chemistry and the fact that this team has just had small pieces added to it over the last few years as opposed to total revamps

Reply #314174 | Report this post


SVD  
Years ago

I said this months ago on here and got shit canned

Reply #314225 | Report this post




You need to be a registered user to post from this location. Register here.



Close ads
Serio: Tourism photography and videography
Little Streaks - The fun and interactive good-habits app designed especially for kids.

Advertise on Hoops to a very focused, local and sports-keen audience. Email for rates and options.

Recent Posts



.


An Australian basketball forum covering NBL, WNBL, ABL, Juniors plus NBA, WNBA, NZ, Europe, etc | Forum time is: 5:41 pm, Fri 29 Mar 2024 | Posts: 968,026 | Last 7 days: 754