Greg V?.......I hope not.

To give the decision any kind of credibility or hope for success, it has to be Neville or Khazzouh or someone of equal standing. They have 9 points to play with and Neville is an 8, not sure if that counts out Khazzouh.

I can't see the point in bringing in another undersized backup level player, like bj Anthony for example, who would be on a similar level to Abney. They Need some one to play 25 minutes in front of Ben Allen.

Time to spend some money boys!

Cairns,Perth and Townsville all made the same mistake......

They used only half their cap to retain their eight Australian guys, so one would think they have a bit to spend.

Says in article it is someone that Woolpert hasn't coached before, which rules out Vandy.

Ideally it is someone that will remain with the club long-term.

Signing someone just to see the year out when the club will likely be 0-10 at the end of this round isn't a great decision financially. Playoff hopes are already over.

On the other hand, if there is going to be a major reshuffle and a move to the community model this offseason, you would want to have some momentum on the court and a team that the locals could be proud of to get behind with their pocketbooks.

Why did it have to get to this point for them to make a roster move though?

Some teams seem to think "NBL is a small league" but pretty much every team that is successful has a genuine big guy. It adds that extra dimension that you cant teach.

what Paul said

even at this point it is looking like a 'back to back' for NZ to me.

This Crocs team was built around a dominant inside force. If you are going to go small, you need big strong guards and big, versatile wings.

Townsville only has one wing in Blanchfield, and all their guards are small and weak. Which is why they needed that dominant centre that Woolpert was talking about all off-season.

This is a team that was built around the idea of having a go-to big man, but since they forgot to sign one, the whole show has blown up in their face.

It's not as if the Crocs don't have SIZE up front:

Allen 6'"11
Hinder 6"10
Abney 6'8"
Holmes 6'7"

...it's that outside of Holmes, they are soft as butter up front. And Holmes is only tough on the boards, he isn't a bruiser with the ball in his hands that will punish opponents in the paint scoring-wise.

And they are TINY at the guard spots so they get abused on the boards by opposing wings and guards.

in height the taipans arent small either...loughton for eg at 6'11.....basically plays as a small 4,good facing the basket from range but can't compete on the boards with good rebounders.

People forget Schenscher's passing ability. He made good decisions with the ball last year and had the guts to make certain passes. Unlike Townsville this year where they are reluctant, almost scared to give the ball off.

anthonys not that bad of a player but yeah i hope for there sake its neville

Nevill it is, it seems.

Crocs have quoted a tweet:

"@ToddPearce: @narbloke: Luke Nevill has agreed to terms with the Crocodiles"

“No truth in the rumor that Luke Neville is the new CEO. He may suit up for the Crocs though”

Boss agreed, Anthony would be a perfect fit for next year sharing minutes with Holmes. If Neville is a done deal, then that will help hugely. Not just on the glass but to give the Crocs a big low post target to collapse the defence and open up some space for the shooters.

who is their first win going to come against?

That is great news for Townsville. Time to Anchor Allen back to the bench. This team will start winning now just hopefully not against the Sixers this weekend!

um sixers have a bye this weekend. Townsville play Wildcats this weekend.

Hope he has signed long term because short term it seems like a waste of money, ie they arent going to make a run for the playoffs just by adding Nevill

I do think they still need a clean out at the end of the season.

Nevill/Allen
Holmes/?
Import/Crawford
Blanchfeild/?
Import/Norton

Great news for the NBL and the Crocs.


Tough titties for the 36ers who havent had the chance to play the Crocs yet, and will now have to face a much improved team.

If the Crocs have half a brain, they won't keep Ervin. Even if they like him, he'd probably want too much money.

The way this season is looking, I'd flick both Cedars, Allen, Abney and maybe even Holmes (he's an ill-disciplined little shit really). Although they have e.him on a multiple year contract and I think his play and general decision making will change now Neville is there.

Great news.

If only they did this when they signed Ervin, this season would look a lot different haha. Wouldn't be in the upper tier but certainly wouldn't be 0-9.

Also gives us a new focus for player retention in the offseason.

The Crocs have one of the softer schedules to close out the season. Time for a 15-4 run?

If you turn Abney, Allen, and Hinder into one basketball player (the sum of which currently equals 0.5 of one basketball player), and use the roster spot opened up by that to sign a slashing wing, the Townsville Crocs would resemble a professional basketball team.

Nevill wasnt available in the off-season, he was with the Indiana Pacers until late October. Had the Crocs made this move 2-3 weeks ago it could have meant wins against Sydney and Cairns. Nevill may have been sussing out other NBA interest at that stage though?

Looks more balanced on paper, but Teys is only 6 foot two. He can't play SF. The team would just be too small in the wing/backcourt with another undersized 2 guard.

What would have balanced this team is never signing Larry Abney and signing Elvin Mims instead.

Oh well...

Would be ironic if the Crocs end their massive losing streak this weekend against Perth, a team they haven't been able to even come close to in years.

Wont save em. Crocs still spooners for mine!

Will Nevill even stick around next season? Personally, I doubt it. A year of 16-20 and 10 board for the rest of the season and he will get major attention from high paying clubs all over the world.

He wont average 16 and 10... He's not that great a rebounder for his size.

Definitely got shafted by the schedule. Seven away games to start the season?!

Most teams would crumble under that, Perth have handled it with class.

If i was coach i give Neville more mins ...he can rebound and score at least 10/10 every night...i didnt understand why he was cut from Perth he put some good numbers up for his size.

Mick
Perth's choice as they wanted to play in new venue.
Not sure how that makes them shafted. Your team going to NZ twice already - pretty tough assignment.
Many anomilies in what is a crazy draw. At least they all play each other the same number of times.

Breakers had a slightly shorter run of away games last season at the clubs request as the Rugby World Cup was on. Makes the run home later in the year easy especially if you got a heap of early road wins.

Mick, the Wildcats had better rebounders than the Wildcats last season. Also, if you look, the Perth guards, especially Martin get after the boards with a vengeance. I don't watch many Perth games, but I heard the comentators of a game say that Perth's structure on defense ensures their little guys get more boards than other team's little guys. Something to do with their defensive structures.

I'm gonna say Nevill will average double figure rebounds.

Didn't realise that was why. Either way they did pretty well to start the season the way they did.

No one in the league is averaging double figure rebounds. Nevill will be besides Holmes who will get his share, plus won't be keen to sacrifice his minutes for the newcomer. Averaged 5 RPG last year.

Yeah I know he averaged 5 rebounds last year.

Woolpert has said that Neville will be the focal point of the offense, whereas in Perth his useage rate was pretty low.

So I would imagine at the very least his points will be up from his Perth stint, not to mention he should be improved from going up against NBA bodies during the summer league.

He will likely average similar points to Schensch in his Townsville stint: around that 13-16 range. His rebounding is dependent on how hard he is willing to work, because with Townsville's anaemic frontline (outside of Holmes) there are plenty to pull down.

Anonymous (581) lost all credibility with a lineup that included Ervin at the 2 and Crawford off the Bench!!

This makes Abney redundant, even if he has improved somewhat.

Swap him straight up for Mims and you have a decent team (not that it will happen).

Mims was a fantastic defender last season, shot the ball at a great clip, was a better rebounder than any of our bigs even though he was SF. Plus he can play 3 or 4 to give the roster more flexibility.

The roster would be waaaaay more balanced:

Neville/Allen
Holmes/Hinder
Blanchfield/Mims
Crawford/Mick Cedar
Ervin/Norton/Chris Cedar

And obviously you can run two PG lineups and play Blanchfield or Mims at the four when you are going small.